Chapter 008
3. Pepper! Pepper!
Those who had spent the longest time serving the Tillard family let out crude laughs. Filthy plans on how to “teach her a lesson” began to flow freely from their mouths.
They spoke of a woman who possessed no special ability; a woman whose screams would be ignored by everyone in her own family. It was so vile that even the knight who had initially asked what they would do to her hesitated, struck by the sheer ugliness of their words.
“Is… is it really okay to do that? What if the Duke finds out—”
“It’s fine. As long as it doesn’t leave a trace. We even have permission from Young Master Ramio—”
They never got to finish the sentence about who granted them permission. Evren gave the signal, and his swordsmen lunged toward the bottom of the hill path instantly.
“H-hold your ground!”
The Shadows swung their blades, teeth bared in silent fury.
“You scum!”
“Barking like that in front of your betters!”
“Take this, and swallow this too!”
A Tillard knight, watching the sudden slaughter, scrambled backward. He gripped an emergency artifact used to summon reinforcements.
“Reinforcements! I’ll call for rein—… Augh!”
But the knight who tried to retreat screamed suddenly. In the blink of an eye, his hand had vanished completely.
Elias, observing the situation, reported calmly to Evren: “…There was no need for your intervention, Your Highness.”
“It’s fine.”
There had been no tactical need to use ‘Annihilation.’ Evren knew the Shadows alone were more than enough to subdue these men. But from the moment he had heard their vile chatter, a ringing had persisted in his ears.
‘These bastards insulted something that belongs to us!’
Since that brief contact with Lillian, his mind had been racing uncontrollably. It was such a short touch. There had been a refreshing sensation that clearly organized the tangled power within his body. But that harmless feeling was soon overwhelmed by another, sharper sensation.
Soft, clinging, making his muscles tighten with an unbearable tension…
Evren’s green eyes darkened with a murky gloom. The scent that had been constantly stimulating him… had vanished.
* * *
Lillian swallowed hard against her dry throat. She didn’t know how lucky she was to have fought so hard to stay conscious through the fever.
“Ugh…”
She had definitely been staring at the inside of the tent ceiling. The doctor and some knights had been moving noisily around her…
‘We were attacked.’
In that moment, she had clung to her bag like a lifeline. It was a wise decision made in a split second. And now—she blinked once, and the scene around her shifted entirely.
‘Where am I now?’
All the sights she had seen at dinner were gone. The tree where the incident occurred, the fire lit to boil the soup—everything had vanished. Instead, a pitch-black darkness stretched out before her, devoid of light.
‘Wait.’
This was an illusion spell used to trap prey. And the voice coming from behind her was…!
“Ah, you are quite difficult to find.”
A cold sweat broke out on Lillian’s back. No way, not this fast.
“It seems you enjoy provoking people, don’t you, Sister?”
“…….”
“Answer me!”
Lillian forced her stiff neck to turn. A familiar young man with platinum hair was approaching. She saw his face—a face that belonged to a brat—twisted with extreme dissatisfaction.
“…Ramio.”
“Hah. I was wondering what you were thinking when you agreed so easily to go North.”
“…….”
“Naturally, you thought of escaping on the way.”
Ramio smiled mockingly. “But I’m stunned. I didn’t expect someone with your intellect to hire such mercenaries.”
“……?”
“How much did you pay them? Their skills are actually quite good.”
Mercenaries?
Lillian narrowed her eyes, wondering what he was talking about.
‘This idiot…! He doesn’t know they are Prince Evren and his Shadows?’
It seemed the deep darkness and their black uniforms had prevented him from realizing their true identity.
‘Perhaps this is better.’
That way, I can hide my trail for as long as possible. It would also help expose just how foolish Ramio really was.
“Well, let’s end this game of hide-and-seek. Follow me while I’m still in a good mood, Sister.”
Ramio plastered on a “kind” smile. Those features that people praised as belonging to a noble knight shone under that expression. And Lillian used to be fooled by that smile every time. In fact, she had wanted to be fooled.
Once… I mean, when they were very young. Because they played together and shared sweets occasionally. Until the day Ramio decided to “grow up.”
‘Don’t come near me. You’re dirty.’
‘Ramio, why… why are you doing this?’
‘Sister, they say you’re powerless, and that being near you might be contagious.’
She hadn’t realized then that such a cruel rejection signaled the end of their relationship. But now, Lillian had abandoned that bond as well. She looked mockingly at her brother, who still deluded himself into thinking she was trembling with fear.
“Why would I follow you? Do I look like someone who took an arrow to the head and lost their mind?”
“…What?”
“Didn’t you understand? Is your eardrum broken while you’re still young, forcing me to repeat myself twice?”
Ramio flew into a rage, his voice rising. “Have you lost your mind because you wandered outside? Come here this instant!”
“Why? To take me back and enslave me as a maid again? Isn’t the only reason you ‘came to get me’ now because your work is piling up?”
And was it just Ramio’s work? From the Young Duke Quern down to Iris. People’s adoration of them outside as the ‘Perfect Tillard Siblings’… was thanks to Lillian, who was slowly dying while performing their ‘tasks’ in the shadows.
They didn’t consider her a real family member, yet they felt no shame in enslaving her as the family’s drudge.
Why? Because she was the only powerless one in a family of Guides.
‘They dressed me in beautiful clothes only so I wouldn’t tarnish the family name.’
The broom, the clock, the tablecloth, the candelabra. And then Lillian. Her role in the family was placed on the same level as the tools.
But Lillian now sneered at the frozen Ramio. “Does the Commander of the Imperial Knights know? That our youngest knight is just a fool who can’t read a single document unless he enslaves his cousin?”
Ramio’s shoulders shook slightly.
“Shut up!”
“Indeed, Grandfather made a lot of donations, didn’t he?”
Clap—! Lillian struck her hands together provocatively.
“Aren’t you lucky you were born into the Tillard family? If you hadn’t been born into a family that can buy everything with money, how do you think you’d be living, huh?”
“Hah!”
Ramio let out a laugh like a rampaging beast. “No matter what happens, I’ll never live like you, you filthy bug.”
“So funny. You were also one step away from being treated like trash, did you know that?”
Her response was explosive. But Lillian was secretly beginning to worry. This was the ‘Magic Smoke Bomb’ Ramio often used. Despite its effectiveness, it certainly had a weakness.
‘It lasts for about 5 minutes…!’
She kept talking to buy time. Escaping this place now was futile. Even if she attacked the caster, the magic would run until its duration ended and couldn’t be stopped.
‘The opportunity will come only once.’
That moment when the magic begins to fade—
‘The gap appeared!’
Lillian suddenly pulled a bottle hidden in her sleeve.
Ramio scoffed at first. “What use is that trivial thing…!”
But the moment the black powder hit his eyes, a scream of agony tore from his throat due to the stinging pain.
It was black pepper—that incredibly precious spice brought from beyond the border.
