Chapter 2.8

“It’s true. I only thought of you. You were the only one. Trust me. I’ll prove it to you.”  

“Prove what, prove what! How would you even prove it!”  

“How can I make you believe me?”  

He spoke with a face so clouded with despair that he looked ready to die.  

Livie instinctively realized, 

‘If I say the wrong thing, this will end badly.’  

Through their earlier exchanges, she had already experienced how they could speak the same language yet have entirely different meanings.  

“No, no, it’s not necessary. You don’t need to prove anything. I don’t want to know.”  

Really, truly. Livie shook her head desperately.  

“Really? You trust me?”  

Seeing his face light up with joy, Livie realized she had made another mistake.  

“I’m so happy, Livie.”  

His radiant smile resembled that of a shy boy confessing his love for the first time.  

“Ah, ahhh! Ahhh!”

She screamed into the air. She thought she might suffocate and die on the spot if she didn’t let it out somehow.  

“Livie, are you okay?”  

“Ahhhhh!”  

Livie looked at him again and let out a scream filled with all sorts of emotions.  

Her piercing cries intertwined bizarrely with the pounding of horse hooves across the vast field.  

The appearance of the one making those cries was even more bizarre.  

Her hair, tousled by the blowing wind, was a complete mess, covering her face, with some strands even getting into her mouth.  

“Ugh!”  

Spitting out the strands of hair and puffing, Livie bit her tongue as she couldn’t keep up with the horse’s increasing speed.  

The taste of salty blood spread over the stinging flesh.  

When he saw the blood faintly visible at the corner of her mouth, his face immediately stiffened.  

“Livie.”  

His large hand grabbed her chin and lifted it.  

The hand wrapped around her waist tightened its grip, holding her body even more firmly.  

Looking down at her with a deeply serious gaze, Livie instinctively swallowed.  

As she did, the blood pooled in her mouth slid down her throat.  

The bitter taste of blood made her grimace, and Boris’s face twisted as he watched her expression.  

Held by his hand, Livie’s mind suddenly wandered to another thought.  

‘Wait a minute, one hand is on my face, and the other is on my waist…?’  

Clip-clop, clip-clop.  

Livie focused all her attention on the ominous sound of the horse’s hooves.  

Slowly, she looked down.  

And she saw it.  

The reins swinging wildly on the horse’s back.  

“The reins! Grab the reins!”  

“Hm?”  

Even at Livie’s frantic shout, Boris didn’t move his hands.  

“It’s fine, Livie. We won’t die.”  

Seeing him with both hands free, Livie felt an extreme sense of terror.  

“I will die, I will!”  

“No, you won’t.”  

For a moment, his fleeting smile sent a chill down her spine.  

Before she could even think about why, Boris’s face moved closer.  

“Stay still.”  

“What… Mmph!”  

A wet chunk of flesh pushed into her mouth.  

“Mmph! Mmmph!”  

Without a chance to protest, Livie struggled helplessly as she was held tightly.  

His one hand held her so firmly it felt like she was bound by chains.  

“Mmm! Mmmm!”  

She pounded his chest with her fists, but her hands only hurt more as they struck his armor.  

Meanwhile, his thick tongue focused on licking and sucking the part of her mouth that was bleeding.  

“Mmph! Mmm, mmph!”  

The more she tried to speak and open her mouth, the more his aggressive tongue probed deeper inside.  

Caught in a whirlwind of sensations she had never felt before, Livie flailed helplessly.  

“You need to treat wounds right away.”  

Only when her flailing stopped did he slowly withdraw from her mouth.  

“Or they’ll fester.”  

Licking the blood that had spread to the corner of her lips, he added.  

“…”  

With her mouth agape, Livie watched as Boris casually wiped the blood he had sucked from her.  

There was no way the blood from her mouth had turned sweet, but he licked it off his lips as if savoring candy.  

The combination of his otherworldly violet eyes and crimson lips exuded an oddly decadent aura.  

He looked far too wild to be called a Knight.  

He resembled a vampire relishing the taste of his prey after a feast.  

“Does it still hurt?”  

He looked down at her with a concerned gaze.  

“No.”  

Livie quickly covered her mouth with both hands and pulled away.  

But she was soon pulled back into his strong arms.  

“Then stay still.”  

Pressed tightly against his chest—more precisely, the armor covering his broad chest—she couldn’t pull herself away no matter how much strength she used.  

After struggling futilely, all her energy drained away, leaving her utterly exhausted.  

It felt as though Boris had absorbed all her strength and vitality during their earlier interaction.  

Livie, now too drained to protest, slumped limply into his embrace.  

Oddly enough, her body felt more comfortable that way.  

Thump, thump.  

She could hear the sound of his heartbeat through the armor.  

The slightly quick rhythm of his heartbeats brought her a strange sense of calm.  

Livie found herself smiling faintly without realizing it.  

So this is what happens when a person faces a situation completely beyond their control.  

With no energy left to scream or resist, she could only remain quietly in his arms.  

Seeing her noticeably calmer demeanor, Boris smiled faintly.  

His hand gently tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear.  

The careful gesture was hard to believe coming from someone who had just ravaged her lips and mouth so thoroughly.  

It was as if he were handling a delicate flower, afraid of crushing it.  

But what did it matter?  

This man had committed the heinous act of abducting a bride from her wedding.  

Livie looked down at the arm firmly wrapped around her waist and let out a small sigh.  

No matter how much she struggled, there seemed to be no way to escape unless he let go himself.  

“Boris.”  

In the end, Livie changed her approach.  

She concluded that conserving her strength for later would be better than wasting it now.  

“Where are you taking me?”  

Her resigned voice prompted Boris to answer.  

“You’ll like it when you see it.”  

“How do you know that?”  

“Just hold on a little longer.”  

Boris patted her back and pulled her even closer.  

Despite the armor and her dress between them, his warmth seeped through.  

She didn’t know where they were going, but one thing was clear—they were getting farther and farther from where they had started.  

Her father must have found out by now.  

What would the villagers be doing?  

Were they still fighting over the jewels?  

Had anyone informed the Resette Dukedom?  

Did the King know what had happened?  

She even recalled the dumbfounded faces of her friends who had watched her.  

“We’re going to pick up the pace. Livie, you should rest. You’re tired, right?”  

“Rest?”  

“Yes, rest.”  

It wasn’t just a suggestion.  

The moment she heard those words, Livie felt an overwhelming wave of exhaustion wash over her.  

A buzzing sound filled her ears, and her head started to ache.  

On the swaying horse, Livie closed her eyes.  

When Livie opened her eyes again, dusk was beginning to settle, and the surroundings were dim.  

How far had we traveled?  

It felt like they had gone a long distance while she was unconscious, but at the same time, it didn’t seem like much time had passed.  

“We’re almost halfway there once we pass through here.”  

Livie looked around with dazed eyes.  

The surroundings had changed to a forest with towering trees looming ominously over them.  

“Where… is this?”  

Livie scanned the unfamiliar surroundings with a wary gaze.  

If there was a forest of this scale near the village, there was only one possibility.  

“Hessen Forest?”  

The forest north of the village.  

It was a place surrounded by countless ghost stories among the villagers.  

Monsters, dangerous wild animals, witches brewing poisons…  

Every terrifying and ominous being in the world was believed to gather there.  

Even as an adult, the fear instilled during childhood hadn’t completely disappeared.  

The villagers’ fear of the forest, ingrained from a young age, persisted into adulthood.  

This was because they had grown up hearing all sorts of horrifying tales about the forest.  

The adults, as if competing to see who could scare the children the most, would always come up with new ghost stories.  

The children, terrified yet strangely curious, couldn’t stop listening to those stories.  

And the next day, every household would be busy washing soiled bedding.  

“They say there are crows the size of people living in that forest.”