“What—what do you mean?”
The small vessel rocked violently as the man moved. Drops leapt from the surface of the water and streaked down Sveta’s cheeks.
She shuffled backwards inch by inch towards the other end of the boat.
“Ah…”
It was futile resistance.
The boatman crouched before her and drew a dagger from his waistband; the tip was as sharp as an awl.
In that instant, Sveta realized that she had walked into a carefully laid trap.
“Why… why…?”
The attack came before she could react.
A horrifying sensation tore through her abdomen, and her body was lifted off the floor of the boat.
“Ahh—!”
The man twisted the hilt embedded in her stomach.
Instinctively, Sveta flailed her arms around.
However, all she managed to do was scratch his gaunt neck and face, leaving only shallow marks.
He merely looked annoyed at her continued struggle.
Finally, Sveta began to beg.
“Please—please. I’m carrying a child. So please.”
The man did not so much as flinch.
“That thing in your belly is worth a fair price.”
“Hhk… What do you mean…?”
“I took a job. To kill a bastard.”
Hot blood poured from the wound in her abdomen, soaking through her clothes.
Her arms fell limp at her sides as she stared blankly at the boatman.
“How could Madam Noma…?”
“Click. You should’ve thought before spreading your legs for your master. Pretty things are all the same.”
He laughed crudely and threw her towards the center of the boat.
Her back collided with a protruding wooden edge. The pain was so sharp that it felt as though something had broken. But the deeper, burning agony came from her stomach.
Blood pulsed steadily from the wound.
“N-no…”
Something was wrong.
Despair flooded Sveta’s eyes as she looked up at him.
The moment he took a step towards her, his face contorted savagely. Suddenly, an arrow shot across the river with terrifying speed and pierced the boatman’s throat.
“Kgh—!”
He lost his balance, lurched violently, and fell to one side. The boat tilted sharply in the same direction.
With a heavy splash, his body hit the water, causing the vessel to overturn.
The freezing river swallowed her whole.
It felt as though every nerve in her body had been severed at once. Her senses dulled and her consciousness blurred in an instant.
The thick rope tangled around her wrist was all that kept her tethered to her remaining awareness.
She was not alone.
She had a child to protect.
Drawing on her last remaining strength, Sveta reached out her hand.
‘Just a little more… just a little…’
She quickly twisted her wrist, winding the rope tighter and tighter around her arm like a coiling snake.
Finally, she managed to grasp one side of the upturned boat. Shaking violently, she screamed as loudly as she could.
“Help… please, help me…!”
She saw him standing on the nearby riverbank.
He slowly lowered the arm with which he had drawn the great bow. The knights who had just arrived reined in their horses behind him.
He did not dismount.
Instead, he stared at Sveta with burning eyes.
“Your Grace… please.”
Her vision blurred with tears.
“My lord! At this rate, something terrible will happen!”
She thought she heard Pailin shout. Instinctively, she blinked and turned her head slightly to try to see him.
However, her black hair clung to her face like seaweed and obstructed her view.
Through the narrow gap in her hair, she saw the duke level his sword at Pailin, who had jumped off his horse.
“My lord!”
As Pailin struggled out of his armor, Aiden’s cold voice cut him off.
“I said wait. Know your place, Pailin.”
His gaze remained fixed on Sveta.
His face was calm — terribly, eerily calm. There was not a flicker of emotion on it. This absence of feeling was more frightening than fury.
‘Wait…’
The meaning of that single word was clear.
He was punishing her.
Just as Jace Gould had once forced her beneath the water.
“You filthy slave who doesn’t know your place.”
It was as though Jace Gould’s demonic voice were still echoing in her ears.
So that was all they had ever been.
Despite the nights they had spent wrapped in each other’s warmth, he had never truly been warm.
She was merely a bed slave who had dared to covet her master’s heart.
Was this cruel punishment for deceiving him?
She could endure no more.
The waves crashed against her back as if they were the sharpened edge of an axe.
Her consciousness began to fade again. Summoning her last remaining strength, Sveta wound the rope around her arm several more times.
Behind her, she heard the faint metallic clink of steel. She did not want to know who had calmly discarded a sword and removed a cloak.
The strength in her hand, clutching the upturned boat, slowly faded away.
Then, amidst the sound of water breaking around her, she heard the faint, ticklish laughter of a baby in her ears.
With her last breath, Sveta whispered,
“Berry…”
Freezing river water forced its way into her slightly parted mouth.
‘Berry.’
Murmuring his name again, Sveta reached for her stomach with her free hand.
An unbearable agony erupted from her abdomen, where the dagger was buried to the hilt.
Although she was submerged in water, she felt as though she were on fire. It was as if her insides had been set on fire.
The blood pouring from her wound dispersed helplessly into the current, like scattered sparks.
‘Berry. That’s your name.’
Clinging to her fading consciousness, Sveta tried to speak to her child.
Bubble, bubble.
The baby seemed to laugh; the sound was like rising foam.
Was it a laugh of delight? Or was it an embarrassed little giggle, as though she did not quite like her name?
‘See? I told you I’m terrible at naming things.’
You might get teased about it when you’re born. You might even blame me for choosing such a name.
That’s all right. Blame me if you must. Just live.
Gurgle, gurgle.
The sound of water filled her ears. The baby laughed again.
It felt like an answer.
‘I suppose you’re very kind.’
With that final thought, her consciousness sank beneath the black water.
***
Aiden watched her struggle for life in silence.
It was a pitiful sight.
‘You should never have taken Madam Noma’s hand.’
Sveta was paying the price for betraying him.
Aiden was a descendant of the royal family of Muwieo, a great maritime kingdom.
He had grown up by the sea. Even before he was knighted, he had spent years sailing between Muwieo and distant shores.
He knew better than anyone how long it took for a person to lose consciousness in the water, and how long the body could endure before death claimed it.
“My lord!”
Unable to bear the sight any longer, Pailin shouted.
Meanwhile, Aiden continued to time it.
There was still plenty of time.
No matter how much she feared the water, she would not die.
He would not allow it.
But she needed to suffer.
She needed to experience such utter despair that she would never again consider fleeing from him.
A dry, brittle laugh escaped him at the pettiness of his thoughts.
At that moment, Pailin began to strip off his armor.
It was an unmistakable act of defiance.
Aiden raised his sword and levelled it at him.
“I said wait. Know your place, Pailin.”
He twisted the blade slightly at Pailin’s throat. A thin line of blood trailed from torn skin.
“Who ordered you to save her?”
The knight’s face drained of color in an instant. Pailin lowered his eyes and knelt.
“I have committed disobedience against my lord…”
“I will be the one to save my mistress.”
“…Yes, my lord.”
In a chillingly calm voice, Aiden spoke. Then he turned his gaze back to her.
The water did not seem deep. The current was mild. Only a few minutes had passed since she had fallen in.
And yet Sveta had already gone limp, like seaweed drifting helplessly in the tide.
The moment he saw her small body slipping beneath the surface, his resolve shattered.
His vow to break her ankle disappeared without a trace. The fury that had burned so intensely within him also vanished.
If she were to beg for forgiveness in this state, he felt he might reluctantly grant it.
Without hesitating for a moment, Aiden plunged into the gently rippling river and lifted her out with ease.
It was absurdly simple.
As he unwound the rough rope from her slender wrist, he whispered.
“Sveta.”
My lovely mistress!
She could not hear him. All he wanted was to say her name.
The moment the words left his lips, he felt a surge of relief. The familiar weight of her body in his arms filled his chest.
Slowly, he swam towards the shore.
Finally, everything felt as though it had fallen back into place.
But that fragile calm did not last.
In the damp stillness of the afternoon, when he saw the dagger in her abdomen, something inside Aiden shattered.
***
Ivan, who had been tending to Madame Noma all night, arrived at his laboratory in the east wing, out of breath.
Sir Pailin, who had brought news that Baron Luce’s daughter had been seriously injured, looked far from composed. The loyal man, who was like a hunting dog, was as pale as his aide.
The situation was dire.
“If she fell into the water, her body temperature will be low.”
Ivan instructed briskly.
“Prepare hot water. Bring several thoroughly dried towels and blankets. And don’t forget a change of clothes.”
Soon, a servant entered carrying a steaming porcelain basin. Behind them came a maid with neatly folded towels and thick blankets.
No sooner had they finished preparing than the laboratory door burst open, threatening to shatter its hinges.
Like an enraged beast, Aiden stormed in and carefully laid Sveta on the bed.
“Why is she in a maid’s uniform, and her hair—”
Ivan’s gaze was caught by the long, cascading black locks.
The darker color deepened her once familiar appearance, giving her a more mature look.
Yet an unmistakable shadow of death lay over her unfamiliar face.
It was not just drowning.
Ivan lowered his eyes and recoiled.
“Why is there a knife? What on earth happened?”
“Treat her.”
Aiden forced the words out as though grinding them between his teeth.
His voice trembled violently.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
bluemoon238
I almost threw my phone. Next chapters FL doesn’t grow a spine I’m gonna throw hands. I have started to dislike this FL immensely. Behavior that leads to same suffering rinse and repeat. I get there are such things as Stockholm but this doesn’t add up with how FL has supposedly survived and finagle, surviving tenaciously without subcoming to such so far. Also, she defended ML against her former master who was supposedly her everything. The only thing he did (against her will, mind you) was forcing himself onto her. Many times he even seemed to try to make it painful. Not once was she treated better than before her arrival, only worse. Is there some kind of requirement for FLs to feel for abusers with bad personalities just because they look pretty? How is there any actual attachment?