CH 9

I had really given up everything. I was in such a tight spot that I couldn’t even do anything to try to live longer.

Kwang!

If I could survive this situation, I thought it would be because of the old woman.

[There’s no other vessel that could hold me!]

It’s her words that I have heard so many times. I think I secretly believed that the old woman wouldn’t let me die.

“Cough, cough!”

But it wasn’t my grandmother who saved me from death.

“Grand… Grand Duke…. Cough!”

It was Denver Noctis.

The dagger, which was about to stab me in the neck, rolled on the floor before I knew it. The hands on my collar lost their grip.

“Heok, heuk…….”

“Are you hurt?”

In front of me was a wide, solid back. Even though a ruthless man held me hostage just awhile ago

I don’t know why but I was so happy. Enough to cry at that moment.

“I… I’m fine.”

When I stammered and tried to speak to the end to reassure the Grand Duke, I realized I was definitely relieved that he saved me.

“I don’t know if you have two lives. How dare you try to assassinate someone in Perus Castle?”

There was a ferocious look in his low scratching voice. The assassin was completely overpowered by the Grand Duke.

“Your master is getting bolder.”

“Kuheuk…”

The Grand Duke, who was much taller, raised the assassin at his eye level. As soon as I saw the assassin struggling, unable to breathe, he collapsed.

“You hid well like a rat.”

“Let go, let go!”

“How will I kill you?”

A murderous aura enveloped the room. If it could be described with a color, it would black. Yeah, it would be that.

“Do you want me to rip off your limbs?”

An unknown chill touched my skin. The struggle of the assassin grew stronger.

“Do you want me to cut your head off?”

At the dreary voice of the Grand Duke, the assassin trembled. It was not until the eyes of the victim, who could not breathe, turned white that the Grand Duke let him go.

“I’d better take your breath away for sure.”

Without hesitation, he pulled out the sword from his waist.

It was a large and sharp sword that appeared with a sharp metallic sound that was incomparable to a decorative sword.

“Don’t kill him.”

I couldn’t let him do it even if I get laughed at for showing mercy in a stupid way.

“Are you scared? I’ll deal with it where you don’t see it.”

“It’s not like that.”

The Grand Duke has his back still turned from me. His sword was still directed at the assassin lying on the floor.

The assassin who regained his breath came to his senses with a wheezing cough.

“……kill me. I will not say anything.”

“Hah.”

The Grand Duke gave a chilling sneer. The pressure he emitted made even the following knights falter.

I could truly understand why Denver Noctis was described as a powerful character in the novel.

“Don’t kill him, put him in jail.”

“He was the one who dared to assassinate my wife. I can’t do that.”

He flatly rejected my offer.

“I’m not trying to be merciful.”

I’m not a broad-minded person enough to be generous to the man who tried to end my life.

But what’s the point of killing a person who’s prepared to die?

It would be more profitable to pay him back the fear and loss I experienced.

“Do you remember what I said a while ago?”

“…shut up, shall I believe in the words of a cursed b*tch?”

“Watch your mouth.”

As the Great Duke spoke, the assassin groaned and a scratch appeared on the neck of the assassin.

“You’ll be locked up as you watch your sister die.”

“Shut up!”

“If your sister has a sin, it’s the crime of having someone like you as an older brother.”

Born with lowly blood, trampled down and killed by people who are in the same position.

The crime of having a brother like you who brutally butchered those who begged for their lives.

“Lock up the assassin and find ‘Izanne’ in the western slum village.”

“You must know something.”

The Grand Duke said so and took the sword he had aimed at the assassin.

“Izanne…… how did you know her name……!”

“I told you.”

There’s something I decided after I almost died from the arrow.

“You’ll regret it.”

The determination not to be easy on others

***

“Everything she said was true.”

A place so shabby that it’s embarrassing to call a house

The place piled up roughly with bricks was full of spider webs and smelled musty.

Despite the cold weather, there was no blanket to keep the body warm. Only a few dirty pieces of cloth were rolling around.

“What’s your name?”

In such a small, poor house, there was a girl shivering and looking up at the men with frightened eyes.

“Who are you?”

The girl, who was wearing worn out clothes, had a lot of dark bruises on her body.

“Do you know Hardin?”

When the girl heard the name Hardin, she immediately shed tears.

Did she eat properly?

The girl who crawled slowly grabbed Denver’s pants.

“Do you know my brother?”

Everything Flotty said was true.

The name of the assassin sent by the empress is Hardin. His only family is Izanne. A brother who doesn’t mind killing for his younger sister.

Hardin, who cried out Izanne’s name and told him not to touch the child while being imprisoned, came to mind.

“Let’s go together.”

What did this young and fragile girl do wrong?

As she said, it’s a sin to have such a sinful brother.

When Izanne heard her brother’s name, she followed Denver without hesitation.

“Did Brother Hardin die?”

The question “Did he die?” from a young girl was not easy to come up with.

This means that children in the slums are always close to death.

“He’s not dead.”

“Then my brother is becoming a knight, right?”

The girl’s watery eyes were young. What kind of promise did Hardin make to her?

If she waits, he’ll become a knight and come back for her?

Denver bit his lips as he saw the girl barely tall enough to reach his waist.

He was a permanent resident of his own territory, even though it’s in the outskirts.

Choosing Hardin, who knows the terrain of Perus, and raising him as an assassin is the empress’ goal.

“Get in the carriage.”

She held a knight’s hand without any doubt, as she left her shabby house. Denver swept his hair roughly.

“Harton.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“What happened to the purchase of the house?”

“The mansion closest to the palace belonged to the Marquis of Heli. Sooner or later, the transaction will be done.”

“Get ready to move as soon as it is done.”

“Yes.”

Denver gritted his teeth and as his anger for the empress who  controlled the palace arbitrarily intensified.

“His Highness the Crown Prince is so weak…”

The thought of her covering her face with a lace-decorated fan and laughing at him to the fullest was disgusting enough to upset his stomach.

Entry Noctis who smiles sweetly without saying anything while looking at such a woman.

Denver’s older brother and Crown Prince of the Olan Empire, he was too nice.

“Let’s go.”

He will be crushed with just one gesture of the empress.

***

“I, Izanne!”

“Brother Hardin!”

The tearful reunion between the two siblings was beyond sad.

The scene where a small child reaches through the bars and touches her brother as if she will faint in a flick of a hand.

[Pitiful thing.]

Even the old lady turned her back on the view.

Hardin, who was acting as if he was without blood or tears, changed as soon as he saw Izanne running.

“Why are you so skinny, Izanne?”

“What’s going on, brother? Why are you here?”

As expected, there were many bruises on the arm of the crying child. It is not just in her arms. I’m sure she’s got bruises all over her body.

“Well, that’s it for the reunion.”

“……how did you find Izanne?”

“You don’t have to know. You won’t believe me if I tell you.”

“…….”

“Because I’m a cursed woman.”

My words were so cold that I was surprised at how cruel I could be.

I had no choice but to do so when I saw Izanne sitting on the cold floor while holding her chest.

“Please, please, please. Izanne is innocent.”

“Hmm.”

“You just have to kill me.”

Hardin said imploringly with dark sunken chestnut eyes.

“I never said what I would do with you.”

“Bevenia!”

An angry cry resounded through the cellar.

At this point, the victim looked more like the assassin, not me.

I’m the one who almost died.

“Not Bevenia, but Flotty Noctis.”

“……what?”

“That was our first night.”

Hardin looked up at me with empty eyes when he found out that I was married, which is not yet known to the public.

“Yes, I wasn’t taken hostage, I became his wife.”

“No way…….”

The empress would never have dreamed that Grand Duke Noctis would marry me.

That’s why she thought she could kill the stupid daughter of the Duke of Bevenia who participated in treason.

“Izanne, don’t you cough often and vomit blood these days?”

I asked Izanne, who was lying next to me.

Poorly thin, she looked surprised as if asking how I knew.

“You have no energy, and you fall asleep all the time. It’s hard to eat.”

“How did you know that?”

“Because you’re sick.”

Hardin, who was listening to our conversation right in front of the prison, looked at his sister with a desperate face.

“Izanne, are you sure? Are you really sick?”

“B, brother…

It was Izanne who was sick and all alone as she waited for her brother who didn’t come.

“Cough!”

As if to prove what I’m saying, Izanne began to cough, pouring deep blood.

“Please, please just call a doctor. Help her!”

“Listen carefully.”

I am not cruel enough to kill an innocent girl without treating her.

I am just a normal woman living in the 21st century, with the ability to see ghosts.

Still, I realized that in order to survive in a place different from the modern times, I had to abandon my mediocrity.

“Izanne is poisoned by ‘Nat’ from cheap bricks.”

“……Nat?”

“It is a disease that occurs frequently in poor families, but doctors do not know how to cure it. Do you know why?”

“…….”

“They don’t know that Nat can cause this disease if it accumulates in the body for a long time.”

“A disease?”

“It’s a fact that no one in the empire knows.”

I could tell, thanks to the old lady’s ability, that a substance called Nat exists in this world.

It is the setting in the book created by the author. Is it similar to lead poisoning in modern times?

Originally, Izanne would have vomited blood waiting for Hardin, who was already dead, and died in the end.

“In exchange for me curing Izanne.”

I’m going to change their shallow fate.

“Serve me as your master.”

A faithful dog who listens to my commands and moves only for me.

Hardin will never betray me as long as I hold on to Izanne.

I needed hands and feet to secretly observe and grasp the situation.

“What nonsense is that……!”

“Cough!”

Hardin, who was about to protest, stopped when he saw a lump of blood rolling out of Izanne’s mouth.

“I promise, if you swear your allegiance to me, Izanne will not die.”

Hardin hesitated.

“The longer you think about it, the more serious your sister’s illness is going to be.”

His eyes shook as Izanne vomited blood.

In the end, Hardin knelt in front of me with a look of defeat.

“To the noble Grand Duchess… I swear my allegiance.”

“That’s a good choice.”

I now have a faithful hound.