TAVD 09

Ramio clutched both of his eyes.

He couldn’t endure the itching and searing pain caused by the pepper powder.

“L-Lillian! You!”

Right then, the black curtain of magic, its effect finally exhausted, dissipated.

Lillian hurriedly looked around at her surroundings.

‘Ha, I’ve been separated from the others.’

No matter how dark the night was, the silhouettes of the trees were different.

Ramio must have captured Lillian with that spell and moved her some distance away.

‘I don’t know just how far he brought me…!’

Lillian immediately threw herself into the darkness of the forest and ran.

If she were caught this time, it wouldn’t just mean being sent to the northern villa.

‘They won’t let me leave the estate at all until I’m married to Karkin!’

In truth, Lillian knew.

She had no abilities, yet her lineage was needlessly too noble.

Meanwhile, the Pavil family insisted on nothing but the very best.

So they would never give up on Lillian.

But instead…

‘Lillian. I’m the only one who would ever take a powerless woman like you as a spouse.

So even if I have illegitimate children, you’ll have to keep quiet.

Why? What if the child you give birth to turns out abnormal too?

That’s why everyone agreed to it.

Duke Tillard, Young Duke Kuern, Iris, Her Majesty the Empress…

No one in this world needs your opinion.’

The future that awaited her.

The utter nonsense she had read in the original story already sounded as though it had happened.

She had never experienced it herself, yet it still disgusted her.

Even as she fled, Lillian ground her teeth.

‘Please, I need to find somewhere to hide. If I keep wandering around here, even the Prince’s group won’t be able to find—!’

But the very moment Lillian spotted a bush large enough to hide in—

Her right wrist was seized by a powerful hand.

“…!”

“Heh. So Lillian’s getting cocky now?”

Holding one eye shut, Ramio glared at her with the other, bloodshot eye.

“I let you off because we’re cousins— Gah!”

Bang!

A flash of light erupted together with a small explosion.

Ramio tumbled across the ground.

“Aaaagh…!”

“Hah… You think… you’re the only one… who knows how to use weapons?”

Lillian shot back between ragged breaths.

It was pure luck that she’d had enough time while running to rummage through her bag.

‘And luckily this bastard can’t leave any scars on my body.’

She was still a valuable commodity on the marriage market.

Unfortunately, Lillian herself had no offensive power.

But she did have a magical torch capable of reaching temperatures of 1,400 degrees.

And that torch could even release a short burst of flame.

Clutching the torch like a pistol, Lillian gritted her teeth.

“You stop getting cocky, you damn bastard.”

The campsite had been left in complete disarray.

It was the result of the attack that had occurred while Evren was away.

No one had been injured, but the woman they had left behind had been kidnapped.

Despite already being so feverish that she could barely stand…

Lillian Tillard.

There wasn’t the slightest trace of her scent.

It almost felt as though it meant she was dead.

He had crossed battlefields countless times before.

Yet he had never felt like this.

His heart pounded faster than ever before.

‘There’s no longer any reason not to tell you… since this is the last time.’

She was someone he had every reason to despise.

There was the long-standing political rivalry.

And the pathetic way she chased after her foolish fiancé.

Yet hell exploded inside his mind.

His ability raged at him, furious that they had allowed something they hadn’t even obtained to be ruined first.

I have to find her. Now!

The injured knight at the camp confirmed that the one who had taken Lillian was Ramio Tillard.

He had probably intended to reunite with the rest of his group, so he couldn’t have gone far.

As they frantically searched the area, one knight pointed toward a mountain ridge swallowed by darkness.

“Your Highness! Look over there!”

Small white lights flickered beneath the ridge, their silhouettes barely distinguishable against the night sky.

But before anyone could determine what the lights were—

Kiiiiii…

A shrill screech echoed through the air, like steel being scraped endlessly by razor-sharp claws.

It was a horrifying cry that could never be mistaken for that of an ordinary beast.

Elias turned around, his face frozen.

“Your Highness, that’s—”

A monster had appeared.

And the scent of lilies was drifting from the very place where that cry had originated.

After using the torch to unleash a burst of flames—

Lillian staggered away from the scene.

But before she could get very far, she finally reached her limit.

She bent over with both hands on her knees.

“Hah… ngh…”

The fever made her head spin.

The dark forest felt suffocating.

‘I deliberately used something that gives off light.’

So the Prince’s group would be able to find her…

Then she suddenly found it ridiculous.

‘What guarantee is there that they’ll even come?’

She had never read the final page of the original story, but the ending was obvious.

‘They probably lost to the original heroine and the male lead anyway.’

And then they died.

That was why she had only thought of them as a means of escaping across the border.

To her, they had been nothing more than breathing paper dolls.

They had probably viewed her the same way.

‘The only useful tool for extracting information about the Tillard family.’

Just as she’d expected.

‘At least I managed to bring my bag.’

Her fake identification and all the supplies she’d prepared to settle down in the Kingdom of Tenevrin were still intact.

‘I can hear running water nearby.’

If she followed the stream, there would usually be a village.

She would regroup there.

And from there, start over…

But her fever-ridden body finally gave out, and she collapsed forward.

Kiiiiik… Kiiiiiiiiiik…

The metallic screech that numbed her eardrums made her burning body flinch.

‘This… can’t be happening.’

Barely able to move, Lillian shifted only her eyes to look around.

There weren’t supposed to be any monsters near Aeterna.

She had checked every possible danger before setting out…

‘Unless it’s the northern villa.’

Monsters occasionally wandered around there at night…

No way.

The chilling realization arrived at the same moment a wolf-like monster’s massive forepaw pressed heavily onto her back.

Its claws dug into her flesh, forcing a groan from her lips.

Unable to move, she watched a shadow fall over her.

“…Damn… you.”

Lillian recognized who had approached.

And she spat out the harshest insult she could think of.

“You cockroach…”

“You little brother…!”

Ramio grinned through his blood-covered face.

“Hah. I offered to take you back nicely, but you just wouldn’t listen.”

Lillian struggled beneath the monster’s paw.

Artifacts capable of summoning monsters were forbidden items.

But Ramio had used one without hesitation.

“It’s been a while since you’ve seen this monster, hasn’t it? It’s the one that likes you the most, Sister.”

“Don’t tell me… all those times… it was you who summoned it…! Ngh!”

“Stay still, Sister. If your face gets scarred, Young Duke Pavil really will dump you.”

Lillian’s abilities were worthless.

But even among the generations of beauties produced by the Tillard family, she possessed one of the finest faces.

They couldn’t afford to ruin one of the family’s best assets.

Ramio pulled out a communication artifact linked to the family’s knights.

“Hey, I found Lillian. I’m bringing her ba—”

But he never finished the message.

Kiiik! Kiiik!

The wolf-like monster pinning Lillian down let out a sharp cry.

It suddenly leaped away from her, hopping frantically as though its forepaws had been badly burned.

“What the hell? Why is it…?!”

The monster, writhing in pain, suddenly froze.

In the blink of an eye, the entire world turned white.

It was as though fresh snow had silently blanketed everything, leaving behind a world where even sound had completely vanished.

Then the monster melted away like snow beneath the sunlight.

“…!”

Ramio’s mouth hung open as his face was slammed into the nearest tree.

The moment he tried to pull himself free, an overwhelming grip smashed his face back into the trunk once more.

“What impeccable manners you have toward your elders.”

“Ghk…!”

“It almost makes me happy.”

“You remind me so much of someone’s younger brother.”