Chapter 12.3

Following Sally’s lead, the walk to the temple where the wedding was to be held took no time at all.

It seemed that the wide yard for executing outsiders by burning was right in front of the temple.

Brienne felt uneasy.

She knew this was an illusion, but the people who burned outsiders without a shred of guilt just because they didn’t believe in the god were horrifying to her.

Even so, Sally skillfully opened several doors and guided Brienne along.

Seeing that she had the temple keys, it was clear she was not just an ordinary maid.

“……The security is quite strict. Will it be this hard to get out, too?”

“Probably. There are keyholes even on the inside of the doors.”

It felt increasingly dangerous.

Brienne glanced at the bunch of keys swinging from Sally’s hand. She thought she should at least have those, just in case she needed to escape.

But it seemed unlikely Sally would just hand them over if Brienne asked.

Brienne was still trying to figure out what to do.

“Phew, finally, we’re here. Miss Riela, you must never break curfew like today again. I’ll have to give Arthur a serious warning as well.”

Sally stopped in front of a room and placed her hand on the doorknob.

At that moment, knights stationed throughout the corridor approached and instantly surrounded Brienne.

Brienne immediately sensed something was wrong.

‘This is……’

Why hadn’t she realized?

When Sally demanded the necklace from Riela as if it were obvious, when she hurried her along in that oddly polite yet insistent way—

Brienne had been so focused on not being found out as a fake Riela that she hadn’t noticed how strange it was.

She should have realized something was off just by the number of keys needed to enter this place.

Oral stories always get distorted.

There seemed to be a hidden truth in Riela’s story.

As Brienne cautiously stepped back, sensing danger, Herace gripped her hand tightly, ready to run if needed.

But a voice spoke from inside the door first.

“……Sally?”

Creak.

The door, which had been closed, opened slightly, and the figure inside became visible.

In that instant, Brienne flinched.

Golden hair flowing down past her shoulders.

Familiar pale green eyes.

“Where have you been? You’re only just getting back?”

It was the real Riela, with a face identical to Brienne’s.

“No way……”

“……Miss Riela?”

Clang.

Startled, Sally dropped the keys from her hand.

“My goodness, why are you inside, Miss Riela……!”

Sally’s face turned pale as she looked back and forth between the real Riela inside the room and Brienne outside.

But the real Riela still hadn’t noticed Brienne.

“What are you talking about? I was just coming back at the right time, but since I couldn’t find you, Sally, I returned alone.”

“Then, then who is this person……”

“Who do you mean?”

The real Riela, puzzled, opened the door wide.

Brienne instinctively ducked and snatched up the keys Sally had dropped.

“Herace, run!”

“Catch them!”

At the moment when everyone was startled and distracted, Brienne threw herself toward an opening.

Thud—a dull sound came from behind her.

* * *

“What on earth is going on here!”

At that time.

Having heard Garzen’s message, Diashi rushed to the temple, sweat streaming down her forehead from running.

“These people, really, I didn’t expect this! How dare you enter someone else’s lab and steal my research materials? I must have misheard, right?”

Diashi stomped over in anger, looking down at Garzen and Lusell, who were huddled on the floor.

Lusell raised both hands in a hurry to explain.

“It wasn’t me, Miss Diashi!”

But Diashi, spotting the magic device laid carefully on the floor, heard none of it.

“Oh, what am I going to do! It was true! You, you heinous kidnappers……!”

Diashi quickly scooped up the device and hugged it to her chest.

“Hey, this is my baby, you know! You two have just kidnapped my child. And broken it? As if kidnapping wasn’t enough, you abused it, too. Wow! I’m losing it, really! All the time I poured in! My effort!”

Garzen, flustered by Diashi’s outburst, awkwardly reached out a hand.

“Uh, sorry, I was going to ask to borrow it, but you weren’t here, so……”

“Try making excuses that make sense!”

Garzen flinched and withdrew his hand at her shout. Staring at the furious Diashi, he scratched the back of his head, thinking of some way to compensate.

“I’ll pay you. However much it is, I’ll pay.”

“And how exactly will you pay for this? Hm?”

Diashi’s bright yellow eyes flashed.

“Well, maybe…… a house in the capital?”

“What?!”

At Garzen’s muttered offer, Diashi jumped in disbelief. Garzen shrank back even more and asked,

“Is that too little? Then a house and a villa?”

“……My goodness.”

Now Diashi’s face began to turn blue.

Growing desperate, Garzen shouted,

“A house and a villa, that’s basic! I’ll give you anything else you want! So please, forgive us and fix this, will you? Please, Mage.”

In the silent corridor, Garzen gulped and exchanged glances with Lusell.

Diashi, who had been mouthing words, slowly sat down on the floor and murmured,

“Never thought I’d live to see my child do something so filial……”

“……What?”

Smiling sweetly, Diashi opened the bag she’d brought.

“I’ll do my best. My respected prince.”

It was literally a prince’s lottery ticket.

* * *

“Keep going straight!”

Brienne ran down the temple corridor with all her might.

The bunch of keys she’d grabbed from Sally clinked with every step.

“That witch stole the temple keys. Don’t let her escape!”

The faint voice of a knight chasing her echoed from behind.

It was quite a distance, but now that Brienne was officially a witch, she didn’t even dare look back and just kept running.

She didn’t know the way.

Even if she wanted to retrace the path she’d followed Sally along, the knights’ shouts made it impossible to stop and try each key.

She felt a creeping anxiety—what if she reached a dead end?

Everything was against her.

“If it comes to it, I’ll act as a shield to buy you time. Brienne, leave me and go on ahead.”

“I can’t do that!”

She’d rather give up the keys.

In this illusion where magic was powerless, she couldn’t just leave Herace behind and run alone.

Brienne tightened her grip on Herace’s hand.

Even if things went wrong, she wanted to protect at least Herace, who had entered this illusion with her.

<……Herace!>

Just as she was about to run, holding his hand, a heavy thud echoed in the corridor and Brienne stopped in shock.

Her heart sank.

She thought maybe Herace had been hit and fallen.

But—

<Go!>

Where she turned, a man was pinning a fallen knight to the floor and shouting.

Among the knights dressed in white, he alone wore different clothes. Before Brienne could even see his face, he shouted again.

<Don’t just stand there—go, right now!>

Taking that as a signal, Herace grabbed Brienne’s hand and started running.

There was no time to look back.

But as she ran, Brienne kept thinking.

‘……Arthur.’

That unfamiliar name, which she was almost certain belonged to the man.

‘Why is Arthur helping me?’

Normally, someone wouldn’t help a woman who looked exactly like his own fiancée.

If anything, he’d be chasing her down in anger.

And today was supposed to be Riela and Arthur’s wedding day.

Of course, in the book, Arthur didn’t show up at the wedding and ran away with another woman……

‘Still, even so. He didn’t even seem surprised to see someone who looked just like Riela.’

Thinking of Sally, who’d been so shocked she dropped the keys, that kind of reaction seemed normal.

Even the knights who had surrounded Brienne were so frightened, they just watched her run away for quite some time.

‘……If that’s the case, could it be.’

Brienne furrowed her brow and let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

She was exhausted from running, yet her mind was filled with absurd thoughts.

“There’s a junction ahead.”

Just then, Herace, glancing back, spoke.

Following his gaze, she saw that the corridor, which had only gone straight, now split.

“Which way should we go?”

There were three choices.

Straight ahead was quiet, so if they kept going, it seemed safe, but there didn’t appear to be anywhere to hide or any exit.

But the junctions were risky.

Turning a corner might lead to a dead end, or they might run into someone else.

“I’ll follow your lead, Brienne.”

At Herace’s calm answer, Brienne hurriedly scanned the corridor.

There wasn’t much time left to choose.

“Left!”

Having escaped many times before, Brienne decided to trust her instincts.

“Pretend to go straight, then turn left at the last second!”

Herace nodded.

“Then I’ll go first. If it looks dangerous, I’ll signal, so if I do, don’t look back—just keep going straight.”

No, she wouldn’t let him go alone.

Brienne was about to object, but Herace spoke first.

“I’m not telling you to survive alone. Even if I can’t use magic, I’m not so weak that I can’t protect you.”

“……”

“Even if something happens, I’ll catch up quickly, so trust me.”

With that, Herace let go of her hand and went ahead, turning the corner and disappearing.

“Herace!”

Brienne, in a blink, chased after him.

“Stop, witch!”

The knights were still chasing from afar.

It wasn’t a short distance, but Brienne grew anxious.

“Herace, are you okay? Answer me!”

She called out, but there was no response from Herace.

Hopefully, nothing had really gone wrong.

Brienne bit her lip, feeling dizzy with worry.

She cursed her legs for not being able to catch up to his pace, no matter how hard she ran.

“This way.”

At the corner, a long arm suddenly reached out and pulled Brienne in.

Unable to stop, she fell right into Herace’s embrace.

“It might get a bit noisy.”

……Crash!

Right after, the sound of something breaking echoed.

Startled, Brienne hurriedly looked up.

It seemed Herace had pushed over a display case standing at the entrance of the corridor.

The already narrow hallway was now blocked up to waist height. The shards of glass scattered everywhere would surely buy them some time.

“I-I’ll help too.”

Brienne quickly slipped out of Herace’s arms and scanned the corridor, looking for anything that could block the entrance, just as he had done.