Chapter 3: 3

“Come on, Lily.”

Alan took me, who was speechless, in his arms and slowly walked out of the carriage.

The surrounding scenery seen when outside was even more spectacular.

The sky in the middle of the day, which had been sunny until just now, was black as if it had been painted with ink.

The night didn’t come. The sun was still shining in the distance.

The boundary between the bright and dark skies was as clear as a drawing.

How could such an absurd situation be possible…

‘The sky… has fallen.’

There were no other words to express it other than that.

There was a large hole above the top of my head.

Beyond the huge hole, there was no star nor moon, only darkness.

When I was dazed as if I was dreaming, Alan mumbled lowly.

“I wanted to arrive before the barriers around here were broken… but it’s a little late.”

Barrier?

It was a word I had often heard when I was still begging. 

The barrier of the World Tree protects us from evil spirits.

I didn’t really care what it was, but…

‘Wait for a sec. What happens when the barrier is broken?’

Thud!

“Argh!”

I was thinking about it for a while, then I involuntarily hugged the doll at the loud noise.

Fortunately, the sound was not heard from nearby.

A dark shadow fell over the distant sunny sky. It was like a giant slamming his fist from above the clouds.

Thump, thump, thump. 

The sky was shredded as if it had been scraped off with a rake. It was a surreal scene, like a dream.

As I opened my mouth blankly, Alan gently stroked my hair.

“Lily, do you know how to count?”

Why all of a sudden? 

“Uh… yes.”

“How far can you count?”

I can count endlessly, but if I tell him the truth, it’s gonna be suspicious, right?

‘But if I’m too stupid, he might think that I’m not like his daughter…’

I pondered and spread out three fingers.

“Up to 300.”

“I see.”

Alan took off his cloak and wrapped it around me.

The end of the cloak dragged on the floor, perhaps because of my short stature.

It didn’t look this big when he wore it.

“Count to 300 here. I’ll come back before you’re finished.”

“Duke, Princess! Are you okay?”

As soon as his words finished, a man with messy yet somewhat styled brown hair ran towards Alan and me.

It was the young man who introduced himself as the duke’s exclusive aide before boarding the carriage.

“Nike, bring me my sword.”

Alan indifferently gave orders to his aide.

Then Nike groaned and rolled his feet.

“Duke, you want to subdue the evil spirits yourself? It’s dangerous!”

“You talk a lot. Don’t talk, just bring it.”

“I can’t! There are no knights to assist now. That damn kidnapper told us not to bring them!”

“Then let’s do this. You stay here and protect Lily with magic.”

“Wa, wait a minute! I’ll give it to you!”

Nike hurried to the carriage. When he returned, he held a sword the size of an adult in his arms.

Alan took the great sword and disappeared into the forest.

He looked at me anxiously before he completely went away, but he did not come back.

“The Duke, really. No one can stop him.”

After Alan disappeared, Nike sighed and drew on the ground with his long magic wand.

It was not drawn with a ruler, but an accurate pentagon was made.

The rest of the servants who had approached all of a sudden gathered inside the pentagon.

“Princess, I will make a concealment magic. Please stand inside the magic stone for a moment.”

Nike took a transparent jewel from the belt and set it down, one at each vertex of the pentagon.

A mysterious glow emanated from the jewel.

I guess that was the magic stone I had only heard of.

I made sure he wasn’t looking at me and slipped back.

‘Now is my chance to escape.’

I didn’t know what Nike was doing, but it was certain that if I missed this moment, I wasn’t sure when another chance to escape would come.

First, let’s avoid the fate of dying at Alan’s hand. So there was no reason to sit, count, and pretend to be the dead Lily any longer.

If I entered the duke mansion like this, there was zero chance of escaping, and if he found out about the fact that I was fake later, I would be taken to the torture room.

‘Get ready… and go!’

…I shouted that to myself, but in the end I couldn’t even get out of the pentagon and stood tall.

It was not that someone stopped me. It was an instinct springing from the depths of my heart that grabbed my ankle.

‘It might be more dangerous to run away like this.’

I am a child, 9 years old, but I went through all sorts of things in the slums.

The emotion I learned there was fear, not curiosity.

Especially, being reckless without knowing what was going on.

Someone might look at me and say while kicking his tongue, ‘There’s no cuteness in this child.’ But this was my way of surviving. 

Because where I lived, not a single mistake was tolerated.

‘For now, let’s be quiet. At least until we pass through the collapsed sky…’

The moment I raised my head with that thought, I froze in place.

There was a long head in front of me. As black as the hole in the sky, a black monster was pushing his face towards me.

What should I call this…?

There was no other way to describe it other than ‘a lump that mimics humans’. 

It looked like a two-legged walking tree covered with mud.

“Uh….!”

I covered my mouth with the doll as I was about to scream.

Nike, who suddenly approached behind me, said in a whisper.

“Pri, Princess, be still. I just completed the concealment magic. If we’re inside the magic circle, evil spirits can’t see us…”

Even Nike, who said that, was terrified and clenched his teeth as if he was about to pee.

Even though the forest wind wasn’t strong, my whole body trembled like an aspen.

Just like when I first met Alan at church.

‘Oh, I see.’

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I had the same feeling back then.

‘That’ is more than enough to kill me in this place. 

Wooo, wooo. The monster raised its chin and cried out.

It was a terrifyingly strange and mourning cry, and it was distinctly different from that of a wild beast.

A small question popped into my mind, dazed by fear.

‘…Why?’

I think I heard that cry somewhere before.

It was not a memory of a previous life. All that remained were the contents of <No Dreams or Hopes>, and even that was hazy.

But it was weird. I was sure I’d heard of it at least once in my 9-year-old life.

After a moment, the monster turned its head. Fortunately, it didn’t notice me and seemed to go the other way.

Phew, Nike breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, as I was about to sweep my chest.

“Bleerrghh!”

The servant behind Nike vomited.

He stared at the monster with his eyes as if he had lost his mind, then sprinted to the other side.

“I, it’s an evil spiriiiit!”

“Hey, it’s dangerous…!”

Another servant beside him reached out his hand out of the pentagon.

Nike hurriedly covered my eyes, but it was too late. 

Flop!

Ah, I’d seen it all. Even the monster who noticed the pretence and turned its head, and the servant who was hit by a rake.

“Arggghh!”

The servant who was trying to save his comrade fell forward, spouting red blood.

His mournful screams were cut off along the way.

Between Nike’s trembling fingers, the scattered bloodstains were blurred. It was a sight I could never understand.

‘That monster… What is it?’

If it was a beast, it would hunt to fill his hungry stomach.

However, after killing a person, the monster which called ‘evil spirit’ retreated as if it was no longer interested. As if the act of killing was the goal.

“No. The magic stone…”

Then Nike mumbled.

“The concealment magic… has been lifted.”

A magic stone flew away from its place.

It seemed the servant who had just died kicked it while he was struggling.

Silence continued for a while. Then there was chaos.

“Hiiiyyy!”

“Go away!”

Wait! We can re-deploy the magic!”

No matter how much Nike shouted, it was no use.

The servants, who were in a panic, got out of the pentagon and scattered.

Drrr. 

At that moment, my feet rang as if there was an earthquake.

I ran to Nike quickly and bumped into him.

It was an action based on a momentary instinct rather than a thought.

As soon as Nike and I rolled into the grass, the ground that had just been quiet rose up.

The ground cracked roughly like a cookie hit by a fork.

The demons crawled out of the collapsed crack.

It wasn’t just one or two. How many of those were there in total?

‘Three, four. Five…….’

Flop! 

Even before I could count, the evil spirits swung their hands at Nike as if they were about cleaning up impure water.

Nike flew away helplessly.

It seemed that he didn’t die because he made a shield just before being hit, but blood flowed from his head.

This time, the evil spirits surrounded me. I didn’t know why, but they didn’t kill me right away, they looked at me closely.

Do they want to see in which direction to cut me?

Facing extreme fear, I couldn’t think of anything.

My vision had turned hazy.

It seemed that the tear glands of the 9-year-old responded earlier than my sense of reason.

Tuk.

Suddenly, something touched my chest. Five sharp, root-like things that circled the heart. 

Even an idiot knew what it was. These were the evil spirit’s claws.

The sickle of the reaper was placed in front of my heart.

‘I….’

Just before I died, I made my only wish.

‘I want to live.’

Whoosh!

At first I thought it was the sound of my flesh being torn apart.

However, no matter how long I waited, I did not lose consciousness, I was fine.

I slowly lifted my eyelids. And then I blinked a few times to make sure I woke up properly.

The whole sky was dark as if the barrier had been completely torn.

Only the magic stones scattered here and there emitted a soft light.

Thanks to it, I was able to see clearly. The corpse of an evil spirit split in half, and the man standing on it with his eyes glowing blue.

Alan raised his sword and struck it without hesitation. 

Whoosh.

In a single action, the evil spirits were swept away like seashells hit by the waves.

I squeezed my mouth like a carp and shouted.

“Behind, behind!” 

Kwack!

But it was already too late.

The head of an evil spirit that fell from the sky thrust its sharp teeth into Alan’s shoulder.

Unlike me, who became white, Alan simply raised one eyebrow and muttered.

Although it was far away and I couldn’t hear the voice, the shape of the mouth was visible. 

–Protect. 

Grrrrr.

The roar of the beast shook the ground.

The man’s spine, the line wobbled and rose.

Joints twisted upside down like a four-legged animal, ripping apart the blood-stained uniform.

Shiny black hair grew and covered his muscular body, and his jade-colored eyes grew long.

I shuddered. The Mad Duke….

‘Crazy, he has become a beast.’

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