A hand suddenly thrust into the rock crevice. The rough hand groped inside the rock.

Though my heart nearly dropped from shock, I avoided the hand while trying to control my breathing.

“There really is a gap here.”

“Can we get in?”

“Wait, there seems to be a space to enter somewhere…”

I tensed my stomach and pressed my body against the stone wall as much as possible. Fortunately, the hand withdrew without finding me.

All I could do now was pray.

Either that the rebels wouldn’t find a way in, or that Carden would come to save me.

Lucifer, if he truly was my Carden, would surely notice that I was hiding here.

“Here it is! We need to go around this way!”

But I was wrong. Such luck would never find someone like me who possessed every possible misfortune.

A rebel poked his face through the gap just large enough for one person to enter.

“Peek-a-boo, our princess!”

Startled by the sudden face, I pressed myself tightly against the back of the rock. The man raised the corner of his mouth with a terrifying expression.

“You must return to the duchy quickly. To revive the duchy, you know.”

“No!”

“What do you mean ‘no’? You need to repay the kindness of the Duke and Duchess who fed, clothed, and sheltered you for ten years!”

“What kindness!”

No matter how much I shouted, my feelings couldn’t reach these people who only thought of their own safety. They reached out and grabbed the chain of my shackles.

“Hurry and offer yourself to the guardian deity!”

The man pulled so strongly that my upper body lurched forward. I needed to grab onto something to resist. I dug my nails into the slightly protruding rock and desperately held on.

“What’s this?”

While struggling to hold my ground, I noticed the man’s foot. The flower I had dropped earlier was stuck to it. The small white hope was crushed under the foot of the thug trying to forcibly drag me away.

Don’t you dare dream of hope.

I gritted my teeth at what seemed like the flower’s cry.

“So stubborn, how shameless. Princess, breaking one arm won’t take long to heal, shall I do that for you?”

“…”

“Having grown up pampered, have you never felt real pain? Is that why you’re not afraid?”

The man drew a small knife. He showed it to me threateningly. Even in the dark shadow cast by the rock, the knife gleamed with the desire to harm me.

“Ptui!”

I made the greatest act of defiance in my life.

How would someone who’s never tasted the silver liquid know true pain?

“I’ve been politely calling you ‘princess,’ but are you crazy? Our lord told us to bring you back safely, but I can’t stand this anymore.”

The man’s face transformed, resembling a dog with rabies.

The knife gleamed more threateningly, but that only made me grip the rock harder. I also spread my legs slightly to brace my lower body.

“Stubborn b*tch!”

He grabbed the chain of my shackles again. The force pulling me made it feel like my wrist would break, but I gritted my teeth and held on.

“Hey! I’ll pull the sacrifice, you grab her from behind!” He called to his companions. Though there was no response.

As he turned to look outside, suddenly something hot splashed across my face. Along with a disgusting, bloody smell.

“Urgh!”

The man collapsed backward and fell in front of me. His suddenly miserable appearance was so horrific that my mind went blank.

Through my blurring vision, a blackness brighter than anything else shone through.

‘Come to think of it, he found me hiding behind the rock last time too.’

Somehow I felt relieved. Even if I collapsed here, I wouldn’t be dragged away by the rebels.

Because my own angel who promised to protect me had returned.

“Carden…”

I called his name faintly. Just before my eyes closed, I saw Lucifer’s intensely contorted face.

Whether he was angry or surprised, I couldn’t tell…

* * *

The hill in Solanie Village, filled with colorful flowers, the orphanage children often played with the village children. Thanks to the villagers who were warmer than anyone else to orphans, the children treated each other as friends without prejudice.

Both Carden and I loved Solanie Village. The beautiful scenery and the kind people.

“Everyone hide until I count to twenty! One, two, three…!”

“Hehe, I’m going to win.”

While my friend counted, I tiptoed toward the hill. After looking around and making sure no friends were nearby, I hid myself in the thorny forest.

But as soon as I entered the forest, I frowned.

“Ouch.”

A scratch appeared on my small, delicate hand where a thorn had grazed it. But I wiped my hand on my clothes, treating the small pain like nothing.

Of course, unlike other children my age, I didn’t cry over something like this.

“I need to hide quickly.”

And with my small body, I bravely walked through the dense leaves. There was a small path I always used.

A path no one knew about. Seven-year-old me hopped up the path like a rabbit. My face was full of smiles.

Beloved family, friends, and the fragrant spring flower scent.

“If I hide here today, I’ll win again, right?”

My secret place that always let me win first place. Hidden in a place I never told anyone about, I quietly waited for the seeker to find the others.

“Found you!”

“Aw, was it too easy?”

From a distance, I heard the sigh of a friend whose hiding spot had already been discovered. The corner of my mouth rose with confidence.

Sure enough, no one had found me. But as this continued, I got a little bored. The warm spring air diligently fanned my drowsiness.

“Good! Only two left now!”

If I were the only one left, I would have proudly gone out… But wanting to win first place, I didn’t go out and endured.

But as I kept holding out, my eyelids grew heavy. Eventually, unable to resist the temptation, I fell asleep.

How much time had passed? When I woke up, the surroundings were cool.

“Mmm? Where am I?”

The already dark rock crevice was now dyed in pitch darkness, probably because the sun had set. Then I became scared.

“Waaah! Where am I? Waaaaaah.”

At seven years old, I was brave, but also delicate.

“Lea, why are you crying?”

The person who always comforted me was always the same person. Someone who would find me whenever and wherever I cried.

“Waaah, Carden! I was scared.”

Carden reached out his right hand to me from outside the rock. His wrist was visible through his sleeve. There was a long scar there.

A wound he got saving me from a monster a year ago. Suppressing my sadness, I took his hand.

“Lea, I told you that crying makes you ugly, didn’t I?”

“That’s mean!”

“So you shouldn’t cry even when I’m not around.”

“Huh?”

“Because now you’re the princess of Belial Duchy, understand?”

The person who pulled me out of the rock wasn’t nine-year-old Carden. It was twelve-year-old Carden, smiling kindly at me.

“I don’t want to be separated from Carden.”

Now ten years old, I buried my face in Carden’s chest.

Carden patted my back.

“You wanted foster parents, didn’t you? It’s a good opportunity, Lea.”

“I don’t want to be separated from Carden.”

“We can meet again.”

“Meet again?”

I slightly raised my face. Then starlight poured down from the night sky, darker than Carden’s hair.

Beneath it, Carden was smiling more brightly than anyone. Like a prince coming to take a princess.

“I’ll become a knight who serves the beautiful princess and wait for you.”

“A knight?”

“Yes, I’ll become a splendid knight and make a name for myself in the empire. Then you can come get me. How about that?”

“Yes, I’d like that! I will!”

Carden and I hooked our fingers in front of a falling star. Sending our promise, our vow, with the shooting star…

“Well then, now you can go to the duchy. My daughter, Leitria.”

A scary witch appeared behind Carden.

It was the Duchess of Belial, Regna Belial. She had black hair and eyes even darker. I couldn’t understand why she chose me, who looked nothing like her, as her adopted daughter. 

She snatched my hand from Carden. As I took the Duchess’s hand, the background suddenly changed to my room in the duchy.

“Now, Leitria. Drink this.”

She handed me a small bottle containing a silver liquid. But having already drunk it once and fainted from the pain, I firmly closed my mouth and shook my head.

“Hurry! Why won’t you drink it?!”

Then the face of the Duchess, who had only been affectionate until now, changed to the witch’s face I had first seen.

When I kept my mouth shut with tears welling up, the Duchess changed back to a gentle mother. She coaxed me softly.

“Leitria, if you drink this, I’ll grant you one wish.”

“A wish…?”

“Yes. Since you’ve done such a good deed, I should grant you a wish.”

I smiled slightly at the Duchess’s words.

“Then could you sponsor the orphanage friends in Solanie Village? There’s a friend named Carden who wants to become my knight…”

As I was excitedly chattering, I noticed the Duchess’s eyes flash briefly, and I unconsciously became intimidated and mumbled.

The Duchess gently stroked my hair. Then she slowly swirled the transparent bottle containing the silver liquid in front of me.

“I intend to ease my lovely daughter’s worries.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Naturally. So follow everything I tell you to do.”

I finally grasped the bottle with my small hand. And despite trembling with fear, I gulped it down.

With no resistance to the pain yet, I collapsed right there in the hallway. And I writhed, my body jerking from the agony.

“Hnngh, it… it hurts, Mother.”

“It’s necessary to make your body suitable to become the guardian’s bride.”

The Duchess sat on the floor and passed her fingers through my hair one by one, speaking more kindly than anyone. But I couldn’t follow the Duchess’s words.

I had a friend who promised me a future, my knight.

“I… I will become Carden’s bride…”

The Duchess suddenly grabbed my throat. Raising her black-painted nails, she scratched my neck and whispered coldly in my ear.

“Carden… Hoho, that boy bothered me, so that’s what it was?”

“M-Mother…?”

“Hohoho, Leitria. If you don’t obey, think carefully about what might happen to that child.”

* * *

“No! Carden!”

I sat up abruptly, opening my eyes. The surroundings were already covered in darkness.

With a dazed face, I looked at the shadow cast by the window. Strangely, my eyes felt hot.

“How foolish…”

I buried my face in my palms. But something felt different from usual.

The shackles that had constrained me were gone. Instead, the person who had been watching me remained in the room.

Lucifer, he was asleep on a bed arranged on the opposite side.

Next to him were documents and my shackles, neatly placed. But his hair, unlike his neat self, was completely disheveled.

“Carden…”

I called him in a small voice.

Lucifer seemed to be in a deep sleep and didn’t respond. Then, I saw his hand that had come up over the blanket.

The scene from my dream vividly rose in my mind.

I got out of bed and approached him, muffling my footsteps. Quietly swallowing, I tremblingly reached out my hand carefully.

Please, tell me you were alive.

I slowly lifted the edge of his clothing. Then moonlight passing through the window touched his wrist.