“What?”

“I’m just overwhelmed, my lady. Since when did our naive Rosé become so intelligent? Where did you even learn all this?”

“I was just curious, so I looked into it.”

“You’ve stopped attending tea parties, quit visiting the dressmakers, and locked yourself away in the library…”

“What use are tea parties or new dresses when I’m about to die soon? It’s not like I’ll be taking them with me.”

Rosé spoke indifferently as if discussing someone else’s fate. Natalie’s face fell once more.

She had been trying hard to ignore their hopeless predicament, but Rosé’s words made her painfully aware of where they were headed.

Seeing Natalie’s reaction, Rosé smirked and spoke casually.

“Don’t worry too much. I’ll make sure to beg them to make it quick and painless when they kill me.”

Natalie’s face turned pale. Rosé finally burst into laughter at her expression.

“My lady! How can you joke about something like this in our situation?”

Natalie shot Rosé a glare full of reproach.

Rosé quietly gazed at the eerie forest outside and murmured to herself.

“What’s done is done, so we might as well accept it.”

For a moment, a solemn air settled inside the carriage.

“But… that king over there—do you think he’s as terrifying as the rumors say?”

“What rumors?”

“They say he dresses in black like a devil and drinks human blood at night to replenish his energy. That he skins people he dislikes, tosses their bodies to the wolves, and turns their hides into clothing.”

Natalie shuddered.

“You don’t have to be that scared, Natalie.”

“I’m not the only one trembling, my lady—you’re shaking too.”

“…What?”

Come to think of it, the carriage had been shaking unnaturally for a while now. The bumps were so violent that her seat practically bounced.

“Aahhh! My lady! What’s happening?!”

Natalie, who had been looking out the window, screamed and ducked back into the carriage.

Rosé quickly glanced outside. Crimson blood splattered onto her pale face.

“Aah!”

A masked man had slit a guard’s throat, and the blood had sprayed onto her.

The coachman, struck by an arrow in the back, had already collapsed, while one of the wheels was barely hanging on.

A horse, wounded by an arrow to its leg, reared up wildly in pain.

“Chase them down and kill them!”

Even the masked assailants seemed unable to control the frenzied horses, so they began shooting arrows at the carriage indiscriminately.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Arrows arced through the air and embedded themselves into the carriage.

“Kyaaah!”

Natalie screamed as arrows thudded into the spot right next to her face.

“Natalie!”

“My lady!”

A masked man riding close to the carriage began hacking at the door with his sword.

“Ugh!”

“Come this way, Natalie!”

Rosé and Natalie huddled in the corner, dodging the viciously stabbing sword.

“We have to jump out!”

“No! If we jump, we’ll die instantly! I can’t do it!”

“If we stay here, they’ll kill us!”

“Sob… I can’t, my lady. I just can’t jump.”

While Natalie sobbed, the carriage lurched violently.

“One of the wheels has come off. We have to jump out the other side now.”

“If we jump from here, we’ll die, my lady.”

“Hold my hand. Let’s jump when we pass through that thick brush over there.”

Rosé grabbed Natalie’s hand and leaped as the carriage neared the overgrown brush.

The world spun wildly as the sky and ground flipped upside down.

Branches tore at their clothes, scraping their skin as they tumbled down the hillside.

Then, Rosé lost consciousness.

***

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

Rosé slowly opened her eyes, feeling pain all over her body.

“Natalie? Natalie!”

But when she sat up, Natalie was nowhere to be seen.

As Rosé cautiously called out for her, hooves echoed from atop the hill.

Quickly, she hid behind some vines and looked upward.

One of the men chasing them earlier pulled his mask down beneath his chin.

“Hah!”

At the sight of his face, Rosé let out a choked gasp of rage and despair.

He was one of the knights who closely guarded Kasiax.

‘Kasiax! That bastard! He really won’t stop until I’m dead!’

Fury welled up so intensely that tears pricked her eyes.

‘What grudge does he hold against me that he would chase me all the way here just to torment me?!’

Her body trembled with rage at the thought of Kasiax.

‘Just wait. I’ll crush you completely. I’ll make you weep tears of blood!’

Covered in wounds and dirt, Rosé clenched her fists, seething with determination.

Then, suddenly—

The thunderous sound of many hooves filled the air.

The men Kasiax had sent immediately panicked and began fleeing in the direction they had come from.

Rosé didn’t know what was happening, but her instincts told her to stay hidden. She curled up as tightly as possible and pressed herself flat against the ground.

She lay there for an unknown amount of time.

Grrrrr…

The low growl of a beast rumbled near her ear, and Rosé’s eyes snapped open.

A shiver ran down her spine.

She spotted a pair of glowing golden eyes through the gaps in the leaves.

The beast pawed at the ground as if preparing to lunge at its prey.

“No… No, I can’t die here.”

Still lying down, Rosé began inching backward. She groped around and grabbed a thick branch.

“Gasp!”

She caught a glimpse of it.

A massive, jet-black wolf.

It was so enormous that she could barely breathe from the sheer shock.

Rosé knew that the black wolf symbolized both the land of Hellevant and the Lankert family, but she never imagined she would encounter one here.

“H-Hey, you… You’re a good boy, right? I have no business with you…”

Rosé tried to calm them down, but the wolves only growled more fiercely, their eyes glinting dangerously. Foam frothed at their mouths, and drools dripped to the ground.

She recalled that before her regression, the young Lady Ariella had traveled to Hellevant and returned savagely mauled by a beast.

“I-I’m here to help your king! If you kill me, you’ll regret it!”

It was absurd to think she could communicate with wild beasts, but Rosé continued to murmur desperately.

As the wolves crept forward, cornering her like prey, she gripped the branch like a sword and swung it in front of her.

At that moment, one of the wolves leaped at her with a powerful lunge.

“Aah!”

A dull impact struck her, and Rosé lost consciousness.

***

Tullio rode swiftly toward his group, the unconscious woman secured behind him on his horse.

His rugged, muscular arm was tightly wrapped around her back, keeping her from slipping off the saddle.

“Your Highness! We’ve found another one!”

He abruptly reined in his horse, causing it to rear up on its hind legs before coming to a halt.

The gathered men, radiating a dangerous aura, turned toward him.

The young man at the forefront of the group also looked his way.

Sitting upright atop the most significant and fiercest black steed, Maxim Lankert’s dark hair fluttered in the wind.

His cold, expressionless gaze gleamed gold under the sunlight, as sharp and predatory as a beast’s.

He slowly steered his horse toward the woman Tullio had brought.

“Judging by her attire, she looks like someone sent from Stern,” one of the subordinates standing behind him commented.

Maxim stared down at the limp woman on the horse as if she were nothing more than a sack of cargo.

“Toss her into the castle,” he ordered curtly.

As soon as the words left his lips, he spurred his horse forward, riding in the opposite direction of the castle.

The knights and black wolves accompanying him followed suit, galloping behind him.

A flock of ravens burst into the sky in the direction they rode.