Chapter 21

Diana’s body flew through the air for a brief moment, her heart leaping straight up into her throat.

In that instant, an arm as sturdy as steel firmly caught and embraced her body.

(──Lord Alan!)

Her heart was still pounding wildly, but the moment she recognized the owner of the arms, she felt all the strength leave her body in a wave of relief.

It was not that she didn’t trust him, but now that she had actually jumped from the carriage, she realized how intensely nervous she must have been.

“Thank you so──”

The moment she started to say it, an angry shout came crashing down from above.

“What a dangerous thing to do!!”

Alan’s voice, usually calm and gentle, was trembling with an uncharacteristic edge of panic.

“Because I trusted you would catch me.”

“Ugh…”

At Diana’s smile, words failed him.

“I was terrified. Please, I’m begging you, never do something so reckless again…”

“I’m sorry, Lord Alan.”

The strength of the arms holding her tight carried the weight of his feelings.

As he held her tightly, as though swearing never to let Diana go again, he lowered the stirrups and slowed the horse’s pace.

Running parallel to the horse Alan controlled, the carriage also slowed its speed and eventually came to a complete halt.

“It’s you… again.”

With a rattle of the door, Miles stepped down from the carriage.

In his eyes, a blazing hatred toward Alan was swirling.

“Why do you keep getting in my way!?”

“I am not getting in your way. I merely came to rescue my fiancée.”

At Alan’s calm voice, Miles’s anger flared even higher.

“Whose fiancée is she!? That seat should have belonged to me!!”

The gaze Alan directed at Miles was utterly cold.

While still holding Diana tightly on horseback, only his eyes were fixed straight on Miles.

“If I had just carried her off and made it a fait accompli, Diana would have been mine…!”

At the sight of Miles muttering with bloodshot eyes and an unfocused gaze, Diana shuddered with a chill.

Without even trying to keep up appearances, Miles exposing his own wrongdoing made him look as though he had completely lost his sanity.

He clutched his head in apparent agony from time to time, tearing at his hair.

“Why…? I was the one who was supposed to take Diana as my wife and make her happy…”

While Miles muttered to himself, the knights of the Third Order came rushing up.

Even as the carriage was surrounded, Miles showed no sign of even attempting to flee.

“While everyone was praising Cordelia to the skies, I was the only one who acknowledged Diana and intended to stay by her side!!”

Alan, pulling Diana’s body close, covered both of her ears with his large palms.

As Diana blinked in surprise, Alan’s voice resonated low through his hands.

“You don’t care if Diana gets hurt just to draw her attention. That is neither love nor anything of the sort. It is nothing more than selfish emotion.”

At Alan’s voice, Miles raised his head.

The eyes glaring at him, however, still seemed somewhat unfocused.

“Are you saying you love her? A woman young enough to be your daughter.”

Miles’s words did not reach Diana’s blocked ears.

Yet Alan’s reply, muffled though it was by the thick palms, was firmly transmitted as a faint vibration.

“I do love her. I have sworn to make her happier than anyone else.”

Tears slowly welled up in Diana’s eyes.

Covering Diana’s ears and keeping his gaze fixed on Miles, Alan did not notice.

As an active-flagrant offender of kidnapping, Miles and the coachman were dragged off to the Third Order’s holding facility.

Watching them go, Alan let out a deep breath.

“Lady Diana, are you alright…?”

It was only then that he finally noticed the large teardrops pooling in Diana’s eyes.

After her blue-gray eyes blinked in surprise, turmoil spread across Alan’s face.

“I’m sorry, I truly shouldn’t have let you hear the words of a man like that… If only I had moved a little sooner…”

An expression of anguish crossed Alan’s face, but Diana smiled softly and shook her head.

“No, a wretch like that doesn’t matter anymore. More than that, knowing you made that vow to me makes me so happy…”

“Ah…”

A moment later, Alan’s face flushed red as if struck by heat.

“Y-You could hear it!?”

“Yes, only your voice, the entire time.”

Averting his gaze from the nodding Diana, Alan gave a small cough.

Even as he turned his face away, the sight of his ears burning bright red brought a natural smile to Diana’s lips.

“──Lady Diana!!”

A familiar voice and the sound of approaching hooves.

When Diana looked up, she saw the escort knight Ian managing a horse, with Sherry sitting mounted right before him.

“Are you unharmed?!”

“Sherry, I’m sorry for making you worry.”

The moment they dismounted, Sherry rushed over and clung tightly to Diana.

At the sight of Sherry breathing heavily and trembling slightly, Diana wrapped her arms around her in a fierce embrace.

“She was the one who came running all the way to the Third Order’s holding facility to report it.”

“Is that so…?”

After Diana was snatched away on the main thoroughfare, Ian had chased down the carriage to track their direction, and Sherry had sought assistance from the Third Order.

Thanks to that, Diana had been safely rescued.

“Please forgive me, My Lady… As an escort knight, I have committed an unforgivable blunder.”

Ian’s face twisted with self-reproach as he dropped deeply to one knee and bowed his head.

Seeing his usual carefree demeanor replaced by such agonizing guilt made Diana’s heart ache a little.

Regardless of the circumstances, it was an undeniable fact that he had left the person he was sworn to protect exposed to danger.

For that single failure alone, no one could blame her if she branded him disqualified as an escort.

Even if Diana forgave him, Ian’s pride as a knight would keep tormenting him.

Though Diana herself was proficient in arms, given that it was a violent abduction attempt like today’s, she was still a woman.

Naturally, there was danger, and even without physical harm, unwanted rumors could easily spread.

Knowing this all too well, it was difficult for Diana to grant forgiveness so lightly.

After pondering for a moment, she spoke to Ian kneeling before her.

“Rise, Ian. If you truly regret what happened today, I shall entrust you with guarding the new home I will share with Lord Alan. Assemble only those you can utterly trust, so that scoundrels and spies alike have no opening to slip through. Can you do that?”

“Yes, My Lady.”

Ian bowed his head low.

He usually put on a frivolous front, but when it mattered, he was a man who got things done.

Feeling reassured that she could leave it in his hands, Diana smiled.

“Is that acceptable to you, Lord Alan?”

Asked by Diana, Alan also nodded while pulling her closer by the shoulder.

Duke Wesley of Gazard was furious at Miles’s atrocious act, sending a formal letter of protest to the Marquis of Odonoghue and officially prosecuting the Marquis’s son, Miles.

Most had assumed that, given their high-ranking noble status, a measure of leniency would be granted, but the Marquis of Odonoghue himself ordered Miles to permanent confinement within the family domain.

Since it had only been an attempted crime and the parties had previously been friends, some voices questioned whether the punishment was overly harsh, but it was likely a deliberate judgment to prevent straining relations with the House of Gazard by handing down a severe sentence.

Thus, Miles was rendered unable to ever leave the Odonoghue domain again.

The consensus was that he showed tendencies of a deranged mind and would henceforth spend his days recovering in the care of physicians.

(At last, I am finally free from Miles…)

The memories of her past life still swirled within Diana’s chest.

Her callous husband’s words.

Feeling as though those burdens had grown just a little lighter, Diana let out a soft exhale.

(No, I must not let my guard down yet. Miles could never have pulled off something like that on his own, and above all else…)

Her twin sister, Cordelia, was still in the Royal Castle──with Crown Prince Lawrence.

Though Diana had gained an immensely powerful ally in Alan, her fragile frame remained far too powerless before the storm of a grand conspiracy.