Chapter 52
I ran like crazy.
I didn’t even know where I was going. I could only think that I had to get as far away from the young lady as possible.
Tap, tap-tap!
Before long, the footsteps chasing after me increased in number.
I’d been discovered by the masked men.
If this had happened before, I would have been horrified, but now I even felt glad. It meant that I had been discovered before the young lady.
‘I have to hold out as long as possible. As long as possible.’
I gritted my teeth and moved my legs with every ounce of strength I had.
Surprisingly, I wasn’t caught easily.
I was so surprised by my own talent that I wondered if I’d always had it. I kept escaping by a hair’s breadth, cleverly evading them by rolling down hills or hiding inside holes at critical moments. And the more I evaded them, the longer I ran, the more hope grew inside me.
‘Maybe this will work.’
Perhaps I could escape safely. If I bought enough time for the young lady to get down the mountain, then hid myself and waited for an opportunity… If we could both safely get out of this place…
‘I’ll be able to see her again soon!’
With hope rising inside me, strangely enough, I wasn’t even tired.
It felt as though I had become numb to everything. I didn’t feel fear or dread anymore. I simply ran forward as if possessed, staring straight ahead.
Then I saw light.
Light was leaking through the densely packed trees.
I instinctively headed toward it. That had to be the path. The only path that could keep me alive. The path that could get me out of this situation.
If I reach that place now…!
Thud!
I threw myself toward the light. Then I raised my head and froze.
“Huh…?”
There was nothing there.
No trees. No buildings. Nothing. In the distance, I could see only a vast landscape and clouds spread faintly across the sky.
It was a cliff.
‘Why?’
Cold sweat ran down my back. At the same time, several footsteps sounded immediately behind me.
I held my breath and turned around. The masked men were there.
The very men who had been fretting because they couldn’t catch even one little brat had somehow gathered in one place, as though they’d known exactly where I’d come.
As though they’d been waiting for me to come here…
‘I’ve been tricked.’
Only then did I realize they hadn’t failed to catch me.
They had deliberately let me go.
So that their prey would walk into the trap of its own accord. So that I would reach the place they wanted me to reach.
In the end, I’d fallen right into their trap, just as they intended.
As my heart turned cold, a sinister voice came from them.
“Did you enjoy your little stroll?”
“……”
I firmly kept my mouth shut.
Surely they hadn’t figured out that I wasn’t the young lady, too?
“Heh heh. Watching you run for your life without even knowing where you were going was quite entertaining.”
“……”
“Miss Xiao, surrender quietly. If you obediently come with us, we’ll at least spare your life. But if you resist… you may get to see something even more interesting.”
‘They haven’t figured it out yet.’
Although I heard the ominous threat, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they didn’t know that I wasn’t the young lady. More importantly, they didn’t seem to have any intention of killing the young lady.
I had no idea what their ulterior motive was, but that was actually good news for me. If they’d tried to kill me immediately, I would’ve been completely helpless. But now, I had an opportunity to look for an opening.
I couldn’t let this opportunity go to waste. I raised my hands.
“……”
When I raised both hands to show that I had no intention of resisting, the masked men began approaching me one by one.
I calmly watched them.
I only had one chance.
Just a little closer. If they came just a little closer…
One step.
When they had come closer…
‘Now!’
Whoosh!
I rolled across the ground.
I rolled straight between the legs of the nearest masked man. Just like the <One Move to Save Your Life> I’d attempted before, I passed between his legs and came out behind him.
Apparently, they had never imagined that a young lady from a prestigious family would do something like that, because they were thrown into confusion. While they were flustered, I passed between the legs of another masked man. Only then did one of them shout loudly.
“Legs! Bring your legs together!”
A group of burly men all clamping their legs together and standing knock-kneed would have been quite a spectacle, but I couldn’t bring myself to laugh.
The masked man I’d just passed suddenly turned around to grab me.
I kicked out with all my strength, striking the back of the masked man’s knee. Then, using the recoil, I rolled forward and dodged the hand that had just reached out to catch me.
And so I rolled, dodged, ran, fell over. I moved my body as desperately as I could.
But my stroke of luck didn’t last long.
Thud!
“Ugh…!”
Eventually, someone kicked me in the back.
They must have put quite a bit of strength into it, because I rolled across the ground several times. Although I’d been thrown farther away from the masked men, just as I’d wanted, for some reason I couldn’t get back up.
My vision flickered between black and white. When I finally regained consciousness, a masked man was standing in front of me.
I had a feeling.
‘Is this as far as I go?’
And then, just as a hand as large as a cauldron lid was descending toward me…
Clang!
“Who are you?!”
Someone sprang out from behind me.
The man swung his sword at the masked man, who hurriedly blocked the attack and stepped backward.
The man turned around and asked,
“Are you all right?!”
I was about to answer, but my eyes widened.
‘Who are you?’
I didn’t recognize his face.
At first, I thought he might be Brother Im or one of the guards from the Xiao Family Manor, but he was someone I’d never seen before.
Or was he?
His face was definitely unfamiliar, yet somehow I felt as though I’d seen him somewhere before…
But I didn’t have time to think about it. Several people rushed in from behind the man.
“Protect the young lady!”
“You bastards, I won’t let you off!”
“Don’t let a single one of them escape! Capture them all!”
I had no idea where they’d come from, but each of them was carrying a weapon and began attacking the masked men.
In an instant, the surroundings became a chaotic mess of clashing weapons and screams.
While I sat dazed on the ground, someone approached me.
“Are you all right?”
It was the very man who had jumped out first.
Before I could answer, he continued.
“I’m sorry we’re late. We should have helped you sooner, but we were delayed dealing with the Demonic Cult bastards at the manor. The Manor Lord…?”
“……”
“I see. I’m truly ashamed. The Young Family Head repeatedly instructed us to protect the Manor Lord and his family members at all costs, yet we failed to carry out that order. It is truly lamentable…”
“The Young Family Head?”
At my mutter, the man immediately answered.
“The Young Family Head of the Namgung Family, the Thunder Sword Hero, Namgung Jeong.”
The Thunder Sword, Namgung Jeong.
At the same time, I remembered where I’d seen him.
Before leaving for the Namgung Family, the Manor Lord had increased the number of guards at the manor. To prepare for any unforeseen circumstances, he’d hired escort guards recommended by Namgung Jeong.
I’d probably seen him then. Not often, but I’d run into him once in a while when passing by. They all had such fierce auras that I’d always avoided them at first.
Only then did I feel relieved, though I also felt a little resentful.
‘Why only now?’
Why hadn’t they come sooner?
Before the Manor Lord died. No, better yet, before that. If only they’d arrived before we entered the secret passage, how wonderful would that have been?
But what could we do about something that had already happened? They said they’d been fighting the Demonic Cult as well…
I forced myself to calm down and raised my head. The surroundings had more or less been dealt with. Some people were lying on the ground, while others seemed to have fled and were nowhere to be seen.
Just then, the man held out his hand toward me.
“Let us go together. I’ll escort you.”
Only then did I speak.
“I… I’m not the young lady.”
“What?”
I went ahead and lowered the dubong hat and removed the veil.
The man widened his eyes when he saw my face.
“The truth is…”
But I couldn’t continue. For an instant, the man’s expression turned grim.
‘Huh?’
Just as my own eyes widened, that unfamiliar expression disappeared in an instant. Before I knew it, the man had returned to his smiling expression.
The man’s calm voice reached me.
“I see. Then who are you?”
“Ah, I, I’m a servant who serves the young lady. Somehow, I ended up following her all the way here…”
“Right, I did hear that she had a servant. But why were you running around dressed like that? And where is the young lady?”
“The young lady is…”
At that moment, I had a strange premonition.
A feeling that, for some reason, I shouldn’t tell him the truth here.
An intense feeling that I shouldn’t ignore the expression I’d seen for that brief moment.
“I… don’t know either.”
“What?”
“It’s just that we were definitely running away together until we reached about halfway up the mountain. But then the young lady suddenly grabbed me and threatened to beat me if I didn’t exchange clothes with her…”
‘I’m sorry, my lady.’
I’d ended up speaking badly about the young lady, but I couldn’t help it. I thought it would be better to make something up for now and see how the situation developed.
And considering the young lady’s reputation as a villainess, it wasn’t exactly an unbelievable story, either.
As expected, the man looked at me with an uncertain expression before asking again.
“Then do you know where the young lady went?”
“That… the young lady left me behind and went alone, so I don’t really…”
“Did she say where she was going?”
“That too, I don’t really…”
“Then you’re useless, aren’t you?”
What?
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