Chapter 2.8
“Sir Robert….”
All the blood in her body turned cold. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it earlier.
Once she disappeared, where would the rage of the violent crowd be directed?
Blood from the tips of her fingers dripped onto the dirt floor. Tears fell and soaked the stain.
[What will you do? Should we go now?]
Even Kian, who was always calm, couldn’t hide the urgency in his voice this time.
He was a being who relied on the dark side of human nature.
Sensing the ominous energy spread across the entire city, he appeared in a large, shadowy form and sat in front of Ines.
“…I can’t go alone.”
Ines rubbed her eyes roughly with her palms. The dirt on her hands scratched her soft skin and left small cuts, but she didn’t care.
She pushed herself up with strength in her legs and barely stood.
She couldn’t run away and leave her benefactor behind just to save herself.
If her life was already at risk, it was better spent helping Robert get to safety.
“To the herb shop… Let’s go, Kian.”
Kian didn’t move. The shapeless darkness with indistinguishable features simply stared at her.
As if asking, “Will you not regret this?”
The sound of dozens of people running echoed from the alley.
“…I won’t regret it.”
The last teardrop clinging to Ines’s left eye fell.
The darkness surrounding her melted into the wall’s shadow.
“Did something happen, Sir Robert?”
Ronya, who was looking out the window, tilted her head and glanced back at Robert.
He looked up from tending to Neia’s broken arm.
“Why? Does it seem like something’s wrong?”
“It’s strange. It feels like a lot of people are coming this way…”
The girl repeated her own words silently, and her face turned pale.
“No… don’t tell me. Are they coming to get us?”
It was something Ronya said at least once every day since she and her mother stayed at Robert’s herb shop. Robert just shrugged casually.
“Ay, how many times have I told you that’s not possible? No one knows you two are here except me and that girl…”
But before he could finish speaking, a loud bang echoed from downstairs.
Robert flinched so hard he nearly jumped from his seat.
“W-What the…?”
Ever since Ines had come back after wandering outside recklessly a few days ago, Robert had grown sick of anyone knocking on the herb shop door.
He put down the bandage he was about to wrap around Neia’s arm and stood up.
“Alright, kid, lock the door tight and stay quiet no matter what happens outside. Don’t cry. Got it?”
“S-Sir Robert…”
Neia grabbed his arm with a worried face.
“If it’s the guards again… please just tell them the truth this time. If they find out you’re hiding us, Ines and you will be in trouble…”
“You sure talk a lot for a patient.”
Leaving the worried looks of the mother and daughter behind, Robert stepped out.
He grabbed the wooden cane leaning against the wall and walked toward the door.
“Physician Robert! We know you’re in there! Let’s talk for a moment!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! The knocking grew louder, like it would break down the door.
Robert took off the glasses hanging on the bridge of his nose and set them on a shelf.
“I said I’m coming. These days, people are so impatient…”
Clicking his tongue low, he swung the door wide open.
And was met by the angry stares of dozens of men.
By the time Ines returned to the herb shop, everything was already over.
She looked around in a daze.
The workbench where Robert spent most of his day was snapped in two.
All the jars of herbs she had neatly arranged that morning were shattered and scattered on the floor. Every drawer had been pulled out.
The living room and kitchen behind the herb shop weren’t much different.
Everything was out of place, scattered in a mess.
Ines bit her lip and ran upstairs.
Just a few hours ago, Ronya had been napping in bed, and Neia had recovered enough to sit up — but now both were gone.
“…They were already here.”
There were signs all over the place that the people of Hyran had stormed through.
Standing in the middle of the wrecked room, Ines let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha… Haha…”
Just yesterday, she had thought she could live out her life in this beautiful port city.
She looked once more at what had become ruins of her safe haven, then slowly buried her face in her hands.
“I was foolish to think otherwise…”
It felt like the heavens had confirmed again that there was no place for her here.
The hour before dawn, just before midnight, was the time Kian moved most freely.
Especially in a dark, underground prison — that was his domain.
“So, in the end, they couldn’t find the black-haired woman?”
“Yeah… That old man cared for her for half a year. He must’ve hidden her again. Seriously, that Robert guy… still stubborn no matter how old he gets.”
The guards of Hyran’s prison chatted in low voices.
“But hey, about that news of the failed continental negotiation… Who was the first to bring it to Hyran? Feels kind of off.”
“What do you mean, off?”
“You know… News about the continent always reaches Hyran three steps late. But this time it spread strangely fast.”
“That’s true, but it was urgent news. Even during wartime, we can’t afford to be late…”
Suddenly, the air around them changed.
Their words slowed down, and their eyes lost focus.
The guard on the right dropped a ring of keys from his pocket.
“Well… we should get going.”
“…Yeah.”
They didn’t even know where or why they were going.
As they walked away in a daze, black smoke wrapped around them like a whip.
Once they turned a corner and disappeared completely, Ines stepped out from the shadows.
She picked up the keys from the floor.
It wasn’t hard to find the cell where Robert and the mother and daughter were held.
The underground prison was deadly quiet except for occasional groans and sobs.
“Sir Robert, are you alright…?”
Neia was holding onto the bars, trying to talk to the old man.
There was no reply.
Ines stood silently in the dark, staring into the cold, lifeless cell.
The old man was lying on his side on the hard floor. A metallic smell filled the air.
It was hard to tell whether it came from the bars or the blood splattered on the ground.
Since a few hours ago, she had been finding it hard to breathe.
She gave up trying to breathe evenly and opened the cell door.
“…!”
Neia gasped when she saw her.
“Ines, where have you been…?”
“…I’m sorry I’m late.”
“That’s not what matters now. People are looking for you. You can’t stay here!”
Ines forced a smile as she helped lift Robert.
“It’s alright. I’m not supposed to be anywhere anyway.”
“What do you mean…”
“So it doesn’t matter where I am.”
From beyond the window, black mist slid down the wall like a snake.
Her heart thumped erratically.
Ines looked up at the crescent moon outside the window and whispered weakly:
“Let’s go.”
They had treated the nearly seventy-year-old man so roughly that Robert’s condition was terrible.
His ribs were cracked, and his left ankle was broken.
The bruises on his shoulder showed no sign of fading even after days.
Almost everyone in Hyran knew Robert.
More people came to his herb shop than the public clinic.
So for him to end up like this likely meant he refused to cooperate.
And of course, he hadn’t said a single word about Ines.
At Robert’s bedside, Neia explained the situation hesitantly.
“At first, it was just young men… but when Robert didn’t give in, the kingdom’s army came in.”
“The royal army…”
This wasn’t just mob violence — the government had stepped in.
There was no way out now.
They had to brainwash the doctor just to keep Robert at the medical center.
The same went for the patient in the next room and that patient’s guardian…
The number of people involved kept growing.
How long could they keep running?
Once Kian’s hypnosis on the guards wore off, they would quickly find out that Robert and the mother and daughter were gone.
They couldn’t alter the memories of everyone who knew the truth.
It would be dozens — maybe hundreds — of people.
It was impossible.
In the end, everything was just a temporary fix.
Ines thought desperately.
How could she survive and also keep Robert safe?
But no matter how hard she thought, there seemed to be no way to turn things back to how they were two days ago.
“Ines…”
Ronya timidly approached her.
Her hand, clutching Ines’s skirt, was trembling.
“I’ve been thinking… Maybe it’s best if Mom and I turn ourselves in.”
“…And then what?”
“We’ll stall for time. Just like you did — we’ll lie and say we know where you are. While they’re distracted, you run away with Sir Robert.”
That too was only a temporary fix.
Ines looked down at Ronya’s face.
Finally, she spoke in a dry voice:
“…No.”
