Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Isabella’s first tactic was none other than to act cute.

“Mom~! I saw so many pretty flowers on the way here, so I made you a bouquet!”

“Oh my! How lovely! You made this yourself?”

“Yes! I put cineraria in the center and mixed in some lyreflowers here and there. Look, doesn’t it look like a heart? I picked them while thinking of you!”

With a playful wink and a bright smile, Isabella pointed to the heart-shaped bleeding hearts. Tears welled up in Hilda’s eyes.

“My sweet daughter, thinking of her mother like this! I’m so touched!”

“Of course! You know how much I love you, right?”

Isabella nodded enthusiastically at the unexpectedly positive reaction. But she quickly realized it had been a misunderstanding.

“I love you very much too, dear. Which is exactly why I cannot allow you to go to the capital.”

“Huh? Mom?”

“I’m only doing this for your own good. Please, my lovely daughter, just this once. Try to understand how I feel.”

Her attempt at persuasion had backfired. And so, Isabella’s charm offensive ended in failure. But she wasn’t one to give up easily.

She spent a whole day moping around to evoke sympathy, even tried throwing tantrums, rolling on the floor and making a scene, hoping the sheer hassle might get her what she wanted.

Unfortunately, to Hilda, all of it came across as nothing more than harmless pouting. It had no effect.

There was, however, one tactic that worked slightly better than the rest.

The silent treatment and hunger strike.

But even that lasted less than two days before it came crashing down, thanks to Isabella’s insatiable appetite.

Baal, who had been silently observing the entire ordeal, let out a long sigh as he spread jam on a warm piece of bread and handed it to her.

“Sigh… Why didn’t you just stick with the silent treatment, huh? Going on a hunger strike you couldn’t even last through, and now you’re suffering for nothi-iing.”

With her cheeks stuffed full of bread, Isabella averted her gaze and mumbled through her food.

“Thish time… I mighta been a bit too rash…”

She had learned the hard way that the only one who truly suffers from a hunger strike is yourself.

Shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe her, Baal looked worriedly out the window.

“So what’s the plan now, milady-y? Thanks to all your sneaking around, Lady Hilda’s gone and locked down the front gate-ey.”

“Gulp! Yeah, I know…”

Isabella followed Baal’s gaze and stared out with a heavy heart.

There, blocking the front gate, was a massive golem, easily the size of a five-story building, sitting firm and unmoving. Its imposing frame spoke volumes of Hilda’s unyielding determination.

“Haaah…”

Isabella let out a deep sigh of frustration, then murmured to herself like someone under a spell.

“Looks like I’ll have to use that method after all…”

She still had one final trick up her sleeve, a last resort.

Sensing where her thoughts were headed, Baal narrowed his eyes and asked warily,

“That method… You don’t mean the one I’m thinking of, do you-u…?”

But rather than deterring her, Baal’s reaction only triggered Isabella’s inner rebel. Clenching her fists with resolve, she declared,

“If it’s come to this, I’m breaking through by force!”

Baal turned pale, stomping his hooves in alarm.

“Milady! Please reconsider! Running away on your own? This could end terribly-yy!”

“Who said I was going alone?”

“Then…?”

A deep sense of dread gripped Baal, his demonic instincts screaming danger. But Isabella just smiled and pointed right at him.

“Of course you’re coming with me. We’re bound by blood, remember?”

With a wink from her left eye, marked with a star-shaped birthmark, Baal let out a silent scream, his jaw dropping.

‘I’m going to die before my time, me-eh!’

But by then, it was already too late. Grinning more mischievously than ever before, Isabella raised her arm to the sky.

“When the sun sets and the moon rises, that’s when we make our move!”

* * *

Ding. Ding. Ding.

At the stroke of midnight, as the grandfather clock chimed twelve and the household lay deep in slumber, something stirred on one of the balconies.

Silently sliding open the balcony doors, a shadowy figure unfurled a thick black vine, stronger than most ropes, over the edge. Just then, the shadow of a horned goat approached and whispered softly.

“Milady, you’re really going through with this runaway plan? If Lady Hilda or the young master finds out, this mansion’s going to be in ruins.”

Barely paying attention, Isabella tied the vine tightly to the railing and stood up, replying firmly.

“Baal, we can rebuild the mansion. But the time I lose, I can never get that back.”

Locking eyes with her steely gaze, Baal groaned.

“Please don’t say such serious things while you’re running away… It just doesn’t fit the mood…”

“Hehe. Really?”

Isabella chuckled brightly, brushing off her hands as if she’d never been serious at all. After giving the vine a final tug to check its stability, she propped one leg onto the railing.

“Well then, shall we?”

Just then—

“Milady. Tap, tap.”

Eve, who had been watching from inside, approached and handed her something.

“Huh? What’s this?”

Isabella’s eyes widened at the sight of the object and turned to Eve, startled. A red spectral light flickered between the skeleton’s hollow eye sockets.

“My master. Tap, tap. I help. Tap.”

Though Eve rarely spoke and was hard to read, Isabella could somehow feel her deep concern. Accepting the item, Isabella gave a bright, reassuring smile.

“Thanks, Eve. I’ll put this to good use. If I succeed, I’ll bring you back a souvenir. Be good while I’m gone, okay?”

With that, she gripped the vine and slid swiftly down to the ground.

Thump!

Landing safely, Baal, already waiting, whispered urgently.

“There’s still time to turn back. If they find out you’re gone, it’ll be a disaster.”

Peeking past the hedges, Isabella waved him off.

“It’s fine. I left a note.”

“A note? What did you write?”

“I said I’d come back after finding the sunshine. Hm… Maybe I should’ve said I left in search of freedom instead?”

“Agh! You’re going to be the death of me-eeh!”

Clutching his aching head, Baal groaned in despair.

Isabella quickly clamped a hand over his mouth, shushing him with a finger to her lips.

“Shh! Keep your voice down! What if we get caught?”

Beyond the hedges, hellhounds cloaked in flickering black flames perked up their ears, patrolling the grounds.

Baal forced himself to calm down and asked quietly, “Fine… But how do you plan to escape? The front gate’s blocked by golems, remember?”

Without hesitation, Isabella pointed boldly in another direction.

“That? We’ll just have to go that way, won’t we?”

Following her gesture, Baal’s face turned white.

Beyond the sinister, writhing plants of the rear garden stood the massive, heavily fortified back gate, the only passage leading directly to the Hides Mountains. He groaned, aghast.

“No! Even for you, that’s far too reckless! Don’t you remember that monsters are stronger at night?!”

But Isabella simply shrugged, calmly calculating the quickest route to the gate.

“So what? Wild monsters always avoid me anyway. You’re a demon. Why are you the one worrying?”

“Still…”

No matter how strong someone was, even they could be overwhelmed when outnumbered.

Baal looked anxiously at Isabella, who had grown up like a pampered flower in a greenhouse, clearly oblivious to danger. Yet she paid him no mind, sneaking ahead and gesturing for him to follow.

“Don’t worry about that. Just keep up. We’ll have to take a longer path, but it’s safer than going straight through.”

Weaving carefully between the shrubs, Isabella’s face lit up with excitement. Draped in the black veil she always wore on outings, her quick, darting steps made her look just like a chipmunk.

‘How can she be enjoying this so much…?’

Baal watched her with a bittersweet smile, then hurried after her.

— — — 

Who knows how long they crept along?

The mansion was vast, and the back gate was far.

“Huff… Huff… Ugh, this is exhausting.”

Smack!

Panting, Isabella swatted a creeping vine that tried to wrap around her leg and rubbed her aching knees. The hedges were lower than expected, forcing her to stay hunched over, no easy task. And the gate was still a long way off.

“If only I could use that power…”

She sighed wistfully, looking toward the gate, then shook her head and stood upright.

Smack!

She gave her own cheek a sharp slap, trying to snap herself out of it.

‘Don’t complain now!’

Regaining her resolve, Isabella took another cautious step forward. But just then—

“Woof!”

A loud bark rang out, and a massive black figure lunged straight at her.

“Kyaa!”

Thud!

The heavy weight knocked her off her feet, pinning her down as she squeezed her eyes shut. Her head throbbed from the impact.

“Milady!”

Baal’s voice rang out in panic.

Lick!

Something cold and wet ran across her cheek. Opening her eyes, she finally saw what it was.

A hellhound, its sharp fangs glinting in the moonlight, red eyes glowing ominously. A terrifying creature that looked like it could tear out a throat in an instant.

“Pant, pant! Woof!”

But the beast sitting on her chest was overflowing with affection, licking her face non-stop.

“Mmgh!”

“You better stop, or you’ll lick her face off!”

“Yip!”

“Are you hurt, milady?”

Baal, unable to watch anymore, smacked the hellhound’s rump and helped Isabella to her feet.

But as she rose, still reeling from the surprise, her eyes widened. Lined up in orderly formation before her were dozens of hellhounds.

‘Wait… Had they known all along?’

She thought she’d been sneaky, but clearly the hellhounds had seen right through her. The one that tackled her, larger than the rest, watched her closely, then let out another bark.

“Woof! Woof!”

“Ah! Shh! Please stop barking!”

Isabella panicked, waving her arms as the loud sound echoed through the night. The hound whined and looked between Baal and her.

Then Baal leaned in to whisper, “He says he’s sorry for jumping on you.”

“Wait, really? Hold on, Baal. You understood him?”

Startled, Isabella turned to him, and Baal puffed out his chest with pride.

“Of course, milady. I am a great demon, after all.”

At that moment, something clicked in Isabella’s mind.

‘Ah… Why didn’t I think of that sooner?’