Back at the hunting ground, Dito was congratulating Rasia on winning the competition, even though the winner had not yet been decided, and asking what he intended to ask for as his wish.
Rasia considered it for a brief second. Then a wicked grin spread across his face, and he said that he already had something in mind.
In the forest, Ran had transformed back into his human form and was thoroughly frustrated. His whole plan was in pieces, and on top of that he had dropped the bag of stones somewhere while he was running for his life. He rolled on the ground for a while like a child throwing a tantrum over candy, and then, since agonizing changed nothing, he got up and began retracing his steps to look for the bag.
Meanwhile, Agoni returned to the place where he had left Talin and asked how his head was feeling.
Talin assured him that he was fine, aside from a little dizziness, and asked what had happened in the chase.
"I lost him," Agoni said. "My old bones could not keep up."
Then Talin noticed the bag his master had brought back with him and asked about it.
"I found it on the way back," Agoni said.
Talin examined it. The bag itself was clearly a luxury item, expensive leather and fine stitching, and he could not for the life of him understand why it was filled with nothing but stones.
Behind a nearby tree, Ran listened to every word of this. He waited a few moments, and then stepped out of hiding with the air of a man who had been searching high and low.
Agoni and Talin quickly paid their respects. Agoni asked whether the bag belonged to His Highness.
"It does," Ran said. "I was just wondering where it had disappeared to." Then, sternly: "Did you steal my bag?"
Agoni denied the accusation at once, explaining that he had come upon it by chance while walking through the forest.
Ran made a show of refusing to believe him, so Agoni swore by his own life and by the honour of his entire family that he had not stolen it.
"Then why is his head bleeding?" Ran asked, nodding at Talin.
"A small accident, Your Highness."
Talin raised his head at that, and met Ran's eyes, and recognized him instantly as the man he had glimpsed before the stone struck him.
Just as Talin opened his mouth, Ran grabbed him by the head.
Agoni half stepped forward to mediate.
"Did you just interrupt me?" Ran demanded, as though deeply annoyed. "Perhaps I should take your head off to teach you a lesson." He turned to Agoni without releasing his grip. "Lend me your sword."
Talin, terrified, was very nearly weeping. Agoni apologized and begged the seventh prince to show his aide mercy.
"Remarkable loyalty," Ran said, in a tone of sarcastic admiration. "The loyal imperial dog of the empire, who doesn't even blink while his own aide is on the verge of death."
The words landed somewhere unexpected. They reminded Agoni, immediately and vividly, of the corpse he had seen lying on the road while riding with his son.
Ran pushed further, to be sure of it. "And your son will grow up to be a loyal dog of the empire too, I'm sure."
Afterwards, he entrusted the bag of stones to Agoni, warning him sternly that it was an important item and that he was to carry it at all times, even in death.
Like a wet mutt, Agoni took the bag and agreed to obey the command.
Ran headed back toward the hunting ground, relieved that everything had worked out as he had wanted it to in the end. Deep down, he was nervous that his acting had been trash. And apart from that, he felt genuinely bad about what he had done to Talin. It had all been necessary, though. He was planting a seed in Agoni's mind, and the seed had to push the story forward on schedule.
Behind him, Talin apologized to his master, and Agoni told him to consider himself lucky to have escaped the seventh prince's fury with his head still attached. He ordered him back to the tent to rest.
"Sir," Talin said, "I have remembered something about the assailant."
Agoni waited.
"It was definitely him. The seventh prince."
"Say nothing more," Agoni said sternly.
Elsewhere, Ran was satisfied with his preparations, and looking ahead to the incident Agoni was supposed to commit during this hunting competition.
According to the book, that incident had happened a year from now, and it had happened because Agoni's son was killed. But everything in this story was running fast, so Ran had decided to fast forward the incident and make it happen here instead.
Back at the hunting grounds, Rasia finally told Dito what his wish would be. He intended to ask the emperor for the rights to develop the area around the temple, so that he could clear out the drifters infesting the imperial capital like so many annoying bugs.
What nobody on that field knew was that the puppet master of everything happening on it was the black-haired boy nobody watched. Including the part where the most decorated knight in the empire was being pushed into rebelling against the royal family well ahead of schedule, because that rebellion was a destiny already set in stone.
Shortly afterwards, a crow came down out of the sky behind a bush near the camps, and Ran stepped out of the leaves in his own body. He had made sure to check from the air for prying eyes before descending.
As he walked toward the tents, he could not help feeling guilty about what he was about to do to Agoni. The whole thing made him feel like a villain.
Then he remembered that according to the book, he was a villain.
He was about to continue with his plans when the first princess, Menel, came up to him, all warmth and familiarity.
This made Ran deeply uneasy. She was the last person in the empire he wanted to run into right now. Nervous as he was, he managed a proper greeting.
"Don't," Menel said. "We're siblings."
Then she asked about his horse, and why he had come back alone and on foot.
"I felt like taking a stroll," Ran said. "I left him at the quarters."
The smile vanished from Menel's face.
"Why would you lie to me?"
Ran feigned confusion, which took some effort.
Menel explained, pleasantly, that while strolling through the forest she had come across a black horse, and had learned that it belonged to her little brother. She had ordered her servant to slay it, because animals that refuse to obey royalty deserve to die.
Seeing that his lie had been laid out on the table in front of him, Ran apologized quickly and admitted that he had only lied because he was too embarrassed to confess that he had lost his horse.
Before he could finish explaining himself, Menel gently told him to lift his head, and assured him that she had no intention of punishing him. She said she was simply relieved that he had made it back safely.
Before she left, she told him that if he ever needed another horse, he should come to her.
Ran watched her go in silence. Menel was one of the most difficult characters in the entire novel to handle, because it was impossible to know what she was really thinking. And he could not stop wondering why she had left so quietly, which made him suspect something he did not want to test.
Her ability had not worked on him.