A group of fully armed guards followed Giovanna everywhere she went. They were there to protect the inventor, Giovanni Di Santi, but they were also there to make sure she did not escape.
Because the inventor was constantly on the move, working on various projects such as the restoration of the waterworks, she was not prohibited from leaving the house to supervise these projects, but she was not permitted to leave the house at any other time.
She was not allowed to meet with the emissaries of Lord Vassily. Letters could be exchanged, but their contents were regulated.
Despite these circumstances, Giovanna and her family were able to escape thanks to the appearance of the Joker, a devil’s card that Giovanna and her family had not anticipated.
Giovanni, the older brother, appeared before their father and acted as a bridge between him and Yurinova. He did this by saying that he needed money and demanding a reward, but when Giovanna escaped at the end, he suddenly appeared and drew her pursuers in the opposite direction.
[I’m grateful to my brother… and I’m sure it was true that he was in need of money, because he was my brother…]
The sister’s feelings were mixed, but thanks to her brother buying her time, Giovanna was able to escape outside the walls of Astra and joined the emissary from Yurinova and the people who came to pick up the inventor to take her to Yurinova.
And as soon as they arrived, the man who had welcomed them pushed her up on the back of his horse, leaving the messenger and her father behind, forcing them to drive off on their own.
[It was the right thing to do because we didn’t know when they would find out that my brother was a decoy and the pursuers would come this way. But that was reckless!!!]
…Giovanna-san, every time the topic of that time comes up, you seem to be losing your temper.
But if it really were like this, it would certainly be absurd.
After all, it was said that the journey that normally took seven days was accomplished in one day.
Seven days in one day.
I thought this must be a mistake, so I checked with Forli-san, who curtly assured me that it was true. It was actually possible.
He said a normal trip with horses walking at a brisk pace and stopping for breaks would take seven days, and a fast horseback ride would take two days. The fastest way, however, was to change horses several times along the way and run as fast as possible, but not with two riders. The best-case scenario for two riders would still be two days.
However, it seems like they took shortcuts here and there, but they rode the same horse all the way through in a single day.
Well, there were horses in this world that could do that.
Kruimov’s magic beast horse.
The reason why it was possible, as Forli-San said, was because he was a close friend of Grandfather Sergei’s horse, Zephyros, and he knew Zephyros well.
Like Grandfather Sergei, Prince Vassily had also received a magic beast horse as a gift from Count Kruimov.
In other words, the man who came from Yurinova to welcome the inventor was Lord Vassily himself.
Giovanna-san, you are right. That was indeed absurd!
What was the Duke of the Three Great Dukedoms doing!
However, Lord Vassily was a man of efficiency, a man who would do things if he thought them efficient or effective, regardless of precedent or common sense.
That was why he was able to leave his mark on Yurinova’s history as a wise man, but to his contemporaries, he was a man of many troubles.
