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7.
The timing to slip away to the border checkpoint at the right moment was approaching.
Regarding the local geography, Lillian, who had ‘original work knowledge’ and a month of preparation for escape, had an advantage over the villain’s party, who were on this route for the first time.
‘I even went ahead and told them how to process Control Stones.’
At least they wouldn’t do something like splitting the empire in half due to a rampage.
Unlike in the original work.
‘Please don’t let the effects reach the Kingdom of Tenebrine.’
However, she was starting to worry a bit about her physical condition.
‘Why do I have a fever, and I can’t even taste things properly?’
She deliberately sprinkled the most expensive pepper she had stolen from headquarters.
Yet, it didn’t register any刺激.
‘The villain’s party is more courteous than I thought…’
If she asked if they had fever reducers, they would just get unnecessarily concerned.
Slipping away would become much more troublesome.
‘Ugh, I can’t believe I was foolish enough not to pack any fever reducers.’
Lillian raised her body from where she had been crouching in a corner of the tent.
There was a place she had seen earlier while drinking soup.
A field with snow falling sparsely.
She remembered a flower blooming at the base of a certain tree there.
It looked like a dandelion, but it was a flower with fever-reducing properties from the bloom to the root.
‘Lucky find.’
Hehehe.
She had made sure it wasn’t a similar-looking poisonous flower.
After washing it with melted snow water, Lillian started chewing it from the root.
However, when the flower part touched her lips, she tilted her head in confusion.
‘That’s strange, usually the effect kicks in right away.’
In her childhood, after her parents died because of Lillian…
<“Taking a thing like you to the temple…! My heir died because of a worm!”>
…there was a time when the entire family, by her grandfather’s order, distanced themselves from Lillian.
It was a time when even basic necessities were incredibly difficult.
Back then, if she had a fever and felt unwell, she would put any herb she read about in books into her mouth.
Such treatment only ended after she got engaged to Karkin.
A thought suddenly occurred to Lillian.
Was thinking she liked her fiance for ten years…
…because of the good treatment she received thanks to Karkin Pavil?
‘Wasn’t it just my survival instinct clinging to that guy…?’
Out of fear of returning to that abandoned era.
If so, had she ever known what ‘love’ was?
Even once?
‘Not really in my past life either.’
In her past life, Lillian had no family at all.
She was found in a baby box and grew up alone.
She had to do everything well by herself.
She had to be strong on her own.
But Lillian actually preferred her past self more.
Even if alone, she didn’t cling to others pitifully and desperately.
She intended to live with that strong, solitary demeanor from now on…
“Lillian Tillard!”
Goodness, what a scare.
Lillian was unintentionally startled.
She still had the yellow flower held right in the center of her lips.
The original villain was approaching almost at a run, his face completely hardened.
“Ha, you.”
“…Huh?”
“Spit it out now!”
Huh. Lillian, not understanding why, did as she was told.
When Ability-users’ emotions become intense, the likelihood of rampage increases.
This man needed to stay in a normal state until they reached their destination. Please.
“Your Highness, why are you…? Ah.”
After asking, Lillian objectively looked at herself.
With a flower in her mouth, she might have looked somewhat unwell to others.
Let me clarify this. I’m not crazy.
“Your Highness, there’s a reason for this—”
“You, open your mouth wider.”
“Pardon? Huh?”
“Hurry!”
Bewildered, she couldn’t grasp what was happening.
The villain bit the black glove on his hand and pulled it off.
And then he grabbed Lillian’s chin…
No, wait, why is this person touching someone else’s skin in the first place?
And with his bare hand?
‘Didn’t he avoid it because it could cause trouble due to his ability?’
If he’s doing this out of consideration because it got dusty, thanks… no, not thanks.
He firmly pressed the center of her parted lips with his right thumb.
“Wait, a moment. Your Highness.”
Lillian grabbed his hand firmly.
“I think there’s a misunderstanding—”
Simultaneously, the tip of her small tongue touched the thumb that had poked up over her lip.
‘What is this?’
Her vision suddenly blurred white.
The original villain was seriously misunderstanding something.
She was about to shout, ‘Please don’t get startled and rampage.’
But the moment her lips brushed against that hand.
A fiercer heat rose than before she had been chewing the flower.
This wasn’t a simple feverish heat from fatigue.
‘Because I touched the 1st Prince…?’
But she was originally powerless.
Even if she came into contact with an Ability-user, there was no reason for her physical state to change at all…?
Lillian felt dizzy.
“Tillard…!”
She knew a voice calling her was heard.
But unable to withstand the heat, she collapsed forward.
The 1st Prince caught her in his arms, but it was no relief at all.
Because her entire body became an even fiercer ball of fire.
This was ominous…
In her half-conscious, dreamlike state, she faintly felt him carrying her into the tent.
“Medic! Over here, now!”
But before the medic could come rushing over.
Elias, who had been outside, ran in urgently.
“Your Highness! There’s something to report—”
Lillian could only barely make out a few words.
Foot of the hill. Suspicious individuals…
‘Of all times, now?’
Monsters would have been understandable. Once you leave the civilized zones of the empire, danger lurks.
But suspicious humans?
The 1st Prince gave instructions to someone.
“Keep watch over Miss Tillard in the tent.”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
Wait…?
You’re leaving me like this…?
Clenching her teeth against the heat and the ominous foreboding, Lillian felt like she could hear the sound of her plans warping.
But she couldn’t admit it out of sheer unfairness.
No, it can’t be.
After all the effort I put into preparing to cross the border!
No matter how dirty my luck has been since birth, not this time!
My luck has to be on my side just this once!
The medic approached Lillian and asked.
“Young Lady, come to your senses. Can you hear me?”
“This…”
“Young Lady?”
“Go to… hell…”
Original villain…!
At first, what Evren party suspected was assassins.
Sent by the 2nd Empress alone, or the Pabil family, or…
In the worst case, the Emperor himself.
“Everyone, masks on.”
Evren endured the heat rising up to his chin.
Because of Lillian Tillard, his mind and body were in utter chaos.
Now was the time to focus.
Soon, when the bushes, only silhouetted by moonlight, began to shake.
Below the hillside where they were ambushed, knights holding torches appeared.
Elias signaled via telepathy shortly after.
-They are Tillard family knights.
They wore the turquoise family insignia, and some of their faces were recognizable.
Their noisy chatter was also audible.
“…Ah, I’m so damn annoyed.”
“Who would have thought she’d run away after drinking the sleeping tea—”
“Just wait until we catch her. We’ll teach that wench a real lesson.”
A shadow slowly fell over Ebren’s eyes.
The expressions of his subordinates following him were similar.
They detested the Tillard family.
They were involved in the death of Ebren’s mother, the 1st Empress, and had joined forces with the 2nd Empress to keep pressuring them.
But the conversation they were having was not something possible in a normal lord-vassal relationship.
The lowly talk continued.
“Haha! She’s a young lady, but how come she’s worse than us?”
“Ah, don’t you know? Is this your first time guarding Lillian?”
