Chapter 319: Development (1/2)

A week after Jude and Cordelia left.

Scarlet was walking down the hallway and looked out the window with complicated thoughts.

‘Are we really in a war?’

Yesterday afternoon, the emperor declared the start of a civil war.

To be exact, it was a proclamation that they would punish the rebels, the Chancellor’s group, but this fight was not a one-sided suppression.

After losing the emperor in the imperial capital, the Chancellor did not sit by idly. Whether through assassination or coaxing, he absorbed the rest of the empire and effectively took control of the entire eastern side.

‘It won’t be easy.’

Whether it was the power of the demons or the influence of the Chancellor who had been running the empire for a longer time than the young emperor, the number of nobles who sided with the Chancellor was not small.

A civil war.

A war.

No one knew how long it would last.

Moreover, since the war took place within their own territory and not in a foreign land, it was terrifying to think on how much damage it would cause.

Scarlet closed her eyes and recalled her hometown.

A small village in the eastern part of the empire.

She did not think that the outskirts would become a battlefield.

But it was clear that they would suffer harshly from the things attached to the war, such as conscription and plunder.

“Haa…”

Scarlet wondered what she was doing here.

She was definitely on the emperor’s side, which seemed to be a very important place historically.

‘Ah, I don’t know. I’ll think about it later.’

Scarlet drove away her bad thoughts by shaking her head. She took a deep breath and straightened her posture.

Because of the dark night sky, she saw herself being well reflected by the glass window.

“Hmm… good.”

I’m still pretty.

My body is in great shape too.

With slightly flushed cheeks, Scarlet pulled out a small comb from her waist pocket and tried to comb her hair.

And after a while.

Scarlet returned her comb and took a long breath.

There was a reason why she was standing in the hallway at night.

It was not to rob some place as a Rogue Master.

No, this could also be a kind of robbing.

‘Please come to my room tonight. I have something important to tell.’

At the end of dinner, Lucas suddenly approached her and said that.

He was always a sincere and handsome guy, but when he said that, he seemed to be a bit cooler.

‘He was serious.’

It seems to be something very important.

Something that he wants to tell me.

What is it?

We’re in a situation where there is war.

No, perhaps it’s become more important now because of that.

All kind of thoughts began to fill her mind.

‘Well, lightly, lightly.’

It was normal for a Rogue Master to enter someone else’s room.

‘But it’s his room, right?’

What do you want to talk about that you have to call me there?

“Huu…”

Scarlet caught her breath again.

She was no different from Pink Bomb because of her face that had turned red from embarrassment.

“Okay, let’s go.”

Scarlet calmed her excitement and lightly walked along the hallway like a cat before arriving at Lucas’ door.

She took a deep breath again.

And gently knocked.

“Lord Lucas?”

She gulped.

It was when she unconsciously swallowed hard. Lucas’ door that had been closed was opened, and Lucas appeared, somehow looking more handsome than he did at dinner.

“Miss Scarlet. You’re here.”

“Because you called me.”

She spoke with a slightly haughty smile, and Lucas firmly said with a nervous face.

“Please come inside.”

Lucas’ room.

It was not his real room at his family’s house, as it was just a guest room given to them by Marquis Buckingham, but her heart was still pounding strangely.

Until she took a step and entered the room.

“Hello.”

A woman was sitting on Lucas’ bed.

“You were also called, huh?”

When Kajsa smiled and spoke, Scarlet briefly glanced at Lucas.

Her eyes were asking him to explain what was going on, but he still spoke firmly instead of trying to explain, perhaps because he was dense in that direction or he did not really understand what she was doing.

“It’s really important.”

‘What the heck is important?’

Why did you invite me and Kajsa together?

Scarlet frowned but soon nodded her head.

At this point, she thought that she knew on what was going on.

“Girl, I know what you were thinking.”

Kajsa annoyingly giggled when she sat on the bed.

“Hey, aren’t you the same? And didn’t I tell you to call me unnie?”

“Yes, unnie.”

Kajsa said with a smile again and Scarlet sighed.

‘Yeah, this is my fault for expecting something.’

There was no way for him to gather them together in the middle of the night and say ‘Let’s all get along well!’, so there was only one reason left.

“Pink Bomb.”

When Scarlet stared at one side of the room and spoke, a reaction immediately returned.

As if there was a haze, one side of the room became blurry, and the three people who had been hiding appeared.

“Oooh, as expected of Scarlet. Aren’t you good?”

Cordelia winked and praised her, but Scarlet responded by raising her middle finger before turning to Jude and Kirara.

“I see that you’ve sneaked in. Are we going to leave the emperor’s camp like this?”

As soon as she got to the point, the response was as expected again this time.

“What? Really?”

Kajsa’s eyes widened in surprise.

“As expected of Miss Scarlet.”

Lucas innocently admired her.

“Hehe.”

Kirara hugged Cordelia’s waist as if she was not interested.

And Jude and Cordelia also reacted as expected.

“Our Scarlet is smart.”

“Yes, it is as you have said. We don’t need to sneak in at night unless we’re going to leave quietly.”

At Jude’s words, Scarlet stroked her chin with one hand and continued.

“Certainly… it would be ambiguous for you who are foreigners to be in a real war here.”

The emperor and empress dowager trusted Jude and Cordelia because the two had saved their lives twice.

But that did not change the fact that Jude and Cordelia were foreign nobles from the Sälen Kingdom.

Would Marquis Buckingham entrust his troops to Jude and Cordelia?

That would be impossible.

Unless their situation became seriously hard, he would not even send them to the front lines at all.

‘And… we have no reason to risk our lives to fight in someone else’s civil war.’

Their situation was different from the fights they had so far.

Even if the demon followers took control of the Chancellor and his forces as the two had claimed, the opponents they would fight from now on would most likely be ordinary people from the empire.

Just as the Guardians of the Holy Cross had no reason in joining the fight, the two including Lucas and Kajsa had no reason to stay here.

“Because you’re not from the empire. I understand.”

“Then we’re only leaving Scarlet, an imperial citizen? I agree to that.”

As Kajsa raised her hand and spoke, Scarlet’s frown deepened.

She knew that it was a joke and not something serious, but she was still angry.

“Hey, you know that I’m joking, right, unnie?”

It was only at times like this that she got called that.

Scarlet pushed aside Kajsa who was hugging her and giggling, and she looked at Jude again and spoke.

“I’ll listen to your destination and decide whether to follow you or not. And your purpose.”

Her words were valid.