Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In this world, I once possessed an illustrious status.

Now I was like a wild rat, fleeing blindly down a dim, endless street.

Behind me, the shouts of my pursuers drew closer. At the next intersection, I suddenly crashed into a demon-red carriage.

From inside came a voice, thick with disgust.

“What filthy thing is this?”

The armored soldier at the head of the escort lifted me high into the air. “My lord, it’s a frail young woman.”

“Kill her, or let her go?”

Beyond the pitch-black street, rough shouts gradually rose again. From the sound of it, those people still hadn’t given up the search. I struggled in that iron-pincer grip.

“Save me…”

On the carriage, the gold-woven green curtain was gently lifted by its owner. A careless glance drifted over, cold and detached, as if watching from the sidelines.

Seeing that those people were about to find me, the desperate will to survive drove me to beg in abject humility. “Please!”

“As long as you save me, I’ll do anything!”

At my plea, a hand wearing an emerald thumb ring braced against the window frame, veins rising faintly with the force of its grip. “Truly?”

“Anything?”

“I…”

Before I could answer, the mysterious owner fell silent again, as though wrestling with himself.

Only after a long while did he give the order in a hoarse voice.

“Throw her in.”

Unexpectedly, the carriage interior was just as dark.

Everywhere I touched was the same soft, cold texture. A wide sleeve swept past, and a soft, languid voice floated down above my head. “Get down.”

“Without my order, you are not allowed to raise your head.”

“Y-yes…”

Listening to the wheels rolling onward, I knelt low against the floor and endured, planning to look for a chance to escape after a few more intersections.

But then, without warning, warm skin pressed against my back. There was force hidden in it, and only when I had been pushed flat to the floor did I realize-

What was stepping on my back was my owner’s bare foot.

Those slightly cool toes wandered slowly over my thin back, intimate and faintly ticklish. “Why are your teeth clenched so tightly?”

“Didn’t you say just now that you would do anything?”

I lowered my head and said nothing.

There was a metallic clink. My owner had undone his belt and was now, with great interest, binding my thin limbs.

Outside the carriage, several rough shouts suddenly rang out.

“Stop!”

The armored soldier driving the carriage remained unmoved and continued forward.

Outside, blades clashed fiercely. Inside, it was so quiet one could hear a pin drop. My owner slowly tightened the sash, finally securing every last inch. “I still lack a vase.”

“So this person is mine.”

After several screams, the people outside seemed to have had their tongues snatched away by night crows. “B-but she is a runaway slave from Cloud Heaven!”

“Hm?”

Two more heavy thuds followed.

The people outside learned their lesson. “S-since Your Grace likes her, then…”

The rest of their voices were swallowed by the flash of blades.

The carriage gradually brightened, and only then did I discover that it was filled with crabapple blossoms. The person behind me picked up a long, slender branch and inserted it into the gaps between my tightly bound limbs, his breath carrying poison like a snake’s forked tongue. “Hold it tight.”

“If even one falls, I will throw you out.”

My frail waist and back were nearly bent backward. Forced to offer my body up to this unreasonable invader, I silently endured the tearing strain in my limbs and did everything I could to turn my head for a look.

Behind me, the other person had lowered his eyes, as though admiring a work of art he had painstakingly created.

Those eyes were clearly as dark as the night wind, yet within that wind, they hid a glimmer of light.

In that dazed instant, he somehow resembled an old acquaintance by three parts.