🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 17
“Ahh!”
The man who had been swaying badly grabbed the carriage seat and barely kept his balance.
He shouted angrily at the coachman.
“Hey! Can’t you drive properly? I almost got stabbed!”
“Are you crazy? Do you think this is the time for that?!”
The coachman yelled back.
He had already pushed the horses as hard as he could. They couldn’t go any faster.
“What is that bastard talking about?”
The scar-faced man clicked his tongue in irritation and turned back to Sienna.
At that moment, he flinched at her gaze.
‘I should have just stayed at the temple… Why did I try to run away…’
Sienna glared at him with eyes full of anger and resentment.
‘You damn bastards! Baldy, I hope every single hair on your legs gets ripped out! And you with the scar, I hope even the wrinkles of your backside crack open like dry land!’
Her eyes looked fierce enough to call hail from a clear sky.
Rumble.
The scar-faced man suddenly heard something that sounded like thunder.
“Wh-what was that?”
Rumble.
Before he could finish speaking, the sound came again—much closer this time.
“It’s not thunder… D-don’t tell me it’s really hail?”
The ominous sound, like the earth shaking, came closer and closer. With every blink, it felt nearer.
When the sound was right behind them, the scar-faced man started breathing fast in fear.
Meanwhile, Sienna was busy complaining in her heart.
‘If I knew I was going to die this meaninglessly, I should have at least tried seducing the Grand Duke or the Crown Prince…’
Right then—
The bald man next to him tapped the scar-faced man with a trembling hand. His eyes were fixed outside the window.
“What?! What is it?!”
The scar-faced man turned his head—and his face went pale.
Sienna finally followed their gaze.
“Gasp!”
She was shocked.
“Hello, Sienna.”
Outside the window stood the black-eyed male lead, Arthur Bledel, smiling.
As if he were greeting her casually on a terrace in the morning.
* * *
It happened in an instant.
Arthur, who had been skillfully riding his horse, moved like lightning to the coachman’s seat.
He quickly pressed his sword to the coachman’s neck.
“You should pull the reins.”
“Eek!”
Terrified, the coachman yanked the reins hard.
The horses lifted their front legs high into the air with a loud neigh and stopped in place.
“Good.”
Arthur praised him like a hunting dog that had brought back prey. Then he struck the back of the coachman’s neck with the handle of his sword.
“Ugh!”
The coachman fell to the ground and passed out immediately.
Inside the carriage, the men panicked.
“What do we do?”
“It’s just one guy! Don’t panic!”
“Idiot! That’s the mad Grand Duke of Bledel!”
Because the carriage had stopped suddenly, Sienna had been thrown roughly into a corner of the floor.
As she lay there groaning, a rough hand suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled hard.
“Ah!”
“If the Grand Duke of Bledel came personally to save her, then this should work.”
A sharp blade pressed against her neck.
Sienna froze in fear. Her scalp hurt from being grabbed, and she felt like her throat would be cut at any moment.
“Listen carefully. When the Grand Duke comes down and opens the carriage door… we’ll use this woman as a shield and escape.”
The bald man swallowed hard and nodded.
“But… why isn’t he coming down?”
Even after some time, Arthur did not move from the coachman’s seat. He simply stood there with one foot resting calmly.
Sienna tried to think through her messy thoughts.
‘How did he know I was here? Why did he come alone without his knights?’
No matter how much she thought, she couldn’t find an answer. She only wanted to live.
The men wanted to live too.
The Grand Duke of Bledel, known as a madman, wasn’t moving at all. Their muscles were tight with tension.
Finally, unable to stand it, the scar-faced man shouted,
“What trick are you playing?!”
Boom!
As if waiting for that, a thunder-like explosion rang out. Wood pieces and dirt flew everywhere.
Sienna and the men all shrank down at once.
“Hmm, my condition really is good today.”
A familiar deep voice.
Sienna barely opened her eyes.
An unbelievable sight spread before her.
‘Did I die?’
She saw blue sky. White clouds. And… Arthur smiling down at her, holding his sword.
A faint purple aura still lingered on the blade.
Arthur had sliced off the carriage roof in a single strike.
“Y-you crazy bastard.”
The bald man muttered without thinking.
The scar-faced man tightened his grip on Sienna’s hair.
“Ah!”
“If you want this woman to live—!”
Before he could finish—
Arthur smiled again.
Without hesitation, he jumped into the roofless carriage.
Clang!
The dagger aimed at Sienna’s neck fell to the floor.
In an instant, the scar-faced man’s wrist was twisted unnaturally. Arthur held it calmly, still smiling.
With his other hand holding the sword, he brought the blade near the man’s shoulder.
Arthur glanced at Sienna.
Tears clung to the corners of her eyes. Her pink hair was messy, clearly showing where it had been grabbed.
His expression slightly twisted—so slightly that only someone who knew him well would notice.
“I’m quite devout, you see. Wouldn’t it be better if the arm that dared point a sword at the Saintess didn’t exist, Saintess?”
Freed from his grip, Sienna gasped for breath, looking between the man and Arthur.
The scar-faced man looked shocked.
“She’s… the Saintess? I thought she was just some woman connected to the Grand Duke!”
“Ah… connected, you say.”
Arthur frowned slightly and tightened his grip.
“AAAAH!”
“He’s the woman who rejected my marriage proposal. Twice.”
As if realizing he had made a terrible mistake, the bald man jumped out of the carriage and ran away.
Arthur only glanced at him briefly. He didn’t seem to care whether he escaped or not.
The only thing he cared about was Sienna.
Arthur smiled brightly.
“So, Saintess, how should we deal with this man?”
“Cut off his head in one stroke—”
Arthur looked at her as if he had misheard. That was not something one expected from a Saintess.
“…I’d like that. But unfortunately, the crime wasn’t completed.”
Sienna straightened her messy hair and spoke firmly.
“So let him stand trial and receive punishment according to his crimes. Whether he rots in prison for life or has all his teeth pulled out.”
“Hmm…”
Arthur lowered himself and studied her face.
This woman was strange in many ways.
When she was a beggar, she was arrogant.
When she became a Saintess, she openly showed her dislike.
She spoke in a way completely unfitting for a Saintess.
And now, she was demanding a proper trial for a man who had just tried to kill her.
In short, she was a type of woman he had never seen before.
