Chapter 2: 2

‘Ugh it hurts so much.’

My body plunges downward like I’m falling into a swamp, and It stopped when I finally hit something hard.

Fortunately, Judging by the way I’m still breathing well, it’s not a swamp. Instead, my entire body was screaming in pain after free-falling from such a height.

‘Where am I?’

I looked around while trying my best to suppress the pain and found a cluster of rocks in the distance. No matter where I turned, the rocky wall sent chills down my spine.

There was a gap between those rocks, just big enough for my body to fit through. My heart raced as I realized that if I didn’t move quickly enough, I would have collided to it head-on.

‘Let’s get a grip. Whoa, whoa, whoa.’

I clasped my hands together across my chest and took a deep breath. I needed to steady myself first, as moving through space required a momentary focus, but then I realized it wasn’t as dark as I thought.

The forest was pitch black with no moonlight, but here it felt relatively bright. As I groped around to make sure I didn’t hit a rock, I realized that light was leaking from below.

My heart pounded so hard it hurt for a moment.

‘What if there was an escape route down here?’

My body felt lighter with the hope that what I was looking for might be down there. Luckily, there was a gap from the place where I got stuck to the place where the light was coming from.

If there was a supervisor or someone inside there, they would have heard the impact of my fall. Since there wasn’t any movement so far, I figured it’s probably okay.

The light was coming through a natural opening inside those rocks, and I looked down to see that the wall was connected to the ground by a steep slope.

I gradually stepped on the protruding stones. It seemed like it would be steady enough to get me down there. I took a deep breath and stuck my leg down the hole.

‘It’s okay, I can do this.’

As I made my way down, I realized the slope wasn’t as gentle as I thought. I descended step-by-step, barely able to move my shaky legs. Two torches flickered against the cave wall, it looked as though it was ready to go out at any moment. The space wasn’t very large, but the light was faint, and the opposite wall was just as dark.

“Huh?”

I was almost down. The stone I stepped on broke and I accidentally slipped again. My knee slammed into the rocky wall.

“!!!”

The pain was so intense, I couldn’t even groan. I cradled one knee and swallowed the pain inside my throat. No one came to me while I held my breath and suffered. It was a relief.

It was dark inside the mountains, so this place felt relatively bright, but not bright enough once I finally got used to it. I couldn’t believe there was actually a cave inside this place.

It seemed likely to be connected to the outside of the island. It would be nice if there was an abandoned ship around here somewhere.

As I touched the wall with my hand, I felt a rock with a soft surface. When I stepped back a little bit, there was a rock occupying the ceiling and the floor. It certainly doesn’t look natural. It’s like a door made of stone.

‘Oh, by any chance! No way!’

I crawled closer to get a better look.

Clank!

The sound came from behind me. My breath suddenly caught up in my throat as I held back a scream.

‘Someone was there.’

My back was quickly pressed against the wall. I didn’t have anything that could be a weapon. If I had to, I could teleport back to the forest I’d come from, but then I’d give myself away as an Ephiro.

In the Empire, the Ephiro were the enemy of all. If they were discovered, they would be treated worse than slaves. Darkness came and went in waves as the torches flickered. My eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, I finally saw a silhouette so huge I wondered why I hadn’t realized it was there before.

“Ugh-”

I clamped my hand over my mouth. I realized that the walls of this cave were heavily carved with what appeared to be inscriptions.

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It wasn’t a natural formation at all. As the light of the torch swept across the walls, the words popped in and out of existence. The words seemed to bounce around in the light, as if they had a life of their own. I suddenly realized that the silence in this cave was intimidating.

Staring at the words made me feel insignificant, like a speck of dust.

The language was unreadable, but there was an overwhelming aura that filled the whole space.

And then, at the end of the overwhelming darkness, I saw ‘Him‘.

He was completely chained to the cave wall, his arms dangling from the chains, seemingly unconscious. And I realized that the smell from earlier wasn’t just stale earth.

Drip, drip, drip.

Blood dripped from him. It was pooling along the floor.

The thing was expanding its range very slowly, as if it had a life of its own. I couldn’t see his face, but I felt like I knew who it was. An unexpected encounter sent chills down my spine.

‘Shane!’

Shane Kah Sharkani.

He was the original Male Lead.

『…Salt Island has a space containing the power of dragons. There, the crown prince unleashed his power once a year, for no power can escape from that space. ….』

The Male Lead’s visit to the place was originally a top secret, but his brother eventually found out.

This was his chance to get rid of the Male Lead and frame him, so he blew up the entire salt island.

He could then blame it on the fact that the Male Lead’s power had finally run amok.

‘But it wasn’t mentioned that he was in such terrible shape.’

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I had expected devastation, but not to this extent. As a slave, I’d seen people whipped badly, and I’d seen wounds where flesh had been crushed to the bones.

Even then, I had barely managed to keep my wits about me, but that was nothing compared to the sight before me now.

His bare chest was marked with three diagonal lines of slashes from something sharp. His thighs were completely fleshless, as if dug out by a circular object. Those were the obvious large wounds, but there were so many smaller cuts and scratches all over his body. Judging by the wounds, it wouldn’t be strange if he was already dead.

It felt even more devastating because it wasn’t written in the original story. He was suffering alone like this in a narrative that didn’t even include a few lines about it.

“Ugh.”

At that moment, a groan-like breath came out, and the vivid groan sent ripples through me.

The original 「Blood-soaked Moon」was my escape from reality when I was struggling hard in life, and the Male Lead Shane was my favorite character. I had pictured him in my head so many times. The mere mention of his name made my heart pound and the corners of my eyes heat up. How many times have I fallen in love with him, and how much I’ve admired his sense of responsibility to the empire, even in the midst of hopelessness.

It was as if the feelings I had for my husband, which I had forgotten while living as a slave, had been rekindled. I hadn’t realized how exhilarating it would be to know a man’s life from childhood to the end.

‘I feel sorry for him.’

The wound was too gruesome to see, but I crept closer. Trying my best not to step on the blood as much as possible.

As I got closer, it was even more grim. I thought to myself as I crossed over to this world that no one could be more pitiful than me, but in this moment, his fate seemed worse than mine. Seeing my favorite character in front of me made me want to do anything I could for him now. My heart burned with the desire to ease his pain.

‘Ah, Novenium!’

I finally remembered as I eagerly plucked the herb, that had a direct analgesic effect. I pulled a few roots out of the ragged cloth bag I carried in my body.

These herbs could be chewed raw, but he didn’t seem to be able to do that now. If he couldn’t eat them raw, I could place them on his wounds, but they would need to be crushed to release the juice.

I took one look at the herb, then one look at him hanging in the chains, and finally put the herb in my mouth. I chewed the herb to soften it, then spit it back into my hand, its unique aroma wafting out and permeating the bloodshed.

“Ah….”

After spitting out the herb, I realized that it was useless. There were too many wounds for it to do much good. The best thing would be to swallow it.

“Well, wait a minute.“

He wasn’t listening at all, but I carefully cupped his face with one hand. He was unconscious, so his face lifted to my touch.

“Ugh.”

Again, the face was unharmed. Half of his face was covered in blood, as if his head had been torn or blown open. I pressed my lips together, feeling like I was making myself sicker.

I pushed the herb I’ve spit out in my hands into his lips. Even if it didn’t work, I really hoped it would ease the pain. He was a man who had never known true happiness, who had been tormented by his power ever since he was young, and who had never been able to fulfill his love.

Moreover, he was not yet an adult, and it was clear that the lines on his face were not yet complete.

A man who, despite being a crown prince, had to risk his life every day in battles with demons.

‘What kind of life is that?’

“Swallow it a little.”

I felt sorry for the herb that was no longer near his lips. I lifted his face a bit more and tried to part his lips with one hand. A little more and it might just slide in….

Suddenly, a shiver ran down my spine even though there was no wind at all. I glanced up, and I saw his eyelids were open. Those golden eyes held me in a blurred focus.

” ….”

When a person is too surprised, they lose all thought. The eyes that reflect the flicker of the torch are so mysterious, I thought to myself. I’ve seen many colorful eyes in this world, but nothing beats this golden color. It was a color that symbolizes dragon blood and the mark of royalty in this empire. All the other royalty had blond hair, but the Male Lead Shane had black hair.

His biological mother, the Empress, had said that this black hair was a sign of a monster, but…

‘It suits him well.’

Even though it was soaked in blood, the golden eyes and black hair went very well together. No, I think that’s not quite right. It’s mesmerizing enough to steal all the attention of passersby. He couldn’t open one eye because his eyelid was glued shut by blood.

Even so, I could tell he was handsome enough.

His golden gaze, unblinking and unwavering, drifted very slowly downward, and I followed it absentmindedly, and there was my arm.

“Oh, this is!”

I exclaimed. I couldn’t believe I was looking at him mesmerized in this position!

I was holding his face with one hand and parting his lips with the other. It was an odd position for anyone to see.

⚘

TL NOTE:

I still don’t know how to pronounce the Male lead’s name, I’ve been closely deliberating about it the entire time.

The MTL was:

‘Sihein Ka Sharkani’

I’ll assume ‘Ka’ was his middle name, which could mean either Card, Car, or And. Which doesn’t really fit will with the name. So I’m retaining it as is. *Cough*

For his first name I was torn between these:

Shin

Shane

Shihen

Sean

Please tell me which one is better?

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