~Chapter 09~
What Latryne saw was a woman lying on the ground with her eyes tightly shut, as if dead.
The woman’s face was all too familiar to him.
It was impossible not to recognize her.
The building was still burning, and with a dazed expression, Latryne mumbled as he stood frozen in place.
“…Erias…?”
A face he could never forget.
No matter how many beautiful people were said to exist in the imperial kingdom, Erias was even more beautiful than any of them.
Why was Erias, his dead wife, lying here?
Latryne, as if possessed, moved closer to the woman lying on the ground.
Even on a second look, it was undoubtedly Erias.
Though he didn’t understand how or why she was here, he knew he couldn’t leave her in such a place. So, Latryne gently picked up Litya.
As he carried her further down the hallway, two people appeared through the smoke, walking toward him.
A voice Latryne had longed to hear echoed in his ears.
“Dad?”
Latryne’s eyes widened.
All the tension left his body at once.
But now was not the time to relax, so Latryne forced his body to stay alert.
Sertien seemed both surprised and relieved to see his father.
When he saw Litya in Latryne’s arms, he visibly relaxed.
“It’s mom! Waaah! Is mom okay?”
“Mom, you say…? Then, Sertien, are you…”
Ered, who had been behind him, quickly grasped the situation and said, “It looks like she’s not as badly injured as I feared… Latryne, I don’t know why you came in here, but that woman isn’t who you think she is.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“Now’s not the time for explanations. I’ll explain later, but we need to get out of here first. With two unconscious adults and a child, I’m not sure how we’re going to manage.”
Only then did Latryne notice the knight Ered had been carrying on his back.
It was clear that escaping with everyone in this condition was going to be difficult.
While they were standing there, trying to figure out what to do, the building began shaking again.
Sertien, already on edge from the previous explosion, instinctively grabbed Latryne’s leg and said, “Waaah, it’s going to explode again!”
“It’s alright, Sertien. It won’t explode this time,” Latryne reassured him.
Just as he said, the building only shook without any further explosion.
“Let’s see… The entrances on the first floor are all blocked. The only way out is to jump out of that window over there.”
“We could jump, I guess…” Latryne said, hesitantly.
Luckily, at that moment, the knight on Ered’s back regained consciousness.
“Ugh… Where am I…? What happened?”
Ered spoke to him, “Are you awake?”
“Your Highness… Where are we? What’s going on?”
“Unfortunately, we’re still inside the inn. If we don’t get out soon, we’ll either fall to our deaths when the building collapses or be crushed under the debris. So, let me ask you, Can you move on your own?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“Good. Then I’ll take Sertien and jump. Luckily, there’s a roof on the building next door. Let’s aim for that. If we’re unlucky, the fire might spread there too, but it should be safe for now.”
The knight nodded, then looked at the unconscious Litya.
“…Goodness, what happened to the commander?”
The commander?
Latryne looked down at the woman in his arms, now realizing who she was.
Ered scowled as he answered, “She got caught in an explosion. Anyway, are we really standing around talking right now? Let’s hurry to the window. Sertien, come to Uncle.”
“Yes!” Sertien answered energetically and jumped into Ered’s arms.
They all rushed toward the window and, one by one, leapt onto the neighboring building’s roof.
As soon as they made it out, the inn collapsed with a thunderous crash.
“We don’t have a choice. The building is collapsing. If we leave it like this, the fire will spread to the neighboring building too! Get the water over here, now!”
Zetton shouted orders at the knights, who were frantically trying to rescue the remaining people.
At last, the knights began dousing the flames, and the fire slowly started to die down.
“Ah… what a day. I’m getting too old for this kind of exhaustion…”
“You’re not that old, though.”
“What do you mean? In a few months, the first digit of my age will change.”
Seeing Ered joke around, the knight sighed as if he couldn’t believe it.
After escaping the collapsing building, they made their way to where the knights were stationed.
Ered, who had been laughing, suddenly turned serious and asked, “How’s your condition?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m fine. I hit my head pretty hard, so I passed out for a while, but I’m mostly unhurt. I’ll need a few days of rest once we get back to the palace, though…”
“Oh great, who’s going to guard me if you’re out of commission?”
“Is that really what you’re worried about?” the knight replied, shaking his head in disbelief.
Ered laughed once and headed toward where Latryne and Litya were.
“Is Litya still unconscious?”
“It seems her injuries are too severe. If we leave her like this, her condition will become critical. But the nearby hospitals are already full of patients…”
Latryne responded to Ered’s question.
Next to Latryne, Sertien, who had received simple treatment for his wounds, was looking at Litya with a confused expression.
“Dad, is Mom in a lot of pain? Is she going to get hurt again?”
Latryne felt troubled by Sertien’s question and couldn’t answer right away.
Ered spoke up.
“I’ll say it again, but she isn’t Erias…”
“I know. You already said that earlier. That person… is she the Commander of the Imperial Knights?”
Latryne remembered what Ered’s guard said when they were about to escape the building, referring to Litya.
Ered raised an eyebrow and replied.
“You’re sharp. So, I assume you’ve figured out why your son followed Litya all the way here?”
Latryne nodded.
Since even he had mistaken Litya at first, it was obvious what little Sertien must have been thinking.
But still, even knowing that, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he kept seeing Erias in Litya.
She resembled Erias so much that it made him wonder if there really wasn’t any connection between them.
At the same time, the thought that Litya might die if left like this made Latryne feel dizzy.
‘I really don’t want to see something like that again…’
The memory of Erias passing away kept disturbing his thoughts.
From a distance, Zetton, who had finished giving instructions, was approaching.
“How is the commander’s condition?”
Ered calmly responded.
“Not good.”
“This is serious… There’s no space left in any of the hospitals in our city. What if we took her to the Imperial Palace for treatment?”
“Normally, the palace would not seem that far away, but right now, Litya’s condition is critical.”
“Then what should we do…”
While everyone was in a panic, Latryne calmly interrupted.
“How about we go to my villa?”
Everyone turned to look at Latryne at the mention of the villa. He added,
“There’s a villa I own nearby. My personal doctor is also in the area, so it would be best to take her there.”
Ered, deep in thought as he listened to Latryne, nodded.
“Yes, there’s no better option. Wasn’t it Reed, the Commander of the Knights? I’d like you to send a message to the palace summarizing the situation. I’ll take care of the full report later, so just focus on that and wrap things up here.”
Zetton bowed and replied.
“Understood. We’ll prepare a carriage for you.”
“Thank you. Let’s go.”
Latryne lifted Litya again.
He turned his head slightly, avoiding looking at her face.
What happened to me?
As I began to regain consciousness, that was the first thought that crossed my mind.
I couldn’t immediately recall how I had lost consciousness or what was happening now.
At first, even my last memory was vague, but after thinking for a while, I remembered going up to the second floor and the second explosion that occurred.
‘Are the others okay? If I can still think like this, I guess I’m not dead.’
Once I recalled the situation, I started to worry about the others.
When I pushed the others away, it was almost instinctive.
But even if I’d had time to think, I would’ve done the same thing.
I hate seeing the people around me get hurt.
Anyway, to figure out what had happened to me, I knew I needed to open my eyes and get up.
But that was easier said than done. My body felt heavy, probably from the injuries I sustained in the explosion, and it wasn’t easy to sit up.
“Ugh…!”
As I managed to raise myself up a little, the pain finally hit me, and I let out a groan.
It didn’t seem like I could move my body properly at all.
After barely managing to sit up, I looked around and froze at the sight before me.
‘Why am I in a place like this?’
I was in a room that looked luxurious and old-fashioned.
Hadn’t I been in a burning inn just a moment ago?
It would make sense if this were a hospital, but why was I in a place like this?
It looked like a noble’s mansion.
I looked down at myself. My wounds were bandaged, and I was wearing pajamas that looked expensive.
Someone had not only brought me to this mansion but also kindly treated my injuries.
‘Could it have been His Highness…?’
I wondered if Ered had somehow managed to escape and arranged for me to be treated here.
