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Chapter 08
‘I can’t accept the young lady’s confession.’
“Why…?”
‘You’re still too young.’
“I’m not a child anymore…”
She kept denying the words of the man standing before her, but Shionel only repeated the same thing over and over.
“How long am I supposed to be ‘too young’ anyway…? How long! Ugh!”
And then, reality greeted her.
Through the gaping hole in the ceiling, she could see clouds hiding the moon.
Night? When did I fall asleep?
She remembered eating the soup, handing it to Shionel, watching him scoop it up with a spoon… but after that—
What happened next?
And why was she here instead of Shionel, who should have been in the bed?
“Shionel?”
As she struggled to sit up, her unusually heavy body protesting, a cold sensation touched her right wrist.
She lifted the blanket.
A metal chain was locked around her wrist.
“Huh…?”
Still unable to grasp the situation, she looked around—and spotted something on the desk.
A small key.
And an empty bottle.
The key was obviously for the chain.
And the bottle…
“A sleeping drug?”
Though empty, it was clearly one of the medical supplies from the bag Jerome had given them. She remembered using it on Shionel before, when his pain kept him from sleeping.
Lost in thought, Ponia’s eyes suddenly widened. She grabbed the plate beside her.
“Don’t tell me…”
She stirred the remnants of the soup. On the back of the spoon, she found white powder that hadn’t fully dissolved yet.
Only then did she understand everything that had happened.
She’d been deceived.
By Shionel.
“…I got played.”
Perfectly.
Shionel walked along the pitch-dark forest path.
Finding the key to the chain had been easy after spending an entire day stuck with the woman. Every time she looked at the chain, she fussed excessively over her pocket.
On top of that, she’d carelessly left the bag of medicine right under the bed.
A terribly incompetent assassin.
Still, her acting had been convincing enough.
The worried gaze.
The hurt expression.
They looked real. Too real. The way she kept talking to him, trying to feed him—it was disgusting.
And yet, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to kill her.
Which only made him sneer at his own weakness.
Even after all that, a part of him still wanted to believe the act.
Pretending to care. Pretending to be warm.
After watching his uncle deceive him for decades under that same pretense, too.
“….”
He had already been wandering through the dark forest for two hours. The path stretched on endlessly, but the scenery around him never changed.
The pain worsened. His steps slowed. He hadn’t eaten a single bite of food, so his body’s sluggish recovery was inevitable.
So focused on walking was he that he realized a little too late—
There were other footsteps mixed in with his own.
When he stopped abruptly, the footsteps behind him stopped too.
Instead, he heard something else.
Grrr…
A wolf?
“….”
No. Something was off. It sounded more like something trying to imitate a wolf’s howl. At the end of the cry was a scraping, metallic sound—like bones grinding together.
‘There are monsters living in this forest, you know. If you go out in your current condition, your life will be in danger.’
Why did he remember her words at a time like this?
Even though he believed she was lying, her voice lingered in his head.
As if, unconsciously, he’d believed her just a little.
Grrr…
He’d let his thoughts wander too long.
The beast watching him had no intention of waiting.
Shionel started running—and the creature accelerated right after him.
Even in his panicked state, he chose routes filled with obstacles, but the frenzied beast crashed through everything, closing the distance relentlessly.
At this rate, he’d be caught.
The creature’s rough breathing was right behind him now when his eyes, scanning the terrain, caught something.
ROOOAR!
As the beast roared, Shionel threw himself into the bushes.
When the enraged creature lunged after him, jaws wide open, it caught nothing—
Instead, a sheer cliff awaited it.
Without a sound, the beast vanished into the abyss.
“Ugh…”
But his situation wasn’t any better.
He was barely clinging to a branch jutting out from the cliff face, but he had no strength left to pull himself up.
So this is it.
The branch began to bend, creaking ominously under his weight.
Death was right in front of him.
Yet, he didn’t tremble.
He’d faced death countless times already. He was used to it.
So wouldn’t it be fine to choose death himself this time?
In fact, he didn’t want to go on living.
He couldn’t even remember why he’d wanted to live—or what he’d planned to do if he survived.
His grip loosened.
For a moment, his body hovered in midair.
Time stretched painfully long. Expecting the fall, Shionel closed his eyes.
So this is really—
“…?”
But no matter how long he waited, he didn’t fall.
Instead, a warmth—almost burning hot—wrapped around his hand.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a mess of red hair.
Bright, blazing red hair.
In the dark forest of night, that red-haired woman shone so brilliantly it swallowed everything else.
Stunned, he looked up at her.
“You—”
“Hold on to my hand! Don’t let go!”
The woman from the cabin clutched him desperately, her face twisted with urgency.
I really thought I wasn’t going to make it!
Ponia gripped his hand tightly, gasping for breath.
It had been way too close. Just a second later, and Shionel would’ve fallen.
Pushing aside the terrifying thought, she noticed Shionel staring at her in shock.
“I told you not to go out!”
You wouldn’t listen, and now look at the trouble you caused!
“How did you—”
“You really thought there was only one key?!”
Just in case, she’d hidden another key inside her skirt. If she hadn’t, she really would’ve been trapped until Jerome came back.
“I’ll pull you up! Hold tight!”
But despite her words, nothing improved. Instead, his weight slowly dragged her closer to the edge. Holding on was the best she could do.
“Just let go.”
“…What did you say?”
“Let go. Even if I survive this, I’ll just end up in the same situation again.”
His cracked voice pierced her quietly.
“I’ll be helpless again.”
“….”
“You don’t need to keep acting. What—are you playing hero so you can kill me? Fine. Do whatever you want.”
“Why would you say something like that at a time like this?! You don’t want to die!”
“I do.”
For the first time, the mocking tone he’d used toward her all this time settled into something calm.
“Everything I believed in has collapsed. What reason is there to live?”
“….”
“Whether I die here or die after leaving this forest—it’s all the same to me.”
As if to prove his words, Shionel closed his eyes and loosened his grip.
“….”
He waited quietly for death.
That sight hurt her more than when he’d snarled about killing her.
She hadn’t known.
She hadn’t realized he was thinking this way.
The Shionel she’d known from the novel was so bright and gentle that she’d never imagined him being this broken at this point in time.
No… I did know.
Ever since they reunited, there had been no light in those vivid sky-blue eyes she loved so much.
She’d just chosen to look away.
“So just let me—”
“Stop talking bullshit!”
Her shout thundered through the forest.
Startled, Shionel opened his eyes as Ponia screamed at him.
“Let go?! No reason to live?! Are you insane?!”
“….”
“You asked me for help!”
She remembered his desperate voice, begging for help while buried under dirt.
“Someone who wants to die doesn’t run like that, doesn’t cling to a branch like their life depends on it!”
The reason she’d been able to catch up so quickly, despite leaving later, was because of the traces he’d left behind.
“To me, all of it looked like a cry for help!”
“If you don’t know why you should live, then find a reason now! If you don’t have the strength, build it from here on out! And then get revenge on the people who did this to you!”
He wasn’t supposed to break here.
“If you’re going to die anyway, then at least try something… Fight back at least once…”
No matter how many betrayals he suffered, no matter how many times he brushed against death, he would overcome everything and become a duke.
In the end, Shionel was the one who won.
Watching him stare at her in confusion, Ponia made up her mind.
Even without her, Shionel would eventually rise again. He would reach a happy ending.
But if he couldn’t stand up right now—
“Let’s make a deal!”
Then she would become his very first foothold.
