Chapter 20
They had been wandering through the forest for five hours.
Bella, who had been chasing after the wolf, finally collapsed to the ground. Her legs had no strength left.
“Sui…! Why did you come this deep into the forest?”
Her voice echoed in the empty woods.
Still, the wolf kept walking forward without stopping.
‘This is bad. The sun is already halfway down.’
Just as she expected, snow began to fall, making the sky darken even faster.
‘Bella, don’t go outside after sunset. Your eyes shine like stars in the dark.’
Why that embarrassing comment came to her mind now, she didn’t know.
Bella shook her head and forced herself to stand up again.
“Sui—!”
She called desperately with all her strength, but no answer came back.
‘Is this wolf… taking me somewhere strange?’
Bella stopped walking, filled with suspicion.
The wolf also stopped and turned around to look at her.
“Prince, are you trying to kidnap me right now?”
“Awoong?”
“Oh… you’re not?”
The wolf frowned as if asking what nonsense she was talking about, then slapped its tail on the ground twice, telling her to keep following.
‘A wolf can make faces like that…?’
Bella felt oddly embarrassed.
Another hour passed.
Then the wolf suddenly stopped.
In front of Bella was a deep pit tangled with rotten tree roots.
Bella looked inside—and spotted something.
“Sui!”
Down below, Sui lay unconscious, covered in dirt.
She saw faint breath—luckily he was still alive.
Without hesitation, Bella jumped down into the pit.
Thud!
Pain shot through her whole body, but she forced herself up and held Sui in her arms.
“Sui! Wake up!”
Bella took off her coat and wrapped him.
‘He’s so cold…’
His body felt like solid ice.
At that moment, the wolf also jumped down and wrapped its body around Sui, helping warm him.
After a short while, Sui’s eyelashes trembled, and his beautiful purple eyes opened.
“…Miss Bella?”
“Yes, it’s me. Are you awake?”
Bella gently cupped his cheek.
His frozen eyes melted like spring snow, filling with tears.
“Miss… I don’t want to go. I want to stay with you in Piroche forever.”
“Sui…”
He cried loudly and hugged her tightly.
As she suspected, Sui had run away because he really didn’t want to be adopted.
Bella hugged him back and said softly,
“You’re getting a family, Sui. You still don’t want that?”
“No!”
Suie shouted firmly.
“I heard everything! All the kids who go to those people die!”
Bella’s hand froze in midair.
It happened when she had gone to pick up Sui’s handkerchief.
She had accidentally overheard the couple who wanted to adopt Sui—the Garden Count and Countess.
They were fallen nobles from Pione.
They adopted many children since they had none of their own, but strangely, every child who went to their house died soon after from some unknown illness.
People suspected murder at first, but investigations showed they really had died from sickness.
Rumors spread among children, turning the story into a ghost-like legend.
Bella calmed Suie gently.
“For now, let’s go back. We’ll figure it out together, okay?”
Snow started falling harder and harder.
If they stayed here, both of them could die.
“Miss, can’t you take me instead?”
“…What?”
“You married the prince, right? Then you can take me with you!”
“Oh… that…”
‘Ah, he means Acares.’
He wasn’t a prince, and they weren’t married.
But Bella couldn’t crush the child’s dream.
“Sui, let’s just go ba—”
CRASH!
A tree, heavy with snow, broke and slid halfway into the pit.
If they stayed any longer, they would be crushed.
Bella covered Sui’s eyes with her hand.
“Sui, go back first.”
She quickly opened the Book of Oracion.
And prayed desperately:
“Please… take Sui back to Piroche safely.”
Suddenly—
A golden aurora filled the air.
***
Meanwhile…
“A chocolate moose. Say that again. Bella disappeared?”
Acares, holding a bouquet of flowers, asked with an annoyed expression.
Rie behind him also reacted in shock.
Michael scratched his face awkwardly.
“She hasn’t been seen since she went to search for the missing kid. The child is still missing as well.”
“What?”
Acares clenched his jaw.
“The Crown Prince spent a fortune improving this place, but the teachers take their salaries and can’t even keep track of a child? Were you all drinking together?”
Michael hung his head silently, which only irritated Acares more.
He grabbed Michael by the collar.
“Listen, Chocomousse. I never liked you. If anything happens to Bella, you’re dead first.”
A deadly light shone in Acares’s eyes.
He still remembered Michael’s thought from the first day he visited Piroche:
‘She’s too good to give away to someone else.’
Bella wanted the kids of Piroche to be happy, so Acares hadn’t fired Michael.
The only thing he could do was give Mikael a taste of the bullying Bella herself had endured.
Then—
“What’s that?”
“A wolf!”
People started shouting, pointing at something.
Acares dropped Michael and ran toward the commotion.
On the wolf’s back was a small child tied tightly with magic, gasping for breath.
“Huh?”
“Roye, where is Bella?”
The wolf pointed with its snout toward the dark, snowy mountain it had come from.
