Chapter 6 Past Mistakes

In the first floor dining room of the inn.

Randel went straight up to his room as soon as he saw Lydia’s face.

If there’s nothing between him and Arsen, why does he hate me so much? Is he secretly in love?

As Lydia pouted, Kedrick opened his mouth awkwardly.

“Please try to understand him, Miss. He’s not usually like this.”

Trailing off, Kedrick pondered for a moment before continuing his explanation.

“Randel is a former slave. That’s why he couldn’t receive a surname when he was knighted.”

Most of the Black Wolf Knights were either mercenary-born commoners, demonic beast hunters, or those born and raised in the frontier who joined the Edis family’s forces.

So most were commoners, and though called ‘knights,’ they weren’t real knights.

Such people all received knighthood for their contributions in winning the first battle after Richard’s rebellion began.

However, among them, only the commoner-born knights received surnames.

The few former slaves rose to commoner status but remained knights in name only.

Randel was one such case.

“But what does that have to do with hating me?”

“Well, while traveling to the capital, I recommended Randel as your guard knight, but you said, ‘What kind of knight is a slave……”

“Ah……”

She got a rough idea of what happened.

When Randel came to greet her, she must have asked his surname, and Randel would have answered he had none.

Then she probably spouted nonsense like ‘How dare they assign such a lowborn as a knight? Does he even have skills?’

The Lydia of that time was aristocratic in the worst way and full of arrogance about soon becoming part of the imperial family.

When she realized someone had been hurt because of that, Lydia felt like she’d been hit in the back of the head with a hammer.

She had inflicted wounds and didn’t even remember doing so.

Yet she had said she would repay the wounds she received.

Suddenly her appetite vanished.

Facing one’s past mistakes was harder than expected.

Lydia was overwhelmed by emotions she didn’t know how to handle.

Was this why only she came back? To live properly this time?

* * *

In the eastern labor camp.

The convicts returned to their quarters one by one after finishing work.

Though called quarters, it was just a structure roughly blocking the wind with tattered tents, but to the convicts it was a precious space where they could stretch out and rest.

Despite his exhausted body, Byron knelt today too, facing where the moon hung.

Though dismissed for the crime of participating in rebellion, his vows to Anastasia hadn’t been taken away.

“Priest, please pray to the goddess to give us just one more loaf of bread.”

Nella joked while mending holes in her work clothes.

“Tell her we’d prefer it covered in lots of sugar too.”

Maria, who had been listening, added.

She muttered while rubbing her belly that she would have no other wishes if she could just eat something sweet until her mouth was sore.

But Maria knew better than anyone that it was a wish that wouldn’t come true.

She didn’t mind for herself, but Maria grew a little sad thinking her baby might never get to taste it in their lifetime.

However, her body, weakened in early pregnancy, fell into drowsiness before she could dwell on the sadness. How long had she slept?

Maria stirred and opened her eyes to the sweet and savory smell tickling her nose.

“Mmm……”

She must have really wanted bread. She was seeing bread floating before her eyes.

Maria looked at the bread with sugar falling off it, thinking it must be a dream and tried to close her eyes again.

“Maria! Wake up.”

However, the unfamiliar voice calling her name while shaking her shoulder was so vivid that she startled awake.

“W-who are you?”

Maria looked around.

Byron and Nella were nowhere to be seen among the people curled up sleeping in the distance.

“Byron and Nella already went outside the tent. Be quiet and follow me.”

Lydia thrust the bread into Maria’s arms. Even in her confusion, she swallowed hard.

“I’m going to get you out of here. I’ll explain the details as we go.”

“But how can I follow you when I don’t even know who you are?”

“If you don’t leave now, that child will be born and raised in this labor camp. Are you okay with that?”

Maria hurriedly covered her belly.

“Maria, you may not remember, but you helped me greatly. That’s why I came to help. Hurry.”

Lydia pulled Maria to her feet while putting a piece of torn bread in her mouth.

Maria got up to follow Lydia while chewing the sweetly melting bread.

Though she didn’t know who this was, she had an intuition that this was her chance to escape.

Honestly, the sugar-coated bread the woman gave her dissolved her wariness.

Maria was always hungry and the bread was damnably delicious.

The desire to eat seemed to numb Maria’s reason.

“Huh?”

As they quietly left the tent, Byron and Nella stood crying while facing a sturdy man. They too held the same bread in their hands.

“He’s the last remaining heir of the Bayern ducal family.”

“The one the priest and Mrs. Nella were looking for?”

“Yes.”

Maria and Lydia quickened their pace to join Arsen’s group.

Maria quickly ran into Nella’s embrace.

Seeing their teary eyes, Lydia felt her own eyes stinging.

However, now wasn’t the time for emotional reunions.

A few minutes ago, the group that had arrived at the mine in an awkward atmosphere split into two.

Lydia, who knew the labor camp’s layout well, would enter with Arsen while the other two kept watch.

Since waking multiple people at once would cause commotion, Lydia woke Byron and Nella in turn.

Though confused in their sleepy state, they somehow immediately recognized the grown Arsen.

After they left, Lydia woke Maria last and brought her out.

“Now, let’s hurry.”

Lydia deliberately chose the escape route behind the guards’ quarters.

It was the same path she had planned with Byron in her past life.

Though it was the guards’ quarters, that didn’t necessarily mean they would encounter guards.

The night patrol guards should spend more time outside than inside their quarters—

“Who’s there?”

They should have, they really should have……

“Who’s there?”

The entire group tensed up.

Lydia froze as her hair stood on end, then slowly turned toward the voice.

Arsen drew his sword, ready to strike if needed.

“Grandpa Robert?”

“You know me?”

Of course she did. Lydia’s heart settled upon realizing it wasn’t a guard.

“Why are you walking around instead of sleeping? You scared us.”

Lydia exhaled and pouted.

Behind her, Byron, Nella, and Maria also let out their held breaths and added their comments.

Robert was dumbfounded.

“You lot get caught committing crimes and get startled, then blame me.”

He had only come out because the guards ordered him to keep the fireplace in their quarters from going out.

“Looks like you’re escaping now.”

Among the five, he recognized three faces though two in neat attire were unfamiliar.

He had heard one was pregnant—was it that young woman?

“Go safely without getting caught.”

It would be welcome news if even one person escaped from this hamster wheel of hell.

Though Robert himself didn’t care since he didn’t have much time left, wouldn’t it be good for the young ones to leave and live new lives?

“Grandpa.”

Lydia grabbed Robert as he turned to leave.

“Don’t dawdle, hurry and go.”

“That’s not it—would you like to come with us?”

Lydia’s suggestion surprised everyone, including Robert.

Arsen gently grabbed Lydia’s arm and whispered.

“This wasn’t in the plan, my lady.”

He must have been flustered to revert to the old title.

“Grandpa Robert is a mine expert. He’ll be helpful if we take him. You know there’s a mine in the frontier too, right?”

Lydia shook off Arsen’s arm.

Arsen wanted to ask if she meant that small, unprofitable silver mine in the rough terrain, but he was a beat too late.

“Grandpa, this is your only chance. Let’s go.”

Lydia had already extended her hand to Robert. Robert began to waver.

“Yes, Grandpa, let’s go.”

“Hurry, sir.”

With Byron, Nella, and Maria joining in to persuade him, Robert was almost convinced.

“If I become a burden because I’m old, leave me behind.”

“Leave you behind? We have to go together.”

Byron supported Robert while sharing half his bread.

Arsen gritted his teeth as he stared at Lydia.

Though she must have felt his intense gaze, Lydia absolutely refused to look back at him.

She seemed to know she had done wrong.

If it weren’t for the urgent situation requiring them to sneak out, Arsen would never have taken along an elderly man who would clearly become a burden.

However, there was no time now to argue about leaving him or not.

Vowing to have words with her later, Arsen sheathed his sword and followed behind Lydia.

Her hunched back showed both tension and joy simultaneously.

When Lydia first brought up the eastern labor camp to him, Arsen had people investigate her background.

It was clean. There were no suspicious circumstances, she had lived almost her entire life in the capital, and even when she left the capital it was only to the marquisate.

There were no points of connection between Byron, Nella, the Bayern family and Lydia.

Yet Lydia nearly burst into tears as soon as she saw the sleeping Byron and Nella.

Even though Byron and Nella only asked who she was when they saw her, Lydia was overwhelmed with joy at seeing them.

Was it true? Should he believe that nonsense about dying and returning to the past?

His head grew complicated again.

His head was usually complicated to begin with.

Living while hiding his identity and trying to protect those around him meant he always had to calculate and recalculate before acting.

He had never had a peaceful day.

Lydia brought a storm into his life.

The problem was that the storm wasn’t entirely bad.