R 02

Chapter 2

“……!”

My heart sank once again at the shocking answer.

“T-The k-knights are here? W-What happened to the other secluded villages?”

“Yeah. They said all the women in the other secluded villages have already been killed. Apparently, the twenty women left here are the last ones……”

A chill ran down my spine.

If the other secluded villages had already been dealt with, that meant the one woman who would survive and be subjected to torment was here.

“……”

I briefly calculated my chances of survival.

Since I was one out of twenty, I had a 5% chance of surviving. My chance of dying was 95%.

‘…So there’s a very high chance today is the day I die.’

I tried to calm my trembling hands and feet before cautiously asking,

“…Can’t I run away?”

Reddan flinched, looking troubled.

“No. The village chief told me to hurry and bring you. They say the village has already been surrounded, so give up. No matter what you do, you’re going to die.”

His words sounded cruel. Looking troubled, Reddan took my hand.

“I’m really sorry for saying this. The truth is, I don’t want you to die either. But I don’t want to be the one who survives and has to go to the king, either. The woman who goes to the king will probably be violated miserably.”

Then, as though he couldn’t control his emotions, Reddan spread both arms toward me.

It looked very much as though he intended to embrace me.

“……”

Reddan’s flushed face and ragged breathing somehow made me uncomfortable, and I let out a sigh.

“I also……”

I trailed off and avoided Reddan.

“I don’t want to die either. And I hate the thought of going to the king even more. So, Reddan……”

There weren’t many things I could do. I clasped my hands together toward Reddan and pleaded.

“Can’t you just pretend you didn’t see me? Please? If you just pretend you don’t know where I am, I’m confident I can escape without getting caught. I really am.”

Reddan furrowed his brow.

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve been taught this until we’re sick of hearing it. What happens if you escape and the villagers and I are all slaughtered because we let you get away? That’s incredibly selfish.”

After criticizing me, Reddan held my hand tightly. Apparently, he was worried that I might run away anyway.

‘In the end… I have no choice.’

Was this what it felt like to be a cow being led to the slaughterhouse?

I lowered my gaze to the ground and began walking listlessly, following Reddan’s lead.

However, the place Reddan led me to wasn’t the village hall, but a nearby barn.

Reddan shut and locked the barn door.

“Reddan? Why are we here?”

“I have something to take care of here for a moment.”

Reddan’s breathing seemed strangely heavier. His eyes looked bizarre, too, making him seem unlike the Reddan I knew.

“I thought about it, you know. You’re going to die anyway.”

“…What did you say?”

“It’d be a waste to just let you die. So, before you die……”

I couldn’t make out the rest of what he said.

I was about to ask, ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ when something happened.

Reddan lunged at me like a beast and knocked me down onto a pile of hay. He had been a close friend of mine for a very long time.

“Eeeeeek!”

Because I had never even imagined Reddan’s intentions, I was genuinely shocked and let out a scream that seemed ready to tear my throat apart. But Reddan paid no attention to my reaction.

“I love you, Ellie. I’ve wanted you for a long time. Even if I have to force you.”

All he did was breathe roughly and make that sinister confession.

“What are you doing?! Reddan! I hate you, so stop right now!”

I screamed in horror with all my strength. But Reddan was no longer the friend I knew.

Reddan grabbed both of my wrists and pressed them down firmly.

“Don’t act so high and mighty, Ellie! You’re going to die anyway!”

Then he tried to force a kiss on me.

“Ugh!”

I struggled desperately to avoid his shameless lips. In the process, I accidentally slammed my head directly into Reddan’s nose.

“Ugh!”

Reddan cried out and fell backward.

“You bastard!”

I tightly grabbed the hem of my skirt, determined not to miss my chance to retaliate while he was staggering.

Thud!

My powerful front kick landed squarely in Reddan’s solar plexus.

“Guhk! Cough! Guhk!”

Reddan staggered, repeatedly gasping and coughing as he tried to recover his breath.

I wanted to hit him a few more times. But I gave up.

‘I have to get out of here right now!’

What I wanted and what was actually possible were two different things. If a man and a woman fought barehanded, the outcome was obvious.

I hurried toward the barn entrance and reached out to open the locked door.

The moment I had just undone the latch—

“You really are—!”

With an enraged shout, my hair was violently yanked backward.

“Aah!”

Reddan raised his crude hand.

Smack!

The impact of the slap was extremely hard. My mind went completely blank.

Reddan knocked me back onto the haystack and climbed on top of me. He roughly grabbed both my wrists with one hand and pinned them above my head.

His expression looked demonic.

“Let me go! No! I don’t want this!”

I struggled with all my strength, but it was useless.

“Stay still! I’ll kill you as soon as I’m done!”

Reddan tore my top open and raised his hand again. What followed was another beating.

It was so violent that I could barely remain conscious.

‘Is this… the end?’

Just as I thought that—

Thud!

“Gaaah!”

Along with Reddan’s scream, the weight pressing down on my body disappeared. The hand that had been pinning down both my wrists was gone as well.

I also heard the sound of something being cut—swish.

Thump!

Silence followed.

No—it was soon broken by the voice of an unfamiliar man.

“Good grief. He’s completely lost his mind.”

That was definitely what he muttered. Then someone helped me up.

“Get a hold of yourself.”

“Cough!”

I suddenly burst into a cough.

“Cough! Cough!”

I coughed repeatedly. After desperately drawing several breaths, my blurry vision gradually cleared.

The first thing I saw was ruby-blond hair tinged with red. Then I saw an incredibly handsome face, so striking that I wondered how someone could possibly look like that.

The ruby-blond man was wearing a uniform embroidered with an elaborate Firebird emblem, along with a cloak.

He looked like a knight.

“Your condition is particularly bad this time. Even if you’re going to die when your time comes, looking like this is really no good……”

The ruby-blond knight grumbled as though talking to himself while wrapping his cloak around my body.

It was a gesture of consideration for me, since my top had been torn open enough to expose part of my chest.

When I tried to gather the cloak around myself and walk, he even supported me personally.

I struggled to steady my ragged breathing and looked at my savior.

“Haaah… Thank you for helping me……”

I was about to thank the knight when everything in front of me began spinning.

“Could it be… that this is the one?”

“That’s right. Have all the women with the Black Firebird emblem been captured?”

“Yes. There are nineteen in the hall and one here, making twenty in total.”

“Excellent. How many knights have been stationed at the hall?”

“Five.”

“And the others?”

“They’re still searching, so we’ve sent out the gathering signal. They’ll assemble soon.”

“…Five knights should be more than enough to handle the nineteen of them.”

“Indeed. Shall I go ahead and take care of them?”

“Do so.”

“Understood.”

As I listened, I began to wonder what on earth they were talking about.

‘Kill everyone? Who…?’

Then I remembered what had happened before I passed out.

Because of Reddan’s sudden change, I had nearly died in a terrible situation. Then some knight had appeared and seemed to have saved me.

‘A knight?’

There weren’t any knights in this village.

The moment I wondered about it, I suddenly came fully to my senses.

‘Oh my God! The knights of Lucleros Tower! It’s them!’

I abruptly sat up.

“What did you say?”

The two men turned toward me. The ruby-blond knight was sitting beside my bed on a low stool with his arms crossed.

Standing about a meter away from him was another knight. His polite demeanor and brown ponytail immediately caught my attention.

I immediately confronted them.

“Even if I’m going to die, I want to ask you something. Why? Why are you killing innocent people like us?”

“……!”

The sudden question seemed to leave them speechless, and they merely blinked at me.

Of course, they must have been surprised. A woman they thought was unconscious had suddenly sat up and started shouting at them.

But I was desperate. It was too unfair to die like this.

“Come to think of it, you saved me earlier. And now you’re going to kill me? Just because I was born with the Black Firebird emblem on the back of my hand? Isn’t that completely unfair?! To be honest, I don’t want to die for some ridiculous reason like that!”

The ruby-blond knight stared at me with wide eyes before suddenly making a strange sound.

“Kh!”

He seemed to be forcibly suppressing laughter that had unexpectedly burst out.

“Ahem! Ahem!”

After clearing his throat several times, he straightened his expression.

“Don’t worry. You’re not going to die. The ones who are dying are… Ahem!”

He started to say something, then abruptly closed his mouth. Instead, he called out to the knight with the brown ponytail.

“Sir Scone.”

Perhaps it was a signal for him to leave.

At a single glance from the ruby-blond knight, the man called Sir Scone bowed crisply and hurried away.

Only then did the ruby-blond knight open his mouth again.