CH 74

However, no matter how hard she poked around, the surrounding area was just a dirty bloodstained floor.

“What is it?”

Ophelia stood up awkwardly, taking each step cautiously with suspicion.

The surroundings were too empty for there to be an advanced device activated by an invisible switch.

“Is that a hole in the wall?”

She couldn’t believe what she was saying as she wrinkled her nose and inhaled the damp outside air.

Walking over to the hole that appeared to be drilled through, she looked out and murmured softly.

“What, no one is guarding it?”

She was now confused as to whether she was really kidnapped or just caught in a prank.

Ophelia had no way of knowing that Raisa never thought she might miss her.

Indeed, from Raisa’s point of view, it didn’t matter that she let Ophelia slip away.

As it was enough if she regressed.

However, Ophelia, who had no way of knowing, was confused.

No matter how she looked at it, it was such a lame kidnapping, so was this just a joke? It was to this point. 

“It can’t be.”

How could Lady Neir play a prank?

It would be more likely for ants to set up altars and call their names exactly as they would call God.

“Let’s put this and that aside.”

Taking a deep breath, Ophelia frowned at the nasty smell that entered her nostrils, but then shook her head.

‘Of course I have to escape.’

She rubbed her stiff shoulder and peered through the open wall.

No matter how long she observed, no one was guarding or walking around outside, so she pushed the door behind her.

—Ki-yi-yi.

Oh, oh, oh!

Ophelia screamed inwardly, hoping that no one else would hear the sound of the door opening.

No matter how flimsy it was, there was a high possibility that someone would come to check if it was this loud.

For a while, she stopped breathing and looked to see if anyone was coming, but thankfully, she didn’t feel any presence at all.

Intermittently letting out the breath she had been holding back, she soon began to slowly search for the exit, completely hiding her presence.

She groped the wall as she passed through the dark hallway, and realized.

‘It’s underground.’

Seeing traces of water flowing down and mold growing everywhere, she had to find a place to climb.

How long had it been since she sniffed and searched for a place where the cold outside air flowed in, even a very small amount?

“Ohhh, the stairs… ah.”

An upward staircase appeared before her eyes.

Ophelia’s eyes blinked rapidly as she involuntarily exclaimed, barely covering her mouth with her hands.

—Here? Right here?

‘I don’t know if it’s correct or not.’

‘If I go up here, I might get caught again by the kidnappers.’

Even so, with no one to give her answers or guidance, the only thing left to do was just ‘go’.

‘Unless I can dig like a mole, there’s no way to get out of the underground.’

Swallowing dry saliva, Ophelia concentrated all her senses, concealed her presence and examined her surroundings, unlike when she was kidnapped.

‘Good. There’s no one.’

Step by step, she carefully advanced upwards.

And when she finally reached the upstairs, contrary to her concerns, she could see that no one was around.

Her shoulders, which had shrunk with tension, straightened a little, but she never relaxed.

“All right. You are my companion.”

She went through the surrounding pieces of wood to create a club-like thing.

Then, without a whisper or tremor, clutching her club tightly, and sharpening her nerves like finely-shaped needles, she… was unable to take more than a few steps.

—Someone appeared in front of her nose out of nowhere and without warning.

There was no sign or harbinger, as if the person had been dissolved in the air and then took shape in an instant, leaving her no time to run or hide.

The figure was about one or two heads taller, and covered entirely with a cloak. Ophelia’s eyes widened as she registered it. At this rate…!

Quickly, she tried to break her opponent’s head with the wooden club, but her wrist was caught right away.

She really did pull and twist her wrist with all her might, but the hand holding hers didn’t budge.

And strangely enough, there was no pain at all even though she was clearly unable to get out.

However, Ophelia, who was desperate and anxious and full of thoughts of running away, couldn’t possibly feel that.

“Let me…!”

Ophelia, who had barely restrained herself from yelling, widened her eyes even more when she saw the face of the opponent who took off the cloak.

“Ri… chard?”

She reached out her hand as if she couldn’t believe the situation.

The touch of her fingertips on his too-cold cheek, so indeed, this wasn’t reality? She thought about it for a while.

Blue eyes of the same color as a morning glory at dawn bloomed.

“Richard.”

The moment she called, Richard wanted to hug her.

He couldn’t help but hug Ophelia.

He wanted to hold her tightly in his arms and check her heartbeat.

But he couldn’t.

Because he didn’t deserve it.

Richard opened his mouth with only Ophelia in his eyes.

“Sorry.”

Ophelia blinked at the sound of his low voice.

“I’m sorry, Ophelia.”

“Yes? Why are you sorry?”

Ophelia tilted her head because she couldn’t understand even if she heard it again, but Richard’s mouth collapsed bitterly.

“I…”

He stretched out a hand towards her, but again he could not reach her and moved away.

“I…”

“You?”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

Before long, that terribly low whisper passed through Ophelia’s ears and penetrated her whole body.

The next moment.

At the same time as Ophelia’s heart dropped with a thud, the instinctive warning of things such as love and romance that was thought to have disappeared from her interior sounded loudly.

“No!”

She shouted, shaking her head with all her might.

“You don’t have to be sorry!”

Then she hurriedly added more words; it was an overly resolute refusal even to her.

“No, so uh… anyway, you came like this, and um…”

Ophelia closed her eyes tightly and spat out.

“There’s no need for Richard to protect me… yes.”

A large hand covered her mouth, almost covering half of her face.

“Just…”

She couldn’t see Ricahrd’s shadowed expression.

“I just wanted to protect you. That’s all.”

His whisper faded little by little, the last words being barely audible.

But Ophelia’s ears were ringing louder than any thunder.

Silence fell between the two.

It wasn’t so uncomfortable that she would feel thirsty, but it wasn’t so comfortable that it didn’t matter if she just stayed like this indefinitely like before.

She struggled to figure out what to say, but there was nothing she could think of in her empty, whitened brain.

Something was wrong, she felt. She thought Richard was different than before.

There was also concern about what the problem was.

However, the ‘problem’ that she couldn’t think of was now in shape at first glance.

But like a thorn in the throat, Ophelia couldn’t materialize it.

It must be because of her instinctive premonition that she might have to run far away if she took a step and stared straight at it.

And as if Richard had read her thoughts, he brought up a completely different story.

“Did you see who did this?”

“Yes… it’s Lady Neir.”

“Raisa Neir?”

It was a name that would have been anticipated if he had expected it, but Richard looked closely at Ophelia and asked again.

“She herself?”

“No. Our eyes met by chance. While I was distracted for a moment, someone covered my mouth from behind… I guess it wasn’t a coincidence either.”

“Maybe.”

“I knew she would hold a grudge over what happened during the meeting.”

Ophelia shook her head.

“What was Lady Neir thinking when she did this?”

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t figure it out.

Really, considering all the cases, she couldn’t think of a single reason for doing this.

“She said before that we would meet again…but I never thought it would be like this. Of course, she did say that firmly.”

“If she kidnaps you, she will definitely be able to meet you.”

“It seems like that too.”

But it still made no sense.

It was a very big problem just that the lady of the Marquisate of Neir kidnapped the lady of the Viscounty of Bolsheik, but Ophelia was currently Richard’s aide.

—How dare she kidnap the crown prince’s aide?

This was not a leap or expanded interpretation, but just looking at the circumstances, wasn’t it openly revealing the will of treason?

Ophelia involuntarily repeated what Catherine had said earlier.

“It’s said that people don’t change unless they die and wake up, so maybe Lady Neir hasn’t abandoned her old habits? I heard that when she’s angry, she throws anything she can get her hands on and gets into a dog fight. Did her eyes wander because of the meeting?”

At that instant, Richard stopped abruptly, and Ophelia, like a cat with raised fur, began to be wary of her surroundings.

Ame: Are they going to make the regression connection? Or are some third-rate goons gonna pop up? STAY TUNED!

Dea: next week on ‘is it going to be another misunderstanding or are they finally seeing the light?’ i hope it’s the latter, it’s about time!!