Chapter 164
“I reached it!”
The moment Evi rejoiced, everyone’s bodies wavered and toppled sideways.
Like a collapsing wall, the children fell to the side.
In the chaos, Arsel and Ruska managed to catch the falling Evi and Eve, trying not to let them get hurt.
“Ugh…”
“Arsel!”
Hearing Arsel groan, Evi looked at him in alarm.
“Arsel, are you okay?”
“I’m… okay… ah.”
It was a voice that anyone would hear and immediately know was not okay.
Evi checked on Arsel, who couldn’t get up easily.
Why hadn’t she noticed it earlier?
Arsel’s face was flushed, and sweat was beading on his forehead.
Evi immediately placed her hand on his forehead. It felt so hot that he instinctively pulled away.
“Arsel…”
“It’s just… because I exerted myself…”
A lie. If that were true, Ruska, who had been below Arsel, wouldn’t have been able to stand at all.
Sensing that something was wrong, Ruska bent down and grabbed Arsel’s arm.
“Ugh!”
Arsel couldn’t hold back and groaned again.
“You… you bastard…”
Ruska’s expression hardened, and he hurriedly rolled up Arsel’s sleeve.
“Gah!”
Eve, standing nearby, gasped in shock.
Thick, sticky blood was flowing from the wounds on both of Arsel’s wrists, looking like red lines.
The injuries were obviously severe.
They hadn’t been tended to for some time; the blood hadn’t even scabbed and was clotted and caked with pus oozing through.
“Is it infected?”
Ruska’s pupils flickered.
On the first day, Siren’s subordinates had tied the boys’ hands very tightly.
Ruska had tried to loosen them but stopped, fearing he would only hurt his hands.
When he later saw that Arsel and Evi had freed themselves, he had thought everything had gone well.
But now he realized they had risked injuring themselves just to loosen the ropes, and the wounds hadn’t healed properly—they had worsened.
“It hurts, but it’s not critical. More importantly, Evi, did you reach the top? Want to try climbing again?”
“Hey!”
Ruska couldn’t help but shout at Arsel’s words.
Arsel’s eyes, flushed with feverish excitement, barely focused.
“You… if you keep like this…”
“Like this? Either way, we need to open that window. Hurry.”
Arsel lowered his sleeve, signaling to stop looking, and stood against the wall.
He continued speaking to Ruska:
“Ruska, we’ll have to step on Evi and Eve… but can you jump and reach up there?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Exactly what I said. Let’s change the climbing order. Evi’s body can’t hang there to open it. Even if we manage to get up somehow…”
Arsel recalled what Evi had said after regaining his senses.
Pretending to be unconscious, Evi had listened to everything the men said while sneaking peeks whenever there was a gap.
The men, thinking the children were unconscious, had let their guard down and spoke freely.
Thanks to this, Evi had seen everything—the mountain paths, the forks, and the signs along the way.
This allowed Arsel and Ruska to roughly know where they were and which direction they were headed.
This must be near Torut.
A region northeast of the capital.
Rolling hills at the foot of the mountains. Once popular among nobles as a retreat thanks to its beautiful lakes, most were destroyed in the war, leaving only ruins.
From here, they knew which way led back to the capital.
The problem is…
Arsel looked up at the high window.
They couldn’t all go out at once.
Even if one climbed up and helped pull the others, it would take too long.
And even if they all got out, moving together would slow them down.
So they’d have to split up…
Then Evi and Eve would get caught first.
If they were caught after escaping, it wouldn’t end well.
At least Eve, a royal, still had some use.
But Evi? The moment she was seen as a nuisance…
Arsel shook his head to dispel the grim thoughts.
And it wasn’t just Evi and Eve he worried about.
I’m not in shape either.
Though he had tried to act tough, he knew his own condition.
His mouth was dry, his vision blurred, and his fever kept rising.
At this rate, he would soon collapse.
Trying to escape in this condition would drain his stamina completely.
What would the other children do then?
Arsel looked at Ruska, frozen in place.
He knew exactly what that expression meant—fear.
Ruska was genuinely scared.
Scared of losing his oldest friend.
“Ruska.”
“…”
“Ruska.”
As Arsel kept calling, Ruska bit her lip.
“Listen carefully, Ruska. With my condition, Evi and Eve won’t be able to hold out long either. So you have to climb up as fast as possible and go alone.”
“Even if we all escape…”
“You know it won’t work. I can’t keep up, and neither can Evi or Eve. Among us, the fastest and strongest alone is you.”
Ruska, knowing this to be true, could not argue.
“Remember here? We’ve been here a few times as kids… The path to the capital is only one. The emperor and knights will come that way, so go, as fast as you can.”
It wasn’t difficult.
Escape from here, run as fast as possible to the emperor, and request help.
Though Ruska knew this, his face contorted.
“And you?”
“…”
“And the rest of you?”
Ruska thought about what would happen to the children left behind after he escaped.
“I’ll leave Eve… I don’t think they’ll hurt Evi either. I guess I’ll be the easiest target.”
Arsel said calmly that he would endure the men’s vengeance alone, and Ruska’s throat tightened.
“Pull yourself together, Ruska. This isn’t the time to cry.”
“Who said I’m crying?”
Even as she spoke, Ruska wiped her eyes.
Arsel was right. The fastest way to get help was for him to go out alone and locate the pursuers immediately.
Ruska turned to the window and saw Evi and Eve staring at him silently.
Both were terrified, but said nothing.
Though it was natural for them to want to go first, they seemed to accept that Ruska should go.
Then Evi dug into her pocket and handed him a chestnut.
The very first chestnut she had saved to give to the emperor.
Knowing it was there, and suggesting they share it, Arsel and Ruska had previously insisted it be kept as emergency food.
“Ruska, eat this while you’re running.”
“No, this is—”
Ruska tried to return it, but Evi shook her head.
“It’s the biggest one. Even one might be enough. You’ll need energy, so eat it.”
Seeing Evi hand it to him as if she no longer needed it, Ruska’s throat tightened.
Evi knew what death was.
She had always seen the dead in the forest near the inn.
Now, sensing her own death, she was giving him everything she had left.
Ruska accepted it and put it in his pocket.
Then he said to Evi:
“I’ll bring it to His Majesty without eating it.”
“…!”
“So you can ask him yourself how it tasted. And…”
Ruska wiped his tears again with the back of his hand, then smiled faintly.
“Next year, we’ll gather more chestnuts.”
Evi nodded, eyes glistening.
Some time later, a small figure escaped quickly from the mansion where the children had been held.
After several attempts, Ruska had finally crawled through the small window alone and ran without looking back.
He had to save everyone.
He had to deliver what Evi had given him.
And above all…
“Next year, we’ll go play together.”
To keep that promise, he had to run like crazy now.
