Chapter 85

“There’s a place like this near the castle?”

“Yeah. It turns out this is a cluster of Chiren flowers. Luckily, this is the peak blooming season around this time.”

Chiren flowers have layers of pure white petals and are very popular for ornamental use in the capital.

However, I had never seen them blooming so abundantly, as they only bloom briefly during the transition from autumn to winter.

“Well, I’ll take a look around, so you can enjoy the fresh air alone for a bit.”

As I was lost in admiration of the flowers, Joy quietly stepped away.

Being surrounded by the brightly blooming Chiren flowers under the clear blue sky made my previously heavy heart feel much lighter.

“I’ll just stay like this for a little while.”

I plopped down in the grass, closed my eyes, and savored the gentle breeze that flowed deeply into my lungs.

I don’t know how long I stayed like that.

As I enjoyed the beautiful scenery, a familiar face came to mind.

“I wonder what he’s doing.”

Since he only knows work and training, I guessed he was probably in either the office or the training hall.

As I touched the petals and fell into thought, Evan’s face from yesterday suddenly floated into my mind.

Even while he was spouting harsh words, his contradictory concern about whether I had been crying kept circling in my head, making me click my tongue lightly.

“Either worry about me or push me away; just pick one.”

Looking at his worried expression as he examined my face made me want to spill everything about the curse hanging over me.

But the words just wouldn’t come out.

‘I can’t even guess how he would react to that.’

It wasn’t easy to talk to him about the curse when he kept drawing lines between us.

If he were to respond like yesterday, saying it had nothing to do with him, I felt it would truly break my heart.

“It’s better to keep it a secret for now.”

Above all, if Delos was the one who cast the curse on me, it was a matter directly related to the royal family, so I needed to be cautious.

Just as I was busily organizing my thoughts about future plans, a voice suddenly interrupted the peaceful space.

“She’s really alive? I heard you were dead.”

“Be quiet. Don’t say unnecessary things.”

I was startled and opened my eyes wide to see two men in black clothing standing before me.

“Ah, we’ve been caught.”

“I told you not to say unnecessary things. There’s no bothersome guard, so it would have been easy to kill you.”

Their calm tone resembled a discussion about what to eat for dinner, but the content was the exact opposite.

“W, who are you?”

I jumped to my feet and stepped back hesitantly.

The men, who were watching me retreat cautiously, soon burst into light laughter.

“Do you really think we’ll tell you? A lady… no, a duchess.”

“Why are you still alive?”

As their mocking laughter echoed, my heart began to race violently.

I instinctively knew.

These men in front of me were trying to kill me right now.

‘I have to run.’

As I slowly began to back away, I suddenly turned completely to escape.

“Ah, ugh…!”

“That won’t do. I saw you had a guard with you earlier, so it would be troublesome if we were discovered. Please stay still.”

My attempt to flee was thwarted as one of the assassins immediately covered my mouth and restrained my body.

“We don’t particularly have any ill feelings towards you. Well, what can we do? People like us just follow orders from above.”

With those words, the man pulled a sharp dagger from his waist.

“Ugh…!”

Seeing the clearly pointed blade, my eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.

As the dagger approached my face, I pushed the man away with all my strength.

Thud.

“Now, then…! What the…?”

The man, who had been pushed quite far away by my gesture, looked at me with a bewildered expression.

“Haah, haah. Don’t come any closer.”

I focused my mind on my arms and glared at the men.

Just before the dagger reached my neck, I successfully cast a strength enhancement spell on my arm at maximum power, pushing the man away.

“You just used magic, didn’t you? Was the lady a magician? I’ve never heard of that until now.”

The one watching his surprised comrade muttered in a flustered voice.

It seemed surprising to them that I had used magic in that situation.

Except for a brief period in my childhood when I was the center of attention, I hadn’t thought of using magic at all, so I must have naturally faded from people’s memories.

I could see the expressions of the once-relaxed assassins turning grim.

‘But this is just a temporary trick.’

The time I could maintain the magic was at most one minute.

Could I really escape from them within that time?

Keeping my eyes fixed on the assassins in front of me, I hurriedly racked my brain.

‘Calling Joy would be too risky.’

He was surely nearby, but the assassins would be much quicker to cover my mouth before I could call out Joy’s name.

That left only one option.

Getting as far away from them as possible with all my strength.

As soon as I finished my thought, I turned around and started running away in the opposite direction from the assassins.

“Haha, what’s this? Are we playing tag or something?”

Even while watching me run, the assassins didn’t lose their relaxed smiles.

My desperate escape seemed to them like nothing more than a feeble act of resistance.

But there was something they overlooked.

The reason I had run as far away from the assassins as possible was not just to escape.

“Joy! Where are you?”

I desperately shouted Joy’s name, hoping he was somewhere nearby.

Just a moment ago, I hadn’t called for him because I was too close to the assassins, but at this distance, I could call out several times.

“Damn it, hey! Catch her quickly!”

It was only then that the assassins, realizing the reason I had run, wiped the smiles off their faces and began to chase me closely.

“Joy!”

I ran and ran, calling out Joy’s name at the top of my lungs, hoping my cries would reach him.

Just then.

Swoosh—!

“Ugh!”

As a pain like fire surged through my ankle, I lost my balance and fell headlong.

“Ugh…”

Turning my head down in increasing pain, I saw the hem of my light blue dress stained with something bright red.

“Blood…”

With excruciating agony, crimson blood was flowing incessantly from my ankle.

The moment I saw the chillingly sharp dagger right next to me, I felt a suffocating sensation.

My rational mind was screaming that I needed to pull myself together and run away quickly, but my body had long since lost control.

“Phew, faster than it looks.”

“Let’s finish this quickly. I think she called the guards earlier; we don’t know when they’ll come back.”

The assassins approached me as I lay helplessly on the ground, gasping for breath.

Eventually, one of the assassins picked up the dagger that had fallen to the ground and turned his gaze toward me.

‘No! Move! You have to move!’

Faced once again with the terrifying fear of death that I wanted to forget, my body froze, and I couldn’t take any action.

“Don’t cry so pitifully. It’s just going to make me feel worse.”

Perhaps feeling some pity for my miserable state as I faced death, the assassin scratched his head for a moment and looked down at me.

But soon he shrugged his shoulders and approached me again, dagger in hand.

As the dagger rose high into the air, I tightly shut my eyes.

Swoosh.

“Ugh!”

In an instant, I felt something hot pouring over my head.