Chapter 54

Cesare urged his horse forward without hesitation. His black steed drew up alongside Ariadne's horse.

"Take your foot out of the stirrup!"

Cesare leaned forward and embraced Ariadne. Ariadne frantically tried to free her foot from the stirrup, but her lady's stirrup was wide and low, making it difficult to remove her foot. She managed to free her right foot, but her left foot remained stuck. As Ariadne struggled to free her foot, Cesare's strong arms supported her weight and lifted her, transferring her from her chestnut horse to his black steed. However, her left foot remained caught in the stirrup. As Cesare's horse galloped forward, creating distance from Ariadne's horse, her foot, still caught in the stirrup, nearly caused her to slip out of Cesare's embrace.

Cesare stopped his horse and tightened his hold on Ariadne.

"......!"

Ariadne's horse, as Cesare had seen, stumbled when its hind legs got caught on a rock, and it fell to the ground, kneeling on its right hip. Once one leg gave way, the other three quickly followed.

Because Ariadne's left foot was still in the stirrup, she and Cesare, who was holding her, leaned heavily to the left as her horse fell.

'If this continues, both horses will fall!'

Cesare decided to jump off his horse. He freed his foot from the stirrup, released the reins he had been holding with one hand, and kicked the horse's side, sending it forward. As the horse started, Cesare jumped off, still holding Ariadne, and rolled on the ground, landing on his back.

"Ah......!"

As he leaped into the air, the angle between Ariadne's foot and the stirrup changed, and her foot slipped out of the collapsing horse's stirrup. Cesare, holding Ariadne, rolled twice and landed safely on the ground.

- Thud!

The sound of Ariadne's horse falling and Cesare and Ariadne landing on the ground echoed loudly in the small clearing in the forest.

After a moment, Ariadne opened her eyes slightly in Cesare's arms and, upon confirming that she was unharmed, wriggled out of his embrace. Standing on solid ground made her feel incredibly relieved. She asked about the man lying on the ground.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Cesare, however, remained lying on the ground. A moment of silence passed.

'Is he dead?!'

Ariadne was flustered. She was about to check if he was breathing by placing a feather under his nose. The arrow from Janove was still stuck in Ariadne's horse's hindquarters. Would the feather from the arrow work...?

At that moment, a tenor voice sneered.

"Hey, it was nice while you were in my arms, but you left so quickly."

Cesare was at least alive enough to speak. Ariadne let out a sigh of relief that he was not dead.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

In response to her question, Cesare chose to act spoiled.

"My arm hurts. I want to keep lying here."

Ariadne looked at Cesare with exasperation, and he met her gaze with a deep, sea-blue smile.

"Since my arms are open, why don't you come into them?"

He extended his left arm in a pillow-like position. Ariadne, unmoving, shot back sharply.

"Stop talking nonsense and get up. If you keep this up, I'll kick your arm."

Ariadne approached Cesare and tried to pull him up by his outstretched arm. However, she was startled by his loud groan and let go of his hand.

"Ouch! It really hurts."

Upon closer inspection, his left hand, covered in a deer leather glove, was swollen. Unlike his right hand, which had some room in the glove, his left hand's glove was tightly stretched.

"We need to take this off quickly."

"Help me take it off."

Under normal circumstances, she would have kicked him in the back of the head, but the swelling was so rapid that it needed to be removed quickly. Ariadne carefully removed his green deer leather glove without touching his arm.

Ariadne gently pressed his left arm and asked.

"Which part hurts the most?"

"A bit higher, ouch! There!"

It seemed that Cesare's forearm, below the elbow, was broken. Whether it was the ulna on the thumb side or the radius on the little finger side, Ariadne's medical knowledge was not enough to determine.

"Let's go back quickly. We need to splint it or something."

Ariadne looked around. Cesare's horse was calmly grazing at the edge of the clearing, but Ariadne's horse was lying on the ground, breathing heavily. Its right hind leg, which had gotten caught on a rock, was bent backward, and the broken bone was visible through the skin. An arrow from Janove was still deeply embedded in the horse's hindquarters.

"Give me a knife."

Cesare pointed to his waist, where a hunting knife was attached, in addition to the usual club. It was a Toledo hunting knife, longer than a dagger but shorter than a longsword. Ariadne pulled out the hunting knife, made a cut in the hem of the chemise she wore under her riding clothes, and tore it to make a makeshift bandage.

After looking for something to use as a splint and finding nothing suitable, she gathered a few branches, wrapped them with the makeshift bandage, and secured them to Cesare's wrist and just below his elbow to create a splint.

"What, Miss, you have such skills?"

"You learn all sorts of things growing up on a rural farm."

The splint seemed to reduce the pain. Cesare stood up, brushed off the leaves and dirt from his body, and took the reins of his horse, which was grazing. He looked at Ariadne's fallen horse.

"This one has no hope."

Ariadne's brow furrowed. Even to her, it seemed impossible to bring the horse out of the forest, and with its leg completely broken, it would only end up as meat if it were taken back.

"What do we do?"

"It would be better to put this one out of its misery here. If we leave it, it will be eaten alive by a pack of wolves."

Ariadne felt sorry for the horse, but she agreed with Cesare that it was the best for the horse. She nodded, and Cesare, taking the hunting knife from Ariadne, used his right hand to skillfully cut the horse's carotid artery. The horse struggled for a moment and then fell still, its breathing ceasing.

Ariadne closed the horse's eyelids. Cesare, not stopping there, slit the horse's hindquarters to retrieve the arrow from Janove.

"How did this happen? Whose arrow is this?"

Cesare wiped the blood from the hunting knife on the grass and put it back in its sheath.

"Well, it's a long story."

"We have nothing but time, right? Take your time and tell me."

Cesare looked around the clearing in the forest. Tall conifers reached high into the sky, and moss-covered tree stumps and rocks were scattered about. The autumn sun shone from a point slightly lower than the treetops.

"It seems to be around lunchtime. Have you eaten?"

"No."

Cesare took a piece of dried meat from his horse's saddle, put one in his mouth, and offered one to Ariadne.

"We've been riding for quite a while, so we must be deep in the forest. Since I've been heading north from the tent, let's use the sun as a reference and head south. If the path is blocked, we'll follow the sound of water."

It was a reasonable plan, and Ariadne agreed.

"Alright, shall we get on the horse? You'll ride in front, right?"

"What?"

There were two people and one horse.

"Then, should I ride in front and you ride behind? This is my horse, you know?"

"We can walk!"

"Why walk when we have a perfectly good horse? Ah, you want to spend the night with me in the forest, don't you, our chaste and devout Lady de Mare?"

"Shut up."

* * *

While the highest leaders of both nations, led by Emperor Leo III and Duke Mirayeu, were toasting champagne and creating a seemingly friendly atmosphere, the practical teams of both nations were locked in intense discussions in a makeshift indoor negotiation room set up in a corner of the hunting tent.

Soldiers stood guard to ensure no one could eavesdrop, maintaining tight security.

The negotiation team, consisting of about ten people sitting on either side of a long wooden table, had been in heated debate well past lunchtime, with only a few finger foods and water on the table. There was not a single alcoholic drink in sight.

"The Etruscan side cannot overlook the bride's lineage."

The head of the Etruscan practical team was Marquez, the Earl. He flipped through the parchment containing the genealogy and lineage of the Duke of Valois' eldest daughter, Lariessa, to pressure the other side.

"We are well aware that the Duke of Valois is a seventh cousin to King Philip IV of Gallic and a collateral line of the royal family. However, he is not a sovereign ruler. Sovereigns typically marry other sovereigns. Our Prince Alfonso is the only son and heir to King Leo III."

The Gallic delegation maintained a consistently sarcastic and mocking tone.

"So, are you planning to bring a duchess from the Duchy of Sternheim? Or perhaps a princess from the Kingdom of Brunnen, who has a higher status?"

Levien, the Earl and head of the Gallic practical team, recited the names of small, weak countries, implying that they would not bring a princess from the Kingdom of Brunnen to replace Lariessa, the duchess.

The Kingdom of Brunnen and the Duchy of Sternheim, while sovereigns, were very poor and located in the cold north, based on their royal lineage and the heritage of the former Latan Empire.

However, Marquez, the Earl, was not deterred.

"The reason we agreed to bring a duchess into our prince's household was because it was none other than the Duchess Susanne. We believed that a lady of high reputation and excellent character like Duchess Susanne could fulfill the role of queen consort in the Etruscan Kingdom, even if her status was slightly lower. But it was changed to Lariessa at the last minute! Please understand our dismay."

"What can we do about it now!"

Susanne, the eldest daughter of the Duke of Valois, was a renowned figure whose reputation extended beyond the borders. She was known for her exceptional beauty, deep faith, and wise and considerate personality. Unfortunately, she passed away last summer when an epidemic swept through the capital of Gallic, Montpellier. Lariessa was a quiet and unassuming younger sister.

"If the bride has changed, the dowry must also change."

Marquez, the Earl, finally revealed his true intentions.

"Add 20 cannons and the formula for manufacturing gunpowder from the Gallic regular army to the dowry the bride brings."

The negotiation room was immediately filled with intense tension.