Chapter 8

Meanwhile, Nora brought out an inconspicuous cheap dress and help me to changed my clothes.

I had only two of the largest and smallest bags loaded in the carriage.

“Thank you for accepting all of my demanding requests in the meantime, Miss Nora.”

Nora kindly closed the carriage door directly.

-They say that when the time comes for people to die, they change…

The time for me to die will come in three years, but I’m trying to live.

I laughed in vain.

I took a carriage and went to the downtown area next door a little away, and then changed to another carriage and repeated it.

The third carriage deliberately got off in an alley some distance from the downtown area.

After the carriage left, I checked that no one was around and opened a big bag.

I saw shiny silver hair through the open bag.

“Are you okay? Wasn’t it hard?”

I pulled out Larissa’s face from inside the bag.

Seeing that she couldn’t move properly, she was crouching for a long time, so her body was stiff.

Larissa can barely stand up without my help.

She stretched her legs and raised her body.

As soon as she came out of the bag, she covered her eyes with her hands.

Her little shoulders went up and down sharply.

‘Oh, it must be dazzling.’

After a while, your eyes will adjust slowly.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, so breathe. Inhale, exhale.”

I took a deep breath together while making a sound deliberately from the side.

“This place is safe, in the woods with no one else. Look, it sounds soft and crunchy under your feet, right? Now we are standing on old leaves.”

After about five minutes, Larissa’s breath subsided visibly.

She slowly removed her hand from her eyes.

She was still unable to properly open her eyes, but at least her breath seemed to have calmed down to some extent.

She has been trapped in a narrow bag for hours already from dawn.

In addition, the place where she was hit last night would still be painful, but I couldn’t even hear the sound of any heart, let alone the murmur.

All I can hear are negative thoughts.

In other words, Larissa is neither anxious nor complaining now.

‘Wow, how is this little child…’

What Larissa was wearing was what Marcia wore when he was a child.

It seems that her father didn’t want to waste his money by buying her new clothes for Larissa.

It was good clothes at first, but now it is old and mottled.

In addition to being out of fashion, the sleeves were short, revealing all of her skinny arms.

‘You don’t look like a noble lady at all.’

Thanks to this, it won’t stand out that much.

I took off the bonnet I was wearing and put it on Larissa’s head.

It was a little big for Larissa, who was small in size, so the head fits comfortably and the face is covered.

The visor of the bonnet made a shade on the face.

‘It would be nice to have some sunglasses or something.’

Larissa put her eyes down, stood quietly like a doll, and stood still as I did.

I gave Larissa my bonnet and covered her face with my scarf on her exposed head.

“Can you walk?”

Larissa nodded her head to my question.

I carefully grasped Larissa’s hand.

* * *

As I walked for about an hour, a downtown area appeared.

It was a small city as I checked the map continuously from the carriage.

And from here on, it is the territory of the Grand Duke Laurent. Almost at the end.

If you change the carriage once more, you can go to the railway station heading to Laurent street.

The train was a new invention that was just beginning to spread.

In the corner of the countryside like the estate of Blick Street, the train is a new culture that cannot be found even in dreams.

It takes three days to get to the mansion of the Grand Duke by carriage, but it takes three hours to get on the train.

So my goal was to take the train.

‘But it’s better to fill the stomach first.’

I couldn’t eat anything because I was struggling from dawn. It was the same with Larissa.

Larissa’s complexion, which wasn’t very good though, was getting worse and worse.

Oh, is it difficult to walk by her own feet that had been trapped almost all her life?

I quickly looked around to find a restaurant we could go to.

There is also a way to buy food and eat it in a carriage.

However, I decided to take a rest and eat properly.

I chose the restaurant in the corner.

It was shabby and the signboard was not very conspicuous, so I didn’t even know it was a restaurant at first.

I’m running away, so if I don’t want to be noticed, I should eat somewhere like this, right?

“Let’s fill your stomach first.”

I took the lead and opened the door of the restaurant and went inside.

Holding the door and waiting, Larissa came in, hesitantly.

“Welcome! Please sit anywhere.”

A woman, who looks like a mid-thirty, greeted us with her hands on her apron.

The restaurant was very small. There were only three tables inside, so I had to sit anywhere, but I had only two options.

At the innermost table, two men were sitting and eating.

‘It would have been better if there were no customers at all.’

I quickly turned my head to the other side, pretending not to know, so that I did not make eye contact with other customers even with a side glance.

We left the table in the middle and chose a seat far away from the men.

The table slanted to one side was covered with tablecloths that reached the floor.

The tables are old and even a little mottled. But it’s not the time to complain.

“What do you want to eat?”

As I sat down, I asked Larissa.

There were only two menus on the wooden board on the wall.

Still, I was deliberately trying to add a word to Larissa.

She believed in her older sister whom she rarely met and went away with her.

‘How anxious is her?’

Probably not because she can’t speak.

However, that she had been trapped alone in the basement for a long time, she wouldn’t have much opportunity to talk to anyone, so maybe she couldn’t talk more.

Whether she still hears my question, she sits in a chair without moving, looking down only at the corner of the table.

If left alone, she would look like a doll.

The face that was glimpsed under the bonnet was so pretty, if she changed into something luxurious, I thought it would look like a living doll.

“Then shall I order all of them one by one?”

“……”

“Is there anything you can’t eat?”

“……”

Well… I feel like I’m talking to myself.

The woman who took the order soon disappeared into the kitchen. The kitchen was an open structure, so I could see it from here.

She also seemed to cook herself.

‘Wouldn’t it be nice if you could set up a shop by yourself?’

After I bring Larissa to the Grand Duke, I have to survive alone.

If I sell jewelry and set up a shop, I think it would be nice to have a shop that runs by myself.

With that thought, I continued to talk to Larissa.

“Roasted chicken and potato dish. It will be delicious, right?”

“……”

Larissa still didn’t answer me.

At least you don’t hate chickens because I can’t hear the voice of your heart, right?

“First of all, you have to eat well, so try to eat as much as you can. Oh, I like chicken. I think fried chicken is the most delicious, isn’t it?”

Oh, but has he tried chicken?

It was the nanny who always brought the meals to Larissa.

Until now, Marcia had never been interested in Larissa, so she knew nothing about her diet.

All I remember was that among the double doors in the basement, there was something like a small window under the inner door.

It’s to push the food plate in.

‘Still, I’m sure the diet wasn’t bad.’

At least I want to believe that… Why is this child so dry and small as if she couldn’t get a single piece of bread properly and ate it?

My eyes became hot for no reason.

“It may seem like I’m running out of nowhere, but our final destination is Laurent Dukedom.”

I lowered my voice a little and continued talking.

“There is someone out there who will save you.”