Edited

25. The Best Thing I Learned Was Hide-and-Seek (3)

A giant man gasping for breath.

The intruder who broke through the warehouse door anxiously scanned the area, searching for something.

In the backlight, the shadowed man’s face was not clearly visible.

With wide-open eyes in the dusty warehouse, he concentrated his gaze. The thick dust kept causing his eyes to close.

Tall stature, massive physique, and familiar brown boots.

The moment I spotted the boots, I recognized them immediately.

The man’s boots were enormous in proportion to his large size. There was only one person who had such worn-out, oversized boots.

It was Edan.

“Edan?”

He lowered the sword he had raised up to his forehead. Hearing my voice, he turned his attention towards me, shifting away from scanning the surroundings.

“Are you alright, Young Lady?”

He spoke while dropping the poorly attached door that he had been hanging onto.

The large wooden door fell weakly from his hands.

“How did you end up here…?”

I wasn’t alone.

Behind him, people from other noble families had gathered. Family members carrying torches wandered around, and the other young ladies who had been elsewhere rushed out.

“Oh, my brother!”

“Bella!”

“Beatrice!”

“You’re here!”

The waiting family members tightly embraced them.

They hugged their little sister in their arms and spun her around.

It was a long-awaited family reunion. There were family members who had been separated for several months.

With tears in their eyes, they gently touched each other’s faces.

The heartwarming feeling that arose from witnessing their reunion was only temporary.

“Are you okay? We were worried, Young Lady.”

Edan looked around every corner of my body with a worried gaze.

Then he noticed the torn hem of my dress and asked, “Did they… harm you, Young Lady?”

Anger flickered in his calm expression. It was intense enough to be palpable.

“No. This… I tore it myself.”

It was a torn piece of the dress that had been ripped while wiping Elizabeth’s forehead.

“Are you really okay?”

“Fortunately, I didn’t get a single scratch.”

Even if there were injuries, it seemed better to conceal them. His gentle expression, like that of a bear, looked too ferocious.

His expression gradually softened at my words.

“How did you come here? It must have been difficult to track us.”

“I followed the traces of teleportation magic. I met the others on the way.”

“You arrived right on time. Luckily.”

“Were you alone here?”

“Oh, right.”

I quickly rolled up the carpet and tapped the floor. Thump, thump—the sound reverberated as I stomped my foot, echoing in the empty space.

“Lady Arin! Come out now.”

The lid rattled and then opened with a pop. Her arm slipped out through the narrow square gap.

I grabbed Elizabeth’s delicate arm and pulled her up. Her upper body slid out smoothly.

Elizabeth coughed, unable to hold it in. Dust had accumulated on her head.

“Are you safe, Young Lady?”

“Yes, I’m perfectly fine.”

“Where did you hide? I’m so relieved. I was worried.”

She straightened my clothes and examined my body. There was an old piece of tree bark stuck to her pale and rosy cheek. I gently removed the piece of wood from her cheek.

After confirming her safety, I turned my head back to Edan.

“Edan, did you come alone?”

“…No, Young Lady. I came with the Duke.”

I didn’t need any further explanation to know.

With his imposing stature and the ability to swing a massive sword, there was no one else it could be.

Behind Edan, Deon was ruthlessly attacking terrified individuals, his face stained with blood.

“Duke, we found her. Young Lady is here.”

The man who had been chasing me and Elizabeth collapsed on the ground, writhing in pain. Crawling on the grass to escape the blade, he heard Edan’s words and looked up. Fear had crept into his always haughty face.

“D-Duke? The Duke of the North? How could… so soon…”

He gasped for breath. Looking at the tip of the sword with a terrified expression, he tried to turn his body around and escape.

“Ah!”

His escape attempt was cut short by a single swing of Deon’s sword. Staring at the scene, the upper-class lady toppled in front of Deon. Then she reached out her arm and grabbed onto his pant leg.

“Duke, please spare him. Do you, a noble person, need to personally trample on someone as filthy as me? This goes against the dignity of the nobility…”

Before she could finish speaking, Deon slapped the man’s face.

“Dignity?”

A bone-chilling sound reverberated. The man opened his mouth, but even a scream wouldn’t come out of his swollen lips. Only the cawing of crows flying away made sounds in his place.

“Dignity is meant to be upheld for the sake of the other person, not for oneself. Is there a need to show it to someone who isn’t worth it?”

Though cold, it didn’t deviate from the noble framework, yet today, there was an uncharacteristically unrestrained raw emotion. It was evident at a glance that he was on edge.

“Just once… if you spare him just this once! I swear there won’t be such an incident again! I promise! I’d rather be reported and handed over to the royal family!”

The upper-class lady grabbed onto his sleeve and pleaded.

“If you close your eyes just once, I will give you all the wealth I have amassed until now!”

“Wealth?”

Deon chuckled at her words.

“My finances aren’t that bad, so it’s not a particularly tempting offer.”

“Well then… how about a woman… or no, even a man? I’ll give you all the money, carriages, and people here. There are peasant slaves in other places too. If you sell them, it will fetch a considerable sum… Eek!”

He cut off the upper-class lady’s words with a single stroke, as if he didn’t need to listen. As he effortlessly swung his sword, a gust of wind trailed at the tip of the blade. They fell weakly, without even resisting. The magician, who had been trembling while watching the scene, knelt down.

“I was only following their orders to cast teleportation spells. It wasn’t until I arrived here that I realized this was a place where noble ladies were being kidnapped. I truly didn’t know!”

The magician trembled like a quaking willow, flipping his robe.

It was an abyss.

In the distance, a man who had left to call the mountain patrol appeared. He was with an old man.

The man who arrived late with the mountain patrol stared blankly at the fallen comrades on the ground. Then, his legs gave way, and he sat down before turning around and hitting the wall with his back.

He who had carried a bundle and come along, was left alone, watching the scene. The items that had been in his hands fell to the ground. Various medical tools spilled out of the open bundle and rolled on the floor.

Ignoring the magician shouting for mercy, Deon stepped on him without even a hint of expression. A groan could be heard from beneath his foot. Only after cleanly beheading the fleeing man did Deon finally raise his head.

Deon was flipping the blood that had been spilled. Drops of fresh blood fell from the tip of the sword.

That figure… It was the face I had first encountered.

It was the face that appeared in the illustrations. It was horrifying.

With that face, this time, instead of cutting me, he was cutting down the people who had kidnapped me.

“Duke.”

Edan approached Deon.

“Everything has been taken care of. It seems that the upper-class personnel are all here. Despite their notorious reputation, most of the remaining personnel, except for the key members, were supplemented with mercenaries. The numbers are low.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. Should I give the order to clean up the bodies?”

“No need. Let them become food for wild beasts as they are.”

He commanded Edan.

He was still wiping the fresh blood off his neck.

It was blood I saw every day. It was the same blood as the blood he had spilled on my neck. Why does it feel so vivid today?

My heart beat fiercely. Suddenly, my throat felt tight.

Unconsciously, I covered my throat with my hand. I could feel the rapid thumping of my heartbeats against my neck.

Can I really survive from the edge of that blade and safely escape this insane prologue?

A shiver ran down my spine.

The dazzling blade seemed to dance on my skin. I swallowed the screams that were rising inside me.

I must have gotten caught somehow. I shouldn’t have been by his side.

I should have lived like the original Leonie, pretending to be dead and secretly escaping.

But I… in his eyes…

He raised his head. Blood, whose origin was unknown, dripped smartly at the tip of his chin.

Our gazes clashed in the air.

“Come here.”

Deon reached out his hand. Just like back then.

I stared blankly at his hand.

The image of him reaching out his hand at the ballroom overlapped with the image of him tapping the bed.

He always reached out his hand to me first.

I can push away that hand.

But can I really do it?

If I don’t take his hand now, can I survive?

“Leonie.”

He called me again, almost mockingly.

His eyebrows were sharp.

A shiver ran down my spine. I had an illusion that I was being slowly cut by his cold gaze.

Hesitating, I finally grabbed his hand.

His hand was hot.

Deon tightly grasped my hand as if he would never let go.

It hurt, but I couldn’t even groan. His gaze, just after the massacre, was so eerie.

Instead of pulling my hand away, I stood obediently by his side. I decided to think of it as receiving a belated punishment.

The punishment for fleeing from the Duke. And the punishment for not being able to escape properly.

“I’m glad you didn’t have to wield the sword, Leonie. I arrived just in time.”

“…Didn’t you teach me how to wield a sword?”

“It was a blade I gave you to protect yourself.”

He added, looking back at me.

“And it was supposed to be a hobby to alleviate the boredom of living in the Duke’s mansion. It seems like it didn’t suit your taste. To think you found the mansion boring enough to leave… You’ve come quite a long way for a walk.”

I tightly sealed my lips.

I had nothing to say. This was unquestionably my responsibility without any room for excuses.

“So, is your body okay? Any injuries? Blood is splattered on your face.”

Deon raised one hand and wiped the blood off my cheek.

His body was covered in blood, yet he was wiping off the blood splatters on my face.

I lightly pushed his hand away and wiped my face with my sleeve.

“I’m fine… I’m already used to blood.”

“I see…”

He lowered his hand.