Chapter 30
The coffin I had been locked in.
It must have been because I heard about it from Luzenbik that the thought crossed my mind.
I thought of Luzenbik, who had to sleep in a coffin like that.
I couldn’t help but feel angry at the idea of the count who locked him up—what kind of human could do such a thing and still call himself one?
The tiny hole in that coffin had been his only source of air—his only hope for life. Thinking about it made me feel a renewed sense of admiration for Luzenbik, who had endured all this time.
I tossed and turned a little more, and when I still couldn’t sleep, I thought maybe I’d go outside.
But at some point, I drifted off, and when I woke up, I found myself worrying about whether Luzenbik was really okay.
Even if he had mana and could use it, I wasn’t sure if he could keep the cold at bay indefinitely.
I got off the carriage quietly, but it was as if he sensed me the moment I moved.
He looked straight at me with his eyes wide open.
“Can’t sleep, Hestia? Is it uncomfortable?”
“No. I slept. I just came out to see how you were doing.”
He said he was fine and indeed looked that way.
“Is it really because of mana?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t want to talk much.
Thinking he needed to rest, I returned to the carriage and tried to sleep again.
Whenever I was around Luzenbik, I found myself constantly wanting to talk to him.
I had never been like this before, so it all felt very new to me.
Wanting to be with someone all the time, wondering what they might be doing when they weren’t around—these feelings were unfamiliar.
It felt like I was discovering a completely new side of myself that I didn’t know existed.
And oddly enough, I didn’t dislike it.
This new version of me that I was finding—she felt pitiful in some ways, but I also wanted to root for her.
Even though I had taken on Hestia’s body, I found myself desperately hoping that, at least in this life, I could be happy.
“Hestia?”
There was a knock on the door, accompanied by his voice.
Even after hearing it, I couldn’t get up for a long while.
My body felt sluggish, and it took time to return to reality.
“Hestia.”
Only when he called again did I realize it was Luzenbik outside and forced myself to sit up.
“Luzenbik?”
“Are you awake? Come out and eat something. You must be hungry.”
“Food?”
I asked blankly, glancing around.
And then the events before I fell asleep slowly came back to me.
From the king visiting the villa to our arrival here—I remembered everything.
“Ah, right. Sorry.”
I felt guilty, assuming he must’ve prepared the meal all on his own while I was still asleep, and stepped outside.
Luzenbik looked bright.
He must’ve washed on his own—his face was clean, and his hair neatly arranged.
“Is there a stream nearby?”
“Yes. While I go collect dry wyverns, you can go wash there.”
I had asked on a whim, not expecting there actually to be one.
Though we had ended up here because of the king, I didn’t dislike being here with Luzenbik, whom I was growing fond of.
Drawn by the delicious smell wafting through the air, my gaze naturally followed it.
There was a roasted rabbit, already cooked.
I never imagined I’d eat rabbit meat, but here, things I never would’ve considered were slowly becoming reality.
He said he didn’t have a knife and tore the meat with his hands to offer it to me.
A piece of tree bark served as my plate.
It was unexpectedly primitive but had its own charm, and I found it satisfying.
“It’ll probably take a couple of days. If it’s too hard for you, you can go down today. I can come back later and finish the rest.”
“You’re my guard, Luzenbik. You’re supposed to stay with me.”
When I said that, his face lit up.
Thinking he might be happy to be with me, I couldn’t help but feel warm inside.
While I was with Luzenbik, even small things made me happy.
I wondered if this was what it meant to like someone as I took a bite of the meat he handed me.
It wasn’t seasoned, but I found myself content with the moment.
The sun was gradually rising, and the air was slowly warming up.
“Oh, right.”
I tried to return the cloak to him, but he told me to keep wearing it.
Even though I didn’t particularly feel the need for it after waking up, wearing his cloak made me feel like I was being protected by Luzenbik.
It wasn’t that I intended to rely on him, but after feeling like I had been thrown alone into a strange world, it was comforting to feel this way.
After we finished eating, Luzenbik quickly got to work.
I walked up next to him and started learning how to identify and extract dry wyverns just by watching.
He told me I didn’t have to help, but he didn’t stop me either.
He seemed to feel guilty about letting me get my hands dirty.
I knew he was anxious about it, but I just dove in confidently, and eventually, Luzenbik gave up trying to stop me.
“You’re good at this, Hestia.”
“Of course.”
I might be a queen here, but in the place I came from, I was someone who could handle this kind of thing easily.
We kept chatting as we worked, so much so that we lost track of time while harvesting a big pile of dry wyverns.
Then, suddenly, he froze.
I had no idea what was going on, so I simply looked at him.
“Luzenbik? What’s wrong?”
He put a finger to his lips and let out a soft “Shhh.”
Something was coming.
I held my breath too, and soon, a faint rustling sound came from afar.
“Go hide in the carriage, Hestia.”
He spoke urgently, standing up and grabbing my hand.
“Don’t come out until I tell you. Promise me, Hestia.”
As he spoke and tried to lead me to the carriage, several men on horseback appeared from behind him.
I was so startled—meeting people from that direction hadn’t even occurred to me.
But Luzenbik, as if it hadn’t been entirely unexpected, immediately shielded me behind him.
“Thieves in the forest, huh.”
The one who spoke wore armor. It was unclear why he was here at this hour.
Then I noticed something odd in the way he looked at me.
“Well, well. Who do we have here? Isn’t this the dethroned queen?”
Until then, I hadn’t even tried to get a proper look at the riders, but when the man took off his helmet and looked straight at me, recognition hit.
‘…’
I couldn’t remember his name right away, but he was a relative of the king.
Which meant, nothing good could come of encountering him here.
Even meeting someone from the royalist or noble factions wouldn’t have been this bad. Running into someone from the royal family directly was the worst-case scenario.
“Your Highness, really. You should maintain your dignity. What’s the meaning of this? And who’s that man? Don’t tell me he’s the reason you divorced His Majesty?”
Chase.
His name came to me in that instant.
Even before the king got married, Chase was always by his side. And after the marriage, he was the one who introduced countless women to the king.
Memories from Hestia’s past came flooding back, and I recognized him immediately.
The king was a problem, sure—but this man was one of the main culprits who tormented Hestia.
If the king liked one of the women Chase introduced, he would come straight to Hestia and rub it in her face.
As if watching her suffer gave him some kind of twisted joy.
“Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t call you ‘Your Highness’ anymore, should I? Hestia. I never liked you, especially with that filthy Meidern blood of yours. But it seems blood doesn’t lie. How long has it been since you left the palace, and here you are rolling around with a man like that.”
He was deliberately being vulgar, trying to throw me off.
As he spoke, more riders gathered around him—seven in total including Chase.
Because he was a royal relative, he likely had access to all the forest lands, probably out hunting and passing the time.
It was extremely unfortunate to run into him here.
I couldn’t stop blaming myself for dragging Luzenbik into this mess.
“I heard the queen had some disease and that her face had become unrecognizable, but she looks fine to me.”
Someone beside Chase commented.
“Right? I was thinking the same. They say she bought land where a gold mine was found. Maybe she planned all this to get a divorce. But who in their right mind would do that? Who would dare throw away the queen’s position in Sedepol?”
As Chase said that, he began circling me on horseback.
I could feel Luzenbik’s body tightening like a bowstring beside me.
“What should we do, Bijal? With this filthy, lewd, shameless woman?”
“Watch your mouth. Not that it’ll change much.”
It was Luzenbik’s voice.
I had no idea what he was thinking.
Aside from being outnumbered, he didn’t even have a sword.
What was he going to do without a weapon?
And then the unthinkable happened.
In a blink, Luzenbik snatched the sword from the knight next to him.
“What the—! What do you think you’re doing!”
The man who lost his sword yelled in disbelief.
Even he hadn’t expected to lose his weapon so helplessly.
With the sword now in his hand, Luzenbik grabbed mine.
