Chohee knew she had to walk without rest to catch that carriage departing at 3 AM. So she deliberately walked without stopping for even a moment.

The streetlights were on, so walking alone wasn’t scary. But every time she saw drunk people or thugs standing on the street, her heart trembled with anxiety. 

Among the scrolls Lars had given her were attack scrolls, but using them here would bring guards running, so she had to avoid confronting them at all costs.

“Hey! You there, mister passing by, look over here!”

“Oh… dyeing your hair black, you made it quite appealing, didn’t you? Haha, it reminds me of Elysia who received the contradictory oracle.”

At the drunk’s words, a shop clerk who had come out to promote his store twirled his black hair around.

Originally, dyeing one’s hair black was forbidden for anyone except Elysia. But after the contradictory oracle was received, it became commonplace for commoners to dye their hair black to attract customers.

‘…That contradictory oracle is false… Just the fact that the emperor acknowledged it has changed how people treat me like this.’

Chohee felt dejected. She wondered if her efforts to prove she wasn’t a Breeding Vessel by frequenting the library and asking Lars to relay information about the murders that repeated every 300 years to Claes had been in vain.

‘Still, it seemed like some people in the palace treated me differently…’

Yet Claes hadn’t even told her that his official Crown Princess Consort candidates had been decided. Chohee wiped away the tears threatening to fall with the back of her hand and walked slowly. The more she thought about it, the more she resented Claes.

‘And to think he even told Karad my name… Will I really be abandoned like Karad said?’

When Claes silently violated her, he was filled with l*st. But even then, his gaze toward her was so tender, and his touch on her cheek was warm and gentle. To think that such a man would abandon her – while hard to believe, Chohee felt like she was going crazy with anxiety.

“Huu…”

She let out a deep sigh. She wanted to empty her cluttered mind. What if she went to Heritail and he still didn’t come for her until all her money ran out? Such worries circled around her head.

But soon Chohee shook her head.

‘Only Elysia can bear children to continue the next generation. So he’ll definitely come for me eventually… but I don’t want to see another woman standing beside him instead of me…’

Whoosh.

A cool summer breeze blew over the path where Chohee trudged along. The hair wrapped inside her hood kept her warmly covered. She had been walking for nearly two hours, so she should arrive at the capital outskirts soon.

Proving her guess correct, she soon saw stagecoaches with “Brown Carriage” written on them. Seeing “To Saraum Village” written on the front of the carriage, Chohee breathed a sigh of relief at the thought that she could finally sit down.

“…”

Her legs hurt from walking so much. But in exchange, the complicated thoughts that had cluttered her mind were gone.

Chohee stood behind a corner and watched for people coming. Seeing no one approaching, she tore the scroll that would cancel her invisibility.

“No customers today either. If even one person shows up, I should just depart before 3 o’clock.”

The coachman spoke irritably and spat. Chohee watched this scene and slowly approached.

“I’d like to take the carriage to Saraum Village.”

“Ah…! You’re a customer. Please come aboard.”

The coachman immediately smiled brightly with a cheerful face. Though Chohee’s face was hidden by her hood and couldn’t be seen properly, the coachman who looked like he’d waste today’s income was grateful even for a customer of unknown identity.

“That’ll be 4 gold.”

Chohee nodded and paid the money. She knew what kind of market price 4 gold represented in this dream world. Actually, when she first possessed this body, she had been near a village, so she could experience the market price of money when she wandered the streets begging.

‘4 gold is enough for a lower-class family’s food expenses for a month. But according to what Lars wrote, Saraum Village is quite far. So it’s exactly the right price. At least I wasn’t overcharged.’

“Oh, thank you so much, customer!”

The coachman was all smiles, knowing how good a customer who paid well without haggling was. He pushed the pouch into his chest and climbed up to the front of the carriage.

“You’re lucky today, customer. Normally we’d wait until the carriage was full, but today there are so few customers that we’re running with just you aboard.”

‘I definitely did well to leave early. Even one more day… I didn’t want to stay in the Imperial Palace where they treat me like a Breeding Vessel.’

She was tired of the life of waiting only for Claes and Lars in the deepest annex of the Imperial Palace while occasionally being violated by Karad. Even if they didn’t treat her like a Breeding Vessel… she didn’t want to live on s*x alone.

When she climbed into the carriage and sat down, Chohee witnessed tears dropping and drawing round circles on her knees. Only then could she understand.

How much pain Karad’s words had caused her.

What it meant that she had no choice but to escape like this.

‘I never want to have s*x with Karad again… Even though Claes didn’t tell me the truth, I only want to be with gentle him and sensitive Lars…’

Feeling her chest tighten inside, Chohee lay down sideways on the carriage seat. Though this space should normally be packed full, it was empty and spacious, so lying sideways was comfortable.

Feeling sleep rushing over her instantly, Chohee closed her eyes.

“Then we’re departing!”

The carriage began to shake.

* * *

“She disappeared? Elysia?!”

Karad shouted angrily in a loud voice. The knights couldn’t give any answer to his words and just bowed their heads. Karad reached out with a face red with rage to the top of his head and slapped each knight’s cheek.

“We’re sorry.”

“Shut up! Do you think saying sorry solves this problem?”

Claes and Lars, watching the growling Karad, also had unpleasant expressions. The bed was completely empty and the terrace was closed, so it was hard to believe she had escaped from this Imperial Palace.

But that locked room was staged. It was Claes who had advised Lars to deliberately create the locked room. So while he wasn’t surprised, he was anxious about whether she was properly heading to Saraum Village.

‘Elysia…’

Though his expression wasn’t good, he had worn this same expression when Elysia first disappeared. Therefore, those watching him thought Claes was suffering because of Elysia’s disappearance.

“Elysia… seems to have returned to her own world.”

When Lars spoke quietly, all eyes focused on him at once. Lars half-lowered his eyes and continued speaking.

“She probably didn’t want to stay in an Imperial Palace that treated her only as a Breeding Vessel. So this is a natural result.”

“Lars!”

Karad shouted loudly, but Lars spoke calmly.

“This is exactly the future result of treating Elysia only as a Breeding Vessel. If this happens, even if she became pregnant, she would miscarry when her body disperses again. We shouldn’t have accepted the contradictory oracle as truth.”

Lars’s words were entirely correct. Silence immediately settled in the bedroom. What broke it was Claes’s question a few minutes later.

“Then Lars, what do you think we should do?”

“I think…”

Lars closed his mouth briefly, then soon answered.

“We must reveal that the contradictory oracle is false and gain recognition from His Majesty the Emperor. If His Majesty the Emperor declares that Elysia is the unique wife of us princes according to the original oracle, we could persuade her the next time Elysia descends to the empire.”

Lars’s words were right. Most people in the bedroom became silent like mutes who had eaten honey, seemingly agreeing with that opinion. But only Karad was different.

“…Huu.”

Karad breathed roughly and began searching here and there. Remembering how Chohee had laid out chocolates, he searched the bed and turned over all the drawers to see if anything was inside.

Whether lines formed between Lars’s and Claes’s brows watching him or not, he was desperate to find any trace Elysia might have left.

“D*mn it!”

Though Karad had been cursing, all he found was a chocolate wrapper. But Karad’s gaze looking at it flashed unusually. Picking it up, Karad approached Lars and swung his fist.

“…!”

“What are you doing, Karad?”

It was Claes who blocked that fist. He watched Karad with a cold face he had never shown before. It was a face that said he would give punishment beyond house arrest if Karad didn’t give a proper reason.

But Karad wasn’t intimidated and growled.

“It’s you, Lars!”

“What do you mean, Brother Karad.”

Lars’s eyes were also unusually cold. His blue eyes blazed like he would never forgive being punched. Witnessing the blue anger, Karad’s body stiffened slightly upon facing the anger of a younger brother he had never once defeated. However, he immediately shouted.

“This chocolate wrapper. You gave it to her, didn’t you? When you gave her chocolate, didn’t you also put other things in the subspace pouch?”

“Your imagination is truly remarkable. What I prepared for her was chocolate and flower bouquets. Of course, since the quantity was large, it’s true that I put them in a subspace pouch so she could take them out and store them anytime.”

At Lars’s calm words, Karad was at a loss for words. But soon he fixed his expression and tried to grab Lars’s collar. However, Claes intervened and grabbed Karad’s collar instead.

“Karad.”

A voice like a well-sharpened blade flew out.

“It’s hard to keep watching you act however you please. If you have something to say, do it with manners, like a gentleman. Every time I see you being rude even to your brother, I get angry.”

Claes’s statement made Karad freeze. Claes, being a Grand Sword Master and master archer, had skills several levels above Karad’s and was clever. This meant he was also excellent at finding other evidence Karad couldn’t guess.

Karad was speechless.

When even such a Claes was accepting that Elysia had disappeared from this locked room, he wondered if his plan to pressure Lars based on this intuition was really right. Instinctively, he felt Lars had something… but there was no proper circumstantial evidence.

“But brother, if not Lars, there’s no one else who could have helped Elysia escape from here.”

“…Really? Since this is a locked room, I just think Elysia crossed over to another world again.”

Karad couldn’t finish speaking and only moved his lips.