Ihis had been hovering on the brink of death for some time now.

“……”

With her head lowered deeply, Ihis’s face had turned deathly pale as she held back her nausea.

And for good reason……

“C-could you ride a little slower?”

It was her first time riding a horse, and unfortunately, the person controlling that horse was Cahilid.

She did not know much about riding, but she was certain of one thing.

This could not possibly be a normal speed.

If this speed was considered normal, then every person who rode horses must have something wrong with them.

“We are already going slowly enough.”

His answer was even more absurd.

“If you want to go slower than this, are you suggesting we walk?”

“Hah……”

“I do not mind, but with your condition, that would be impossible.”

No.

This speed itself is impossible.

Ihis felt curses she had never uttered in her life rise all the way to her throat, but she could not bring herself to say them aloud.

“Where exactly are we going?”

Since she had kept her head lowered and her eyes squeezed shut the entire way, she did not even know which direction Cahilid was taking her.

The other directions did not matter, but in the north, dangerous monsters appeared……

“North.”

“……Pardon?”

“North, with House Erbereje as the center.”

Only then did Ihis regret not properly asking where Cahilid was taking her.

“That place has monsters…… urgh.”

“If you’re going to throw up, stretch your head out far enough first.”

It’ll get on me.

Even in the midst of this, Cahilid muttered softly with an expressionless face.

“If monsters appear, we can simply kill them.”

“……”

“In any case, we are almost there, so just keep your mouth shut and sit still. If you speak for no reason, your motion sickness will only get worse.”

What a brute.

No longer having the strength to nag him any further, Ihis could only crouch low and wait for the horse to stop.

Perhaps he had not been lying when he said they were almost there, because a little while later, she felt the horse slowly come to a halt.

For Ihis, it was an incredible relief.

While Ihis lifted her head and looked around, Cahilid leapt down from the horse by himself.

Then, just as he had done when seating her on it, he lifted her without warning and set her down.

“It seems Cedric has not arrived yet.”

“Haa……”

“We can wait over there.”

Cahilid once again picked Ihis up as if she weighed no more than a sheet of paper and strode toward a large tree ahead.

He carelessly removed the cloak he was wearing and spread it on the ground.

Then he seated Ihis on top of it.

“Haa……”

Only now did she feel a little alive again.

Ihis let out a sigh of relief and swept back her thoroughly disheveled hair.

Cahilid, sitting beside her, stared intently at her.

His gaze was fixed entirely on Ihis’s nape, which was covered in scars.

It would not be an exaggeration to say her entire body was full of scars, but there were places that were especially severe.

Her neck and stomach.

Because those were the places most often injured on the people Mahie tortured.

The neck was cut.

The stomach was stabbed.

Noticing his gaze, Ihis covered the back of her neck with her long hair, but it was already too late.

“When did it start? That garbage.”

“Pardon?”

“Answer honestly. That is why I dragged you all the way here. So we could talk without anyone interfering.”

So that was why he brought me out with such a strange excuse.

Ihis slowly blinked.

“……They said it meant I was blessed.”

“What?”

“My name. My mother gave it to me herself. Though she passed away as soon as she gave birth to me.”

Ihis slowly parted her lips, her voice sinking low.

“At first, I was simply outside his interest. But after he learned that I had healing power, his attitude changed.”

It was the first time she had ever told anyone this.

“From the time I had only just learned to walk, he started leaving wounds on my body. Father did it himself. I think he wanted to find out just how far my healing power could go.”

Perhaps because of that, the words kept slipping out of her like groans, even the things Cahilid had not asked.

“Then, as I told you before, he started bringing dogs and cats. And once I succeeded in healing those children, he took me to the underground prison.”

Cahilid frowned slightly.

“Sometimes there were prisoners from enemy nations, people from the Imperial Palace, and assassins secretly planted by enemies. Father would t*rture them until they were on the verge of death, then threaten me into healing them. Once they came back to life, he would t*rture them again.”

Ihis smiled weakly.

“When I came to my senses, I had somehow ended up looking like this.”

“Have you ever resisted?”

“It’s not that I never did.”

After enduring and enduring, there had been a time when she rebelled.

Against Mahie.

Daringly.

“When I did, he brought me the head of the only maid who had ever looked after me.”

“……”

“I thought I had already lost everything, but I suppose there was still something left for me to lose.”

After that, Ihis never once defied Mahie again.

She simply gave him her flesh over and over, having given up everything.

“I thought there was no helping it…… that there was no other way for me to survive. No, I tried hard to think that way. But at some point…… I kept feeling as though I smelled of blood……”

As she continued speaking, Ihis suddenly dug in her nails and began scratching the back of her hand out of habit.

It was self-harm.

She knew that herself, but in the end, she had never been able to stop.

Cahilid silently looked at Ihis with an expression somewhat different from usual.

A face tinged with faint pity and a sigh.

It did not suit Cahilid at all.

“Like everyone says, I started wondering if I really was a witch……”

“Who knows.”

Cahilid reached out with his large hand and lightly grasped her wrist.

“What kind of insane witch scratches up her own body like this?”

“……”

“I really do not know.”

“……Do you not find it hideous?”

“What?”

“My body.”

“A body is just a body.”

Cahilid slowly parted his lips in a low voice.

“If we must decide, then the most hideous human is the one who made you do such things, knowing those scars would be left on your body.”

“……”

“I have quite a few scars myself. Of course, not as many as you, but I have never once thought of myself as hideous.”

Cahilid’s red eyes as he looked at her wounds were exactly like the ones she had seen at the very end, right before she died.

There was not even a trace of disgust or fear in them.

He was simply looking at her as one person to another……

Yes.

That was why she wanted to help Cahilid.

It was not purely because she wanted to escape House Erbereje.

It was because she was so grateful to the only person who looked at her with such eyes, and also……

Ihis could not grasp what this emotion was that kept welling up inside her.

For some reason, she felt as though she might cry, so she only bit down hard on her innocent lip.

“I will answer the question you asked me back then.”

After a not insignificant amount of time passed, Ihis spoke in a very small voice.

“I want to escape House Erbereje.”

“How?”

“Would you not know that best, Lord Cahilid?”

Cahilid gave a small laugh.

“Whatever you wish to do, I can help you. I have…… a great deal of information.”

“You can cooperate with me using that information?”

“Yes.”

“Do you even know what it is I intend to do? And what am I supposed to see in you that would make me trust you?”

“That……”

Ihis trailed off for a moment, then answered while pretending not to notice Cahilid’s gaze fixed on her.

“The same goes for me……”

“What?”

“Right now, neither of us has any proof that we can trust the other.”

Of course, she knew what Cahilid had come to House Erbereje to do, but she could not say that.

For Ihis, this answer was the best she could give.

“S-so please tell me. What is it you intend to do?”

“Ha.”

It was absurd.

The sight of Ihis, timid enough to look utterly cowed, yet still saying everything she wanted to say.

And the words that felt just a little cheeky.

He did not entirely dislike it.

Cahilid let out a small laugh.

“Lord Cahilid!”

It was at that very moment.

From far away, someone’s voice began ringing loudly across the snowfield.

Ihis instinctively turned toward the place the voice had come from……

And instantly went rigid.