Eden was taken aback upon hearing my crying sound.
“Hey.”
Still, I didn’t feel like being comforted.
It wasn’t because I wasn’t crying because I was sad. Everything was just complicated. It felt like my head was whipped around with a whisk.
I snapped back fiercely.
“Don’t look back. Just keep going.”
Eden seemed uncertain whether to listen to me or ignore me and try to comfort me. His words came to a halt.
“Go!”
However, when I called out in a sobbing voice from behind him, he said, ‘Okay,’ and continued riding. I, too, followed suit and joined the ride, enduring the chilling gusts of wind that relentlessly struck my face and even dislodged my hood. The biting cold threatened to numb the tips of my ears, but I refused to halt or propose a decrease in speed, and instead, I persisted in riding.
Stars began to descend from the top of the sky.
I suddenly felt the urge to shout.
“Aaahhh!”
As I let out a loud, guttural scream from deep within my stomach, Eden turned around in surprise to look at me. He glanced around, but there were no houses in sight.
No matter how much noise I made, there was no one to say anything.
I screamed once again.
“Aaaaahhhh…!”
In a fleeting moment, my scream dissipated into nothingness, whisked away by the relentless wind.
Devoid of any surfaces to bounce off, the sound vanished and evaporated into the atmosphere. Despite the feverish heat coursing through my body, my skin tingled with an icy numbness. I persisted in unleashing my screams at the highest volume as if unburdening myself from a pent-up force. Meanwhile, the horse galloped onward, unperturbed by my cries, propelled by a surge of exhilaration.
After a while, my throat became hoarse.
I burst out laughing.
Somehow, it felt remarkably invigorating. Leaving Actilus with only a handful of possessions, sprinting across the frigid expanse of the plains… it was truly a liberating experience. Even though I didn’t know what lay ahead, rather than succumbing to worry, my heart embraced a buoyant lightness.
“Hiya!”
I rode ahead of Eden.
“Hey!”
Panicked, he picked up his pace.
Once again, tears gathered in my eyes. Yet, this time, they didn’t stem from the earlier disarray. In the void left by my scream, an ineffable feeling of emancipation started to surge.
I was desperate to survive.
I clung to each passing moment as if my very existence hung in the balance. Until this point, I had always been cautious, fixated solely on navigating through the trials. But now, it no longer mattered whether I screamed or ran to my heart’s content.
For the first time, I felt free.
Throughout my past life and even in this new world, I had always been thrust into one predicament after another.
However, now, a sense of liberation washed over me, stemming from relinquishing it all. The frigid air rushed into my nostrils, chilling yet revitalizing. I fell silent and lifted my gaze to the sky. It stretched above me, astonishingly clear, adorned with countless stars that seemed to cascade down in the absence of the moon.
“It feels good.”
I muttered as if I was entranced.
Eden, who had reined in the horse beside me, did the same, and he looked up at the sky as well.
“I’m glad that’s the case.”
˚ ·: * ✧ * :· ˚
Cisen and Sylvia couldn’t sleep all night.
It was because they were worried that Eden and Angelica might not be able to escape and could be captured. Sylvia anxiously bit her lip, her gaze fixed on the outside. At the same time, Cisen knelt down and fervently recited a prayer, her hands clasped together, directed towards an unfamiliar deity.
The night felt agonizingly prolonged, with each passing minute stretching their apprehension.
It was only when the first light of dawn graced the sky that a sigh of relief finally escaped the lips of both women. With the rising sun, a deliveryman arrived, pushing a handcart filled with supplies.
Cisen stepped outside to accept the delivery, which included eggs, milk, bread, and dried meat.
Curiously, the courier, who hailed from the Countess’s residence, craned his neck repeatedly, trying to catch a glimpse inside the villa as if he had been instructed to check on Angelica. Sensing the courier’s curiosity, she positioned herself strategically to obstruct his view of the vacant stable space, ensuring that no suspicions were aroused.
“How is the Empress? I’d like to see her face once.”
At those words, she responded coldly and dismissively.
“Do you think the Empress shows her face to just anyone? Please know your place and act accordingly.”
Despite the delivery man’s displeased expression, he had no choice but to comply with her statement. Grumbling under his breath, he begrudgingly withdrew the handcart and departed. Once the delivery person had left, Cisen entered the villa, clutching a basket tightly.
As she closed the front door behind her, her legs weakened and she collapsed into her seat, overwhelmed with exhaustion.
Sylvia helped her to her feet as she asked.
“What did he say?”
“He said he wanted to make sure Her Majesty was doing well.”
“That’s good to hear. It seems that they don’t know that the Empress and the paladin crossed the gate yesterday.”
Cisen concurred with her words.
The strategy of separating the departures of Eden and Angelica by a week was devised to create an alibi for them. By having Cisen and Sylvia remain at the villa and make their presence known, it would create the assumption that Angelica was also present. Consequently, when they eventually leave, it would obscure the precise timing of Angelica and Eden’s departure from the Countess’s estate, leading to confusion in the search operations.
Prior to her departure, Angelica repeatedly stressed to Sylvia and Cisen to do their best to run away.
She vehemently insisted that they must conceal themselves with extreme caution, leaving behind no discernible trails. While both women made a solemn vow in Angelica’s presence to adhere to her instructions inwardly, they harbored divergent sentiments.
Sylvia asked, taking the basket from her hand.
“You know what we need to do, right?”
Cisen nodded.
“We need to serve as bait.”
It would be practically impossible for both of them not to get caught. One of them would inevitably get caught. And if it were the case, Cisen and Sylvia should be the ones to get caught.
Angelica had to walk away safely.
…For the loyalty of Cisen, for the sake of Sylvia’s revenge.
Pretending to continue their service to the departed Empress, Sylvia and Cisen enacted a charade. As Countess Tocino expressed her desire to visit, they entrusted an errand boy with a letter penned by Angelica prior to her departure.
⌜ I apologize for appearing in a sorry state, so let’s meet later. How about in a week? ⌟
Countess Tocino had enough political acumen to decipher Angelica’s letter.
Responding to the Empress’s request with a letter that praised, “Your Majesty’s appearance is always admirable,” despite her unseemly state would be seen as insincere and disrespectful. Besides, Angelica didn’t flat-out reject the meeting but instead agreed to meet after a week.
In the end, Countess Tocino had no other option but to send a letter expressing her compliance with the Empress’s request.
The answer that came back was short.
⌜ Thank you for your understanding. ⌟
Three days after the letters were exchanged, Sylvia and Cisen also finished preparing to escape.
They, too, had a spare pass that Eden had stolen, but it was never used. It was because they didn’t go through the gate but out through a secret passage that the gentry of the territory used. The existence of this passage was revealed to Cisen by a beggar whom she had rewarded with a gold coin.
The luggage of the two was filled with the Empress’s belongings.
Cisen assumed the role of appearing in public when needed. Since she was always by Angelica’s side, any woman seen with her would easily be mistaken for Angelica herself. Moreover, they went a step further by gradually using the Empress’s possessions as a means of payment whenever they needed money.
The search party would now come after them.
˚ ·: * ✧ * :· ˚
Despite Eden’s caution to not let my excitement reach its peak, reminding me that it wasn’t completely over yet, those were just fleeting words. As we passed through the gate and a couple of days went by, even he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
“From now on, it’d be good to focus on managing our physical condition.
I agreed.
After all, traveling in the winter consumes a lot of energy. Furthermore, we made a conscious decision to minimize our interactions with others until we had distanced ourselves sufficiently from Actilus. If we let our guard down too early, it could become a significant problem later on.
Eden and I came across a clearing where a pile of dry grass had been stacked to make compost for next year’s farming, so we decided to stop and feed the horses there. We decided to rest for a couple of hours and unloaded my horse.
While journeying, Eden and I stumbled upon a clearing where a stack of dry grass had been assembled for composting purposes in the upcoming farming season. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we halted our progress and proceeded to feed our horses there.
As we decided to rest for a couple of hours, I dismounted from my horse. Subsequently, we silently chewed on the preserved rations we had brought along.
The journey went smoothly.
While I possessed no practical survival knowledge, Eden was well-versed in such matters since the paladins of Tunia were trained to interpret the sun’s position during the day and navigate by the stars during the night.
Given the vast expanse of the plains, there were scarce landmarks available as reference points for the paladins of Tunia. Consequently, when returning from distant missions, they relied on celestial objects in the sky to guide their way.
Eden concluded that we would reach the Temple of Tunia within ten days. Once we reached the temple grounds, it would only take a day or two at most to reach the actual temple itself.
“Eden, but would your banishment be alright?”
I blurted out.
Right now, his hair could no longer be called a ‘buzz cut’ anymore. Still, I couldn’t grasp whether that amount of time was enough.
Eden shrugged, chewing on the jerky.
“Now that the season has changed, I guess.”
“You’re quite aggressive. I should have known that from the moment you got down on your knees.”
“Was it too much?”
“Isn’t that so? Whether it’s in the battle or during the subjugation mission… becoming the target of a demon’s imprint is something that usually requires a great deal of courage.
“It’s because I wanted to enter the old sanctuary quickly.”
“I was wondering how you would handle coming to Actilus, but it turns out you were banished…”
As I pondered about what he might have said to be exiled, I inched closer to him, hoping to elicit some answers. However, he maintained a stoic silence without giving any answers.
“What is Seraphina thinking?”
He stopped chewing and looked up into my face at my words.
After a moment, he opened his mouth.
“Stop wondering what Seraphina might be thinking.”
“Why?”
“It becomes painful to exploit the moment you become emotionally invested.”
“….”
“Don’t even think about what happened to the Emperor.”
“Because it will only bring pain when I recall it?”
“Yes.”
Eden wrapped up the jerky before shoving it back into the corner of the luggage.
“If you had any good feelings for him, you’re going to suffer, regardless of the choices you make to survive.
“Still, I wouldn’t regret it.”
“Even if you don’t have any regrets, you can still feel pain.”
I shut my lips tightly.
It was because his words held a hint of truth, which contributed to the slightly uncomfortable atmosphere that lingered in the air. In that instant, I experienced a peculiar sensation, as if every hair on my body stood on end.
‘Check the weapons.’
At the same time, a sudden thought came to my mind.
‘…Someone’s coming.’