Chapter 37
Besides, since one earlier place had come up empty and they’d gotten the skewers without waiting, not much time had passed beyond what they’d expected.
If they went back now there was a risk of ruining everything.
“W-wait. It’s dangerous for you to wander alone. You could get lost. Why don’t you come with me?”
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood for five years. You don’t need to worry.”
Vivian, who was about to go to Rahel, was grabbed urgently by Margaret.
“Then I’ll go. Wait here.”
Margaret left Vivian standing and headed toward the square where Rahel was waiting.
When she arrived she hid herself behind a nearby building and searched for Rahel.
Rahel was still off a little from the crowd gathered to watch the play that had already started.
‘Why aren’t they kidnapping her at this moment and running off? What are they doing?’
Biting her lip anxiously, Margaret watched. A shadow approached from behind Rahel.
It was an assassin sent by the inspector.
Seeing that, Margaret swallowed and turned away.
Relief washed over her, but along with it came guilt for the child she had raised with her own hands.
‘This is the only way Sally and I will be safe… I had no choice.’
She told herself that to justify it, and was about to go back to where Vivian was when—
“Rahel!”
Vivian’s voice rang out urgently, a voice that shouldn’t be here.
Margaret, the assassin, even Rahel herself froze at that shout.
“Danger!”
At Vivian’s next cry, the assassin—who had hesitated—launched into an attack on Rahel.
But Rahel noticed and dodged quickly, immediately beginning to cast a spell.
Margaret’s face twisted with rage as she watched.
‘That brat, even now…!’
The play had reached its climax; spectacular sound effects filled the square and captured everyone’s attention. But once the climax passed, people would see what was happening here.
They had to decide: either overpower and abduct Rahel before that happened, or give up and retreat.
At that moment, seeing Rahel and the assassin facing off, Vivian threw down what she was holding and tried to run over.
“Rahel!”
But then—
“…Ugh!”
Another assassin who had appeared from an alley seized Vivian and clamped a hand over her mouth.
The more she struggled, the more her consciousness blurred and her strength drained away.
“Vivian!”
The last thing Vivian saw before she lost consciousness was the three plush dolls she’d won from the dart game tumbling to the ground.
Tap.
‘Ugh… cold.’
Something small and cold brushed her cheek and she opened her eyes.
A black stone ceiling stretched above her.
‘Where am I…?’
She scanned her surroundings and suddenly remembered the last thing that had happened.
She had been in line at the cheesy-potato stall, felt uneasy about a suspicious nanny, and followed her.
‘At that place I saw the nanny turn away even though Rahel was being attacked by an assassin.’
She had rushed to Rahel, called out, and saved her, but then—
‘I got kidnapped!’
Realizing the reality she faced, fear made her heart pound and her head go blank.
‘Calm down. If they wanted to kill you, they would’ve done it already.’
She forced herself to calm down, and first tried to assess the situation.
The place was dark but dimly lit enough to make out rough shapes.
‘Is this… a cave?’
Inside the damp, cave-like place there was a large cage big enough to hold an animal.
And she was locked inside it.
Then something cold fell onto her cheek again.
It was a drop of water from the cave ceiling.
Only then did she realize what the small cold thing that had woken her was.
‘Damp…’
She tried to shift her body to get away, but sensed someone nearby. Someone had been guarding this place even before she came to.
Startled, she quickly closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep.
‘Did they see me open my eyes…?’
Her heart thumped.
Holding her breath for a moment, she slit her eyes open a little.
Thankfully the guard didn’t seem to notice she’d awakened; he was yawning with his mouth wide open.
She watched him closely and combined the information she’d gathered to deduce the situation.
‘Those people were definitely trying to capture Rahel.’
When her intervention failed, they turned their target to her and took her as a hostage.
Their final goal was probably still Rahel, as they had originally aimed.
‘But in the original story Rahel grows up fine and appears as a villain when the protagonists are adults, so—’
She hesitated.
‘…Wait. Was there a scene in the original where Rahel almost got kidnapped?’
The original story was about the protagonists after they grew up, and Rahel, being a villain, didn’t get much backstory. If there had been an episode where she was threatened with kidnapping or murder, it would be a big incident that could explain her turning dark—yet there was no mention of such an event.
That meant…
‘Maybe this incident happened because I twisted the original story.’
After all, the fact that Rahel and she became friends was already a major divergence from the source material.
Thinking of that possibility made her heart race even more wildly than when she’d first realized she’d been kidnapped.
‘Rahel could really be in danger.’
Because of me.
Because I twisted the original story just to save myself.
She couldn’t leave things as they were.
‘I have to get out of here.’
She examined the cage she’d been locked in. As she expected, a big padlock hung on the front of the cage.
‘Maybe that man has the key?’
But with her eyes only barely open, she couldn’t examine her surroundings in detail.
‘I wish that man would leave his post.’
Of course, only if he actually had the key and set it down.
As if someone had heard her desperate wish, footsteps approached and another man appeared.
“Little one? Still out cold?”
“Looks like it.”
“Then get up. Now’s not the time to be doing this.”
“What’s the matter now? You’re not calling everyone just because you can’t handle a single kid, are you?”
“They say someone else is approaching besides the princess.”
“The duke’s household knights?”
“Not them yet, but they say some weird guy showed up—go check it out.”
“You want me to go deal with that? Just for that?”
“Do what you’re told. Don’t think you can laze around and enjoy yourself—get up and come.”
The guard muttered curses and stood up.
At that moment, something glinted at his waist.
‘The key!’
No!
Watching the key walk away helplessly, she felt she could do nothing.
In the dim light, something like a black shadow touched the key and knocked it to the ground.
‘What was that…?’
Blinking, she rubbed her eyes in case she’d misseen it. The men left.
When the guards were gone, the key lay on the spot where they’d been.
After their footsteps faded, she stood up and tried pulling at the bars.
‘Ugh—of course it won’t budge.’
Even if she pulled hard, the bars wouldn’t come off. Unless she suddenly grew long arms like some manga protagonist from her past life, there was no way.
She pulled and pulled until her palms bled from the friction, then finally exhausted, she sank down.
‘Rahel is in danger…’
A sob rose in her throat.
[It’s not because you’re strange. Maybe it’s because you’re special.]
More frightening than the possibility that she might die was the thought that Rahel might die because of her.
And above all, she was angry at her own helplessness—crying when all she could do was cry.
If the protagonist of this novel could only wait for a white horse prince to come…
‘I don’t want that kind of protagonist!’
