CH 94

She turned her around and this time headed south of the castle. It was a gentle breeze blowing from behind. She flapped her wings with more energy than before, and reached the moat in no time. At this rate, she seemed to be able to get out of the castle easily.

‘Look. Yulif didn’t lock me up.’

But soon Canaren couldn’t go any further. It was because her strength, which had grown a little stronger, pulled her strongly inward. The strength that held her staggering body released only after she had moved far from her moat, from the borders of the castle.

This… What is this? What’s going on?

Canaren watched her wings beating to and fro in place. There were no problems with her wings. She couldn’t believe it. No, she didn’t want to believe it.

She flew to the other side. She didn’t care as her feathers grew wildly against the wind. And she returned to the moat, and she was drawn back by a power, unable to step out of the castle’s borders.

“No… It cannot be.”

Canaren repeated the same action until she no longer had any force on her wings. She even tried to exert her maximum speed as she could somehow try to cross the borders of the castle. Then, the power also grew stronger, and she was forced to stay in the castle wall.

The sensation she felt on her first flight. That was the feeling. That feeling was not an illusion. It was a real power.

Canaren felt lost as she stood as close to the moat as possible, and she groped through the empty air. She had nothing to touch. Still, she couldn’t take a single step forward.

She pushed her body forward. A terrifyingly sweet, strong, tenacious force pulled her away.

“My wife can’t ever step out of the castle.”

“Ah… no. No… no!”

Deltinus was right.

Yulif imprisoned her in his castle. The ducal castle was a huge cage with no visible bars.

Canaren’s eyes got wet. It wasn’t tears that pooled in her golden eyes in despair, but a feeling of betrayal.

Yulif tricked her. He said he would set her free! He said that he will free her from the Imperial Palace, which was like the abyss!

Rejoicing that she had escaped from the palace, she felt like an idiot. She didn’t know she was caged, and she loved it, and she was the most stupid idiot in the world.

She nevertheless followed Yulif with fondness. She loved him, so she clung to him to love her too. She had considered him a savior.

Was Yulif happy? Was he having fun? In his eyes, how ridiculous she must have looked when she acted stupidly without knowing anything?

She lost strength in her wings. In this way, no matter how many pairs of wings or how strong they were, it was useless. She couldn’t get out of the huge cage anyway.

Canaren stopped flapping her wings. Immediately after that, her body began to fall at a frightening speed. She was not afraid of her death.

It might be better to just be thrown to the ground like this.

She lost all hope. Yulif was not her savior, and he did not love her.

Will he send her to the village in three months? It was a lie. A lie!

Canaren was now suspicious of everything about Yulif. Taking her to her village on her wedding day was thought to be only her attempt to reassure her. Because he doesn’t want to lose her to the emperor. Why did she only now realize the true meaning contained in the cool voice that permeated her chest.

Yulif will never let her go as long as the emperor is alive. There was nothing wrong with the emperor sitting on the highest point of the empire. So it meant that she would have to spend her whole life in a cage. In the huge, cold cage that Yulif made.

What if the emperor died? Then it was clear that Canaren would be thrown out miserably. Yulif will look down on her with his colder eyes than on the day he proposed.

—I don’t need anything like you anymore.

‘Ah, my heart…’

It hurt. It hurt too much though. If such a future came, she would vomit blood and die on the spot. So it was better now. Better to die now. Canaren closed her eyes. The frustration and disappointment that flew from her eyes mixed with her tears and flowed down.

「What the hell are you doing!」

When the ground was nearing rest, Muasa’s cry was heard. At the same time, Canaren’s body rose vigorously upward.

She slowly opened her eyes. A deep indigo blue swayed in the crushed and blurred vision. She later found out that it was Muasa’s hair. She was in Muasa’s arms.

「Why are you doing such a dangerous thing? What would you have done if I was late! Or did you hurt your wings? What is it?」

“Why are you doing such a dangerous thing? What would you have done if I was late! Or did you hurt your wings? What?”

「…No.」

「What?」

「…I don’t want to. To live.」

「Canaren, what are you saying…」

Canaren let out a cry full of pain. Muasa closed his mouth and hugged her, slowly wandering around the sky.

When Canaren was young she would stop crying if he did this. She couldn’t stop her tears once it broke out. He was worried about her as her throat was clenched so much that she could barely breathe.

‘Damn it. Why did the irritating emperor appear? What the hell is going on? Canaren is crying like this, and where and what the bastard is doing!’

Muasa has been pouring out his swear words and curses on the invisible Yulif since morning.

「I, I…」

「Speak slowly. It will be okay. You are really not going to die.」

「Take me… take me to the village, Muasa, I want to go to the village…」

Canaren cried. All the while, her tears were constantly dripping down. She did not know where so many tears had been piling up on her small and frail body. She was like a cloud that absorbed all the sorrows of the world.

Canaren knew it all too well. She knew there was no one to take her out of her cage. Even Roana, the most talented of those she knew, could not break Yulif’s magic. She did not even dare to expect that Muasa would free her from Yulif.

She couldn’t bear the sadness that came tightening her heart if she didn’t say it though, if she didn’t do it anyway.

「It’s okay if it’s not the village. Anywhere is fine, please let me out of this castle. get me out…!」

She wished she had known in advance. Even if you run from hell, not everyone will get to heaven. Sometimes, the place of escape can be a more terrifying hell. His treachery, her shattered affections pierced her painfully, smashed into her abyss.

It was okay for Yulif not to love her. It was really, really good. Even if there were a few women like Rena, she could stand it.

No, it would have been really good. Maybe she just didn’t want to give up hope, so she hypnotized herself by saying it was okay. Because she had no one to save her except for Yulif.

‘I do not know. I don’t know anything. I just don’t want to see Yulif…’

Canaren cried out, beating Muasa’s chest. Muasa’s eyes were covered in anger and he held her tight to him.

*******

The atmosphere of the peaceful duke’s castle changed in an instant. Strict vigilance unfolded around Canaren’s room as if war was ahead.

Canaren made a fuss in the air, and was now stuck in her room. Roana and Derek guarded the room, knights and wizards from somewhere were stationed outside the door, and other personnel poked around the castle in the name of patrolling.

Rena felt the strange air and quietly locked herself in her room. She wandered around her spacious room and asked the restless Muasa.

“What happened to the duchess?”

“It seems like something happened, but I don’t know the details. The castle…”

Muasa glanced at Rena and bit his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he could talk to Rena. But to be honest with her, he wanted to hold on to straws.

‘This woman will have a good understanding of the human world.’

As he pondered, he thought it would be much better for Rena if Canaren were to disappear from the castle. She would be able to monopolize the attention of that bastard if Canaren wasn’t around. She might teach him how to get Canaren out of the castle.

Muasa approached Rena with a serious expression on his face, grabbing her shoulder. She looked up at him as Rena flinched at him.

“Help me. Canaren wants to leave the castle.”

“The duchess? No way… Why? Maybe because of me?”

“I don’t know. I don’t even wonder why. I only need to be able to take Canaren out.”

Muasa was thinking only of Canaren, and he seemed to see nothing else. The emperor, who suddenly appeared in Rena’s head, passed by. The face of a confident Canaren who said she would never give up on Yulif was overlaid on it.

There’s no way that Canaren, like she was just a little while ago, would say she would leave her castle on her own for no reason. The emperor, who ran away from Muasa, seemed to be very firm even when he tried his best.

“Anything is fine. Is there any way?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s going to be easy because the security is so strict. But the two of you are from the Hwira tribe, so why not just fly and run away?”

“I thought so too… Canaren said she couldn’t leave the castle.”

“She says she can’t go out?”

Muasa nodded his head. Rena had a hard time understanding what he was saying to her. He said she couldn’t go out on her own, so he’d have to ask someone for help…

At that moment, she remembered that Duke Rubius was the most powerful wizard in the history of the empire. Magic. It’s magic. Rena’s face darkened.

“It seems that the duke has put some magic on his wife. Then give up. There is no way.”

“You’re telling me to give up?”

Muasa glared at Rena with a grim expression. His hand gripped her shoulder, and power came automatically. His shoulder hurt as if it was crushed, and Rena moaned briefly, and Muasa’s hand fell off.

He went to the window instead of the door.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I came this far with the will to die. So I won’t give up.”

He saw Canaren crying tears of blood, how could he give up?

Muasa left the room without looking back. Rena had an ominous feeling that something was going to happen. Maybe Deltinus’s work wasn’t over yet.

‘I have to tell the duke.’

Rena rolled up the hem of her dress and left the room. She happened to make eye contact with the knights who were patrolling. They gave her a stinging gaze. They seemed to be saying that the duchess was acting like this all because of her.

Rena passed them by with doll-like arrogance. She had to tell the wizard guarding Canaren to call the duke back to the castle. Before it was too late.

*******

「Damn it, damn it…!」

Muasa tapped the floor with his spear. The hand of Canaren that was beating his chest was still vivid. It was the first time he had seen a Canaren howling so bitterly. No matter how sad and difficult things were, she smiled straight away after shedding tears for a while.

How hurtful this was. Canaren was deeply wounded. To that extent, he felt that Canaren loved Yulif with her sincerity, and Muasa once again despaired. He also realized that even if they ran away from the castle together, he could not win her heart forever.

But he couldn’t just leave her here.

“Looks like you need help…”

Muasa hurriedly looked behind him. A man in some rags was standing right behind his back. His back was almost at a right angle, and his eerie voice, as if scratching iron, sounded very, very old.

“You… what?”

“God makes a way for those who desperately want it…”

The old man held out a wrinkled hand. What he was holding was a rolled-up parchment.

“It will help you… Come on. Use it.  Opportunities don’t come this easily…”

“…What is this?”

“There is a magic that temporarily breaks the barrier. Just tear off the scroll… Go north of the castle and tear it apart.”

“Why are you giving this to me….”

Muasa didn’t get an answer to his question. Because as soon as he accepted the scroll, the man disappeared.

It’s magic that temporarily breaks the barrier. He was a suspicious man, but it was also the thing he needed the most right now.

There was no other way than this.

Muasa carefully packed the scroll and headed straight to Canaren’s room.

Credits goes to Anon for raw providing + translating, and Selene for proofreading.