The biting late-autumn wind kept lashing Charles's cheeks, forcing him to hunch his neck deep into his collar, leaving only his eyes exposed as he warily scanned his surroundings. Captain Normand had left him here and departed with his unit, taking the carriage with them.
This seemed to be the western side of the hunting grounds. Though the terrain was flat, there was not a single man-made structure anywhere in sight.
From the dense forest in the distance came the occasional roar of wild boars. It was the season when they fed frantically and fought over mates in heat. Charles knew that boars were even fiercer than bears at this time.
The wolf-like howls mixed among them seemed far less frightening by comparison.
Every instinct in Charles urged him to leave this cursed place, yet his legs had not moved an inch—running around blindly might lead him straight into a wild boar. More importantly, Captain Normand had said the Regent wanted him to wait here.
What he feared most now was seeing his brother, yet at the same time, he desperately wanted to see him.
He stomped his feet, which were shivering uncontrollably from the cold, and muttered nervously, "My brother will forgive me. Yes, he's loved me so much ever since we were children..."
Who knew how long passed? Charles felt as though it might have been more than ten hours when a white Arabian Horse came galloping over in a cloud of dust. He hurriedly straightened his collar and tried to stand a little taller. Then he saw his brother, dressed in a Hussar Military Uniform, leap down from the horse's back. The speech he had painstakingly prepared vanished from his mind in an instant, and he could only stammer instinctively, "B-Brother..." "At last, I see you again,