Chapter 12
Chapter 12
His face landed in Rosalyn’s arms. The moment that warm heat touched his skin, his heart began pounding wildly. The symptoms were about to erupt again.
‘No!’
Theodor quickly straightened up, gasping for breath.
“Your Highness, are you all right?”
Rosalyn asked with a concerned expression, and Theodor only nodded in response.
“The carriage is moving; it’s dangerous. Would you like me to hold you steady while you stretch?”
As she leaned forward, Theodor’s eyes trembled violently.
“There is no need!”
The shout burst from his mouth before he realized it. Arch quickly raised an arm to shield Rosalyn. She quietly sat back down in her seat.
Theodor closed his eyes, trying to steady his breath.
To think he had to share this tiny carriage with her for an entire week. It felt like traveling with a ticking time bomb that could go off at any moment. He sighed inwardly and forced his gaze back to the book in his lap. But his stirred-up emotions didn’t settle easily.
***
For the next five days, their carriage journey continued without incident.
Theodor did his utmost to avoid touching her. Even the slightest brush would send him burying his head in his book, trying to suppress the flare of symptoms.
Thanks to his desperate efforts, the episodes had, fortunately, been rare. As they passed out of the snow-covered northern region, forests with lush green trees began to appear.
Once they got through the forest, they’d arrive at the outskirts of the imperial capital, Mirka.
Seeing the tall trees and budding spring flowers, Rosalyn finally felt the presence of the March season. She quietly admired the view outside the carriage window.
But something felt off.
‘It’s too quiet.’
The forest was eerily silent. There wasn’t a single buzz of insects or chirp of birds.
An uneasy feeling crept over her.
Rustle… shhh.
Just then, the branches began to tremble and shake.
‘Huh? There’s no wind at all, though.’
Next to her, Arch’s pupils narrowed sharply. Suddenly, he rose to his feet, shielding both Rosalyn and Theodor with his body.
Whoosh.
Thunk!
An arrow flew through the air and lodged itself in the inner wall of the carriage. Rosalyn stared out the window in shock.
Then, from the rear supply wagon, the attendants screamed.
“W-We’re under attack!”
“Aaagh!”
Arch quickly shut the carriage windows.
Thunk! Thunk!
The sound of more arrows striking the wooden shutters echoed around them. Theodor froze, unable to speak. Arch gave them both a silent signal to stay put before leaping outside the carriage.
Inside the cramped space, only Theodor and Rosalyn remained.
He was trembling, his face pale.
“Y-Your Highness… it’ll be all right…”
Rosalyn spoke to calm him, though her own voice quivered.
Shing! Slash!
Outside, Arch’s blade was cutting through something. Rosalyn stared ahead in fear. Was this a bandit attack?
But something was off. Shabby as it looked, this carriage bore the imperial crest. No matter how greedy, ordinary bandits wouldn’t dare attack royalty.
Even a disgraced prince like Theodor was still royalty. Killing a royal meant not only execution, but the extermination of three generations.
Then Rosalyn heard a noise that sounded strange and disturbing.
— KIEEEEK!
It was a sound no human throat could make.
‘What… is that?’
With a trembling hand, she cracked open the wooden shutter and peeked outside.
Her eyes widened in shock.
‘That’s…!’
A hideous creature with green skin and protruding fangs. A monster. A goblin. In the world of the original DoomSun, monsters existed alongside humans.
But Rosalyn’s shock came from something else.
‘They’re not supposed to show up yet!’
In the original story, monsters appeared just before Theodor’s coming-of-age ceremony. The heroine, Annie, fled from their attack and escaped to the capital, where she met Theodor for the first time.
What on earth was going on?
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.
Through the window, she saw Arch battling the goblins.
He slashed through them relentlessly. Each swing of his sword sent multiple goblins flying, his skill was astounding. At this rate, they might just survive this.
Rosalyn turned her head to check on Theodor. He was still trembling uncontrollably.
“W-What… what is happening?”
“Monsters have appeared.”
“Monsters? What are those?”
His voice trembled as he looked at her, pure fear in his eyes.
‘This is bad!’
If he touched her in this state of overwhelming fear, it could trigger more than a mana surge, it could lead to a total breakdown. His body still wasn’t strong enough to handle a sudden outburst of mana. And right now, she had no elixirs to give him.
‘I have to stop a mana rampage.’
She moved closer to him and spoke in a calm voice.
“Your Highness, please try to breathe…”
But his body continued to shake with terror. Forcing a smile, she met his eyes.
“It’s all right. Arch is out there, fighting with everything he has.”
Theodor looked at her. Her steady voice and warm smile seemed to soothe him a little.
“Just a little longer and we’ll be oka—kyaa!”
Suddenly, the carriage rocked violently from side to side.
Peeking through the window, she saw a goblin had latched onto the carriage and was trying to overturn it.
Tilt!
Crash!
With a deafening crash, the carriage tipped onto its side. Rosalyn fell with it, squeezing her eyes shut on instinct. A moment later, she felt weight pressing down on her and opened her eyes.
“……!”
She saw a pale ear and black hair beside her cheek. Theodor had landed on top of her.
“Your Highness, are you hurt?”
But Theodor couldn’t answer.
The instant their bodies touched, his heart exploded in his chest.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His lower abdomen burned. Suddenly, he became acutely aware of her small frame pinned beneath him.
The frantic rhythm of her heartbeat beneath her dark robe. The rise and fall of her chest and stomach with every breath. The warm breath that brushed against his ear.
‘Your Highness, calm down. It’ll be alright.’
That same calm voice replayed in his mind and once again, the intense impulse consumed him.
He wanted to touch her.
‘Even in this situation, this cursed symptom is really…!’
The fear and panic that had gripped him vanished. Only desire remained and it was raw, overpowering his only sanity to hold on. A voice whispered sweet temptation to him.
Don’t you want to touch her?
Just reach out, and you’ll feel that soft, pale skin…
The temptation gripped him like a fever.
His entire body was aflame with pain. Theodor suddenly sprang upright and shook his head violently, trying to fight it off. But the urge didn’t disappear.
He turned his head away from her, his face twisted in agony.
Thump! Thump!
CRACK!
Suddenly, the carriage door burst open.
One of the goblins had broken through and was crawling inside. Rosalyn stared at the shattered doorway in horror. The green-skinned face and sharp fangs made her knees go weak.
But she couldn’t die here.
She had fought so hard to survive.
‘Think, think. There has to be a way.’
She couldn’t fight the goblin like Arch could—not in this cramped
‘But if I use mana and strike a vital point…’
She knew the weak points of the human body. She had taken basic self-defense training in her past life.
‘At the very least, I can buy us some time until Arch gets here.’
Her hand began to glow a bright yellow.
“Your Highness, stay here.”
She said firmly, turning her gaze toward the door.
As the goblin burst through the gap, she forced down her fear and struck. With all her strength, she punched it in the abdomen.
—KIEEEK!
A searing pain shot through her fist. But it worked. The goblin staggered and collapsed.
However, as it fell, it struck her in the head.
“Aahh!”
Her vision blurred. Theodor stared blankly at Rosalyn’s fallen form.
Your Highness, you can awaken.
Take your time, there’s no rush.
I’ll go to the birthday banquet with you.
That ever-present smile, those steady brown eyes. But now, the light was gone from her face.
In that moment—
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart pounded like it would explode. The searing impulse that had just flooded him turned into something else entirely.
He wanted to kill the creature that dared touch her. He didn’t know why, but a savage rage surged up from deep inside.
It reminded him of the fury he’d felt when Rosalyn had hurled his mother’s portrait in the East Tower.
No, in fact, this was even stronger. Was this also part of the illness?
Theodor fixed his gaze on the goblin rising to its feet, and muttered coldly under his breath.
“You bastard…”
A murderous light flashed in his mismatched eyes.
Twitch.
A white glow began to radiate from his lower abdomen.
(TN: Ooohh? That is fast….)
