Chapter 32: Successor Trial [4]
Alice looked down at the silver tuft in her hand again, her fingers brushing over it slowly. It was soft—far too soft for something that had probably come from a creature capable of tearing through armor like parchment.
She closed her fingers around it.
"...You’re serious," she said, barely above a whisper.
I didn’t reply. I just gave her a look—one of quiet certainty. She didn’t need more convincing than that.
Alice glanced over her shoulder, where her knights waited at a distance, their figures still and silent beneath the pale winter sky. They looked like statues carved from frost. Dutiful. Loyal. Watching.
Too loyal, perhaps.
"...They won’t let me go alone," she muttered. "Hans would raise hell if he even thought I left the perimeter."
"Then don’t tell them," I said simply. "Say you’re taking a break. A short ride to clear your head. Take me as your servant. No one will question it."
She gave me a sideways glare. "You make that sound like it’s a clever trick, not outright desertion."
"I’m not saying we run off to the far ends of the continent," I said, smiling. "We’ll just get close enough to track the beast. If we lose the trail, we turn back. No harm done."
Alice looked torn. Her posture stiffened, then relaxed, then stiffened again. She exhaled sharply, the cloud of her breath disappearing into the chill.