TAVHAAN 08

Chapter 3. Pepper! Pepper!

Those who had been with the Tillard family longer laughed.

Plans for how to teach her a lesson flowed from their mouths.

A woman with no special abilities, and no one in the family to believe her no matter how much she cried.

So much so that the person who asked what to do hesitated.

“But… is that really okay? What if His Grace the Duke—”
“It’s fine. As long as it doesn’t show, we even got permission from Master Ramio—”

They couldn’t finish saying from whom they got permission.

Ephraim gave a signal, and the swordsmen immediately leapt down the hillside.

“S-Stop them!”

The Shadows swung their swords, gnashing their teeth.
“Bastards!”
“Talking nonsense with our lord present!”
“Eat this! Take this too!”

A Tillard knight watching the sudden brawl hastily retreated.

In his hand was an emergency artifact to call for reinforcements.

“Reinforcements! Call for rein force—! Ugh!”

But a knight who escaped the brawl soon screamed.

In the blink of an eye, his wrist had disappeared.

Elias, who witnessed this, quietly reported to Ephraim.
“…Your Highness didn’t even need to step in.”
“Fine.”

There was no need to use the ‘Ability of Annihilation’.

Ephraim also knew that the Shadows alone were sufficient to suppress things at this level.

But from the moment he heard their vulgar talk, a ringing started in his ears.

Those bastards insulted what’s ours!

After that brief contact with Lillian earlier, his mind was going berserk.

It was a very brief contact.

There was clearly a refreshing feeling of neatly untangling the knotted power within his body.

But that harmless sensation was overwhelmed by a more intense one.

Soft, sticky, tightening muscles to the point of tension…

However, Ephraim’s green eyes began to cloud darkly.

The scent that had been constantly stimulating him had disappeared.

Lillian swallowed dryly.

She didn’t know how fortunate it was that she had struggled not to lose consciousness from the fever.

“Ugh…”

She was clearly looking up at the inside ceiling of the tent.

Doctors and some knights were bustling about…

‘I was attacked.’

At that moment, she barely managed to hold onto the bag she carried like a lifeline.

It was a split-second decision, but a very fortunate one.

And now.

She had only blinked once, but the surroundings had changed in an instant.

‘Where am I now?’

The scenery she had seen just during the meal had completely vanished.

The tree where the trouble started, the campfire lit to boil soup—all gone.

In its place was darkness without a single light.

‘Wait.’

This was an illusion magic used to capture prey.

And the voice coming from behind…!

“Ah, damn, you’re hard to find.”

Cold sweat trickled down Lillian’s back.

No way, this quickly.

“Looks like you find it fun to mess with people, Sister?”
“…”
“Aren’t you going to answer?”

Lillian forced her stiffened neck to turn.

A familiar platinum-haired man was approaching.

She saw a face, twisted with displeasure, like a malicious boy.

“…Ramio.”
“Ha. I wondered what you were thinking, saying you’d obediently go north.”
“…”
“Of course you were planning to run away mid-way.”

Ramio smirked.
“But I’m surprised. To think you, with that brain, hired mercenaries like that?”
“…?”
“How much did you pay? They were quite skilled.”

Mercenaries?

Wondering what he meant, Lillian narrowed her eyes.

‘This punk…! He doesn’t know it’s Prince Ephraim’s group?’

It was too dark all around, and the prince’s group wore black, so that was likely why.

‘Maybe it’s for the best.’

Her tracks could be hidden as long as possible.

And it would also help expose Ramio’s incompetence.

“Alright, let’s stop playing tag. Follow me while I’m in a good mood, Sister.”

Ramio smiled a benign smile.

His appearance, which others praised as being like a dignified knight, shone thanks to that smile.

Lillian had also been fooled by that smile every time.

No, she wanted to be fooled.

Once upon a time… that is, when she was very young.

Because there were times they played together or shared snacks.

Before Ramio decided one day to ‘come to his senses’.

‘Don’t come near me. You’re filthy.’
‘Ramio, why, why are you like this?’
‘Sister, you’re powerless, right. They said it rubs off if I get close to you.’

She didn’t know that cruel rejection already signaled the end of the relationship.

But now Lillian had also abandoned that relationship.

She chuckled dryly, looking at the flesh and blood who still thought she was trembling with fear.

“Why would I… follow you. It’s not like I’ve been shot in the head with an arrow?”
“…What?”
“Didn’t you get it? Is a kid’s eardrum already ruined, making me repeat myself?”

Ramio choked up and raised his voice.
“Did your head go crazy from wandering outside? Come here right now!”
“Why? To take me back and use me as your maid again? Isn’t the reason you ‘came to get me’ now also because your work has piled up?”

Was it just Ramio’s work?

The Young Lord Kuern, and even Iris.

The reason they were praised externally as the ‘perfect Tillard siblings’

Was because inside, Lillian was dying from doing their ‘errands’.

They don’t consider her real family, yet think nothing of using her as the family maid.

Why?

Because she’s the only powerless one in a Controller family.

‘We dressed you up nicely so you wouldn’t tarnish the family honor.’

Broom, clock, tablecloth, candlestick.

And Lillian.

Her role in the family was on the same level as tools.

But the current Lillian sarcastically taunted the frozen Ramio.

“Do you know the Captain of the Imperial Palace Knights? That our youngest knight is an idiot who can’t even handle one document without using his cousin as a maid?”
Ramio’s shoulders trembled slightly.
“Shut up!”
“Well, Grandfather did give quite a lot of sponsorship money, right?”

Clap! Lillian mockingly clapped her hands.

“Aren’t you lucky to be born a Tillard? If you weren’t born into a family where money can fix everything, how on earth would you have lived, huh?”
“Ha!”

Ramio burst out with a laugh like an angry beast.
“No matter what, I wouldn’t live like you, you filthy parasite.”
“That’s hilarious. You also escaped being treated as trash by a hair’s breadth. You know that?”

It was an explosive retort.

However, Lillian was also starting to feel anxious inside.

This ‘magic smoke bomb’ that Ramio often used.

While effective, it naturally had weaknesses.

‘The effect lasts about 5 minutes…!’

She ran her mouth to buy time.

Escaping within this space was meaningless anyway.

Even if she attacked the caster, it was a magic that operated for a set duration, so there was no choice.

‘Only one chance.’

The moment when this magic shows signs of gradually ending.

‘There’s a gap!’

Lillian abruptly pulled out a glass vial she had hidden in her sleeve.

Ramio sneered at first.

“What’s this little thing…!”

But the moment the black powder got into his eyes, a groan burst out from the stinging pain.

It was pepper, a very precious spice from across the border.

Next.