CHAPTER 57…………………………………..
Shane drew in a deep breath.
The scent of an omega’s pheromones sent hot blood rushing to his lower body.
While he was lost in thought, Sonia suddenly picked up her speed.
Judging by the sound of hooves, she seemed to have noticed him and was fleeing with all her strength.
“Run all you want. You’re still in the palm of my hand.”
No—was it inside my hunting ground?
Shane let out a low chuckle as he urged his horse forward.
Neigh!
The well-trained warhorse snorted and kicked off the ground.
Shane lashed the horse with his whip and rode at full speed, but the distance between him and Sonia didn’t close.
“Huh?”
Something was strange.
Even with a thoroughbred running at full tilt, he couldn’t catch a single woman?
No, rather…
“She’s getting farther away?”
Instead of drawing closer, she was pulling away at an incredible speed.
When she hesitated, the distance briefly closed—only for her to vanish again in an instant.
It felt like chasing a ghost.
“At this rate, I’ll lose her.”
Growing impatient, Shane pulled out an arrow, aimed toward the direction thick with pheromones, and fired.
Whoosh—the arrow traced a long arc through the air toward Sonia, but it missed.
Clicking his tongue in irritation, he stowed his bow.
“Tsk. What a nuisance.”
He decided he’d make Sonia pay for all the trouble she was causing.
Breathing in her scent, Shane predicted the direction she would go.
“Fine. Keep running.”
Ahead was a dead end. No matter how far she ran, there would be nowhere left to escape.
Sonia reached a cliff.
It was a sheer, towering cliff no human legs could ever climb.
With nowhere to flee, she came to an abrupt stop.
Delighted, Shane spurred his horse on even harder.
But when he burst out from between the trees, what he saw was not Sonia—only the towering cliff.
“Huh?”
The pheromone scent was definitely there.
A thick, overpowering omega scent.
Yet at the place where Sonia should have been, there wasn’t even a single strand of silver hair.
“Where are you hiding?!”
There was nothing but the cliff—no place to hide.
Shane focused on the scent, and soon identified the direction it was rising from.
Above.
More precisely, somewhere partway up the cliff, not at the summit.
He immediately looked up—and ground his teeth.
“You…!”
A northern white deer was leaping lightly from one jutting rock to another along the sheer cliff face.
In the blink of an eye, the white deer reached the top.
Then, with a noble bearing, it looked down at Shane.
A strong omega pheromone scent emanated from the deer.
Naturally so.
Around its neck hung a priest’s robe, soaked with Sonia’s blood.
“That… that damn priest! I’ll kill you!”
How dare you deceive me?
Shane shouted in fury, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn’t find Sonia.
I treated the white deer.
As if it had sensed my intentions, the deer didn’t struggle and calmly accepted the treatment.
After completely healing its leg, I gently embraced it and released the pheromones I had been suppressing.
I wanted to thoroughly coat it in my scent.
Finally, I took off my bloodstained robe and draped it loosely around the deer’s neck.
That should do it.
Stepping back, I wondered if the deer would really be able to move with the robe on.
“It’s not uncomfortable, is it?”
The deer hopped around as if to show itself off, then licked my hand.
Judging by how lightly it bounded about, the robe didn’t seem to bother it.
“Run far away in my place.”
As if it understood, the deer nodded. That was reassuring.
No matter what, human legs can’t outrun a horse.
But the northern white deer—the fastest creature on the continent—was different.
As long as its legs were sound, it could easily shake off mounted hunters and dodge even fast-flying arrows.
After sending the deer toward the cliff, I ran in the direction where I heard the sound of flowing water.
If my omega pheromone scent split into two trails, Shane might catch on to my plan.
I had to suppress it perfectly, no matter what.
Clenching both hands, I focused.
To perfectly suppress my pheromones, I needed to think of someone I loved. I’d thought about this countless times, but I still didn’t know who that was.
In times like this, you pray to God first!
‘Holy Lord. I love you!’
I cried out in my heart, hoping God would help me, but it was useless.
I tried thinking of Lancelot and my parents, who had sometimes worked for suppression before—but it wasn’t enough.
The fear that I might be discovered by Shane and killed was too strong.
As if that weren’t enough, I heard the hunter’s voice chasing me.
“That… that damn priest! I’ll kill you!”
He shouted so loudly it echoed deep through the forest.
Judging by the direction of the voice, Shane wasn’t far.
The thought that he was close made fear surge up, and I froze.
The terror of death was so overwhelming that I couldn’t move.
‘I might really die.’
My fear-stricken body began to tremble as if plunged into icy water.
Not far away, I could hear the sound of running water.
Thinking the destination was just ahead, I forced my legs to move—but I couldn’t run like before.
My legs felt unbearably heavy.
One question wouldn’t leave my mind.
‘Why is Prince Shane after me?’
The one who killed me was Schwartz—not Shane.
Whatever the reason, I didn’t want to die again.
The vivid sensation of death I’d felt in the sanctuary surfaced naturally.
The chilling feel of the blade piercing my heart, the horrific pain as if my body were being torn apart.
So many things I’d never gotten to do clung to me like regrets, but they couldn’t stop my fading breath.
The last thing I saw as I died was Schwartz.
The eyes of Schwartz as he stabbed my heart were unbearably cold.
“Ha…”
I laughed bitterly.
Strangely enough, when I recalled Schwartz’s gaze—like he was looking at something utterly worthless—the fear vanished.
Unlike Schwartz, whose thoughts I could never read, Shane’s voice was trivial.
Especially now, when he was hopping mad after realizing he’d been fooled—it was laughable.
True fear was something Shane could never imitate.
With my mind settled, I was able to suppress my pheromones.
And then I ran straight ahead.
The sound of water grew louder. I must have been close.
But when I reached my destination and relaxed, I stopped short in disbelief.
It felt like the Holy Lord was playing a joke on me.
How could this be?!
I could hear water, but this was a waterfall perched on a cliff.
In my frantic dash, I must have run upstream.
‘Should I jump?’
I glanced down. There were rocks everywhere, and the current was fast—falling in bare flesh would likely mean serious injury.
Neigh! With the sound of hooves pounding the ground, a horse came charging closer.
It seemed Shane had caught up to me.
I crushed down the fear trying to leak out again and stared ahead.
“There you are! I found you!”
The man on horseback pointed at me, shouting with delight.
But the man riding the black horse wasn’t Shane—it was a stranger I’d never seen before.
…Who are you?
Flap, flap!
A white dove landed at the Duke of Ryundmir’s estate.
Eckart, captain of the Black Ghosts, caught the dove that had flown in from the imperial palace and checked the letter tied to its leg.
“A prince’s confidant, disguised as a priest, lured the healing priest into the hunting grounds.”
Under normal circumstances, even a letter from a princess would have been dismissed as useless to his lord.
But anything involving Sonia was different.
After reading the letter, Eckart went straight to find Schwartz.
At the moment, Schwartz was under house arrest for entering the sanctuary without the emperor’s permission.
House arrest wasn’t unusual for Schwartz, but this time was different.
Unlike before, when he’d taken it lightly, he was unusually sharp-tempered and had driven all the Black Ghost members out of his room.
Bracing himself to dodge Schwartz’s dark power if it lashed out, Eckart carefully opened the door.
“My lord. It’s Eckart.”
As the door opened, pale smoke drifted out, carrying a bitter smell.
Fortunately, Schwartz wasn’t using his power.
At least today, he seemed willing to talk.
“My lord, are you all right?”
Stepping inside, Eckart glanced toward Schwartz, unable to help worrying.
Schwartz was reclining at an angle on the couch.
His shirt, left unbuttoned, gaped open, exposing his firm chest.
His long hair spilled down over his shoulders and collarbones, hanging loosely.
In one hand, he held a half-smoked cigarette.
The sight of him—disheveled, vacant, smoking again after having quit—was almost decadent.
This had been his state for days now.
No, it seemed to be getting worse.
‘Was it really that shocking…?’
From what Eckart had learned, this had started after what happened at the sanctuary.
Was Sonia rejecting him and pushing him away really that much of a blow?
‘I told you to manage your reputation better.’
Schwartz had killed many people.
Not cleanly—sometimes with torture.
But most of them were assassins sent by Shane or the late empress, and the rest were scum who tormented a bastard child unprotected by the law.
Cleaning up trash was a just act.
‘Next time, I should advise him to limit torture to an hour.’
Then rumors of his mercy would spread—and Sonia wouldn’t be afraid of him anymore.
