/
Richard stopped in his position and looked at me for a while. His gaze made me want to run away, but the chill in his blue eyes froze my ankles. A gentle smile formed on his lips, and soon he called me.
“Miss Shabrina?”
Only then did I come to my senses.
‘He didn’t recognize me.’
LI tried to touch my face. On my fingertips, I felt a firm, rough surface. Since I wore a brown wig and a mask over my face, he couldn’t recognize me.
“Are you sick, Miss Shabrina?”
He tilted his head as if puzzled, and took a step closer to me.
I instinctively stepped back.
‘The scent—!’
The memories of the past, which had been buried for three years, began to come back to me one by one.
Richard and Yurtha ran up to me and told me I smelled something.
Perhaps because there was still a distance, Richard did not recognize me.
‘You can’t come any closer!’
I should keep my distance as far as possible. However, Richard, who felt strange, came closer.
“Miss Shabrina?”
The knight next to me might have felt the same way, and a voice full of questions called my name. I tried to open my mouth to explain something to them and then shut it back. What if Richard didn’t forget my voice?
…There was no way this could have happened.
I whispered so much that only the knights next to me could hear it.
“…I suddenly remembered something urgent.”
“Something urgent?”
“I’m sorry, I have to go.”
I ran without looking back.
“Miss Shabrina!”
The surprised knight shouted from behind, but I continued to run. It wasn’t a problem to be imprinted as a strange person to them because I had to run away first. After being caught by Richard like this—.
I thought I was forgetting, but I clearly remember what Richard said three years ago.
<I will never forget this pain.>
Those words pierced my mind so strongly that they made me run away.
The current situation can be dealt with later.
It would be fine if I made an excuse that I’m scared of blood. So—.
“I caught you!”
Someone pulled my body just as I was about to rush out of the auction house. I was dragged into a dark alley before I could escape.
My body, which couldn’t keep its balance, fell to the ground helplessly, and my vision turned upside down.
Brak!
Without a moment to resist, I fell backwards. My vision was dizzy, and I felt nauseous, so I couldn’t think straight for a moment and slowly blinked my eyes a few times.
In the opposite view, the sky was full of dark clouds.
Tok.
The water fell on the mask.
It looks like it’s really going to rain.
I just roll my eyes and look at the situation.
This is the face I saw at the auction house. The man who was managing the auction house. He seems to have escaped unharmed in the uproar.
‘If you succeed in escaping, just go the way you were going.’
I stood up with a short click on my tongue. However, before I could fully stand up, the sword was pointed right in front of my eyes.
“Don’t get up.”
“….”
“Be quiet like you are now. If you scream… ”
If I scream here, all the knights over there will be able to hear me.
But I had no intention of screaming. There’s no way I’d come here without thinking about anything.
I slipped my hand behind my back.
A manager and two men, three total. The other two appear to be knights at the auction house.
‘Let’s take care of it at once.’
When they’re off guard, at once—.
I clasped the thing I had taken out behind my back.
“Did you report to the Paladins? Why are the Paladins serving you sincerely?”
“….”
“Are you not going to tell me? Well. It doesn’t matter. Seeing what the Paladins are doing, I think it would be a good idea to take you as a hostage and run away….”
The man reached out to me.
At that moment—.
Whoosh!
“Argh!”
I sprayed sleeping gas on the man’s face.
“What, what did you spray—!”
The manager collapsed while trying to talk. Then I jumped out of my seat with the intention of running away. The knights behind the manager’s back moved right away, but I ran out of the alley right away.
When I looked back, the knights were reaching out as if they were trying to catch me.
I’ll get caught at this rate.
I clenched the spray in case I was caught and looked forward again.
“Argh!”
When I fell down and couldn’t get up, the first thing I thought was that I was doomed. The moment when I feel that I have to do something because I can’t be caught like this.
“Ugh!”
“Argggh!”
A scream was heard from behind.
I couldn’t even look back in surprise and looked ahead blankly. Then, come to think of it, I bumped into—. I saw a white priest’s uniform.
I raised my head without thinking and met his blue eyes.
The terrifyingly beautiful man looked at me as I fell and smiled.
“That’s right. Just look at me like that.”
“…What do you mean.”
“You’d better not look back.”
I wasn’t so stupid that I couldn’t figure out that the people whose hearts had stopped beating were behind me. The blood was flowing through the sword Richard was holding dripped and fell, making a small puddle.
I realized for a moment that I was close to Richard my voice was softly slipping.
I got caught—.
“I was surprised that you suddenly ran away, Miss Shabrina.”
“….”
Richard still called me Shabrina as if he didn’t recognize me.
“I heard there is an urgent matter, but the situation is dangerous right now.”
“….”
“Come on, hold my hand and get up.”
I stared blankly at Richard’s hand in the white glove.
“Miss Shabrina, do you have no strength to get up?”
…Richard said that my body definitely smells.
I thought it was a lie when I just met him three years ago, but now I know it’s not. But why—, is he doing this on purpose?
I couldn’t do this or that because I didn’t understand at all, but Richard walked up to me and put his arm under my lap and lifted me up.
“W, what are you doing—!”
I shut my mouth again.
I think he might have heard my voice.
“Because you can’t get up.”
“….”
“You must have been surprised to see something terrible happen. I’ll take you to the mansion.”
“…I don’t need it.”
I spoke with a low voice and hid my voice.
“I’m worried.”
I saw Richards.
The blue eyes simply smiled professionally, not with sincerity. I felt like I was going back to when I first met Richard.
He walked with me in his arms.
“Miss Shabrina! What is this—!”
The knights were surprised to see me falling and becoming muddy. However, they received Richard’s gaze and kept their mouths shut.
Without a word, Richard hugged me and sat me in the carriage.
“…I can go on my own now.”
“All right.”
I was relieved when he stepped back cleanly, unexpectedly.
“By the way, Miss Shabrina.”
“…Yes.”
Richard grabbed my wrist with a meaningful smile and turned it around, making my palm look at the sky. I look at him to see what he is doing, and Richard puts a blue diamond in the palm of my hand.
…It was a memento of Michelle’s mother.
“I heard you were busy, but I couldn’t give her things back to her without you, so I went after you.”
“….”
“Then see you next time.”
…Next time?
What do you mean next time? That’s never going to happen.
But Richard looked at me with persistent eyes. I don’t know what the hell he’s thinking.
I hurriedly closed the carriage door. I was just thinking of getting out of here for now.
Then the carriage left the auction house and arrived at the familiar Baron Savlin residence.
“Rina! What the hell are you…”
“Take it, Lady.”
Surprised at my appearance, I handed Michelle the memento.
Michelle held the relic previously but fixed her gaze on me.
“I just fell a little.”
“…Everything’s fine, right, Rina?”
“What would have happened to me when the Paladins protecting me?”
“…Of course, there shouldn’t be any. If anything goes wrong, I will cut off all transactions with the temple.”
“Lady, what if you act as you please?”
“…But.”
Michelle looked sullen as if she didn’t like it.
I smile and comfort her.
“Lady, you said you were going to the north soon, right? I’ll go too.”
“Suddenly? You said you weren’t going before. You said you hated the North.”
“I changed my mind. You know. I’m unpredictable.”
For once, my only thought was to run away to the north and get away from the madman.
That’s how it was decided to go north with Michelle. Time passed, and the day to depart for the North came.