Chapter 34

There was no time to change clothes hastily.

Thanks to that, Doha, wearing a fine velvet hood, looked like someone advertising, “Please catch me.”

The man who had been playing around, throwing and catching the dagger covered in dried blood, got up. With yellowed teeth exposed, he smirked and began to swagger towards her.

Starting with him, other vagrants began to surround her from all sides.

“Wow, even standing still, you exude elegance. Huh?”

“You shouldn’t wear such precious things and step into the garbage dump.”

“Didn’t your mama teach you that?”

As the distance closed, the unpleasant chuckling laughter grew louder.

Surrounded by adult men who dwarfed her in size, she felt like a trapped prey.

But Doha’s gaze was still fixed on the artifact around his neck.

“Hand over that expensive-looking necklace… Ugh!”

Doha lowered her body, approached him, and swung her dagger at the man’s leg as he reached out his hand towards her.

“Ouch!”

Taking advantage of his staggering, she swiftly pushed him aside and dashed away.

Was Bunny really a genius at escape for no reason?

“That little rat!”

“Get her!”

“Even if we have to kill that bitch, we’ll take everything she has!”

There was a commotion from behind.

The garbage dump was chaos itself, with no semblance of order. Its structure was as dense and intricate as the slums of Hong Kong or the winding streets of Kowloon.

Thanks to her quick thinking, Doha managed to slip through the narrow alleyways, dodging the vagrants skillfully.

As Bunny, who had survived alone in the garbage dump, this place was practically her territory.

When the sound of footsteps chasing her faded away, Doha stopped and silenced her movements.

Then, after waiting for a moment, she recalled Bunny’s memories and headed towards the place where Damian used to live with his mother.

‘It must have been around here…’

Please, let it not be too late.

With anxiety filling her, she scanned her surroundings meticulously, with her eyes flickering with flames.

“…!”

Doha spotted an old shanty.

The door was smashed as if forcibly torn apart, and even a puddle of blood flowed out from there.

‘It’s too late…’

She almost collapsed right there on the spot.

Despite blocking her nose against the foul smell of blood, Doha cautiously approached, her trembling legs carrying her closer.

She couldn’t believe it. She wanted to confirm with her own eyes, even if it was a corpse.

But when she peered closely inside the dilapidated shanty with a heavy heart, she was surprised for a different reason.

‘…An assassin’s corpse?’

There lay an adult man dressed in black, bleeding out coldly.

‘Was there an accomplice?’

But that seemed unlikely.

Those who had branded him as a mass murderer during the war and stoned him to death wouldn’t have offered help…

Anyway, that wasn’t important now.

Doha confirmed it wasn’t the child’s body and quickly shook off the shock.

‘It seems he’s not dead yet.’

There was no way the empress would send just anyone to assassinate the prince.

They would have sent a skilled professional assassin for such a task, and professionals would have disposed of their colleague’s body cleanly without a trace.

But the fact that it was left abandoned here meant the target was still alive.

In other words, they were currently executing the mission in real-time. It was an urgent situation.

“She couldn’t have gone far.”

From the last words she left as if it were her final testament to the abrupt end of communication, it was possible her life was in danger or she may have already fled.

But now wasn’t the time to hesitate, weighing the probability of the child surviving.

When Doha started searching again, teeth gritted, it happened.

“Aaaah!”

Faintly, a woman’s scream echoed.

In the garbage dump, screams were nothing out of the ordinary.

But before her mind could make a decision, her body moved first, rushing towards the direction of the sound.

Doha’s instinct screamed that the person she was looking for would be there.

She ran, despite her breath growing ragged, the taste of blood in her mouth, and the pain squeezing her lungs.

Running, running again, and ran.

“Huff, huff…”

Doha gasped, holding her spinning head as if she would faint at any moment.

And finally, when she lifted her head, she found the child she had been desperately searching for.

“…”

More accurately, she found a child who was not paying any attention at all, holding onto a woman who seemed to have collapsed in his arms, not even making a sound as he bowed his head.

Blood dripped down from the black hair that covered the woman’s face.

Despite the assassins drawing their swords right in front of him, he showed no sign of concern.

It wasn’t that his body froze in fear, but rather, as if it didn’t matter at all.

He held the woman whose fate was slipping away in his arms, motionless as if he had let go of everything.

“Tsk, still being stubborn till the end.”

“…”

At that moment, one of the assassins grabbed the child’s hair roughly and lifted his head. Then, the child’s face, which had only shown his chin, was revealed.

Doha momentarily forgot about the situation and froze.

Even though he was dressed in rags, looking like a beggar covered in dirt, his eyes couldn’t be hidden.

Eyes shining with a deep black gleam. Long and slender, yet distinctively black and white…

‘The eyes of a phoenix.’

Eyes like flowing rivers.

Eyes long and cool like a major river, capable of nourishing countless lives.

Eyes that, if followed by wealth, would become a chaebol, and if followed by honor, would become an emperor.

Damian had such eyes, as he stared at the assassin wielding his sword at me with an indifferent gaze.

The assassin raised his sword towards the child, who was in a state no different from surrendering his neck.

The sword, already stained with blood, now reflected the full glare of the rising sun, gleaming like a flash.

“I’ve already come prepared to risk my life.”

Doha firmly grasped the artifact from her embrace and swiftly intervened.

Her body felt no discomfort at all.

Kkaaang―!

The ensuing sound wasn’t the sound of flesh being pierced.

As the defense magic activated from the artifact, deflecting the sword, a loud noise rang out, as if it would tear the eardrums apart.

Damian blinked slowly.

The expected pain did not come. Instead, someone was standing in front of him as if protecting him.

A child wearing a black hood, standing tall against the sun with her small body.

Bathed in the bright light, she was locked in light like another sun, so bright that it hurt the eyes.

“I told you.”

“…”

“To survive until the end.”

This voice.

Amidst the ringing in his ears, only one voice echoed softly.

It was a familiar voice heard through the enchanted earring.

“Speak. I’m listening.”

“I’m alone too.”

“Closing your eyes to the darkness doesn’t solve anything. It only grows stronger by feeding on my inner anxiety.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“Don’t listen to what others say. Even if it’s a god, there are no exceptions.”

“So, live.”

“Survive until the end.”

“Definitely live. For eternity.”

Words engraved not on the head but on the heart…

For some reason, Damian, who couldn’t take his eyes off her, muttered with a voice that seemed to breathe heavily.

“…Rabbit.”

Doha raised her head upon hearing his faint whisper.

The defensive barrier was clearly trembling. The efficacy of the hastily prepared artifact was indeed immensely precarious.

‘Originally, it’s a task that should take a month, but it can’t be helped if it’s done in a day. Plus, you need to store power to evade pursuit.’

The wandering wizard Muto explained to her as he handed her the artifact.

“When using teleportation magic, you can only move a limited distance, and when using defense magic, the barrier will soon break. Healing magic, if severe injury occurs, can only provide emergency treatment.”

‘If it’s as he explained, we might barely last for five minutes.’

This was possible only because none of the assassins were using their abilities.

No matter how noble the opponent, they would have thought that it would be enough for a powerless child who hadn’t awakened any powers yet.

If Doha hadn’t rushed straight away, Damian would have ended up as the empress wished.

“We have to escape. Follow me, as I know the way…”

Doha, who turned her head unconsciously, couldn’t continue her words.

It was because Damian had such a serious injury to his abdomen that he hadn’t passed out immediately.

‘With that level of injury, he might die soon.’

Doha urgently handed him the artifact with healing magic applied to it.

Even in the midst of doing so, Damian remained motionless like a limp doll.

“Although the wounds won’t heal immediately, they’ll stop bleeding.”

Thud! Kkaaang―!

The sound of continuously striking the barrier with a sword rang in their ears.

It was a crude method, but it was also an effective way to breach.

As cracks began to appear in the transparent barrier, Doha urged anxiously.

“We don’t have time to waste, hurry.”

Then, Damian, who had maintained silence all along, suddenly licked his purple lips.

“Mother, she’s gone.”

“…”

“She embraced me and then she’s gone.”

His eyes, now reddened and bloodshot, lost the gleam they had earlier, which seemed like an illusion, and were now filled with deep darkness as they sank into oblivion.

“If you stay by my side, this is all that will happen.”

“…”

“I don’t know how you got here… but go back.”

The eyes of the phoenix, capable of making the impossible possible.

Despite having perfect features, size, and color, the jet-black pupils seemed to peer into an abyss.

What simmered within those eyes, dead as night, was unfathomable.

‘Those precious eyes…’

If they were truly the eyes of a phoenix, they should have been clear and transparent as if gathering all the firearms of the world.

They should have radiated a brightness brighter than the sun in both eyes.

What kind of experiences could have led to such a chaotic gaze at such a young age?

“I won’t break down just from this.”

A tree rooted in springtime once said that even the edge of an axe could mar it.

“Just like how you’re not crumbling under this kind of ordeal.”

And the boy who had to live, supporting himself on the trembling ground throughout his life, couldn’t afford to collapse here either.

If he crumbled here, he would either be caught up in a massacre and die or spend his life being abused in a garbage dump.

As cruel as it sounded, he had to overcome it immediately to survive.

“Are you going to throw away the life your mother gave you like this?”

“…”

“Are you going to be buried in the dirt like trash on the most wretched land, where no one knows of your existence?”

Damian’s mother, Juana.

Once in the most respected position, she was now being pointed at as a madwoman by everyone.

Yet, at the last moment, she took the blow meant for her son and lost her life.

“It may sound harsh. But thanks to your mother buying me some time, I was able to arrive at a miraculous moment.”

Even with her earnest plea masked by indifference, Damian showed no reaction at all.

Seeming completely devoid of emotion, he just blinked with his black eyes.

“My wounds might not heal.”

“…You just need to safely escape from here and receive treatment.”

She said that, but Doha knew that the wound was one she couldn’t guarantee his life with.

“You could have safely escaped alone.”

“If I had intended to go alone, I wouldn’t have come.”

“I’m sorry to cause you trouble unnecessarily, but this is my fate, and for you to be involved…”

Before Damian could finish his sentence, Doha burst out laughing.

“To hear you talk about fate in front of me…”

In an instant, her eyes changed, and she rummaged through her embrace to draw out a dagger. Then she firmly grasped Damian’s hand.

She wedged the dagger between his trembling palm, holding it firmly, and positioned the blade over his palm.

Damian blinked slowly at Doha’s uncontrollable action.

“Why…”

“I’ve extended His Highness’s lifeline for you.”

Damian wasn’t surprised even when Doha suddenly addressed him as “Your Highness.”

It seemed like he had known he was a prince for a long time.

Instead, he harbored a different question.

“Lifeline?”

“Yes, your palm.”

Looking at Damian’s palm, the lifeline was cut off in the middle.

But now, with the blade slicing through, it extended as a long red line from the tip of his palm.

“Inflicting a wound like this won’t necessarily extend His Highness’s lifespan. However, from now on, His Highness will have to make a choice.”

Doha said as she traced along the lifeline carved into his hand.

“Fate moves the destiny of one’s inherent fate. Fate is constantly changing like the seasons, and even with the same fate, the outcome can vary depending on choices.”

“…”

“If you move, fate can be changed as much as you want.”

The profound red pupils hidden beneath the hood stared directly at Damian, asking.

“Will the one who bears the spark of the sun be swayed so easily by a passing breeze?”

Her eyes didn’t shine specially, nor were they dead.

But they were eyes of insight that pierced through the essence and knew the direction to move forward on their own.

“Or will you choose to accompany me on our shared destiny?”

Kkaang! Crack! Crackle!

As cracks began to form and spread in the barrier at that moment, Doha couldn’t see his expression.

She urgently grabbed his hand and dashed randomly.

Without resistance or falling behind, Damian ran alongside her.