Chapter 14. The pendra and the Red Magic Stone

—

“Hey, have you heard? The lord recently finished subjugating a pendra.”

“May divine blessing be upon our great hero. Whew…… we’ll worry less about the harvest this year. Last year, while our lord was away in battle, those damn pendras destroyed everything. Those cursed things go crazy for Nucria! Because of that, wheat and corn fields turned to wasteland wherever they passed. They look like centipedes but so huge and hideous!”

The men in the tavern took drinks while sharing their old grievances.

“Rockshield is in the south, far from Heath — what business do monsters have here! We’re lucky our lord subjugates them.”

“That’s what I’m saying! They say no monsters appear in Louer which is actually close to Heath. Someone must be up to no good! They say Heath people secretly cross into the empire because life is hard there — they must have crawled into Rockshield too!”

“Damn! Filthy monster bastards. Just let me see those red eye sockets! I’ll dig them out with my hoe. Ptuh!”

The boy playing the flute around the tables jumped to avoid the spittle.

A copper coin floated above the discouraged boy’s head.

The boy snatched the coin and repeatedly bowed to Lester Godwin.

Lester, holding his wine glass, waved his hand as if bored.

As he listened to the men’s complaints starting again, Lester recalled a certain redhead he had met and parted with suddenly.

Curly wavy hair, beautiful features, gentle yet sharp temper — Marisa? Margaret? Matilda, hmm…… not that. Mariette? Melissa?

Whatever her name was, that redhead.

Unlike her hazy name, the curve of her slim waist he had held inside the cloak and the feeling of her soft br*ast against his chest remained vivid.

Plus that natural fragrance — how could a person smell as sweet as a flower?

Lester looked down at his wine glass and chuckled.

It was a shame to let her go…….

He emptied his last glass and left the tavern.

The darkened streets were extremely dangerous for a nobleman without knight escorts.

Lester hurried toward his lodgings.

The commoners’ Nucria Festival ended today.

For the festival’s finale, they held an event burning the flowers that had decorated the streets to highlight the Duchess’s Nucria.

While walking between shops with acrid burning smells, it happened.

Spotting a familiar face, Lester hid his body at a street corner.

To think he would see that assailant who had attacked the redhead again.

A black carriage stopped in front of the masked man. When the carriage window opened, the assailant removed his mask.

Split eyebrow, narrow eyes, a sword scar from cheek to mouth, tall build.

Lester, who had guarded the Imperial Princess for over twenty years, couldn’t mistake this figure.

It was Ludric, the Imperial Princess’s knight.

Why had he attacked the redhead?

He had noticed earlier that though the man scared the redhead, he hadn’t intended to kill her.

If that had been his aim, he would have finished her in one strike.

It made no sense that a knight’s dagger was blocked by a cane to begin with.

Though the naive redhead seemed to believe it cutely.

A woman the Imperial Princess wanted to threaten with death…

A redhead who had to hide upon seeing Nigel Bernac…

“Damn, she must be the Duke’s bella.”

That endlessly tiresome Nigel Bernac, that son of a b*tch, always!

When the knight mounted his horse, the carriage departed.

Lester quickly surveyed the surroundings before throwing silver coins to a farmer to buy a donkey.

The donkey, carrying Lester instead of heavy loads, eagerly followed the carriage.

The donkey skillfully walked the path leading to Rockshield’s ravine after leaving the city.

After traveling far, the carriage stopped at a shabby farmhouse in the forest.

Lester tied the donkey to a distant tree and stealthily approached.

A woman wearing a black veil stepped out of the carriage.

“Elizabeth……”

Lester held his breath as he recognized the Imperial Princess in the dim moonlight.

When the knight knocked on the front door, an old man emerged after a moment.

The old man, wrapped in cloth, held a lamp and small sack.

The Imperial Princess and knight followed the old man into the gloomy forest.

The knight noticed footsteps following and turned around, but the Imperial Princess stopped him.

Lester, calming his racing heart, paused briefly before pursuing them.

Shhhk, shk. shk. Grrrrrr.

A chilling sound came from somewhere.

Lester, his spine tingling, swallowed dryly as he hid behind a tree.

A round cave opening pierced the bottom of a massive cliff.

The old man approached the entrance overgrown with moss and weeds.

He took out a red glowing stone from the sack and threw it into the cave.

Then legs as thick as tree trunks shot out.

But as if someone had cast a spell on the cave entrance, a lattice of light flashed and the monster thrashed its legs in agony before only scraping away the stone.

Lester’s heart pounded as he watched.

But why was Elizabeth there?

As Lester swallowed while spying, suddenly the knight’s sword pierced the old man’s back.

The old man collapsed with a dying scream.

“Throw it away.”

At the Imperial Princess’s command, the knight dragged the old man’s corpse to the cave entrance. Then he poured all the stones from the sack onto his body.

The pendra’s legs came through the light and instantly tore the corpse to pieces, sweeping it away. And the pile of red stones too.

Soon after, bone-chilling monster cries rang out.

When the Imperial Princess and knight returned to the carriage, Lester slowly approached the cave entrance.

He buried his nose in his sleeve at the mangled corpse and bloody stench.

Though nausea rose, he had something to confirm.

He poked through the corpse’s remains with the toe of his boot.

Black tattoo on the unwrapped forearm, rolling red eyeballs.

As expected, a person from Heath.

Just as Lester tried to pick up a red stone at his feet—

A monster’s foot, incomparably larger than before, shot out.

The magical barrier began crumbling from the edges.

“Damn it!”

Lester turned and ran limping with all his might.

The terrified donkey jumped up and down.

But before he could grab the reins, Lester was struck on the back of his neck.

When his unconscious eyelids opened again, he was in the Imperial Princess’s carriage.

“Was the tracking game fun, Lord Godwin?”

“Your Highness. Ugh……”

Lester sat up while rubbing his stiff neck.

“You seem capable of nothing but wagging your tongue and carving stones. Such amateur tracking.”

“When did you notice?”

Lester gaped at her look of disdain.

“From the start. Oh my! I left behind that poor donkey.”

“No use. It will be gone.”

Lester clicked his tongue at the ominous feeling.

“The red stones must be Heath’s magic stones. And that monster is a pendra. Did you raise it with those? Your Highness, it’s a monster. It could harm innocent people.”

“So?”

Their gazes met in the swiftly moving carriage.

“You fed it so many magic stones, they’ll likely break the spell and escape the cave. They’ll rampage looking for Nucria. Since all harvested Nucria has been burned…… the only place with flowers would be the Duchess’s banquet starting tomorrow. Your Highness, what are you planning!”

The Imperial Princess turned her gaze from the troubled Lester.

“I needed certainty. Whether the man who insulted me is worth enduring and holding back for. If it’s a losing game, I want to stop.”

“What if the Duke dies on Your Highness’s testing ground? I would welcome it, but you’re different.”

“You still don’t know me.”

“You’ll regret this.”

The Imperial Princess’s smiling eyes deepened.

“Isn’t this what you wanted? If the Duke dies and I fall into grief, you’ll finally smile.”

Lester raised his lips bitterly.

“We don’t know each other. Even after spending such a long time together.”

Around when the carriage carrying the old lovers entered Rockshield’s outskirts, the cave entrance in the forest collapsed.

The pendra stretched its dark feet through gaps in the rubble and emerged, crushing the cliff.

The monster, now stronger and larger, searched for Nucria while shaking tentacles sprouting along its body.

Finding the scent, pendra headed toward the castle, breaking through the dense forest.

* * *

The dawn wind was cold.

Marienne, feeling stifled, left her room and wandered the castle grounds.

Before she knew it, she had reached the chapel’s garden.

Though she hesitated at the abundantly blooming Nucria, she gathered courage and walked on.

Hazy fog covered the flowers still bearing traces of night.

Beside the sleeping Nigel, Marienne had lain awake all night.

After he finished healing, he passionately claimed her lips before suddenly closing his eyes.

All through the long night, Marienne was consumed by the urge to gather her money and run away.

Though she had prepared herself, when the vague reality of becoming his woman unfolded before her, it struck her with the weight of death itself.

That it would become a pain incomparable to all the partings, all the suffering, all the losses she had experienced until now.

That she would pay the price of signing the contract that killed her heart until her bones ached.

What if she had accepted the flowers he offered?

Dozens of times a day, she recalled that morning. And hundreds, thousands of times, she imagined happily accepting the flowers.

But if ever that moment came again, she would refuse the same way.

She couldn’t go against the Duchess’s request for her only remaining child.

She didn’t have the audacity to hold back the Duke who would advance toward an honorable life by marrying a noble lady.

No. It wasn’t just for such noble reasons.

She lacked the confidence to endure the mockery and contempt of kneeling and being slapped.

Life had been hard enough until now — she didn’t want to enter a path of thorns she could clearly see ahead.

She thought she could avoid the hardship if she just cut out her heart.

She tried to enjoy only the sweetness while maintaining a precarious emotional boundary.

Not realizing both her feet were already sunk in the swamp.

While making such cunning calculations, she simultaneously obsessed over and despaired about the future he and his woman would paint together.

Hypocrite.

She was a detestable hypocrite who pretended to nobly sacrifice her heart for everyone’s sake, then turned around to claw at her greedy chest.

Standing before the cemetery, Marienne lifted her lost child-like bewildered eyes.

A dark figure was crouched beyond the thick fog.

“Miss Rampton.”

Veronica Rampton, who had been crouching inside the arcade beside the chapel, jumped up, startled.