2. Ancient Legacy (1)

Ingrid stared at the scene before her with trembling eyes.

A horse convulsing and foaming at the mouth, the coachman and guards collapsed and unable to rise, and her master slumped beside her. It was a sight she had never imagined, nor dared to imagine.

‘How did it come to this……?’

She was utterly confused. Dazed, she sank to the ground and exhaled a shallow breath.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

They had been on their way to the vacation spot earlier than usual because her master didn’t want to go during the same season as everyone else.

Inside the carriage, her master had been chattering enthusiastically about what she would do once they reached the villa, and Ingrid had responded to her master’s words as best she could, humoring her.

Ingrid’s master, Viscountess Eugenie, was considered eccentric by society, but she was quite generous and kind even to Ingrid, who was her slave. Because of this, Ingrid didn’t mind those moments when she had to choose her words carefully to please her master.

To be precise, she might have even been looking forward to it. She had deeply resonated with the statement that this vacation would be quite special.

But disaster struck in an instant.

Shortly after entering the mountain path, the carriage came to a halt with a loud noise.

Wondering if some accident had occurred outside, Ingrid was about to step out of the carriage when Eugenie, her face pale blue, stopped her.

“Wait, Inge.”

Unable to understand why, Ingrid tilted her head in confusion when a piercing scream came from outside. At the same moment, the carriage door opened.

Unfamiliar men were looking at them from beyond the door.

“……Huh?”

Though she couldn’t understand what was happening, her instincts warned her to get away from this place immediately. But paralyzed by the overwhelming fear, she couldn’t do anything.

The men forcibly dragged Ingrid and Eugenie out of the carriage.

The coachman and guards who had been calmly conversing with Ingrid just an hour ago lay face down on the ground. Even the horse she had fed apples to with her own hands.

Only then did Ingrid’s mind go blank as she understood the situation.

Bandits.

The bandits spouted nonsense like ‘It’s your fault for traveling during this season’ and said something to Eugenie. They seemed to say that if she handed over her jewelry obediently and left, they would at least spare her life.

After silently listening to the bandits, Eugenie pressed her lips together and spoke in a voice so small that only Ingrid, who was right beside her, could hear.

“I’ll create an opening, run away. Go to the nearest town and ask for help.”

It was a gamble destined to fail.

There were over ten bandits and Eugenie was just one person. With the guards and coachman already dead, what could Eugenie possibly do?

Above all, the ‘nearest town’ Eugenie mentioned was several hours away by carriage. It would have been better to hand over everything they had and beg for their lives.

Ingrid tried to stop her master. But before she could stop Eugenie, Eugenie was faster in stabbing the bandit in front of her with the dagger she had hidden in her bosom.

“You d*mn b*tch!”

Naturally, Eugenie’s resistance provoked the bandits’ anger.

The fact that the man who fell to Eugenie’s knife would never rise again fueled that anger. The bandits ruthlessly murdered Eugenie.

Belatedly realizing that Eugenie was not just a wealthy person but a noble, the bandits took only the valuables and left the scene.

Ingrid, trembling with fear, had long been out of their interest.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A fishy, metallic smell lingered at the tip of her nose. She heard a tearing ringing in her ears and felt dizzy, as if her body was floating. It also felt like someone was squeezing her stomach.

“Ugh, blegh……”

Ingrid helplessly vomited while sitting on the ground. Having eaten nothing for fear of motion sickness, only sour gastric acid flowed past her throat. Tears welled up in her large eyes.

Why?

How did such a thing happen?

She kept asking herself, but couldn’t find a proper answer.

“Ah, aah……”

Finally, tears streamed down her face. Although Ingrid had never cried once in her life until now, at that moment she couldn’t control her emotions.

Ingrid’s life could not, even as empty words, be called a happy one. The Empire was a country with a more distinct class system compared to other countries and had strong discrimination against slaves.

But Ingrid had been living while more or less accepting her life. She had no desires like wanting things to get better or wanting to be happy. She just thought this was enough. That’s exactly what she had been thinking.

‘This is too cruel……’

Ingrid wept for a long time. Whether from fear or sadness, her tears wouldn’t stop.

Then, a voice that seemed like it would extinguish at any moment, like a candle in the wind, reached her ears. It was Eugenie’s voice.

“……Ing, grid.”

“Ma, master?”

At the faint voice, Ingrid quickly stopped her tears. Eugenie, whom she thought was dead, was alive.

With a pathetically trembling voice, Ingrid asked Eugenie:

“A-are, are you alright? Master, a-are, are, are you alright?”

Eugenie’s head moved faintly.

Her condition wasn’t good, but she seemed to have enough consciousness to move her body and speak. With luck, she might be saved. Ingrid quickly wiped her wet eyes.

Eugenie wheezed, gasping for breath, then continued:

“……Come, here.”

“What?”

“Come…… here.”

At Eugenie’s words, Ingrid approached her.

Though she had to crawl on the ground because her legs wouldn’t support her, she had no time to worry about such things. Her master’s life was more important than the blood and filth staining her clothes.

Eugenie was barely breathing as if she might die at any moment. Her breathing was as faint as her voice, so thin it wouldn’t be strange if it stopped right away. The situation was worse than expected.

Perhaps……

“Ma, master, master…… Ah, ju, just a moment. The blood, too much blood is coming out, so, I mean……”

With the thought that she must save Eugenie somehow, Ingrid covered her wounds with trembling hands. But despite her efforts, the blood only spread more.

Eugenie opened her mouth again.

“Run…… a, way…… I, Ingrid……”

“……What?”

Ingrid responded with a thin voice to the unexpected words. Eugenie barely turned her eyes to look at Ingrid. She continued haltingly:

Ingrid forgot to breathe as she listened to her words. She had a feeling that this would be the last time.

Looking at Ingrid like that, Eugenie faintly raised the corners of her mouth.

“They…… from the be, ginning…… planned to…… ki, ll us……”

“……”

“I’m…… only going…… this far, so…… you should run……”

It was a last will.

A remarkably clear last will, despite being unbelievable that she was dying.

“……You must, live well.”

After finishing her words, Eugenie breathed her last. It was a miserable death where she couldn’t even close her eyes. Ingrid blankly stared at her master who had stopped breathing.

The chest that had been faintly rising and falling no longer moved, and the eyes that had always sparkled lost their light, looking just like the eyes of a dead fish. Ingrid softly called out to Eugenie.

“Master……?”

A quiet silence followed.

Ingrid stared at Eugenie for a long time, lost in a daze. She shook the body that had cooled to lukewarm and was motionless, and even rudely slapped her cheek. But Eugenie did not rise.

Everyone except Ingrid was dead.

Realizing this fact, Ingrid clutched her head in despair.

“No, no……”

Before dying, Eugenie had told her to run away. And also to live well.

But was that even possible?

After witnessing such a scene, was it even reasonable to talk about living well?

Above all, Eugenie clearly didn’t have much awareness that she was an exceptionally good master. A slave’s life was far from ‘living well.’

The future of a slave whose master has died is divided into two types. If the master left an heir, the slave becomes the property of that heir and serves another master; if not, the slave is transferred to the state and circulates through the market again.

Since Eugenie had no heirs, let alone distant relatives, Ingrid would have to live waiting to be sold to someone.

Could that be called living well?

“How, how am I supposed to live well……”

Ingrid asked Eugenie over and over. She wanted an answer. Even though she knew no answer would come.

Ingrid came to her senses only after the sun had set and the sounds of beasts began to be heard. She looked down at her coldly stiffened master with an inscrutable expression.

Soon she grimaced and smiled. It was the smile of someone who had gained an insight they should never have known in their lifetime.

Ingrid stood up and cleaned the surroundings. As she erased traces of the bandits and searched her master’s body, her face still wore that distorted smile.

A few days later, a warrant was issued in the Empire for a slave who had murdered her master and fled. The fugitive slave was captured only a few days after the warrant was issued.