Chapter 131

Startled, she squirmed and tried to remove the hand, but then a familiar voice was heard.

“Milady.”

Lydia stopped resisting and only clapped her eyelids.

His hand was large enough to cover half of her face, but unlike the rough knights, his hands were so soft and warm.

‘Kai?’

She turned around cautiously to confirm this, and the hand that was pressing her lips цwas removed. Karion’s face appeared before her eyes, accustomed to the dark. Even though it was late at night, he was wearing street clothes, not indoor clothes.

Is he going somewhere in a hurry at this time? Is that why he came to her?

With such thoughts, his sudden appearance was more pleasant than embarrassing. Does he seem to care about her that much?

“Where are you going…”

Lydia, who opened her mouth calmly, bit her lip when she saw Karion putting her index finger on her lips. It was then that she realized that the situation was tense.

‘Strange.’

Karion always tried to maintain a distance between them, since childhood. If she took a step forward, he stepped back two.

Having lived in the mansion for almost 7 years, it would have been time to break down this wall and get to know her better, but he didn’t give her a place next to him.

As a result, it was rare for the two of them to be alone in private. There was no such thing as being together at night like this.

But Karion, who was like that, sneaked into her room in the middle of the night without anyone else’s knowledge?

Lydia was not afraid  the other person would harm her because it was Karion, but it felt strange in a different way. For some reason, I felt a chill run down her spine and her hair stood on end.

Besides, Karion’s face was ominously hardened. Originally, he had almost no expression, so he was called cool or scary by the people in the mansion, but at least Lydia was able to read his mood from his slightly changing expression.

But the expression he’s making now…

Lydia moistened her parched lips with her tongue and opened her mouth in a low voice.

“What is going on at this hour?”

“Milady.”

Lydia had previously asked to be called by her first name, not by lady or milady. However, she wasn’t going to stir up this topic in such and such a situation. But she always imagined how great it would be if her name came out of Karion’s mouth.

A name that exudes intimacy and affection. How envious she was when Reynard called Yurina that way.

“What’s happening?”

“Do you trust me?”

Lydia could answer that question without hesitation.

“Of course I trust you.”

“It’s really not that simple…”

Karion raised his voice for a moment and then covered his mouth. Lydia waited patiently for him to speak again. Who can know why he took it into his head to ask her such a question, but no matter what the situation is, the answer she would give will be the same.

She trusts him more than anyone in the world. Even with her father, Marquis De Flon, Lydia didn’t rely on him to that extent.

And then…

A sound began to be heard in the quiet hallway. It wasn’t just the everyday sounds of maids getting up and walking down the halls in the middle of the night or chatting.

Urgent footsteps of people busily running around and voices urgently ordering something. Even though it was clearly happening beyond the door, Lydia felt their tension palpable.

Karion’s nervous appearance, which was even more rare, as well as the uncommon clutter. That’s when Lydia grabbed his arm, feeling her heart beating fast.

“Miss, Lady Lydia!”

Along with the sound of the doorknob turning, she heard the voice of her exclusive maid. She obviously hadn’t locked the door, but the door wouldn’t open and the clunky doorknob kept clicking.

It was the moment Lydia was about to move to open the door. Karion’s hand grabbed her cold hand.

“Kai?”

“Lydia.”

A calm voice that didn’t match the commotion in the hallway pierced her heart. However, before she had time to rejoice at him calling her name, Karion asked again.

“Do you believe me?”

“Milady! Are you inside?”

The maid’s voice got louder. Lydia looked at the door where the constant knocking was coming from, and then looked at Karion’s serious face.

She should have asked what was going on, but they didn’t seem to have time to talk.

“Yes, I believe you. Because it’s Kai.”

Those words that came without thinking were probably the truth she really wanted to say. Karion, who seldom showed a change in his expression, came closer to her with an expression that looked like he was about to cry.

No, his expression didn’t change much. Still, in Lydia’s eyes, it looked as if he were weeping dry tears.

“Then let’s go with me.”

There was no need to ask ‘where’. Lydia took his outstretched hand without hesitation.

* * *

The boy who had been given the chance to escape from Carthia’s mansion was now running without looking back. Apparently, after he broke through the restrictions and left the Carthia mansion, he used his usual movement magic, but he moved to a place a little further than his desired hideout.

He again tried to use magic, but each time he ended up in a different place than planned, so he had no choice but to rush on his own two feet.

He didn’t know why it happened. He just thought that something had gone wrong  in the process of breaking the restraints.

Or, in case he breaks the restraint gear, it may be that they hung something like magic that can disrupt the black magic on the restraint gear.

Maybe that Blessed with a creepy face did something to his body? After all, he said he allegedly found a way to stop black magic.

‘Damn it…’

The boy gritted his teeth and ran wherever his eyes looked.

And although the path he had traveled was short, his breath quickly hitched, and his chest seemed to be on fire. This was because he only focused on magic since childhood and didn’t do physical training.

But he couldn’t stop now.

From the moment he escaped the prison by taking advantage of the loosening of the magic of the guards and restraints, a deafening alarm went off in the Carthia Mansion. Carthia’s knights should be chasing him on horseback by now.

If he had known that something like this would happen, he would have taken action and built up stamina. But he ended up like this because he believed only in magic and lived only by it.

Damn, damn, damn.

He chewed the curse in his mouth.

How much he laughed when last spring he saw Blessed being torn to pieces by a wolf at the hunting competition.

As a warlock himself, he couldn’t even properly show himself in front of people, but that guy Blessed was a genius and a wizard of the century, whether in the Crohn Kingdom or the Empire.

You just become my prey like that. He was giggling like that, but how did the situation become like this?

‘I won’t leave you alone.’

Right now, it’s just stepping back for a while to move forward.

Even though he’s wriggling like this because his magic has been suppressed, he’ll hide in his hiding place for a while and recover his energy, then he’ll rip that damned Blessed’s head apart. And break the neck of the woman she couldn’t handle during her hunting competition.

He suffered because of her.

So wait a minute. Because it won’t take long.

Remembering Reynard’s gaze looking down at him as if he were an insect, the boy moved to the hiding place and suddenly felt a presence in front of him and slowed down. At first glance, it sounded like the sound of horses hooves.

‘I can’t believe I’ve already come this far.’

There is no other way to the hideout. The boy changed direction without even having time to figure out the identity of the human being blocking his way. However, it wasn’t long before the boy had to turn again due to the presence he felt in front of him.

But it was only after three or four more repetitions that he belatedly realized that the hideout was under siege. He even felt like someone was chasing him from behind, as if he was chased by Carthia.

Hearing a distant horse cry, the boy had no choice but to give up his hiding place and start running away. For now, it seemed like it would be better to go somewhere, hide, and wait until he can properly control his magic.

However, judging from the speed at which they were pursuing, it seemed that he wouldn’t be able to escape by running.

‘I shouldn’t have come here.’

Will he be caught in this state again, or perhaps he will move to the wrong place again?  The time to worry didn’t last long. So far, he has been simply imprisoned, but if he is caught this time, he may be told to tell the truth and suffer severe pain.

He bit his lip and used his magic again. Again, he couldn’t get where he wanted to go.

The boy looked around the forest around him, densely overgrown with huge trees, and only making sure that this place was empty he collapsed to the ground.

But even when he lay on his face, his heart was pounding, as if begging to burst out of his chest.

He paused only for a moment to catch his breath in the dark woods where the owl hummed, and when he had calmed down a little,  he got up from his seat.

This place wasn’t his destination, but fortunately, he wasn’t far away from it.  The boy who was trudging along let out a sigh of relief as he saw the small villa in the distance.

That place was the villa of Marquis De Flon. Externally, it wasn’t known that it belonged to Marquis De Flon, and since it was located in a forest where few people came, few people knew it, even among marquisate De Flon.

Still, he didn’t want to come here if possible, just in case. But, given the circumstances, what could he do? Besides, seeing as there was no one around the villa, it seemed that this place had not been discovered.

He had heard that this villa was equipped with everything necessary for survival, so it would be great to hide here for a while. Then he could go back to Marquis De Flon.

But here…

The boy vigorously opened the door and stepped inside. He wrinkled his face when he saw someone who shouldn’t be inside.

“You came later than expected.”

The man smiled as he stood by the window where the moonlight streamed in softly. With a fine-looking face, as if he had never gone through hardships, but with eerie eyes that weren’t pure at all.

“You should have come a little earlier, for the people waiting for you.”

As soon as he finished his words, he heard the sound of people running and the sharp metal sound of a sword being pulled out of its scabbard. Even without looking back, he could feel that he was surrounded by heavily armed knights.

Looking at the glowing red eyes in the dark, the boy cursed aloud this time.

“Damn it…”

By the time he realized that all of this was Carthia’s trap, it was already too late.