Edited

24. The Best Thing I Learned Was Hide-and-Seek (2)

The sound of horse hooves gradually faded away. We took deep breaths and spoke slowly.

“One.”

We could hear the men outside grumbling loudly.

“Two.”

I swallowed nervously. Elizabeth held onto the edge of my dress.

“Three!”

With the signal, we rushed out of the tent and ran towards the meadow.

Looking back, we saw that the men had noticed our escape and were hastily grabbing their swords.

The field was filled with heavy breaths.

It became clear only after running. The doctor’s words about the poison piercing the lungs.

Unlike before, my breath was coming out rapidly. It didn’t reach deep into my lungs and lingered around my throat.

Moreover, with my wrists bound by ropes, I couldn’t run properly.

Even though the lady was falling behind, there was no time to wait.

After running for a while, we arrived at a small cabin.

It was an abandoned storage shed for food. When we opened the door, the dust flew in the air, as if it had been neglected for a long time.

“Where are these people going?”

One of the men who followed us wrapped his hands around Elizabeth’s neck. She was gasping for air, unable to breathe properly.

I swiftly pulled out the knife from his waist and struck him down with the blade.

With a thud, he stumbled and fell.

“Do you know how to use a sword?”

Surprised, she asked while coughing.

“I learned… but…”

Her hand holding the sword was trembling.

It was much heavier than the rapier she had trained with.

Fortunately, I struck his throat, but if more people came, I wouldn’t be able to stop them.

“Lady Leonie! It’s dangerous!”

As I hesitated with the sword in hand, Elizabeth pushed me aside.

There was a dagger in the fallen man’s hand.

Even with blood dripping from his head, he didn’t let go of the dagger. With bloodshot eyes, he glared at us.

“Lady, let’s go inside quickly.”

I took the lady and hid in the storage shed.

I pushed the wooden latch to lock the shed’s door.

The walls were worn out, probably from being neglected for a long time. They crumbled easily when touched.

The wooden floor creaked with each step, making a squeaky sound.

Though it was just the beginning, a sense of relief that we had overcome a difficult situation washed over me.

As I took deep breaths to recover, I heard a thud from behind.

Elizabeth was clutching the floor, letting out a groan.

Blood seeped from her lower lip, bitten hard to endure the pain.

She struggled to catch her breath, her abdomen heaving heavily.

“I’m sorry. I suddenly couldn’t breathe…”

“Earlier, the acting… wasn’t it?”

“Well… to be honest, I wasn’t in a good state… I’m glad I could be of help though. Did it feel realistic?”

She managed a faint smile.

The lady was not in good condition. She had a smile on her face, but sweat dripped from her chin.

Blood was flowing beneath the hem of her skirt. Could it be…?

“Lady, there’s blood on your ankle…”

“Oh, I must have been stabbed just now.”

She looked down at her ankle. There was a clear mark from the blade.

I couldn’t find the right words to reassure her, even though I wanted to say that it was fortunate compared to what could have happened.

“It seems you got injured instead of me.”

It was a wound caused while trying to protect her from the man who ambushed us from behind.

I shouldn’t have let my guard down. It was my fault.

I struggled to swallow the mounting pressure.

It felt futile. In this situation, there was nothing I could do.

Then, with a thud, the previously closed door shook.

“Open the door!”

It was the voice of the man from before. I thought he had fallen after being hit with the sword, but he had managed to get up and chase after us.

“If you keep resisting like this, they’ll know we’re here. We heard the news too. The Count’s son is in a coma. Do you think they’ll come here? Ridiculous.”

I felt a suffocating sensation upon hearing those words.

“We tried to trick them, but it was in vain. Open the door right away. If you come out now, we won’t treat you harshly.”

Could it be true? Opening the door could be a ploy to make us surrender. But I couldn’t make a clear judgment.

Elizabeth, who was injured, the reinforcements whose arrival was uncertain, and the current situation of the others who had escaped to a different location.

Various problems intertwined, suffocating me as if I were being overwhelmed.

The man repeatedly pounded on the door, but soon fell silent.

Perhaps they gave up on breaking down the locked door, as there was a soft thud. It was the sound of the dilapidated mud wall crumbling.

The sound of scraping the mud wall reached all the way to the roof. The man who had been tapping on the roof with straw soon fell quiet.

No, I thought he had become quiet.

One by one, the old straw on the ceiling fell. I brushed away the straw that had fallen onto my head.

The end was approaching.

It was a spark. A pungent smoke seeped in from the ceiling.

So they set fire outside. I looked at her.

Elizabeth was crouched down, trembling.

“Lady.”

She looked up at me with wide eyes. Tears welled up in her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m sorry… Leonie. My judgment was too hasty. I didn’t realize that there would be trouble with the Count’s whereabouts, and I didn’t even dream that something like this would happen…”

This child might not see anything. She spoke while gently stroking her belly.

“Their words could be lies.”

“They could be the truth.”

She wiped away her tears.

“Leonie, please leave. I will stay here and hold them off. If I tell them that you are the main target, they won’t harm you recklessly.”

“Let’s stay together. We promised. Our goal is not to escape but to resist.”

We needed a place to hide from the men waiting outside. A space where we could delay and resist as much as possible. We had to prolong the time they spent trying to draw us out.

“Lady, can you stand up?”

Elizabeth stood up from her spot. I held onto her trembling hand. Then, I heard a small sound from the floor.

Something was off. The sound of stepping on the floor was different. It felt as if the floor was empty, as if there were no foundation beneath it.

I stood still where I had stepped, rolling my foot over the spot a couple of times.

There was a hole.

When I lifted the carpet, I saw a slightly shifted floor. I inserted my fingers into the crack and lifted the floor.

A narrow empty space was revealed. Along with a makeshift staircase, a strong scent of grapes pierced the nose.

It was a wine cellar.

“A warehouse in a place like this!”

Elizabeth exclaimed.

“Can we go in?”

“Pardon?”

“Please go in, we need to hide our bodies for now.”

She hesitated for a moment, then put one foot, then the other, into the hole.

As she put both feet in and crouched down, she extended her head.

“Leonie, I tried to squeeze my body in, but…”

She narrowed her eyes and spoke.

“Only one person can fit in here.”

“I understand. Please go in, Lady Arin.”

“What about Lady?”

“…I’m not sure.”

She pushed her head into the wine cellar.

“I will take out all the wine. It’s cramped, but somehow we’ll find a way for the two of us to…”

She took out a wine bottle from under her feet and placed it on the wooden plank.

“No, that won’t do. If the wine is taken out from the outside, it will be obvious that there’s a wine cellar. We must definitely check the floor.”

I stopped her hand as she was taking out the wine.

“I can’t leave Lady alone and go in!”

“I have learned swordsmanship, but… what I’m best at is hiding. I’ve had a lot of experience hiding and running away. I’ll find a way to hide well this time too. So please don’t worry.”

I was afraid. But what could I do?

I couldn’t put a pregnant woman who didn’t know how to wield a sword at the forefront.

How long did we hold out?

Subjectively, it felt like half a day had passed, but it couldn’t have been more than two hours.

The prolonged battle unexpectedly continued.

Perhaps because they didn’t expect anyone to hold out in a burning warehouse, it was quiet outside.

Do they think that if they stay quiet, we will obediently come out before the fire consumes us?

A long silence filled the air. The surroundings were so quiet that it felt like I could hear Elizabeth’s breathing and murmurs from beneath the boards. But even that seemed like a sign of an imminent disaster, and I couldn’t be reassured.

Thud.

At that moment, the wooden door shook with a loud noise. It was the sound of something heavy striking the door.

Despite only making a single sound, a part of the wooden latch that secured the door fell off.

It was an incredible force. It wasn’t just the door, but the entire warehouse trembled.

It was just as expected. The silence was merely a precursor to the impending situation.

I bit my lip. My hands holding the sword trembled.

I gripped the sword with both hands and aimed it towards the door.

If I had known it would come to this, I should have properly learned how to wield a sword instead of slacking off.

But regrets were already too late.

I readjusted my grip on the sword.

Thud.

As the second noise reverberated, the lower part of the door was broken open.

Wood splinters flew inward through the torn boards.

Through the opening, the silhouette of a man could be seen.

Could it be the Count’s family? Or perhaps the merchants who had captured all the other young ladies.

Thud.

With forceful steps, along with a struggling effort, the door that we had desperately held out against finally broke.

The scent of charred straw, the smell of sweat, the smell of damp soil, and the rough sound of breathing. Various sensations poured in through the open door.

The man who broke the door entered the warehouse.

Outside, it had become dark, and the only visible thing was a long black shadow.

She slowly closed and opened her eyes. To face the darkness and fear, all she could do was blink her eyes repeatedly.

Gradually, her eyes, which had adapted to the darkness, focused clearly on the man’s face.