Chapter 11
Her eyes opened, but for a moment she couldn’t focus.
Through the narrow slit of her vision, she caught sight of a beast in its last, faltering breaths.
“Wh-what is this…”
Her mind threatened to collapse.
At that instant, Dmitri pulled her tightly against him.
Their bodies pressed flush together, rising and falling in the same strained rhythm of breath.
“Don’t be frightened.
It’s only a deer.
Just a deer that’s become the prey.”
The animal’s great eyes never closed, trembling pitifully.
With one last desperate kick of its hind legs, it sagged limp and lifeless.
Ariella knew instinctively this was death.
Was my death like that?
Was it just as pitiful, just as senseless?
Her breathing turned ragged, spiralling into hyperventilation.
Her head sagged to the side.
Dmitri spread his hand and pressed it against her abdomen.
She wanted to look away from the moment life slipped away, but she couldn’t tear her eyes from it.
“Ariella.”
Did my body spasm like that when I died?
Or was it even emptier, without a single tremor?
And when you saw my severed head roll across the ground, did you laugh at me again?
“Ariella!”
“H-huh?”
He had already dismounted without her noticing and now pulled her down after him.
Black eyes filled her vision, so close she couldn’t breathe.
The face she had stared up at from the guillotine, and Dmitri’s at eighteen, kept overlapping.
Suddenly, he yanked her into his arms.
His hand patted her back awkward, clumsy, untrained.
And yet, like a lie, the suffocating breath inside her chest began to ease.
“It’s just a deer.
Deer are the most common prey.”
“…Yes.”
“Exactly.
Just a hunt, nothing more.”
She nodded.
Her breathing slowed, steadied.
Only then did Dmitri release her.
At that moment, his adjutant Eric appeared, leading Ariella’s white horse.
No sooner had she caught her breath than the noise swelled again.
Another quarry had been spotted.
The hounds barked louder than before, straining at their leashes.
“Take her.”
He handed Ariella over to Eric.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Dmitri approached the deer and wrenched his sword free.
Blood spurted from its neck as the blade caught the light.
His movements were precise, efficient.
He wiped the sword with a cloth from his retainer and slid it back into its scabbard.
Task complete, he strode toward Ariella in slow, measured steps.
As he neared, she instinctively drew back.
Dmitri’s brow furrowed slightly.
His hand, half-raised toward her, halted midair.
Their eyes met.
His expression creased, if only for a heartbeat.
“I-I didn’t mean.”
He studied her for a breath, then turned, mounted his horse, and spoke curtly.
“Guard her well.”
Leaving the brief order to Eric, Dmitri pulled his reins.
Ariella’s hand shot out before she realised, grasping at his sleeve.
His unfathomable black gaze lingered on her face, silently demanding a reason.
“Where are you going?”
“To hunt a bear.
Don’t worry.
You’ll be safe with Eric.”
She wanted to hold him back, but instead, she released him.
It felt like the only thing she could do.
As the servants busied themselves with the carcass, Dmitri disappeared into the deeper forest.
The shadows swallowed him until he was no more than a flicker among the trees.
Ariella stood rooted, staring in the direction he had vanished.
“Are you feeling better, My Lady?”
Eric’s worried gaze swept over her.
“Yes, I’m fine now.”
“Can you ride?
There’s a safer spot a little farther in.”
She mounted her horse, and Eric guided her onward.
With only a short turn deeper, the forest grew hushed, serene.
“Is this your first hunt?”
“Yes.
Florence doesn’t have many forests.
And there hasn’t been a war since I was born.”
“You can speak freely with me.”
“Maybe in time.
Still… I must have been a burden, right in the middle of the hunt.”
“Not at all.
It’s not easy to see blood.
I’ve yet to grow used to it myself.
Besides, His Highness intended to hide you away from the start.”
“Hide me?”
Eric didn’t answer.
He drew a long dagger from his belt, slicing aside branches that barred their path.
They seemed to be heading deeper still.
As her breathing finally settled, the forest’s beauty revealed itself.
Though the memory of the dying deer lingered, sunlight filtering through the tall pines was dazzling.
At last, Eric spoke again, as if having made up his mind.
“Every year, many people die at the hunting festival.”
“What?”
“Especially those who defy the Emperor.
Most cases are deemed accidents. No one dares to protest.
They say the beasts killed them or they fell from a cliff.”
“Y-you mean…”
“His Highness feared as much.”
‘You’d be safer locked in the tower.’
Only now did Ariella understand Dmitri’s words.
Back then, they had sounded cruel and dismissive.
“Of course, I’m not saying His Majesty is targeting you directly.”
She could only nod.
No words came to her.
“But… should His Highness really go alone into the woods like that?”
“Bear hunts cannot be done in groups.”
“Then why hunt them at all?”
Eric gave a faint smile.
“It is the Emperor’s command… and…”
He trailed off.
“His Highness must win today.”
“Win?
Why must he win?”
She tilted her head.
Was it simply pride, a stubborn love of victory?
She thought to ask further, but just then they emerged into a clearing by a small stream.
The sound of running water trickled softly, the place impossibly peaceful, like something crafted and hidden within the forest.
Ariella dismounted.
Her horse wandered to the stream and lowered its head to drink.
She stroked its mane, the softness easing her heart.
And then Dmitri’s hand, patting her back, came to mind.
Awkward, almost comical, yet it had calmed her.
The memory left her exhaling in a long, uneven sigh.
“You worry for His Highness.”
Ariella froze.
Me?
I do?
No… impossible.
She turned wide eyes to Eric, but he wasn’t looking at her.
He washed his blade in the stream, his tone matter-of-fact.
“His Highness also worries for you.
He even tried to keep you from coming here, though he could not defy His Majesty’s command.”
He flicked his blade dry against his trousers as though stating something utterly ordinary.
So… Dmitri had tried to protect her?
The same man who had locked her away in a tower for five years?
Who had reappeared only to bring her despair?
Who, five years later, still had dragged her to the guillotine?
Don’t be ridiculous.
Even as she denied it fiercely, a cold heaviness settled inside her.
The more she came to know him, the more it hurt like pain seeping up through her fingertips.
The path grew faint as they entered the quieter parts of the forest.
Perhaps his heart was the same no clear road in sight.
Weary, Ariella let her gaze drift ahead.
A fallen log caught her eye, and she moved toward it.
But behind the trunk, something else drew her attention.
Something limp like the hind legs of that deer.
“Ah!”
Startled, she stumbled back, tripping over a stone and landing hard.
“What is it?”
“S-something’s there—!”
Eric rushed forward, drawing his longsword.
“Stay back.
It’s a wolf.”
A wolf, alone?
Wolves lived in packs.
Why was it here, isolated, lifeless?
Eric knelt by the carcass.
His expression darkened.
“A stab wound.
Someone killed it… and left it here on purpose.”
At that moment, Ariella’s white horse raised its head high and reared, hooves striking the ground.
The once-peaceful grove turned tense.
“This is a trap.
Stay behind me.”
As if to prove him right, her horse bucked wildly, then bolted down the trail.
And from that path, another beast appeared.
Ariella’s eyes narrowed.
A wolf?
No…
“Grey?”
The hound charged
toward her, only to veer straight at her position.
Behind him, astride his black stallion, came Dmitri.
Ariella started forward instinctively, but Eric blocked her path.
At that moment, a heavy cloud swallowed the sun, dimming the world.
From every direction, pairs of glowing eyes appeared.
A pack of wolves.
“Ariella!
Don’t move a muscle!”
