It is the end. What excuse does she have to make? Tens of thousands of thoughts flowed in an instant.
However, contrary to her worries, Byron passed by the desk where she was hiding and continued walking to the window.
“Maybe it’s because fall is approaching, but it’s a bit chilly at night.”
Byron closed the window and muttered to himself. He got up to close the window since he thought it was a cold day.
After closing the window, Byron slowly walked back to bed.
It was only a short period of time, but to Ayla, it felt like an eon.
‘I waited ten years.’
Every time she almost got caught on a dangerous night out like this, it seemed as if her lifespan was shortened by 10 years. Ayla swept her startled chest and calmed her heart, which felt like it was about to burst.
‘I think it would be dangerous to go out right away… I guess I’ll have to wait until Byron falls asleep again.’
It wasn’t completely out yet. Byron was still awake, and she was shivering, hiding under his desk.
Still, she thought she had passed the dangerous hurdle, so she closed her mouth tightly to avoid making a sound and exhaled long and deeply through only her nose.
She wanted to sigh loudly, but if she did that, Byron wasn’t asleep yet, and might discover her existence.
Waiting for Byron to fall asleep again quickly, she changed her position. She knew that if she continued to squat until Byron fell asleep, her legs would go numb, and she would not be able to return to her room.
As she sat comfortably with her hands on the floor, she felt something being touched under her left hand. She seemed like a piece of thin paper.
‘What?’
She lifted the paper as carefully as she could without making any fluttering noises and examined the writing. It was a piece of paper with dates and place names written in rows.
‘I think I’ve seen these place names somewhere.’
The date written on the first line is about ten days from now. And all the place names written next to it and all the way down were familiar.
And after a while, she remembered where she had seen it and was disappointed. These were the cities she had seen on the map a little while ago, along with the dates.
‘What? It’s nothing new.’
Ayla pouted in disappointment and was about to put down the paper again, but she noticed something different from the map and looked at the paper again. There were words written behind the city name that could not be seen on the map.
‘The Wild Goose Tavern, the Vine Inn…’
These were the names of businesses such as bars and inns. And when Ayla saw it, a memory from long ago came to mind.
She did go after leaving these ruins.
This is the place that immediately made her happy when she was a young girl who was in tears after saying goodbye to the attic she loved so much.
‘…… that’s right.’ It was like that.’
Byron usually ran away to deep forests and mountains without permission and had taken her to visit cities for the first and last time.
And in ten days from now, we will be moving to that first city.
She would say this is a phone call.
When Byron woke up suddenly and almost got caught, she was afraid that he would ruin everything at any moment, but thanks to that, she was able to remember this fact.
At the time, it was just fun to move from city to city and stay there every few days, but now that she thinks about it, it was an incredibly suspicious experience.
A person who is fleeing even a small rural town moves to a city with a large population.
The clue is a map on the wall.
It was clear that they were following someone’s journey from Venator to the west of the empire and back to Venator from the middle.
‘Who could that be?’
Maybe her parents.
It was not entirely impossible, but it was highly likely that Ophelia and Roderick were not. They will rarely go to the west of the empire.
‘There is one thing I want to point out.’
The only thing to think about was the ‘young lion’ written in the letter. She heard that Byron was trying to join forces to hunt.
It could have been something completely unrelated to the letter, but based on the information Ayla knew, it was the most likely.
It could be that they are following the journey of the ‘young lion’.
While she was organising her thoughts, time passed by.
If she waited a little longer, something unfortunate might happen in which she would not be able to get back to the attic before Laura came to wake her, so she just kept her eyes on the desk and looked at the bed where Byron was lying.
Fortunately, Byron was sleeping without knowing anything about the world.
She quietly opened the window. There was a small noise from the old hinge, but there was no movement as if the noise was loud enough to wake Byron, who was sleeping soundly.
She quickly but silently escaped Byron’s room and returned to her own room through a secret passage.
* * *
Not long after returning to the room, the dark sky began to brighten. She only closed her eyes for a moment, but it was time to get up and go to the training ground.
But she wasn’t very tired.
Although she still had the body of a child, she had good physical strength, as she had a muscular body that had been trained through exercise for a long time.
Besides, She didn’t achieve any results last night for the first time in a long time.
Although She didn’t find any definite information, she was thankful that she had time to prepare before leaving this place and heading to the city.
It was like that. Ayla had something to prepare before leaving these ruins.
That night. She went to bed early and woke up when it was still dark everywhere. She had only slept for a few hours, but she felt like her fatigue had gone away and her head was clear.
There was no clock, but judging by the shape and position of the moon, there was still quite a bit of time left until the sun rose.
She got out of bed, did some stretching, changed her clothes, and secretly left the room.
Today’s destination was not Byron’s room. The place she headed to was the room where her cloud and toxicology classes were held.
Because it was a room full of deadly poison, the door was always locked, but the ventilation window was always open. And the ventilation window was large enough for Ayla, who was still young, to pass through, even if she were an adult.
‘Good. Then, let’s make it.’
She lit the lamp with a match that was always in the same place. It was a lamp used to boil poisonous plants, but it managed to brighten the surroundings. It was bright enough for her, who was used to moving in the dark.
She had memorised where and what poisonous plants were placed while taking a toxicology class during the day.
She quickly took out the herbs she needed, little by little, and before she knew it, she had created a clear, thick liquid.
She put the liquid into a small glass bottle the size of her little finger, closed the lid, and looked at her work with satisfaction.
‘So, you shouldn’t have given me a lab like this.’
Ayla smiled mischievously and put the glass bottle in her pocket, erasing any traces of her visit.
A glass bottle of this size could have been secretly carried around.
In all my life, she has never done anything that went against Byron’s will. She doesn’t seem like a mischievous person who has reached a point of rebellion now.
She thought it might be a bit too much to call it a joke, but whatever. It wasn’t a medicine that killed people; it was just a medicine that put people to sleep for a while.
In fact, She wanted to give the person who was going to be given this medicine poison rather than a sleeping pill, but it wasn’t the time yet.
‘Then let’s go back now.’
After checking once again to see if there were any traces she left behind, she turned off the lamp and escaped the laboratory.
* * *
“Miss, lady! wake up.”
Ayla had to wake up when Laura shook her awake.
“There is a lot to prepare. “You need to wake up quickly.”
She sat up in bed with messy hair, rubbing her eyes and staring blankly at Laura, who was shivering in Busan.
It happened not once or twice but several times a year, and she couldn’t figure out why they always made such a fuss.
“Quickly change your clothes and come down.” The carriage is waiting.”
“Yeah, I got it. Laura.”
Time passed before she knew it, and the day to leave these ruins came.
When Laura left her alone in a fuss, Ayla, who was still rubbing her sleepy eyes, moved quickly as if she had never done so before.
It was to hide the sleeping pills that had been taken out of a secret space last night and hidden under the pillow.
‘Where should I hide it?’
She looked through the clothes Ayla had left behind, looking for a good place to hide the medicine.
The shoes with the ribbons fit her feet so perfectly that it seemed impossible to hide them. She could have put them in white socks that reached her knees, but she thought they would stick out and be too obvious.
‘I guess I can just hide it in my belt.’
There was a belt to fasten the large pink ribbon to the back of the waist, so she thought she could secretly put it there.
From now on, whenever she changes clothes, it will be important to hide them somewhere else without being seen, but for now, she is relieved.
After safely hiding the glass bottle, she looked around the affectionate attic for a short time.
It wasn’t a very good memory, but it felt strange to be parted again from the attic that had briefly provided her comfort during her childhood.
“Bye. ” Thanks to you, I’m doing well.”
Although it was somewhat embarrassing to say goodbye to a space that wasn’t alive and was just made of rocks, Ayla knocked on the door of the secret passage that allowed her to go out every night and say hello.
For some reason, she wanted to do that.
Now it was time to leave this place.
