Chapter 6

“So, if you let the Angel live, I’ll obediently go back to the village.”

Although Leo had called her a crazy woman with his own mouth, he still stubbornly continued to address her as “Angel.”

Given the circumstances, Leo wasn’t exactly wrong.

Throwing herself in front of a black leopard to save a complete stranger’s child despite the risk of being attacked wasn’t the kind of courage an ordinary person possessed.

And at a glance, that woman didn’t look like someone who had undergone any kind of combat training.

But that didn’t mean she could be completely trusted.

For one thing, it was suspicious enough that a woman who looked like she had been raised as delicately as a greenhouse flower had entered the Black Forest, a place rumored to be cursed.

‘I still can’t rule out the possibility that she’s a spy secretly sent in by a faction targeting Leo.’

Leo was the Imperial Prince of Pandenion, and if it became known that he was still alive, his life would naturally be in danger.

‘But judging by the Empress’s movements, it doesn’t seem like they know Leo is still alive yet.’

Then what exactly was this woman’s purpose?

It was at that moment, while Hedius was lost in thought and his grip on his sword loosened slightly—

Two small hands, cold as ice, gently wrapped around his hand.

“!”

Hedius felt as though a boulder had suddenly dropped into his heart with a heavy thud.

Her hands were cold, yet that single touch created a bizarre sensation—as though the mana that had been tightly compressed inside his heart like a stone had begun to loosen.

“……”

Hedius lowered his head, trying to identify the source of this strange sensation, and his expression stiffened.

The woman’s bright, sparkling eyes, as though stars had been embedded within them, looked utterly innocent, as if she had no idea what she had just done.

Hedius looked once more at the hands holding his own and furrowed his brow.

‘She doesn’t look like she’s in pain at all.’

The woman, who had been staring intently at his face as though studying it, finally opened her mouth as if she had something to say.

And the words that came from her tearful-looking face were—

“Pretty Crow, don’t be angry. When you get angry, your pretty face looks just like a nasty villain. Okay?”

What?

For a moment, he wondered if he had heard correctly.

But she suddenly smiled brightly and tightened her grip on his hand.

“But were your eyes always this pretty, Mr. Crow? They look as if someone put gold inside them! And you know, this is the first time I’ve ever seen such a pretty man!”

Apparently, she still hadn’t grasped the situation at all.

Hedius finally let out a mocking laugh.

‘…Yeah. She definitely seems crazy.’

Unless she were insane, there was no way she would dare say something like that while holding his hand.

Meanwhile, the bandits who had been silently watching this bizarre scene drew in a deep breath.

Then one of them shook his head and spoke as though he had already predicted the woman’s fate.

“That woman’s finished now.”

“Do you really think the Chief will kill that crazy woman? She clearly doesn’t seem to be in her right mind if she can’t even understand the situation. Besides, our Chief is usually quite lenient toward the weak.”

Another bandit chimed in from beside him.

“Hey, even if she’s really crazy like Leo says, she still dared to grab the Chief’s hand. Don’t you know how much the Chief hates having anyone touch him? It’s unfortunate, but there’s no way he’ll let her off.”

“Tsk, what a shame. From what I can tell, she really is a crazy woman like Leo said. Maybe she got lost while wandering around and somehow ended up in the Black Forest. Or perhaps someone abandoned her?”

“That does happen from time to time, but that doesn’t mean we can be certain she wasn’t trying to kidnap Leo.”

In the end, the group of bandits watched the scene with the firm conviction that Hedius would kill the woman.

After all, Hedius never allowed anyone to touch his body.

Everyone remained silent as they watched the tense confrontation between Hedius and the woman.

Then, Hedius slowly closed his eyes once and opened them again.

As though he had made a decision, he pushed Ibi’s hand away and returned his sword to its sheath.

It meant he had decided not to kill her immediately.

The bandits seemed surprised by Hedius’s decision.

Yet the person at the center of it all still seemed completely unaware of what was happening.

She quickly followed his arm again and firmly grabbed his hand.

Hedius spoke in a clearly displeased tone.

“Let go now.”

“Oh.”

She let out a small gasp and hurriedly released his hand.

Then she quickly stepped backward.

With both hands clasped behind her back, she wore an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Is this good now?’ as though she were waiting for praise.

Seeing her like that, Hedius somehow felt like a pathetic butler who had been chosen by a stray cat.

Unfortunately, there was no chance that would actually happen.

Hedius let out a quiet snort of amusement, withdrew his gaze from her, and gave an order to the bandits.

“There is something I need to confirm. Take this woman to the village.”

The bandits weren’t the only ones surprised by his unprecedented decision.

Even Leo, who had been watching the confrontation with a tense expression, opened his eyes and mouth wide.

Looking toward Leo, Hedius spoke coldly.

“Leo, you had better keep the promise you made.”

Leo’s face relaxed considerably, and he quickly nodded.

“Yes, Hedius!”

How much time had passed?

The sound of dozens of horse hooves echoed through the forest.

A green-haired bandit with his hair tied up in a ponytail was riding with me seated in front of him, leading a red horse.

Hedius rode at the front, while the rest of the bandits followed behind.

They kept sneaking glances at me and snickering.

Meanwhile, my lips were twitching from the forced smile I was maintaining.

Being escorted somewhere while dressed in a fancy gown and decorated with flowers in my hair, I probably looked just like a bride on her way to a wedding.

On top of that, a woman claiming to be an angel from another world couldn’t possibly look anything other than ridiculous.

I swallowed a sigh at my bleak situation.

The deeper we went into the dense forest, the thicker and darker the greenery became.

Towering sequoia trees that looked to be more than a hundred years old stretched their branches everywhere, making it so dark that even though it was the middle of the day, it felt like nighttime.

It was a place where I could only rely on the faint sunlight filtering through the dense branches and leaves.

‘So this is why they call it the cursed Black Forest.’

But since I had suddenly been dropped into this world from a ruined one, even a sight like this seemed mysterious and fascinating.

I was busily looking around in every direction, carefully observing everything, when—

“Haha, you’re really enjoying the scenery. Angel, is this your first time entering a forest?”

The green-haired bandit holding the reins burst out laughing behind me.

‘Ha! He’s calling me Angel too?’

Feeling strangely embarrassed, my cheeks instantly turned as red as tomatoes.

But I pretended to blush bashfully and smiled brightly as I asked,

“Well… is it my first time or not? Want to guess?”

At my innocent smile, Tanto let out a small laugh.

“You’re joking even in a situation like this. You’re really interesting, Angel.”

Apparently, he couldn’t imagine that someone might exist who had never seen a forest before.

I turned my gaze forward again and stared blankly.

‘I’m not joking… It’s really my first time seeing a forest.’

And Tanto seemed to be deliberately calling me “Angel” because he was suspicious of me while also being conscious of Leo.

Or perhaps he was genuinely mocking me.

Either way, having even the adults call me that was embarrassingly awkward enough to give me goosebumps.

‘It’s fortunate that pretending to be crazy ended up saving my life, but what am I supposed to do from here on out…?’

But in that situation, acting like a crazy woman had been my only option.

‘Hmm. If Leo hadn’t treated me like a crazy person first, I might already be dead.’

In the end, just as Leo had said, pretending to be a crazy woman who insisted she was an angel from another world had been my best option.

And because I needed to deceive Hedius, the person who had the final say in everything, I had deliberately acted as crazy as possible.

Still, his expression at the time had been incredibly complicated.

‘I was surprised that my acting actually worked.’

Perhaps because my honest assessment of him as a “Pretty Crow” had gotten through to him rather effectively, Hedius had looked displeased.

But that had been the extent of his reaction.

After that, he neither became angry with me nor threatened me.

It was a much better reaction than I had expected.

‘Maybe I actually have a talent for acting?’

Although I had unwillingly become the resident crazy woman of this place, it was a relief that I had managed to stay with Leo as planned.

My eyes sparkled.

Looking back over everything one step at a time, things really hadn’t gone too badly.

‘It means I’m one step closer to completing the quest.’

I was absentmindedly smiling to myself, thinking that this was a good start, when—

“Angel, what’s your name? Even if you don’t know anything else, surely you know your own name.”

The green-haired man spoke to me again from behind.

Finally, he had asked my name.

Honestly, I had been a little disappointed that nobody had asked me until now.

“My name is Ibi. What about you, Green Onion?”

His green ponytail, tied high on top of his head, really did look exactly like a green onion.

I figured that since everyone already treated me like a crazy woman, he would ignore a joke like this.

“Ahem! My name isn’t Green Onion. It’s Tanto. It’s an honorable name given to me by our great Chief himself. Haha!”

As expected, he didn’t seem bothered by my joke at all.

He proudly placed a finger beneath his nose and puffed out his chest.

‘So he’s still just a young man who doesn’t know much about the world.’

Despite my cynical thoughts, I smiled brightly and played along.

“Tanto, that’s such a cool name!”

Pleased by my compliment, Tanto puffed out his chest even more and said,

“You can just call me ‘Tan.’ That’s what everyone in the village calls me.”

“Okay! Then I’ll call you Tan from now on!”

‘Hmm… Come to think of it, maybe it’s because they’re righteous outlaws? There aren’t many people here who look particularly scary or bad. And even Hedius…’

Naturally, my gaze shifted toward Hedius, who was leading the group at the front.

Mounted on a large, powerful black horse, he simply stared ahead without saying a word.

Even his back radiated charisma.

‘I can get a rough idea of what the others are like, but I still don’t really understand that man. I can’t help worrying about him since he’s definitely going to suffer a terrible fate in the not-too-distant future…. But who on earth kills him?’

He looked so strong and sturdy that it seemed as though neither swords nor arrows could pierce him.

While I was lost in thought, Tanto continued speaking.

“The people in our bandit group are all good people whom our Chief personally brought here one by one. There are people who lost their homes because of the nobles’ tyranny, orphans, criminals who were falsely accused and had nowhere else to go, and all sorts of other people.”

So that’s how they had gathered one by one and formed a village.

I lightly nodded.

Hedius had even taken in criminals if they had been falsely accused.

Now I could understand why he had been given the title of the demon wearing a human face.

“That’s why it would be best if you didn’t have any bad ideas.”

At those words, the smile disappeared completely from Tanto’s face.

“If you do, you’d better run out of the forest right now, while you still can.”

I could sense the cold aura characteristic of a bandit coming from him.

Before he could misunderstand me any further, I quickly shook my head.

“You don’t have to worry because I’m not a bad person.”

“Anyone would say that. Anyway, the Chief has spared you for now, but if you try anything suspicious, he won’t let you off.”

“But I really don’t do bad things.”

I answered while desperately gripping the reins, and he shrugged his shoulders.

“Sure, sure~ But did you know? Our Chief likes to do everything himself.”

“Do everything himself?”

As I slowly blinked, Tanto lowered his head toward me and whispered quietly.

“Every intruder who has entered the Black Forest has been cut down by our Chief’s blade and disappeared.”

Hehehe….

The low laugh that reached my ears at the very end sounded just like the laughter of a Grim Reaper who had just walked out of hell.