Chapter 002
“Hah!”
Rhett sat up abruptly, as if jolted from a deep dream.
‘Where am I? What happened?’
It was an unfamiliar place. A large, spacious room with beautiful furniture, patterned wallpaper, and a soft white bed. It was exactly as Ben’s men had described when they went to Baron Barodon’s estate every year to sell him women.
My mind went completely blank.
“I thought I had escaped, but was it all a dream?”
Had I only dreamed of being struck on the head, locked in a box, and losing consciousness? I couldn’t tell at all.
An unfamiliar voice, a warm touch, the words telling me I was safe—was it all just an illusion I had imagined?
Knock.
“….!”
Startled by the single knock on the door, I scrambled out of bed and fell onto the floor.
‘Who is there? Who is it? Could it be Baron Barodon?’
My thoughts continued to drift toward the worst possibilities. It was only natural. Since my birth, nothing good had ever happened to me. Thus, I expected something bad.
I lived a life where almost everything turned out for the worst.
“I guess it was a dream after all.”
There was no one who could save me.
Tears spilled from Rhett’s large eyes.
I have to hide, first I must look for a place…
Crash!
An ear-piercing, sharp sound rang out. Perhaps I had hit the table while searching for a hiding spot; shards of glass from an unknown source scattered before me.
“What was that? I’m coming in!”
The loud noise accelerated the arrival of the uninvited guest.
“….!”
Rhett picked up a shard of glass in front of her with her bare hands.
The shard dug into her palm. Pain was not the priority. Survival was.
“Oh my goodness.”
The person who entered was an individual with blue hair. No, was it a woman? I couldn’t tell. They had short hair decorated with feathers and carried a basket. …Was there anyone at Baron Barodon’s estate with hair that color?
The blue-haired person took a step closer, looking stunned.
“Why are you holding such a dangerous thing? You’re bleeding!”
“Don’t come closer!”
I tried to tighten my grip on the glass shard. But even as I tried, my hands shook so much the glass nearly fell.
“Stay back, don’t you dare come near me.”
Tears began to flow again, and my vision blurred, but I tried to focus my eyes and warn the person who had entered.
“I won’t come closer.”
The blue-haired person raised their arms, the basket hanging from their wrist.
“Please calm down, alright?”
The voice was lowered as if to reassure me, and they took a few steps back.
“W-where am I? Is this Baron Barodon’s estate?”
“Barodon?”
Still with arms raised, the person tilted their head.
“I’m sorry. It’s my first time in the capital, so I don’t know who this Barodon is.”
Was that really true? I had my doubts, but somehow it didn’t seem like a lie.
The blue-haired person smiled brightly, appearing to be someone who wasn’t malicious.
“We are at the estate of Duke Winifred. Duke Winifred. He must be famous in his own right in the capital.”
“Winifred…”
It was certainly a name I had heard before. Where had I heard it?
“Look over there.”
The blue-haired person pointed toward a spot. A large flag with a crest hung there.
“There’s a blue bird, right? That is the bird crest that can only be used on the coat of arms of the Duchy of Winifred.”
Only then did a blue bird enter my field of vision. It was a bird so large I wondered why I hadn’t noticed it before.
“Ah.”
Rhett’s eyes were filled with the image of the blue bird.
Although it wasn’t clear because I had seen it from a distance, Baron Barodon’s carriage bore something that looked like a strange pig. But I was certain it wasn’t a bird.
“Not Barodon…….”
This really wasn’t Baron Barodon’s estate.
‘Safe….’
The last thing told to me before I lost consciousness—that he would save me—really wasn’t a dream.
The moment I realized this truth, my body lost all its strength. The glass shards in my hand scattered onto the floor.
“Can I come closer now?”
The blue-haired person asked cautiously, but Rhett just sat there silently.
I felt sorry for that person, but I didn’t even have the energy to nod.
Thinking that Rhett had calmed down, the person approached carefully and quickly kicked the blood-stained glass shard under the bed.
“Hello.”
“Yes….”
Rhett, who slowly closed and opened her eyes at the greeting, lowered her head. Then, when she nearly lost her balance, the blue-haired person caught her.
“Well, let’s sit on the sofa first.”
I barely managed to sit on the sofa and catch my breath, leaning against this blue-haired person.
Perhaps because I was relieved and certain that I had survived, I was overcome with sleepiness, so I rubbed my eyes with my hands.
“Oh, don’t do that!”
Suddenly, the person who had been looking for something in the basket shouted.
“The wound is opening.”
Wound? Only then did I feel the injuries on my hands.
There was a large cut on my palm, and there was a lot of blood on my arms, body, and face where I had just touched myself. There were even traces of glass fragments.
“First, let me clean the blood and then reapply the bandages. Actually, I came here specifically to change your dressings.”
“Dressings…?”
Rhett looked at her body. Then she noticed something new once more. For instance, there were bandages wrapped around her limbs and adhesive patches applied to places without bandages, one after another.
“Fortunately, the wound isn’t deep. It doesn’t need stitches.”
While I was momentarily distracted, surprised that my entire body was covered in bandages, the blue-haired person examined my palm.
“That’s good now.”
Huh? Rhett looked at her hands. Her hand, carefully treated with medicine, was now wrapped in thick bandages. …Is this person a doctor?
Rhett tilted her head to the side. There were doctors even in the slums. They stole old medicine and sold it for double the price as if it were new—they were nothing but quacks.
“Now, Miss. Please excuse me, as I must change the bandage on your back.”
“My back?”
This person, themselves? There were bandages wrapped not only on my limbs but also around my stomach. This meant I had to take off the upper part of the robe.
Rhett stood up and ran to the other side of the room.
“Why are you running away? Ah!”
The person gave a thumbs up.
“I am a woman.”
“….!”
“If you don’t believe me, should I take off my shirt here?”
“No!”
She was about to remove the vest she was wearing, so Rhett shook her head with all her might.
“It’s… I didn’t know because your hair is so short.”
“My Lady.”
She touched her short blue hair and smiled brightly.
“I am a knight. While fighting on the battlefield, my hair bothered me, so I cut it! Isn’t it better to have my hair cut than to have my head cut off?”
Rhett nodded subconsciously at the chilling words that were suddenly spoken.
“I tried to trim it properly later, but I guess because I cut it randomly with a sword, it didn’t look good, so I cut it more. Also, it has grown longer now!”
The knight smiled cheerfully and raised her thumb.
“It’s nice to wear a helmet because I don’t have much hair, but when I stand under the sun, it feels like my head is going to catch fire. So I need to grow it out again.”
“I see.”
I felt exhausted in a different way than before.
Rhett blinked and nodded quietly.
The knight, looking at Rhett, burst out laughing.
“Haha, My Young Lady, you look like a rabbit right now!”
It was a nickname I had been called before.
“Well, why did I come here? And why do you call me ‘Miss’?”
“Hmm?”
“I am not the kind of person who deserves to be called ‘Miss’ by someone as great as you, Lady Knight.”
“I was going to explain that to you, but His Excellency the Duke happens to be here.”
‘….The Duke.’
“I think you should hear the situation from His Excellency.”
“Yes.”
Rhett nodded while listening to the knight.
The knight, observing this, added something more.
“Don’t you remember? I don’t know, but maybe you remember this. He is the one who brought the Young Lady here.”
The person who brought me? By any chance, is he the one who pulled me out of the box?
“The one with the black hair….”
“That’s right! His Excellency has black hair and red eyes! Do you remember him?”
Rhett nodded slowly. She couldn’t remember the color of his eyes. What she remembered was his black hair and her own desperate clinging to him.
Still, perhaps because of my last memories of reality at that time, I felt some relief that it was him.
However, facing strangers was not comfortable. There were still many questions. Why am I here? And why does the knight call me Young Lady?
‘I wonder why he suddenly said he would protect me.’
And whether I could believe it or not.
“He doesn’t seem like a bad person, but…”
I couldn’t fully believe it. Even in the slums, there were many villains with kind faces. Someone who trusts such a person ends up with all their possessions taken, starving to death in the streets, while the other person vanishes without a word.
“Finished!”
After moving and changing clothes as the knight requested, I truly felt completely clean. I ran my fingers over the soft clothes I had never worn before. Everything was awkward yet wonderful.
“So, My Lady, what will you do? You can go to His Excellency now. Or if you are tired, you can rest a little longer.”
I shook my head.
“I want to meet him immediately.”
“Wonderful! Shall we go now then, My Lady?”
Rhett, following the knight, gathered her courage to speak.
“Well, by the way. My Lady. Could you call me by something other than ‘Miss’…”
The knight, opening the door, nodded as if it were a good idea.
“Then, shall we just use our names? It’s not like we’re only going to be together for a day or two! It’s easier for us to know each other’s names.”
Saying so, the knight extended her hand.
“I am Delphia. Delphia Baraton. I am the eldest daughter of Viscount Baraton.”
A name—that word made me choke up again.
I have a nickname, and it is Rhett, meaning rat.
