Behind us, horses hitched to a carriage were galloping toward us, filled with agitation.
It wasn’t just one or two horses—it was dozens of them.
The young ladies who had been leisurely drinking tea screamed and sprang from their seats.
In response to the sudden situation, the knights guarding the area rushed forward, drawing their swords to fend off the approaching horses.
“We’ll stop them here! Please evacuate quickly!”
Only Kana was still frozen in place, her body stiff and paralyzed.
But the horses were different from the ones we were used to.
‘Those horses… did they just hurt someone?’
It was a struggle to face these horses, which showed no intention of stopping, even if we stabbed or slashed at them with swords.
Even if we tried not to retreat, the horses kept finding ways to slip through the gaps and close in.
And now, their new target was us.
“Hiiyiiii!”
The enraged horses galloped toward us, and chaos erupted in an instant.
Some were screaming in terror, while others collapsed in place, crying loudly.
In the midst of all the commotion, Perry grabbed my hand tightly and pulled me along.
“Run!”
“Where to?”
“Head to the forest! The trees block the way, so the horses won’t be able to follow us.”
Veratri hadn’t returned yet from his scouting in the forest.
But right now, we couldn’t afford to worry about that.
Others nearby heard us and quickly followed, rushing toward the forest.
We ran without stopping, and as the sound of the horses’ cries faded away, we soon realized that everyone else had disappeared from sight.
“Phew… Ha, ha… We should be safe now, right?”
Perry and I stopped for a moment to catch our breath.
Looking around, I realized we had somehow ended up deeper into the forest.
The trees were thick, and the underbrush was dense.
But something felt off about the forest.
It was unnervingly quiet, as though all the animals were holding their breath and watching us. Goosebumps ran down my arms.
I shivered and trembled, and Perry turned to look at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“This forest… something feels wrong.”
“…You feel it too?”
Perry seemed to sense the unease as well.
“There’s this nauseating smell of animal blood all around us. Why is this happening?”
“Could it be…?”
I quickly told Perry about what Prince Sharniche had said earlier.
As I spoke, Perry’s expression grew increasingly stiff.
“I should have said something sooner. I was planning to wait for Veratri to come back and confirm things before telling you…”
Perry shook her head, rejecting the guilt.
“Even if you’d said something, it wouldn’t have changed anything. We couldn’t have known about something like this beforehand. We had to run and get to the forest.”
‘…Perry.’
Despite the urgency of the situation, I couldn’t help but feel a slight lightness from having a proper conversation with Perry for the first time in a while.
Horses can wound someone, but they can also transmit warmth.
At that moment, it felt like the forest was offering us the warmth we needed.
Somehow, I felt like we could have a real conversation now, the kind we hadn’t been able to have before.
“You know…”
“Why?”
“Is it because you were really angry about what happened with Cat back then?”
Perry’s gaze wavered as she looked at me.
She bit her lip tightly and lowered her gaze.
After a long pause, she let out a deep sigh.
“It’s not that.”
“Then why have you been avoiding talking to me all this time?”
“…It’s just that, I feel pathetic.”
I looked at her in surprise, not expecting that answer.
“What?”
“If I hadn’t been such an idiot and fallen for his tricks back then, I think I could’ve caught him. I thought I had gotten stronger, but I still haven’t changed from that time at all.”
Seeing the expression twisted in agony, it seemed like she had been blaming herself alone all this time.
I hadn’t realized it and thought that she had been resenting me for something.
If I had known, I would have tried harder to talk with Perry, even if she seemed uncomfortable.
“It’s not like that. It’s not that you’re lacking; it’s that I acted on my own without consulting you.”
Just as Perry was about to say something, a strange voice from a man interrupted.
“You’re pretty fast at running; I almost thought I’d lose track of you.”
I turned around to see a few masked men walking toward us from a short distance, glaring at us. They were holding ominous-looking weapons in their hands.
Perry immediately hide me behind her.
“What the hell are you guys?”
Even though my voice was cold, the man in the front seemed unfazed and responded with a playful tone.
“Kid, if you hand over the beastmen behind you, we’ll spare you.”
I couldn’t understand what was happening. I had assumed, based on Prince Sharniche’s words, that the one in danger would be the Emperor.
‘But it’s not him… it’s me?’
The number of enemies in front of us was overwhelming.
It was impossible for Perry to take them all on by herself.
As I worried about this, the sound of a whistle carried through the air and scattered in all directions.
The black-clad figures I had seen before appeared in the trees, rushing toward the men.
“Now this is getting interesting, huh?”
Perry’s response, calm and confident, made the man’s expression freeze.
“Yeah, this is getting fun.”
The atmosphere became heavy, like a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment.
As the black-clad figures moved closer to the group of enemies, Perry grabbed my hand and pulled me along.
“They smell bad. We need to get out of here.”
But I couldn’t move my feet. I was worried that if I left, these people might die because of me.
Perry, noticing my hesitation, urged me more.
“Focus! We need to go, now!”
“…Alright.”
Perry and I once again ran aimlessly, not knowing where we were going.
We finally stopped in front of a tree, two arrows lodged in its trunk.
“At least here, the smell of animal blood is less.”
But the worry in Perry’s face didn’t disappear.
“No, let’s go deeper. It’ll feel safer the further we go.”
Suddenly, the words of Prince Sharniche came to mind.
The Duchess’s warning not to enter the forest.
His figure by the lakeside…
‘What could be in this place? What if what she prepared isn’t just assassins?’
I hesitated, unable to feel at ease about anything.
“What if there are more dangerous traps inside the forest?”
“We still have to go. It’s better than dying at their hands.”
Despite Perry’s insistence, just as I was about to step into the deep forest, the voice from earlier, full of mischief, rang out from behind us.
“Is this all you’ve managed to do? I’m disappointed.”
I quickly turned around at the sudden voice.
Though the face was unfamiliar, I could tell from the mocking tone that it was the man who had been leading the masked group earlier.
He looked like he had been through a rough fight, with his clothes stained with blood in several places.
The man, grinning widely, was met with Perry’s calm reply.
“You look pretty messed up yourself.”
“Well, your people turned out to be stronger than I expected.”
“So, did you leave your comrades behind?”
“Comrades? They’re just business partners. As long as I survive, I can still get paid.”
The man smirked and licked both of his short daggers with his tongue.
To my shock, his tongue was split down the middle like a serpent’s.
“There’s poison in my saliva. So even a mere scratch from this blade will make your body slowly stop obeying you.”
At this, Perry curled the corners of her mouth into a faint smile. Her voice grew harsher as she spoke.
“No wonder I’ve been smelling something unpleasant. You’re from the desert, aren’t you?”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I’ve got personal grudges against your lizard people.”
Perry drew the short daggers from her thighs and whispered in my ear, her voice soft enough for only me to hear.
“While I’m dealing with him, you need to run. And try to find the leader somehow.”
“What? How can I just leave you behind, Perry…”
“Listen to me. It’s the right thing to do in this situation.”
I didn’t want to leave her behind, but if I stayed here, I’d be undoing all the effort the people who tried to protect me had made.
And this time, I couldn’t let Perry’s mission fail because of my own actions.
That would be betraying the hard work she had put into it.
I bit my lip, bowing my head in guilt and shame.
“I’m sorry, Perry. If I meet Sir Veratri or His Majesty, I’ll come back to rescue you…!”
After that, I ran for a long time, until the sharp sound of metal chasing me finally faded away.
But then, I tripped over a stone I hadn’t noticed, and I fell to the ground.
“Ugh…!”
The pain in my scraped leg was sharp, but it was nothing compared to the pain in my heart.
Why was I still so useless?
I hadn’t changed at all from when I was in Medderland.
As if to mirror my gloomy thoughts, raindrops began to fall heavily from the sky.
I blankly stared up at the sky.
Dark clouds had gathered, blocking the sun.
‘What am I doing right now?’
Perry had told me to meet with the Emperor, but I had no idea where he was.
I couldn’t just stay still like this. I had to do something.
But all I could think of was the image of Perry lying there, bleeding, just like the man who had crumpled under the Emperor’s hand in the rose garden.
“If you’re so upset, why don’t you just give your neck to the next assassin who comes? That’ll work.”
Maybe that would make my mind at ease.
I knew well enough that I wasn’t worth surviving at the cost of another’s life.
The family’s problem child.
The helpless and pitiful Mayhen, who could do nothing right.
Bad thoughts continued to swirl in my head, leaving deep scratches on my heart.
They clung to me like a heavy shadow, dragging me down.
‘I need to move faster… I can’t just stay here…’
Just then, a strange presence emerged from the underbrush.
As the footsteps grew nearer, the figure revealed itself.