Chapter 1

The sound of even breathing began to be heard.  

She quietly closed the book she was reading and waved her hand a few times in front of Ray’s eyes to check if the child was completely asleep.  

The child was sleeping soundly, perhaps exhausted from catching crayfish in the valley today.  

She stood up and tiptoed towards her bed.  

As she turned off the lamp and was about to get into the soft blanket, she heard a creaking sound and felt a strange presence outside the bedroom.  

‘What is it?’  

Her heart began to race, and goosebumps spread all over her body.  

She quickly reached under the bed and grabbed the two daggers she had hidden.  

‘It’s too late!’  

As she tried to straighten up, she felt the cold touch of metal against her neck.  

“If you hand over the child quietly, you won’t have to see any blood!”  

A man’s rough voice pierced her ear.  

Dealing with one or two men with swords wasn’t difficult.  

She had spent enough years as a secret informant for the Information Guild.  

But Ray was sleeping next to her.  

She didn’t want to wake him.  

She didn’t want him to witness a bloody murder scene.  

She wanted his childhood memories to be filled only with beautiful things.  

She put down the daggers and raised her hands.  

“Child? What child?”  

She slowly turned her body and asked the masked man slyly, in a small voice so as not to wake Ray.  

The man’s dark eyes shone sharply.  

“Seems you want to see blood after all… Ugh!”  

Before he could finish his sentence, she leaned back to avoid his sword tip and kicked his vital spot.  

It wasn’t difficult to slash his neck in one swift move.  

Blood splattered everywhere.  

She couldn’t relax just because she had taken down one.  

Bad guys usually came in groups.  

Sure enough, other men waiting in the living room rushed into the bedroom, and she threw the daggers one by one into their hearts accurately.  

They collapsed to the floor without even being able to scream.  

After confirming they were dead, she thoroughly searched the surroundings of the house.  

Fortunately, there were no others.  

‘They must have thought three men were enough to invade a house with just a woman and a child.’  

They might have succeeded in finding her house, but it seemed they hadn’t discovered her true identity.  

Or perhaps they only knew her as an apothecary.  

‘That’s why they made the mistake of entering one by one.’  

Despite the commotion, little Ray slept soundly.  

She was really relieved.  

‘Catching crayfish in the valley during the day was a godsend.’  

She gently covered Ray with a blanket and examined the bodies of the men lying around.  

She needed any clue she could find.  

‘Oh? This tattoo!’  

On the inside of their wrists was a bat tattoo.  

It was the emblem of the dark guild ‘Geiser’.  

A guild notorious for taking on all sorts of bad commissions.  

A bad premonition tingled in her nerves.  

‘Why did they want Ray? On whose commission?’  

Her heart pounded loudly.  

Perhaps she had vaguely sensed that she would face such a moment someday.  

Since the day she found the woman collapsed in the forest on her way home from work.  

She recalled the first time she met Ray’s mother 7 years ago.  

The woman was collapsed, unconscious, with a full-term belly.  

She said she was being chased and didn’t even tell her name or allow her to call a doctor.  

With her care, the woman barely survived and safely gave birth to a child.  

But she was sickly all along and eventually died two months after the child was born.  

She knew nothing about Ray’s mother.  

‘Are those who chased Ray’s mother now looking for Ray?’  

It seemed highly likely.  

Even after 7 years, if they were still searching with a dark guild, Ray’s mother must have been quite an important person.  

‘But they asked for the child, not the woman. That means… they know the mother is dead and only the child survived….’  

Her mind was tangled with questions upon questions.  

She searched the bodies of the fallen men further, but found no other clues.  

She loaded the three bodies onto a cart one by one.  

The bodies of the men were so heavy she had to exert all her strength.  

After thoroughly cleaning the blood-soaked floor and disposing of the bodies far away in the valley, the morning sun had risen.  

“I stayed up all night!”  

She clicked her tongue, looking at the increasingly bright sky.  

She had to hurry back to bed before Ray woke up.  

She ran back home, caught her breath in front of the door, and carefully opened it without making a sound.  

“Where have you been since morning, As?”  

Ugh, I got caught.

Ray, who had just woken up, rubbed his eyes and greeted her.  

She patted the child’s hair, which resembled a magpie’s nest, and smiled.  

“Already awake? I went for a morning workout. Hungry? Let’s eat quickly!”  

“Yeah, I’m hungry. But it’s strange that a sleepyhead like you As went for a morning workout.”  

She quickly spoke again to divert Ray’s suspicion, who tilted his head.  

“Today, let’s have two fried eggs each! Since our Ray caught so many crayfish yesterday, we’ll have a full pocket by this afternoon.”  

“Really? Yay!”  

The boy, who was already cute, was becoming even cuter and smiled brightly.  

His face shone white in the morning sunlight.  

Her entire life’s happiness was shining brightly.  

She hummed a tune louder on purpose, rubbing the blood stains off her palms without letting Ray notice.  

With a determination to protect their happiness no matter what.  

* * *  

“Let’s go to the market together today.”  

After the meal, she patted her full belly and said to Ray.  

The child asked again, looking puzzled.  

“Suddenly? Then no studying or sword training today?”  

“That won’t do. We’ll focus on those when we get back in the evening.”  

“Then I’ll just stay home.”  

“Let’s go together. Ray, you used to love going to the market, why not anymore?”  

She puffed her cheeks and made a pouty face.  

Ray, looking troubled, only moved his lips without saying anything.  

“Ray, you have grown so much that your clothes have become small. We need to buy new ones today.”  

“These can be mended a little.”  

Ray said, looking at the shortened sleeves, sounding like an old soul.  

He really didn’t want to go.  

But she couldn’t leave Ray alone in the house where intruders had come last night.  

No, maybe they had to leave this house forever.  

“You know I can’t sew. It’s better to just buy them.”  

“But still….”  

Ray hesitated.  

“Then let’s buy a new outfit and have the small ones mended. Okay?”  

“…….”  

“We also need to buy shoes and socks. Oh, and books!”  

“Okay, let’s go together.”  

Ray eventually agreed.  

A small smile soon appeared on the child’s face.  

‘Good boy.’  

She gently stroked Ray’s hair.  

* * *  

After finishing simple preparations, she spurred the horse with Ray in front of her.  

Not knowing when they might return, she couldn’t even say a proper goodbye to the house.  

‘Thank you, little house, for everything. Stay safe until we meet again.’  

She quietly bid farewell in her heart to the house that had been her refuge for ten years.  

It was a house full of memories.  

At fifteen, she had become independent from the orphanage and it was the first house she had prepared.  

Located in a remote forest, it was the perfect place to secretly practice swordsmanship.  

It was quiet, making it good for reading or meditating.  

She worked hard, commuting from there as an apothecary’s assistant for a few years before finally becoming an apothecary.  

After Ray’s mother died, every day spent caring for Ray was like a gift to her.  

Though there was the difficulty of having to ride with a small child wrapped in a sling to commute, that too was now a memory.  

She thought time would always flow slowly.  

She thought today would be like yesterday, and tomorrow would be like today, endlessly continuing.  

But the appearance of the Geiser guys last night was an ominous signal.  

It felt like the peace that had continued until now had suddenly disappeared, leaving her feeling bitter.  

‘Even if I can’t do anything else, I must protect this child!’  

She vowed, looking at the small back of Ray’s head.  

Even the black hair fluttering in the wind was extremely cute.  

She didn’t know then.  

The tremendous truth waiting for them ahead.  

* * *  

“Your Grace! It’s urgent!”  

Early in the morning, Duke Bryce Conver’s chief aide, Adil Achter, shouted urgently as he entered the hotel room.  

It must be quite serious if someone who usually didn’t raise his voice did so.  

Bryce, who had just finished his bath, greeted the aide while drying his wet hair.  

Though he was only wearing a bathrobe, the aura emanating from his solid body and sharp eyes was as keen as a general before a battle.  

“What is it?”  

“We’ve finally got news about Lady Isabella.”  

“Isa… bella?”  

For a moment, Bryce’s thick, straight eyebrows furrowed deeply.  

Isabella was his wife.  

She had gone missing 7 years ago, and he hadn’t heard from her since.  

They were married through a political alliance, and they parted a week after the wedding, so he could barely remember her face.  

There was no affection or longing.  

But because they were bound by marriage, he had employed numerous informants over the past 7 years to find her.  

Despite this, he hadn’t heard any significant news.  

If she were alive, she should have been easy to find.  

Or she might have come looking for Bryce herself.  

Not finding even a small trace for such a long time, he guessed she might have died somewhere.  

If she were dead, he wanted to at least find her grave, so Bryce continued to hire informants.  

He felt it was his duty as her husband, even if it was a political marriage.  

Her disappearance was due to the downfall of the Conber family, so he wanted to atone.  

But now, they had finally found her whereabouts!  

“Where is Isabella?”  

“But that…”  

Contrary to his urgent entrance, the aide hesitated to speak.