The Reason Why the Forsaken Fake Returned Chapter 143

“Ha…”

 

Did you really not know? Lost for words, Shailoh was dumbfounded by his nonchalant answer. She would have preferred it if he had asked whether she had lost her mind instead. She wanted to have a fight with him, to vent her anger. No, maybe she just wanted to take her frustration out on him.

 

“What are you planning to do? You don’t seriously think these bandits will obediently let both of us go once they receive the ransom, do you?”

 

“Of course not,” Caleb answered calmly, shaking his head. “I have a plan. We’ll escape when the opportunity comes.”

 

“How…”

 

Before Shailoh could press him further, the bandit who had just come to warn the two of them returned and held something out.

 

“What is this?” Shailoh frowned as he placed a bowl on the ground as though feeding a dog.

 

The bandit snickered mockingly. “Is this not to your liking, Lady?”

 

“What is it?”

 

“Soup made with some dried meat and herbs. If you can’t eat it, then don’t.”

 

Seeing as though he was about to take the bowl away again, Shailoh shook her head. “No. I’ll eat it gratefully. But I would appreciate it if you could untie my hands.”

 

“Why would I?”

 

“So I can eat.” She spoke calmly, then drove the point home. “Or are you going to feed me? Though I’ve never received that level of service before.”

 

“…Tch.” Apparently, he had no intention of doing that. Scratching the back of his head, the bandit threatened her. “I told you before, but if you try anything funny, I’ll cut you down.”

 

“Yes.”

 

At her obedient response, the bandit hesitated slightly. It was a different reaction from the nobles he knew. Normally, wouldn’t they throw a fit, shouting about why they were being given something like pig slop, and overturn the plate? If that happened, he had intended to use it as an excuse to stop giving them meals altogether. From the beginning, he had protested to the leader about why they should feed hostages like these at all, but his objection had not been accepted. At least, his suggestion that they give only enough food for one person instead of two had been accepted.

 

“Well, her feet are tied… and she’s a woman, so it should be fine.” The bandit sighed and muttered as he finally slowly untied the rope binding Shailoh’s hands.

 

As soon as the rope, which had been tied so tightly that it had cut off the circulation, was loosened, Shailoh felt relieved as though she had already regained her freedom. She stretched long and hard. After rotating her stiff wrists, they felt much better than before.

 

“Well, eat it yourself.” The bandit spat the words coldly, then turned and returned to the campfire where his companions waited.

 

Shailoh picked up the crude spoon, scooped up some soup, and brought it not to her own mouth, but to Caleb’s. “Open your mouth.”

 

“That’s something I’d like to hear in a different situation.”

 

“It’s not the time for jokes.”

 

At her sly remark, a helpless chuckle escaped him. Just now as well, Caleb seemed to be trying to loosen the atmosphere even a little in this serious situation. Because if he did that, she would be a little less tense and a little less afraid. Though she did not want to know, the time she had spent with him had inevitably taught her to read his intentions.

 

“Hurry and open your mouth. Your hands are tied, so you can’t eat.”

 

“I’m fine. You eat it all.” Caleb refused and turned to sit facing the opposite direction.

 

At that, Shailoh quietly looked down at the bowl she held in one hand. Indeed, there was barely enough soup for one person. There was too little for the two of them to share, so he was trying to give it all to her. “Suit yourself, then.”

 

After a moment’s hesitation, Shailoh withdrew the spoon she had held out and took a bite of the soup herself. Aside from the tough dried meat sticking to her teeth, it tasted better than she expected. It was more than enough for a meal to get her by. After deliberately taking two more spoonfuls so he could see, she provoked him.

 

“You act as though you really have a plan, but it was a lie after all.”

 

“…”

 

“You just said it to reassure me, didn’t you? They’ll drag us into the mountains and kill us both. And since I’m a woman… I might suffer even greater humiliation y—”

 

“Sasha.” Perhaps unable to bear hearing the rest, Caleb abruptly turned his head and cut her off. “What I said is true. We’ll escape safely, and you won’t get so much as a hair hurt.”

 

“Then give me a reason to believe you.”

 

“What?”

 

“Eat.” Shailoh ordered, holding the spoon before his mouth. “You’re my escort right now, aren’t you? How are you going to save me if you don’t have any strength?”

 

“…”

 

It was a reasonable argument.

 

Frowning, Caleb hesitated, then finally gave in. “I’m not going to eat all of it.”

 

“I’ve already eaten half.”

 

Soon, Shailoh fed Caleb the soup after he opened his mouth. For some reason, watching his throat bob as he swallowed the soup she gave him gave her a strange sensation. It was as though a wolf bound by a leash had been tamed by its master and obediently accepted the food he offered.

 

It was the moment she was withdrawing her hand after feeding him the very last bite.

 

“…!” A soft, wet sensation licked Shailoh’s finger. Startled by the familiar feeling she had experienced once before, she instinctively rose, only to catch herself on the shackles connecting her feet and awkwardly collapse back down. “A-Are you crazy?”

 

“There was some on your finger. It would’ve been a waste.” Caleb shamelessly answered, then grinned. “That was good. If every meal is going to be like this, I think I could even eat sewage.”

 

“…Shut up before I actually make you eat sewage.” Shailoh’s face burned hot. She turned her head to hide her flushed cheeks.

 

“Sasha.” Caleb called her softly and asked in a quiet voice, “Do you remember the last time we talked like this, without any walls between us?”

 

“…” Shailoh didn’t answer, but she quietly wondered whether there had ever been such a time. There had. It had been a very long time ago.

 

“After you learned my true identity, you always put up a wall between us. You always said you loved me, but it was as though you kept in mind that someday we would part.”

 

“That’s…!” She instinctively responded, but after looking back and turning it over in her mind, perhaps that really had been true.

 

Shailoh knew that Caleb was a man she could never dare to reach for. Even when he confessed that he loved her and she had felt as though she were floating weightlessly through the air, that strange distance between them had never disappeared. She had always wanted them to be together forever, but perhaps the cold part of her mind had known deep down that, no matter the circumstances, the two of them would eventually have no choice but to part.

 

“I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying that’s how it was.”

 

“…”

 

Instead of answering, Shailoh closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. Seeing that, Caleb didn’t push the conversation any further.

 

As time passed, the bandits spread out their sleeping bags one by one and began to sleep as well. Just as Shailoh was on the verge of falling asleep, his faint murmur reached her ears and cut across her heart as thinly as a blade.

 

“…After that, I was lonely. For a very long time. And even now.”

 

* * *

Around midnight the following day, the bandits who had taken Shailoh and Caleb hostage finally reached their base, the Alkadara Mountains. Thanks to the horses, which had rested and been fed and watered throughout the day, they galloped at an almost unbelievable speed.

 

On the swaying saddle, Shailoh spent the entire journey feeling so nauseous that she thought she was going to die. Just as the words ‘I’d rather walk, even if my legs hurt’ rose all the way to her throat, Kurd, who had been leading the group, slowed down and brought his horse to a stop.

 

“We don’t need the horses anymore. Take them to an inn some distance away and sell them.”

 

“Understood.”

 

As soon as everyone dismounted, one of the men took hold of all the reins and headed somewhere. Shailoh glanced at his retreating back and figured out the direction he was going. If there was an inn over there, that meant there must be a village nearby. If there were people, then she could hope for help if she managed to escape.

 

“What are you doing? Waiting for someone to carry you?”

 

While Shailoh carefully thought through her plans for what came next, Kurd frowned and yanked on the shackles binding her hands. Dragged along by the force of his pull, Shailoh objected. “I heard that mountains are usually rugged and full of wild animals. What if something happens to me while I’m taken there with my hands tied like this?”

 

At least there was one fortunate thing: the shackles connecting one of her ankles to one of Caleb’s had been removed as soon as morning came. Presumably because they would have hindered their movement.

 

“You don’t have to worry about that, Lady. We can run around these mountains even with our eyes closed.” Kurd laughed as though he had heard an absurd joke and replied lightly. But he quickly wiped the smile from his face and warned her. “But humans who know nothing about them often lose their footing and leave this world in no time.”

 

“…” Swallowing dryly, Shailoh looked up at the mountains. The mountain, densely packed with towering trees, looked so high and rugged that she could not even see its end.

 

“So you’d better not even think about running away.” Reading the fear in her eyes, Kurd sneered, then immediately set off toward the entrance of the mountain range.