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Chapter 62
The First Life, One Rainy Day
It was their first life, on a rainy day.
The rain poured down. The downpour was so fierce she could barely see ahead. It was the kind of savage storm that would drive even the hunters of the forest to stay home by the fire.
A woman ran through that rain. Beneath the ashen sky, her golden hair, like strands of light, clung wetly to her face. The hood of her cloak, meant to shield her from the rain, had long since been torn off. Her drenched dress dragged heavily, and the shoes unfit for climbing had already slipped off her feet.
The rain-slick stones were dangerously slippery. She stumbled again and again. At times, sharp rocks cut into her bare feet, but she paid it no mind. Soon blood flowed from her soles. That was how desperate she was.
An inescapable despair chased at her back. At this moment, Diana Brienne was more desperate than ever.
Queen? Queen, they say? They must be mad!
Guiscard was mad. No, he was a monster. How could he even think of marrying her…? To marry her after killing her father and brother?!
Now, there was no house left to protect her. If she reached the Lodbrok royal palace, she would be forced into marriage.
His wife, after he had taken everything from her…? How could she bear to look at his face every day? The future promised nothing but shared madness. The rain soaked her through, draining her body heat. Her vision blurred. A woman who had never once left the capital, trying to climb a mountain in a dress—it was impossible from the start.
When Diana realized that Guiscard intended to marry her, she had decided to flee. The route from Fanborough to Lodbrok went around the Abyssal Forest, making it long. Seizing the chance when guards were lax in the deep hours of the night, she had barely succeeded in escaping.
But she had overlooked where she had fled to—the Abyssal Forest. A feeble woman made the perfect plaything for monsters.
The first to appear was a furry creature rolling toward her. Diana thought, absurdly, that it looked ridiculously cute for the situation.
But as more and more of them appeared, she felt a creeping dread. She turned to flee in the opposite direction. The moment she glanced back—
“Kyaaaah!”
Monsters with gaping crimson mouths began to chase her. She must not be caught. If they caught her, they’d rip out her throat. These were Lepus, monsters swift in pursuit of prey. Their speed was terrifyingly fast, while hers was pathetically slow.
At last, as they closed in on her, she squeezed her eyes shut. This was the end. Those small creatures would tear the flesh from her bone, piece by piece. To die at the hands of monsters—she only wished it wouldn’t hurt too much. Accepting death, her body strangely relaxed.
“Open your eyes.”
A cold voice. With its heavy resonance and the anger laced within, it felt as though she had fallen into hell.
“Diana.”
A voice almost gentle. Like a wolf whispering sweetly to a girl before devouring her. Diana kept her eyes tightly shut, her head bowed.
“Must I open them for you myself, my lady?”
A rough thumb brushed against her eyelid. The reek of blood on his hand filled her senses. Sickened by the stench, Diana had no choice but to open her eyes.
“Ah—ahhh!”
Before her stood Guiscard, like a black reaper. Behind him, knights followed, finding Diana collapsed upon the ground. They were knights of the Lodbrok kingdom. It was as though she were trapped in a nightmare with no end.
“Let go, let me go, let me go!”
She screamed, but the firm arm around her waist refused to release her. On that rainy day, the desperate woman wailed, but her cries were nothing more than grating noise.
Exhausted, Diana fainted.
“What on earth does she think she’s done?”
One knight gnashed his teeth. Rage burned in his eyes. Because of this affair, a maid, a young knight, and Rogafl had been executed. The boy had been a good-natured novice, the youngest among them, like a little brother.
The knights looked at the maddened woman with savage expressions. Not only had they suffered hardship after hardship, but because of her reckless flight, they had lost a beloved comrade.
The shameless daughter of the Brienne Duke, who had insulted the king, dared to attempt escape? Already exhausted from dealing with the king’s fury, which bordered on madness, and mourning Rogafl’s death, the knights cursed Diana. None even offered to carry her.
“Silence.”
Through the roar of the rain came a voice heavy with restrained fury. The knights shuddered.
“Your Majesty… this woman—”
One knight could not hold back his anger and spoke. Guiscard’s glare fell on him. The sharp killing intent seemed enough to pierce flesh. If he said more, he would meet the same fate as Rogafl.
Drip, drip. The woman was utterly soaked, her appearance a ruin. Her pale face gleamed white.
Guiscard looked down at the limp woman in his arms. Her bluish lips exhaled fragile breaths. Left like this, she would die.
She will die, this woman.
Without realizing it, he pressed his own cheek against hers, though he knew his heat could never warm her ice-cold body.
“Fetch the physician.”
He would not grant her mercy through death.
Bending his massive frame like a beast, he held her tightly in his arms. Whether it was to shield her from death’s grasp, to warm her chilled body, or to protect her from the pouring rain, he did not know.
When she opened her eyes, it was raining. Diana closed them again. Bandages wrapped around her neck.
“I really survived.”
She had thought the wound might kill her. Slowly blinking, she listened to the raindrops tapping against the window.
“It was raining then, too.”
Even on the road to the kingdom when Guiscard dragged her away, it had rained like this. Diana thought to herself:
Where am I?
She turned her head. A strange ceiling. The sound of hooves and the tremor beneath her. Then she realized she was lying in a carriage.
“You are awake?”
A soft voice made her look up. A boy stood there. She narrowed her eyes. A knight—one she remembered from her previous life.
“Exactly the same.”
She remembered him well, for he had been so young. He was the knight assigned to watch over her. When she tried to move, he rushed forward.
“Ah, please don’t move!”
“….”
“It’s a relief you’ve awakened.”
The boy knight helped her sit. The carriage was astonishingly luxurious, large enough to lie down in. Yes, it was like that before too. As if to flaunt her, Guiscard had placed her in such a splendid carriage.
“Are you in pain—?”
“No.”
Diana’s gaze dimmed, lifeless. They said fate’s grand framework would not change—and damn it, here she was again.
“So filthy.”
She ground her teeth.
She had thought things might change, at least a little, for the better. But nothing had. It had only grown worse. Should she try running again? She probably could. She looked at the knight watching her anxiously.
“Filthy, you say? Shall I have the sheets replaced?”
Truly, he might have been a skilled swordsman, but he was terribly naïve. She remembered that in her first life, he had believed her when she said she needed the restroom. But…
Diana sighed.
Escape was impossible anyway.
“I shall summon His Majesty.”
“No.”
The boy flinched at her refusal.
“Forget it. I’ll have to see him sooner or later, whether I want to or not.”
If fate was inevitable, then perhaps it was better not to resist. Diana decided to do nothing.
After some time, the carriage stopped.
The door creaked open carefully, then abruptly flung wide. Diana did not look toward it.
“I told you to report when she awoke.”
“The lady did not wish it.”
She felt the sting of his sharp gaze on the back of her head, but she tried to ignore it.
“My lady.”
His voice was like a knock at the door. Deep, low, resonant.
“My lady.”
“….”
“Look at me, my lady.”
The pressure in his voice bore down on her. In that tense silence, another voice suddenly chimed in.
“Your Majesty, the lady says she finds the sheets dirty and distasteful.”
“….”
“She said it was filthy.”
Diana’s eyes widened as she turned toward him. The boy knight looked utterly carefree.
And that wasn’t even what she had meant. What she had called filthy was her life itself—yet now she seemed like someone complaining about carriage linens. Diana opened her mouth.
“That’s not what I meant, I—”
But then her gaze met gleaming violet eyes.
“I will order the sheets changed.”
Instead of anger, Guiscard retreated smoothly. Diana turned to the knight beside her. His face seemed to say, I did well, didn’t I? She found herself at a loss for words.
