Chapter 13
“Ah…”
It was Sione’s dagger.
‘I found it so quickly…’
Although she found her precious dagger, she wasn’t as happy as she thought she would be, having lost her excuse to come out to the forest. Daphne looked down at the dagger for a moment, lost in thought. Soon, she looked away as if she hadn’t seen it and stood up.
‘…Let’s go back today and just once. Just one more time, let’s come back out.’
It wasn’t that she believed she would definitely meet him if she came out to the forest. Perhaps Johannes Tennan hadn’t been visiting the forest often, but had just wandered in by chance that day.
Daphne looked around once more, then slowly started walking. It would have been a walk full of lingering feelings to anyone watching. Even that didn’t last more than a few steps before she stopped.
‘Still… I had a feeling we would definitely run into each other.’
There was a reason why she couldn’t resist and finally ran out of the castle today. Some inexplicable intuition. A feeling that he would definitely come to the forest today. Truthfully, she had hoped, just in case, since her luck had been excessively good lately.
“…”
After a moment of contemplation, Daphne turned around and sat on a flat rock by the lake, letting a little more time slip by pointlessly.
The lake, reflecting the soft moonlight like a mirror, was dazzlingly beautiful, but also too static and boring to keep looking at. It was as if there was no sign of anything special happening. As if the miracles that would happen to her had already happened. It felt like the sun would rise soon.
‘…Really, for the very last time, let’s count to thirteen.’
After that, I’ll give up cleanly for today and go back to the castle. Daphne started counting.
One.
…Two. An embarrassingly long time passed before she could even think of three.
Like that, before she knew it…
“…Ten.”
Daphne suddenly turned around, just in case.
“…Ha. There’s no way he’d be there.”
She muttered as if she wasn’t bothered, but she felt inexplicably disappointed. It wasn’t as if they had made any promises. It was absurd. A weak, empty laugh escaped her. Daphne, wearing a self-deprecating smile, slowly stood up.
It was really time to go back now. Inevitably, regret was mixed with each step she barely managed to take. In the end, she couldn’t go more than a few steps before she turned around again with a lingering motion. It was at that moment.
“……!”
Large hands grabbed her waist and slammed her to the dirt floor. Then, the force holding her down disappeared, and her body was lightly flipped over by a strong grip. She belatedly opened her mouth, feeling something huge climb on top of her. However, before she could scream, her mouth was covered.
It was completely different from when Leopold, the boy, had ambushed her. Feeling a sense of crisis, Daphne twisted her restrained body and clawed at the large hand covering her mouth. She blinked frantically, instinctively checking who had pounced on her.
And the next moment, Daphne forgot to resist.
The man positioned on top of her, looking down at her. Backlit, hidden in jet-black darkness, he should have been frightening. But Daphne just stared blankly at the man.
‘It’s him.’
All the strength drained from her body, and her heart began to race dizzily.
‘It’s Johannes Tennan.’
She was undeniably happy. To actually run into him. They say if too much good luck comes in a row, it’s time to die. Just as Daphne was about to be swept away by a sense of destiny, surpassing optimism…
“Ha.”
Johannes, feeling the strength drain from the woman’s body, let out a chuckle. He slightly furrowed his brows at the woman blankly staring up at him.
The woman who fearlessly wandered outside the castle walls.
The princess who smiled brightly at him, the enemy general, as if he were one of her own.
He’d had a feeling that crazy woman would come out to the forest again.
Even while thinking that she couldn’t possibly be that foolish, Johannes had been wandering the oak forest like a ghost every night.
So, with a feeling of ‘just in case,’ as a kind of patrol, he convinced himself, repeating that nonsense for several days. During that time, he suddenly felt a sense of doubt, ‘What am I doing right now?’
‘At this crucial time before my return, what am I doing?’
Whether that woman crawled out into the forest again or not, what did it have to do with him…?
Having finally reached a rational conclusion, Johannes ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He’d felt like he was possessed ever since the duel.
Yes, it was all because of that insane smile. Otherwise…
“…I really need to sacrifice a lamb or something.”
Just as Johannes, who had resolved to never come to the forest again, turned to leave, it happened. Unbelievably, at that moment, the princess, that woman, appeared before his eyes.
Johannes instinctively hid himself in the dark shadows. She was a fragile woman who looked like she would break if touched, but strangely, his blood flow began to accelerate as if he were in the middle of a battlefield. Johannes peeked out, holding his breath, and searched for the woman with his eyes.
‘Damn it.’
It was definitely her again. He closed his eyes involuntarily and let out a small sigh, then started to watch her.
The woman, as if searching for something, lowered her body and rummaged through the bushes for a while. Occasionally lifting her head and looking around, she didn’t seem entirely thoughtless. But soon, she wandered around the lakeshore, staring into the distance. Like someone waiting for someone. Realizing this, Johannes’s face twisted slightly.
And finally, the moment the woman turned around with a lingering movement as she was about to return to the castle, Johannes could no longer stand by and watch the woman’s terribly foolish behavior. His body moved before his mind could catch up. By the time he came to his senses, he had snatched the woman and pinned her beneath him without any consideration.
But an even bigger shock awaited him. The woman quickly stopped resisting. As if she had met someone she knew well.
‘Could she not recognize me?’
He removed the hand covering the woman’s mouth. The woman, as expected, didn’t scream. Johannes, suddenly feeling uneasy, asked without thinking.
“Who am I?”
“…Jo, Johannes Tennan.”
Just like their first encounter, the woman understood and spoke the Inacos common language well.
She really does…. Johannes, feeling a bit more uneasy, muttered unconsciously.
“Damn it. She really knows….”
The woman recognized him. And it seemed, as expected, that she had come out to the forest again to meet him.
Johannes was convinced. The ninth princess of Bellares was clearly half-witted. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have left the castle alone to meet the enemy general, the ‘black-haired monster.’
Johannes looked down at the woman with furrowed brows. Her violet eyes, a mixture of joy, surprise, and some kind of expectation, didn’t avoid his gaze. The woman seemed to think of this situation as some grand destiny.
Johannes felt uncomfortable. He thought it would have been a hundred times better if the woman had looked up at him with fear in her eyes.
‘She seems to believe I’m some kind of prince from a fairy tale…’
He was not a prince, but a monstrous villain who had killed thousands. In other words, the woman was unfortunately mistaken, deeply mistaken, due to her lack of wit.
Of course, whether the woman was mistaken, and whether she continued to crawl out into the forest because of it, still had nothing to do with him. With the battle against Equilla over, Johannes had left the battlefield and was no longer the commander of the Allied Forces. For him, who only had to return to his homeland, the princess of Bellares shouldn’t have even been a trivial concern.
“……”
Nevertheless, Johannes decided to completely shatter that misguided fantasy. So, while they had ‘coincidentally’ met in the forest again… He swore that was all it was, Johannes specifically pointed out.
“Was I too kind to you last time?”
Johannes, throwing out a mischievous question, put on a fierce grin. The woman blinked her large eyes at the unfriendly smile.
Johannes felt a moment of impatience. Of course, he didn’t show it at all on the outside. Hoping that the woman’s innocent face would soon become distorted, he opened his mouth again.
“It seems you didn’t understand my warning.”
“……”
“I told you that the warriors of seven nations are gathered in that barracks, and they are completely different, from their appearance to their language and their thoughts. Do you remember what I said?”
