"I"m fine."

Lyn sighed, and pretended to sulk, "I see, you don"t want to share things with me anymore. I"ll go search for Rhys; maybe he will give me an honest response if I ask him."

Even if it is a disadvantage to him, Lyn found Rhys to be sincere. Maybe he knows what"s wrong with Kazuya. Rhys wouldn"t hide things from her; there is no need to. That"s what she didn"t like about Kazuya. While he is one of the most honest people she knew, while he different from those people who tried to get close to her for their own gains. Kazuya hid a lot of things from her.

As Lyn turned to walk away, Kazuya grabbed hold of her wrist.

"Wait, wait. Gee," Kazuya sighed and took a deep breath, "It"s simply due to lack of sleep and fatigue. I haven"t been resting well due to making different arrangements for the plan."

Well, she more or less guessed that. But ah, since they are on the topic now.

"Kazuya, I want to ask you. What"s different in the plan now?"

It was brief, but she saw it. A shadow clouded over his eyes. Kazuya looked troubled, but she looked at him with a firm gaze, "Please tell me?"

"You won"t like it," Kazuya took a deep breath before he said, "I have to be used as bait."

Her eyes widened, and Lyn frantically shook her head, a single word pa.s.sed her lips, and yet it held so much authority, "No."

"Lyn..."

"No, you aren"t going alone. I"m staying with you."

Right now Lyn knew she was acting awfully stubborn, without hearing any details, she"s deciding things like this. But the moment she heard the words, "bait," Lyn recalled something from the past. When her Eldest brother was training her, she would occasionally go with him to the battle field. She saw it with her own two eyes, what happens to those who end up as bait. They end up becoming a sacrifice.

Prince Ereland is a foolish Prince. But Lyn witnessed how brutal his methods are with her own two eyes. She simply cannot allow Kazuya to become bait. After what happened in the tournament, it wouldn"t surprise Lyn if Prince Ereland harbored a strong grudge against Kazuya. He was publicly humiliated by a commoner after all.

"Prince Ereland is no simple man," even if there"s a reason why his parents removed him from the candidate list of head of his household. Lyn felt that the man acted foolishly so his parents would do that. Now she had evidence for that logic, "Prince Ereland wants to marry me; he isn"t after the Snow Kingdom Princess."

Kazuya sighed, "That"s exactly why I have to be used as bait. I can"t let you do it, Lyn."

"The topic was brought up?"

"It was tough to avoid. I got angry, of course, and your fiance wasn"t happy with it either. But it"s true; we have to be careful with our limited forces," Kazuya said, "Word has it that Prince Ereland"s personal army arrived a few days after that match we had."

Lyn"s eyes widened at his words, "The army?"

"Yeah, I think I upset him."

"He thinks, that"s definitely it," Lyn thought to herself. Now it made sense why Prince Ereland didn"t do anything else after that day. He didn"t even bother chasing after them. It was unlike him. From what she knew about the man, he is the type to hunt down those who humiliate him. There were cases she heard of in the past of Prince Ereland involving the family members of those humiliated them and beating them up in public...and other disgusting methods. That"s why when she saw that sight that day, it didn"t surprise Lyn.

Rumors are rumors until proven true. n.o.body can accurately say that a person is like the rumors until they have seen it with their own eyes. The same thing goes for her, but now that Lyn has seen it with her own eyes, she believed it. That man has gone crazy; he definitely intends to take revenge on Kazuya. Summoning his army is a declaration of war. Lyn didn"t think that he would go so far though. What is that man thinking? Does he intend to drag in the innocent townsfolk into this conflict too? It won"t surprise her if that"s what he was thinking. She has to do something about this.

"Time to use her female charms," Lyn thought. It was something Beth taught her when she asked for some advice. Lyn clung to Kazuya tightly, "I won"t let you go," she leaned forward and purposely ensured that their faces were close to each other.

Her actions stunned Kazuya, who had turned beet red, "Gee, you"re so cute. I knew you"d make this difficult for me," he gently caressed her cheeks, "d.a.m.n, didn"t think you could trick me like this."

"Dummy you"re the one who planned to trick me first, how were you planning on tricking me?" Lyn was genuinely curious. Unless he had a concrete plan, she would never separate from him during that time.

"Actually, it was quite a good plan," Kazuya nodded to himself, "I"d separate from you a few hours earlier before the plan starts. So you wouldn"t suspect anything. I"d tell you I would meet up with you later."

Lyn hated to admit it, but yes she would have fallen for that.

"So, where would I be? With Rhys?"

Kazuya nodded, "Yeah."

This stupid man, he has no idea that Rhys has been making a move on her, does he? He"s always disappearing these days. Since they started this journey, he keeps disappearing and leaving her alone while Rhys makes moves regardless of whether Kazuya is around or not.
Kazuya voluntarily leaving her with Rhys was a bit upsetting, "If you"re going to leave me with somebody, you may as well leave me with Allen."

At that comment, she noticed Kazuya frown, eh? Wait, is he more bothered about Allen than Rhys? But why? Allen is harmless. Sure he"s gotten a lot bolder, and their relations.h.i.+ps changed to a certain extent. However, Allen is a gentleman, even if he saw her as a woman, he would do nothing to her.

Lyn sighed, "You can trust Allen, Kazuya."

"Really?"

"Yes, he won"t harm me."

Kazuya, however, didn"t seem convinced, "You know Lyn, I know perfectly well that Prince Allen won"t harm you. But lately, he"s been taking too many bold moves to speed up your wedding."

Eh? Lyn"s eyes widened at Kazuya"s words; this was the first time she heard this. What plans to speed up their wedding? Or rather, it surprised Lyn. They are still having a wedding? With how awkward things have been with them as of late, the last thing Lyn expected was for Allen to still want to marry her. Lyn thought he was busy finding a way to cancel their engagement, not this.