“This is all because of that redhead!”

“Don’t play with food!” Lecter hit the back of Axel’s blood-stained hand. Axel stared at Lecter with disbelief. “Are you defending her now?”

“No. I’m telling you not to take it out on the food, you f*cking idiot!” Lecter glanced around after cursing, worried that another servant was listening and would tell Lucy about it. “Technically, we can’t go because of the rain. It’s not because of the Empress.”

“No. My whole body’s senses are jumping and talking.” Axel stared into the air like a fanatic who believed in evil spirits and continued, “She brought misfortune with her as well as the heavy rains. Because of her, I can’t go to the festival!”

Cole gave him a pathetic look.

“If you want to eat sausages, ask the chef to make it for you, idiot.”

Wide-eyed, Axel stared at Cole.

“You’re the idiot! Don’t you recognize the unique, special taste of food during festivals compared to what we normally eat?

“How dare this hyena-like thing tells me that I’m an idiot? I’m not stupid.”

As Lecter watched the workshop get rougher, he remembered Rosaline, whom he met early in the morning. The Viate family had a difficult relationship not only with CAde but also with the Balkan tribe.

Fortunately, Rosaline wasn’t Cade’s silver-haired enemy. Still, Lecter had always been curious about what the royal family’s ulterior motive was behind her visit. He asked his fellow aides’ opinions.

I heard that the princess is staying at the main guest house. I wonder why she came here.”

“What kind of main guest is she?”

Axel, who suddenly left his seat, kicked the wooden chair beside him. The shattered pieces of broken wood flew into the air like a firecracker. Surprised, Lecter raised his elbow to cover his face. Axel growled like a furious wolf.“It’s idiotic to let her stay there when she should have been thrown out!”

“I heard it was sister!”

Cole spat out the bacon in his mouth.

“Boss tried to kick her out but sister let her in.”

Axel, who stood up curiously, slowly sat in place.

“Well, she might be a distinguished guest for some.”

“Don’t whine at the dinner table. People will frown every time they see you.”

Sif, who was eating politely, warned Axel. Lecter decided not to ask for their personal opinion. Instead, he turned to look at Hawk, who sat at the end of the table.

“Bro. By the way, did you find any clues?”

A ribbon of blood trickled down Hawk’s mouth as he ate his steak in silence. After wiping the blood with his sleeve, he replied. “Did you find it? The ground was muddy because of the rain. It puts me in a bad mood.”

“It seems that Roy hasn’t returned yet. Perhaps, he had found something.”

“I wasn’t able to track it but a witness said that he saw a silver-armored knight near the city of Lanbon. Roy went to ask for more information he heard from across the bridge.”

“Why aren’t you coming with him?”

“Roy is not that scary unlike me.” Hawke said, tapping the long wound across his face. Most of the Balkan men were muscular giants and were likely to scare others. However, Hawke’s impression was ugly that the commoners often screamed and ran away the instant they saw him. Occasionally, they would mistake Hawke for a wanted criminal from the newspaper and report him to Cade’s guards.

While Hawke was touring the city with his aide, Tyrone, a woman bumped into Hawke that she fell backward and landed on her butt, breaking her tailbone in the process. The misunderstanding was resolved quickly when Hawke personally took her to the doctor and even paid for her treatment. After that incident, Hawke decided not to appear in front of civilians during daylight.

“Hmm. Whatever it might be, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

Lecter muttered, resting his chin on his palm while looking out of the window. The heavy rains since dawn hadn’t subsided at all and his nerves felt rather sensitive due to the inconvenience of not knowing the exact reason. It made sense that Axel was being particularly grumpy. At that time, a Balkan subordinate came to the table where his aides sat with plates stacked like mountains of food.

“Good morning!” The friendly subordinate put his plate down, sat on the chair, and began eating chicken legs.

“I heard there was a commotion in my hometown. Did you hear that?” Cole said after drinking his white wine. Then, he wiped his lips with the back of his hand.

“It’s probably because of the red-haired visitor who appeared at dawn.”

“Oh, how did you know?”

“We were just talking about it. I was in charge of the congratulatory speech, so I happened to be there when she visited. Damn. I got bitten by a wolf and my finger still f*cking hurts!”

“You’ll recover in a day or two, but what are you doing again? More than that, there is one more reason for the uproar.” Suddenly, The subordinate grinned as he put down the bone of the chicken leg he had eaten. “The boss overslept in the bedroom of his bride.”