Seeing Leonid closing the distance in an instant, her mind snapped to attention. Ellen forced her trembling body to move.

‘I have to escape from him somehow.’

She clenched her frozen hands tightly and ran straight ahead. But despite Ellen’s tearful efforts, the sound from behind didn’t grow any more distant.

“Ellen!”

His seething voice reached her ears. Ellen’s heart grew more anxious, seeming to understand what his voice meant.

In her haste to run faster, she badly misstepped and fell to her knees in the snow. Ellen turned her head back with tears welling up. There she saw Leonid drawing even closer.

“Ah, no.”

I need to run away quickly.

Ellen struggled to raise her frozen body. Then she hurriedly looked around. She saw knights surrounding the path she had been trying to escape on. She abandoned her original route and moved her feet wherever she could.

“……”

Growl. Bark bark bark!

The sound of hunting dogs howling and weap*ns clashing against the knights’ iron armor echoed through the mountain. Amid it all, Leonid’s voice could be heard.

“Stop running and stand still.”

His sharp voice pierced her.

Ellen trembled violently, more from the fear of being caught than from the flesh-splitting cold. She desperately shook her head at Leonid who continued to chase her.

“N-no.”

She fled madly between steep trees. Her precarious steps continued as her body was scratched by bare branches. But there was no time to catch her breath.

Ellen continued running without even wiping away her ceaseless tears. But contrary to her desire to flee quickly, her legs sank deep into the snow, causing her feet to slip.

“Aah!”

With a pitiful scream, her body plunged into a snow pit. She never imagined the ground would be so deeply hollowed out beneath the thick snow. Ellen wailed as she struggled to escape from the pit.

“Sob.”

It was deeper than expected and too slippery inside to possibly get out. Meanwhile, she could see Leonid approaching her.

“……!”

Her pupils shook violently. Even if she escaped from here, there was no more path to flee. Ellen struggled as she looked at the knights surrounding her from all directions. In the meantime, Leonid came right in front of her.

“Don’t come!”

Ellen shouted, shaking her head vigorously. But contrary to her desperate wish, Leonid rushed in instantly and snatched her.

As if determined never to let her go again, Leonid held Ellen tightly and nodded to his knights. The knights then paid their respects to him and retreated far back, disappearing from their sight.

“Did you think you could run away from me?”

He whispered coolly in Ellen’s ear as he embraced her without any gaps.

The hair on her body stood on end at his voice. In his arms, Ellen fumbled with her lips like a child who hadn’t learned to speak.

“Ah……”

She heard a snickering laugh. Leonid picked her up and turned around.

“N-no, let me go!”

Ellen struggled frantically, startled as her body floated in the air.

If she was dragged away by him like this, she had no idea what would happen to her.

The cruel scene she had witnessed while hiding earlier flashed before her eyes.

“Stay still. Unless you want to go to the imperial palace tied up.”

“Sob. Please……”

“It seems that’s what you want.”

The beautiful eyes looking at Ellen flashed with madness. It was the exact same look from when she had been drawn into his beast-like acts, gasping.

She pressed her chest area firmly. Cursing her heart that responded to him even as she trembled with fear.

Ellen pushed Leonid away with all her might. But his solid body didn’t move an inch.

“How far do you intend to drive me mad.”

“……Your Majesty.”

“During the year you ran away, do you know what h*ll I lived in.”

He stopped walking and put Ellen down. Then he took off his cloak and snatched her body.

“Please let me go.”

Leonid pulled Ellen into his arms as she pleaded and bound her tightly with his cloak. This made resisting even harder than when she was being carried.

“No. I will never let you go.”

“Hic.”

“Gasp under me, look only at me, think only of me.”

He whispered as he traced Ellen’s tear-stained cheek with his lips.

“Cry so prettily only because of me.”

“Mmph.”

Leonid pressed his lips against Ellen’s. Despite the rough kiss without any consideration, her body, which remembered him, heated up intensely.

“Hah.”

Their lips parted only when Ellen was about to lose her breath. He traced Ellen’s nape with eyes that didn’t hide his desire.

“Now you’re going back to where you belong. There, you’ll fully pay the price for running away.”

Where I belong. That would mean the Emperor’s harem.

He wants to lock me up again in that cesspool where I’ll wither away, constantly yearning for his heart.

‘A man who doesn’t love me no matter how much I struggle……’

What he wants and obsesses over is just my body. I’m merely a pretty possession to satisfy his l*st.

But I……

Ellen met Leonid’s gaze as he looked at her with devouring eyes. Her heart pounded without fail.

‘I shouldn’t be swayed like this just from a single kiss.’

After all the feelings that drove me to escape.

Ellen clenched her hand inside the cloak. She couldn’t go back to living the same life after being captured like this.

She stopped her resistance and relaxed her body. Leonid raised the corner of his mouth as he pressed his lips to the crown of her head.

“That’s right. Stay still like this.”

Leonid removed his lips from Ellen, who was nestled obediently in his arms, and tried to lift her. At that moment, Ellen put all her strength into headbutting his chest.

Leonid, not expecting Ellen’s counterattack, stepped back slightly. Ellen didn’t miss the opportunity and quickly moved her body while wearing Leonid’s cloak.

“Come here right now. Quickly.”

His handsome brow furrowed sharply. She shook her head frantically and continued running straight ahead.

“No, I will never return to your harem again.”

Ellen ran for her life with all her might. At that moment, her vision went dark and her body sank.

“Ellen!”

Having slipped on the frozen snow, Ellen’s body tumbled down a steep slope toward the cliff. Leonid called out her name in shock and ran toward her.

“……Ugh.”

Just before falling off the cliff, she grabbed a thick branch hanging in the air. Ellen precariously hung from the branch and looked up. There she saw Leonid, pale with fear, trying to pull up the branch she was holding.

“Don’t do it.”

“What are you saying!”

She smiled faintly as she watched his face contort with despair. There was a strange satisfaction in finally causing him pain.

Leonid grasped the thick branch with trembling hands.

“I will never let you fall. So hold on tight.”

“……Leonid.”

Ellen called his name for the first time as she hung from the branch that was gradually being pulled up. It wasn’t bad. No, it was quite nice.

Perhaps she had wanted to call his name at least once.

Not as his possession, but as a woman who loved him.

“Now…… I’m done.”

“What are you saying!”

Ellen shook her head as she watched Leonid approaching.

I can’t hold on much longer anyway. The strength in my hands gripping the branch is fading.

One hand came loose from the branch she had been desperately holding onto. The other hand was also gradually slipping downward. Seeing this, Leonid screamed madly and reached out to her.

“Running away from you.”

The act of loving him.

“Ellen, please don’t do this.”

“I just realized my feelings.”

……That I couldn’t forget you.

Despite struggling so desperately to escape,my resentful body and heart still remembered him.

“What are you saying? Don’t do this and grab my hand quickly.”

His handsome cheeks were stained with moisture.

So Leonid can cry too. I only realized this as the end approached.

His tears dropped onto Ellen’s cheeks.

Ellen unconsciously reached out her wandering hand toward him. Leonid leaned his body even deeper toward her and extended his hand.

“Ellen. Hold on a little longer. I will definitely save you.”

Their hands, almost touching but not quite, circled each other pitifully. Leonid howled like a beast and struggled to reach her. Meanwhile, Ellen’s hand convulsed precariously.

This was the limit. It had been from the start. No matter how much I struggled, I could never reach him.

“No. This is as far as we go.”

Ellen smiled more beautifully than ever before.

This would be the last image she showed him.

Just before Leonid’s hand could reach her, her strength gave out and her remaining hand slipped. And her body fell into the void.

“No!”

Leonid threw himself toward the falling Ellen. But he couldn’t reach her. The knights who had discovered the Emperor and approached surrounded him in layers and made him step back.

“Goodbye, Leonid.”

“Aaaaaaaargh!”

Leonid’s howl echoed across the cliff. Ellen’s voice was buried beneath his scream.

In the end, even a final farewell wasn’t granted to her.

“……”

A hot tear streamed down Ellen’s cheek.

Now I can finally be free from him completely.

It was what I wanted so desperately…… Yet somehow, my heart felt like it was being torn apart.