Hesta slept until dusk. When she opened her eyes, the bloody setting sun happened to shine on her face through the window. The dazzling moment made her frown, and she felt slightly dizzy.
The pain in her back and left and right arms became clear again. Hesta touched her face in a daze, and soon realized that she was running a fever.
She got out of bed and sat for a while, then took her temperature: 37.9.
Hesta breathed a sigh of relief. This low-grade fever should be a non-infectious fever caused by wound healing, so it was not a big problem.
After briefly freshening up, she opened the door and went downstairs.
The living room was quiet, except for a few servants who were wiping the furniture, Zoe was the only one sitting on the sofa.
"Are you awake?" Zoe put down the newspaper in her hand, "You have been sleeping for a long time."
"I've been under a lot of pressure these past few days... I've been feeling particularly lethargic," Hesta replied softly, "Where are they?"
"Go out and talk, I just have something to give you."
"……good."
When following Zoe outside, Hesta's muscles all tensed up. Perhaps because of experiencing Victoria's ambush, she is now somewhat sensitive to changes in the surrounding environment. She knew that this worry was unreasonable - if Victoria and the others really wanted to arrest her, they could do it while she was sleeping today, so why bother waiting for her to wake up.
But this slight feeling of anxiety and tension can never be erased.
"Are you okay? Are you sick?"
Hesta shook her head, "I was asleep. It's just right to go for a walk now... What do you have to give me?"
Zoe took out an alarm the size of a keychain from her pocket.
"This is what Victoria asked me to pass on to you. If you encounter any special situation during this period and need to contact us, press it continuously and the mercury needle closest to you will come immediately - but pay attention, it must be Only in very urgent cases.”
"How does it count as 'extremely urgent'?"
"You judge for yourself."
"Okay." Hesta stretched out her left hand with the palm facing up. However, Zoe did not hand over the alarm. She looked at the bandage exposed on Hesta's wrist with some concern, "...are you left-handed? ?”
"No, what's wrong?"
"Your left hand is injured, why is it that your first reaction is to reach out to pick up something with your left hand?"
In the brief silence, Hesta adjusted her breathing, "...Victoria asked a similar question to you a few days ago."
"Really? What was your answer then?"
"You can ask her about this," the smile on Hesta's face faded and her voice was calm, "I am not your prisoner."
"Haha, no offense intended..." Zoe smiled, "Okay, I will ask Victoria - but I'm afraid I have to wait until the assassin is caught."
"Why?"
"That's the second thing I'm going to tell you, we're all going to go into a period of electronic silence during which no one among us will contact you."
Hesta frowned, "...Why do you want to tell me such details? Don't you need to keep it a secret?"
"Of course the parts that should be kept secret must be kept secret, but we can't let you know everything. This time the assassin took advantage of a little information gap to lure Danglars to the bait. Since you want to stay behind with Villefort, you have to know that we What it will do and what it won’t do.”
Hesta held her breath and listened.
"As mentioned just now, after entering electronic silence, we will not send any messages to the outside world - just like Victoria has done these days. You will not know where we are, and the same goes for the assassins. Wouldn’t know——”
"I understand," Hesta interrupted Zoe softly, "You plan to copy Victoria's ambush tactics."
"That's right."
"...Isn't this too risky?" Hesta considered, "At this time, pull the large troops away from Villefort, in case the assassin finds an opportunity to take advantage of-"
“Who is taking advantage of someone who doesn’t know yet.” Zoe said with a smile, “Didn’t Victoria give her a knife yesterday?
"We have already analyzed it. Although there seem to be many helpers behind the assassin, she is always the main force in the battle. A person only has one pair of eyes. She may be able to grasp part of our whereabouts through some means, but to control the overall situation, we must control her. It's still very difficult to talk - especially when we don't know each other's plans, as yesterday was proof of that."
Hesta frowned and said nothing.
A missing Victoria is already difficult enough, but now they all have to be scattered...
"During the silent period, you don't know each other's location, right?"
"That's understandable." Zoe nodded, "But it will be quick to regain contact."
“But it’s difficult to achieve effective cooperation with a temporary connection like this——”
"No, Youleka, you are still using the idea of catching chelates to catch the assassin, but in fact, there should be no 'cooperation' in fighting the assassin."
"...What?" Hesta thought she heard wrongly, "I don't understand..."
"Because the success or failure of capturing the assassin will be determined in the first second or even shorter. If the assassin cannot be killed with one strike, everything will be over."
"I have never heard such a pessimistic statement. You are all warriors who have dealt with aberrations. You shouldn't-"
"Eureka, have you heard of Chiba Masaki?"
Hesta's throat moved, "...of course I've heard of it."
"Before you came, Chiba Masaki had participated in a roundup of an assassin. She chased the assassin all the way to the west coast, but she still lost him. Are you confident that you are faster than Chiba?"
Hesta looked at the ground ahead with a complicated expression.
"Surprisingly...there is such a thing."
"Anyway, Endai will stay. If you encounter any problems that cannot be solved later, you can discuss it with her first."
After bidding farewell to Zoe, Hesta returned to the villa alone and started having dinner.
During the dinner, she asked the butler if he knew where the Duke was now. The butler replied that the Villefort family had taken a car to their residence on L'Enfant Avenue in the afternoon. They had probably finished their vacation here and gone home.
Hesta was startled again - Zoe had just talked so much without mentioning a word that Villefort had returned to the Duke's Palace.
"Please help me prepare a car." Hesta whispered.
Just as the housekeeper was about to respond, the two of them heard the sound of an engine coming from outside the house at the same time, and a car parked outside the villa.
Hesta walked to the window - she saw Ende jumping out of the car first, followed by Sophie and Alvira, and finally Villefort. Villefort didn't stand firm when he got out of the car. Fortunately, Endey held him tightly and prevented him from falling to the ground.
Hesta looked at the faces of several people not far away. Except for Endai, everyone there had pale faces and solemn expressions.
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