#8. In Search of a Fateful Encounter (5)

Just a few minutes before Princess Dominique suddenly appeared and personally bestowed a back hug on Eleonore.

Since early morning, the front courtyard of the townhouse had been bustling with people coming and going.

Servants moving in and out of the mansion were transferring the loads on their backs onto a covered wagon.

Beside them were people whose gear clattered beneath their white robes whenever they moved.

The knights of House Béarn, each with a golden lion embroidered on their chest, had gathered in small groups, chatting casually about the day’s journey.

Through that busy crowd,

a burly man wearing black leather armor that emphasized his broad chest beneath his wide-set shoulders’ pauldrons dismounted from his black horse and walked toward the mansion’s entrance.

House Béarn had once been renowned as a military family.

Though these days the family oversaw the Empire’s western territories in a somewhat more complex capacity, the head of the house two generations ago had been killed in battle by the scimitars of heretics who had crossed the border.

So, at the sight of the man in black, with each step he took...