CHAPTER 56…………………………………………..
Shane, who had been breathing in the omega pheromones that seemed to be seducing him, slightly furrowed his brow.
There was a strange scent mixed in.
As if to confirm it, he took a deep breath. Soon, he realized what the smell was.
‘That alpha’s pheromones.’
It was an alpha pheromone he had encountered before.
The same scent Cassius had used at the ball.
‘Disgusting.’
The memory of having once succumbed to Cassius’s pheromones surfaced.
Shane felt irritated even toward Sonia, who was carrying Cassius’s pheromone scent.
He slowly followed the omega scent tinged with blood,
thinking about how he would torment her.
“Where is Priestess Sonia?”
Jurgen, who had come to check on the horses, began looking for Sonia.
Inspecting the saddles didn’t take long, but somehow Sonia was nowhere to be seen.
‘Does Her Highness know?’
Sertina had remained seated inside the carriage the entire time.
Jurgen knocked on the carriage window of the princess, who was glaring at him from inside.
But the murderous look only deepened; the window did not open.
Still, he couldn’t simply walk away.
Cassius’s order—to protect Sonia—took precedence over the princess.
Jurgen flung the window open, and Sertina, startled by the rude behavior, scrunched up her face.
“Your Highness, have you seen where Priestess Sonia went?”
Not only did he fail to apologize for his discourtesy, he spoke without permission.
Sertina parted her lips slightly, shocked as her sense of common sense crumbled.
“I don’t know!”
“Weren’t you seated in the carriage the whole time?”
“I said I don’t know!”
After shouting that, she slammed the window shut again.
Jurgen was at a loss. Searching for Sonia alone would take too long.
[Your Holiness, Priestess Sonia is missing.]
Creating a small gust of wind, Jurgen sent a report to Cassius, who had ordered him to guard Sonia, and went off to search elsewhere.
Left alone in the spacious carriage, Sertina fumed to herself.
She had tried for a long time to calm down, but her anger wouldn’t subside. In the meantime, the surroundings had grown chaotic.
In particular, the number of holy knights had increased.
From a forest path nearby, a priest in a robe appeared.
‘Hm, that priest…?’
Judging by the mole near her mouth, she seemed to be the priest who had taken Sonia away earlier.
Wasn’t she the one who said she was going into the forest with Sonia to retrieve luggage?
Setting aside the fact that she was alone, her hands were empty.
When a holy knight approached and spoke to her, she reluctantly lowered her hood.
After exchanging a few more words, she quickly walked away.
Seeing the revealed face, Sertina tilted her head.
‘I feel like I’ve seen her before?’
Her face was familiar, but she couldn’t place who she was.
‘Well, it’s not like I need to remember priests anyway.’
She was probably just someone she’d seen in passing a few times.
She tried to brush it off, but a bitter taste lingered in her mouth, making her think it over again.
Then she suddenly realized who it was.
‘She was with Brother Shane!’
She had been seeing Shane frequently at parties lately, and that person had often hovered near him.
There was no way she’d suddenly decided to become a priest—she must have been in disguise.
Given that she approached a healing priest, she was probably planning to use her somehow.
Sertina didn’t know what Shane was thinking, but the fact that he had taken her deep into the forest connected to his hunting grounds was even more suspicious.
‘No. She has nothing to do with me.’
She had nearly died after getting involved with Sonia and Cassius. She didn’t want to be connected to her anymore.
So she tried to ignore it, but for some reason, she couldn’t shake the unease in her heart.
Sertina bit down hard on her lower lip.
She felt pathetic for not being able to pretend she hadn’t noticed, yet guilty at the thought of doing nothing.
‘Still, Brother Shane enjoys hunting humans.’
No matter how much she disliked someone, she didn’t want a familiar face to die.
When Sertina flung the window wide open, a holy knight waiting nearby stared down at her.
‘Why are all holy knights so ill-mannered?’
Setting aside his dubious attitude for the moment, she met his gaze directly.
“Knight, I have something to say.”
“Please speak.”
Sertina hesitated just before opening her mouth.
Shane’s confidant had been disguised as a priest—there might be holy knights in disguise as well.
Thinking that, she decided to inform someone she could truly trust.
“There’s a birdcage in the baggage compartment. Bring it.”
Inside the cage the knight brought was a white pigeon. It was the fastest of the pigeons kept in the imperial palace, which was why it was being taken all the way to the Holy Kingdom.
‘Brother Schwarz would be best.’
Taking out pen and paper, Sertina wrote without hesitation.
That someone from Shane’s estate had disguised themselves as a priest and taken Sonia into the forest of the hunting grounds connected to the Crown Prince’s palace.
After placing the finished letter into the capsule on the pigeon’s leg, Sertina immediately released the bird toward the grand duke’s estate.
The moment I realized I was the prey, I ran blindly.
“Huff, huff!”
As I ran without looking back, I heard the sound of rushing water in the distance.
Judging by the powerful flow, it wasn’t a small stream but a large river. It seemed the Crown Prince’s hunting grounds were connected to a river.
‘The rendezvous point was a river outside the imperial palace.’
Some priests, following Cassius’s orders, were working at places like the Grand Temple outside the palace.
They were to gather at a river outside the palace before joining up.
I didn’t know the exact location, but if I followed the river, I should eventually find them.
Focusing on the sound of water, I occasionally glanced behind me.
I was checking to see if I could hear the sound of horses approaching.
‘They’re not chasing me yet.’
I didn’t think for a second that I had escaped safely.
Mounted on horses far faster than human legs, there was no way they would lose track of an injured me.
‘Such a nasty hobby.’
They were deliberately giving me time to run, then following at their leisure—like a game.
I had to reach my destination while they were still being careless.
Though my mind was frantic, my speed gradually slowed.
It was because of where the arrow had grazed me. My shoulder burned as if on fire, growing hotter by the moment.
The wound seemed deeper than I’d thought.
I needed to heal first.
If I kept bleeding, hunting dogs with keen noses would track me.
‘And there’s one more dog.’
An alpha bastard named Shane, tracking the omega pheromones mixed into my blood.
I hid my body in a dark spot.
‘What should I do?’
I couldn’t recklessly heal the wound.
If I used my recovery powers, the alpha pheromones Cassius had left on my body would disappear.
‘But if I stay like this, the hunting dogs will follow the smell of my blood anyway.’
If I healed the wound and then perfectly suppressed my pheromones, I could block the omega scent as well.
‘But can I concentrate enough to suppress them?’
Someone was chasing me with the intent to kill.
I didn’t have confidence that I could remain calm while running for my life.
There was no time. I had to decide quickly.
Pressing my trembling chest down with my fingertips, I offered a prayer.
‘Please give me the courage to escape safely.’
As I let out a quiet breath and focused, a patch of overgrown grass suddenly rustled.
‘Oh—oh my god!’
I screamed internally as a white deer suddenly appeared.
It seemed to be the same one as before.
‘You scared me twice now!’
This time, I truly felt my heart drop.
I glared resentfully at the white deer. Its pale body reminded me of my priest’s robe and silver hair.
‘He’s really thorough.’
To give himself an excuse of mistaken identity, it seemed he had prepared a white deer—the same color as a priest’s robe—as prey.
But then…
‘It’s injured?’
The deer was limping.
Even at a glance, it was clear this wasn’t an injury from an arrow grazing it.
Someone had deliberately beaten it with a blunt weapon, breaking bones and leaving it bruised.
White deer were fast enough that even a master archer would struggle to hit them. It seemed they had injured it on purpose to make the hunt easier.
‘How cruel.’
Even if it was a voiceless animal, how much pain must it have been in?
Imagining Shane gleefully chasing it after ruining its legs made me feel sick.
I bent down and stared intently at the deer, which was in the same predicament as me.
The white deer met my gaze, as if reading my thoughts.
An idea came to me, and I carefully reached out my hand.
“Hey… come here.”
The deer tilted its head, then slowly approached.
This has to work.
Shane inhaled the omega pheromones spread throughout the forest.
It seemed she had managed to conceal her identity until now by taking in alpha pheromones, but her injury had intensified the scent.
She wasn’t far.
As Shane adjusted his bow, he spoke.
“Care to make a bet, Marquis?”
“A hunting wager? Very well.”
“What do you want if you win?”
“If I win, give me the prey.”
Tigrow smiled slyly.
“Fine. If I win, I’ll take the bear hide I caught last month.”
It was a bear with an unusual pattern.
It would make an impressive winter coat.
“Agreed.”
Fired up with determination, Tigrow spurred his horse and disappeared into the forest with his hunting dog.
Watching the hurried marquis, Shane let out a small chuckle.
‘The marquis is a real piece of work too.’
He liked turning trophies into taxidermy—even when they were people caught through human hunting.
Sorry, but victory would be his.
All he had to do was follow the omega pheromones.
Shane thought of Sonia.
‘She was too pretty to waste as a priest.’
Perhaps it was because he hadn’t encountered an omega in so long, but for some reason, he felt drawn to her.
