The fight between Terry and Hound continued silently but fiercely.

Not a single footstep was heard, but their blades clashed, sending sparks flying, and though neither let out a single pain-filled groan, flesh and blood soaked the dirt ground.

In the end, it was Terry who first had her back against the ground.

Bang!

Kicked by Hound, Terry fell to the ground.

As she tried to get up immediately, she couldn’t move an inch due to the deadly sensation pressing down on her abdomen.

“Terry, give up.”

Hound looked down at Terry and spoke in a voice devoid of any emotion.

Under Hound’s shoe pressing down on Terry’s abdomen was a smooth, willow leaf-like blade without a handle, pressing against her skin.

If Hound applied even a little more pressure with his foot or if Terry moved her body, that blade would mercilessly slice through Terry’s flesh and embed itself in her body.

And it was aimed at the pancreas—the most difficult organ to treat when damaged.

This was truly the textbook method of a wild dog.

“By now, the men I hired should have caught up with the remaining three carriages. All I want is the notary’s life and Lady Eleanor’s letter. Out of our old friendship, if you promise to return Lady Eleanor’s letter and stop repaying your debt, I’ll at least spare your life.”

Damn it. Terry swallowed her curse.

Something had seemed strange.

With his level of skill, he could have killed the notary long ago when she wasn’t paying attention, so why had he dragged things out until today?

Now she understood the answer.

He had been waiting for Terry to make contact with the notary, trying to figure out what her purpose was and what the notary was hiding.

‘Disgustingly meticulous bastard.’

If there was any consolation, it would be that Eleanor’s letter wasn’t in her possession right now.

Terry took a deep breath.

Even that slight movement caused the tip of the blade to dig slightly into her skin.

But Terry didn’t hesitate to grab Hound’s ankle and look straight up at him.

“Stop the bullshit. Return what? And Hound, have you already forgotten how I survived in the fighting pit?”

After saying that, Terry pulled Hound’s foot toward her chest.

Squelch.

The chilling sound of something sharp tearing through a thin membrane echoed in Terry’s head.

Hound’s stance faltered for a moment, as he hadn’t expected her to pull his foot so that the blade would pierce her.

Terry didn’t miss that split second.

Though her insides felt like they were burning, she ignored the pain and swung the finger-sized blade she had hidden in her inner wrist.

Swish.

“Ugh!”

The attack aimed at Hound’s eyes, however, unfortunately, only grazed his eyelid.

As Hound stepped back a couple of paces, Terry clutched her abdomen and quickly got to her feet.

The blade had already penetrated her abdomen so deeply that its tip was no longer visible.

“Haak, haak.”

With each breath, she noticed a strange sound coming from her throat.

Terry spat out a clot of blood that rose up her throat.

It seemed her organs had been properly damaged.

“Yes, that’s how you survived. I had forgotten.”

It wasn’t just her skill with daggers and poisons, but because she was a mad dog who would leap into danger with a smile that everyone in the fighting pit had avoided her.

Just like now.

“Then our negotiations have failed.”

Wiping away the blood that kept obscuring his vision, Hound readjusted his weapon.

Having barely escaped from the fighting pit, they were still pointing blades at each other, aiming for each other’s lives.

But the situation was very different from back then.

Back then, they had to eliminate others just to survive, but now they were holding their blades for their own beliefs.

Just as Hound was about to step forward and charge at the staggering Terry, his focus suddenly became blurry.

He blinked lightly.

Though he had only grazed his eyelid, his vision was becoming increasingly blurry.

He had fallen victim to the poison Terry had used.

Even seeing this, Terry didn’t let her guard down.

That monster of a man could probably take her life even with his eyes closed.

Nevertheless, Terry couldn’t help but let out a small laugh.

“Hound, in that miserable fighting pit, you lost if you lost your life. But I found out that the world outside doesn’t work that way.”

The sound of the ground rumbling could be heard from afar.

It was the sound of a horse galloping.

There was only one rider, so it couldn’t be the county’s security force.

Hound remained vigilant but allowed himself a slight lapse in concentration. He had already confirmed that Terry had no collaborators except for Jerry.

Her only helper had already left the county in one of the four carriages, so whoever was approaching now must just be a passerby.

So he needed to focus on taking Terry’s life in front of him.

“The world outside isn’t a survival of the fittest where you lose if you die and win if you survive. Yet you act like you’ve won everything? As if you’re still in the cage of the fighting pit.”

“……”

“You stupid bastard. The victory is mine, Hound.”

At that moment, a horse at full gallop rushed past Hound.

“Sis! Your hand!”

Jerry, riding the horse, reached out his hand toward Terry, and Terry quickly grabbed it and climbed onto the horse.

Hound, realizing the situation a moment too late, threw his dagger, but due to his blurred vision, it only grazed Terry’s nape.

“Ack! That monster! Can he really not see? That blade just grazed your neck!”

Jerry made a fuss as he whipped the horse.

The notary and Jerry weren’t in any of the four hired carriages that had left earlier.

Terry had simply paid the drivers and staff at the carriage rental place to disguise people to look like the notary and Jerry and sent them to the outskirts of town.

In other words, Jerry and the notary had never left the county.

By now, the men hired by Hound would have realized they had been chasing decoys.

“I’ve already helped the notary escape. We just need to return to the royal capital now.”

“……”

“Sis? Hey, why aren’t you answering?”

Jerry, riding with Terry behind him, anxiously called out to his sister.

“Hey, are you dead?”

“……”

“Te-Terry sis! You’re not dead, right? You can’t die! I’ll take you to a doctor, so please hang on until then.”

“…I’m not dead. So go to Blanche’s annex.”

“What? Are you crazy? You’ll really die like this!”

“If we delay even for a moment… we’ll be tracked…”

With a voice that was fading away, Terry barely managed to continue her explanation.

Hound also had a resistance to poison, so his loss of sight was just a temporary phenomenon.

The moment they delay to find a doctor, they’ll be caught by him, and that’s when they’ll truly lose their lives.

“Blanche’s annex is the safest.”

“Hey! I don’t want to! We’re going to a doctor!”

“Jerry, listen to me. That bastard, he’s a real monster. But in Blanche’s annex, there’s an even bigger monster than him.”

The reason why Hound, despite sending so many assassins, never personally went to look for the annex.

It was because of the loyal Sir Penadel who protected Belinda.

So in this world right now, there is no safer place than the Blanche family’s annex.

***

In the late hours of dawn.

I woke up to the sound of someone banging on the mansion door loud enough to be heard from the second floor.

Looking out the window that overlooked the annex entrance, I saw a hired carriage of unknown origin.

Soon, I heard the sound of someone running up the corridor with heavy footsteps, and then Vivian, with a deathly pale face, flung open my bedroom door without knocking.

“Lady Be-Be-Belinda, Te-Te-Terry has returned……”

Vivian couldn’t continue speaking and just trembled with both hands.

My heart pounded anxiously in an unusual way.

“Did you say Terry has returned?”

Leo, who had also been awakened by the commotion, opened his door and asked while rubbing his eyes.

“Yes. For now… Ratchet, you stay in your room.”

After saying that, I hurriedly followed Vivian to the guest room on the first floor.

I realized the gravity of the situation when I smelled the strong scent of iron wafting through the slightly open door.

No, this isn’t the smell of iron.

“Terry?”

The white bedcover of the bed where Terry lay was a mess of bright red blood.

“Lady Belinda! A-a doctor! M-my sister said we had to come here first, so we came… We couldn’t even show her to a doctor. She might die at this rate.”

Jerry, whose face I had seen once before, clung to me while sobbing.

But I couldn’t say anything.

A doctor? Could a doctor really heal Terry?

Could a mere doctor… really heal someone in this condition?

I couldn’t help thinking that, given how terrible Terry’s condition was.

“We need to… bring a priest.”

The medical skills of this world are unreliable compared to my previous life. Rather than that, a priest…

‘But would a priest come?’

Even my uncle had to use an enormous sum of money and power to barely summon one.

And I’m just a young lady without the money or power to protect my people.

‘If Terry dies like this…’

“Master.”

Having noticed me belatedly, Terry looked at me with surprisingly clear eyes and smiled brightly.

“Wow, it’s the first time I’ve seen Master make that kind of expression.”

“…What kind of expression?”

“You’re looking at me like I’m about to die. I’m still alive, you know.”

Terry spoke playfully, as if greeting me in the morning.

Her face and demeanor were no different from usual, which snapped me back to my senses.

I calmly observed Sir Penadel, who was stopping Terry’s bleeding, then spoke.

“Vivian, bring that.”

“Ye-yes? Th-that… that? Ah, ah! Yes, yes!”

Vivian, who had been crying helplessly, rushed out of the room.

I sat next to Terry and held her hand tightly.

I didn’t know what to say. Or rather, I couldn’t open my mouth.

Because the moment I did, I might blurt out “don’t die.”

“Master, there’s something I haven’t told you yet…”

“Don’t speak.”

“Pardon?”

“Save that ominous talk for when you’re fully recovered.”

“I don’t want to.”

Terry responded with shameless boldness.

“Master, as of today, I’ve finished repaying my debt. Thank you for saving my father’s life.”

“Save that… for after you recover.”

“If I had lost my father like that, I probably would have died a violent death while recklessly trying to catch the culprit. Then the Rats would have been ruined. Father, no me… Jerry would have suffered to death, wouldn’t he?”

I couldn’t continue listening to Terry recounting the original story of “Hirome.”

“Terry, shut your mouth.”

“I don’t want to. Anyway, even if I keep talking, Master can’t punish me. I’m in too much pain.”

Terry, who had been sarcastic until the end, suddenly gripped my hand tightly.

“From now on, I want to serve you as my Master, not to repay a debt, but without any conditions or reasons. Hmm, that came out a bit twisted. Is it because I’ve lost too much blood?”

“……”

“I’m not going to die. Please believe me. So, will you allow it?”

Terry started to gasp for breath.

I could see the light gradually fading from her eyes, which had been so clear.

I gripped Terry’s hand tightly to hide my trembling.

“I allow it. So, Terry.”

Bang!

“Lady Belinda! I brought it!”

Vivian, who had come running breathlessly, hurriedly handed something over to me.

I immediately poured the contents of the red bottle into Terry’s mouth and warned her.

“First, survive.”

Vivian’s first successful creation, The Elixir of Life, spread throughout Terry’s body, taking root and bringing vitality.