Chapter 120
Rijan drew in ragged breaths.
She could not tell whether losing her voice was fortunate or unfortunate. If she had screamed and awakened the students sleeping in the other rooms, the result would have been to put those children in danger as well.
“Who is she?”
One of the men asked, eyeing Rijan suspiciously. Akenaus answered without taking his eyes off her.
“A woman I know.”
“I knew the young master had complicated relations with women, but I never thought he’d even lay hands on a female student at a school this deep in the mountains. She looks awfully young, too.”
“I haven’t laid hands on her yet. She disappeared before I could.”
“Really? That must have been disappointing. She’s quite beautiful.”
“It was.”
Akenaus affected recognition.
“It’s even more pleasant to see you here.”
Rijan tried to retreat one step at a time, then flinched. If she moved carelessly, there was a good chance the girl hiding behind the shelves would be discovered as well.
“You startled me earlier. I saw some girls fluttering around halfway up the mountain. I followed them, and suddenly a school appeared.”
She recalled the unknown sensation she had detected when she went out to pick berries. She had thought she had sensed it incorrectly, but apparently that was not the case. At the thought that so many suspicious men had been secretly watching over the young students, a chill raced from the crown of her head down her back.
“How reassuring that there’s a school even in a place like this, isn’t it? Climbing the mountain takes a lot of stamina, so let’s eat something in the kitchen here before we go. Ah, it’s a shame this isn’t a private home. If it were, we could even sleep here, rest properly, and set out afterward. Or perhaps… Miss, how many people are there at this school?”
The murderer’s gaze turned toward Rijan. She tried to keep her lips firmly shut and maintain her composure. But it was not as easy as she wished.
Her hand slowly lowered and clenched the ring.
She had heard it at the Valdemaera main house. Akenaus, who had been defeated by Ejekail, had joined hands with Dabis’s spies and been expelled from the family. If so, these unidentified men were Dabis’s soldiers.
The students who had remained in their dormitory rooms had been killed in an instant, without even having the chance to scream. Since their opponents were soldiers, they likely had not even had time to understand what was happening, let alone resist.
Moreover, these spies had casually revealed that, if necessary, they intended to kill every teacher and student in the school.
What should she do?
What could she do?
“No, why aren’t you answering when someone’s asking you a question? What an unresponsive young lady.”
“Wait.”
Akenaus narrowed his one remaining eye.
“What is that thing you’ve been clutching so tightly, as though your life depended on it?”
Akenaus strode over, parted the collar of Rijan’s clothes, and abruptly thrust his hand inside. The man’s rude hand deliberately pawed at her breasts. After greedily groping the soft, rounded flesh, Akenaus pulled out the necklace chain and tugged it toward himself. Unable to overcome his strength, Rijan was dragged close behind it.
Akenaus carefully examined the red diamond fashioned into a ring. As his fingers traced its shape, his eyes followed Rijan’s face.
Puzzlement, suspicion, shock, rage. Rijan clearly witnessed from inches away as the man’s smooth features gradually twisted, then returned to their former appearance.
“So it was you.”
His tone was markedly different from before.
“The woman with red hair and green eyes.”
A description she had long since forgotten spilled from Akenaus’s lips. The strange flash in the man’s eyes nearly made Rijan collapse on the spot. Somehow, she forced strength into both legs and remained standing.
“So that’s why I thought something was strange. That bastard searched the entire country and still couldn’t find her for the longest time. Then, after finally finding her, he spread the news everywhere…”
Akenaus whispered like a snake.
“He set a trap. That fucking bastard.”
“……”
“Can you see my face? That bastard did this to me.”
“……”
“Looks like he lived fairly well even after losing both his eyes. He even snagged a red diamond at an auction house because he intended to marry. I wondered what kind of woman could have bewitched that bastard so thoroughly, and it turns out it was you. Life’s really amusing, isn’t it?”
Having been confined in a detention camp, Rijan did not know enough about what had happened to fully understand the resentful jumble spilling from Akenaus’s mouth. For the moment, she could only endure this incomprehensible grudge.
“Oh, is this the young lady who made fools of us? Is it because they’re brothers? I suppose they have similar tastes.”
A Dabis spy sauntered over and stared fixedly at Rijan. If Akenaus was repulsive, this spy was terrifying. At most, Akenaus could threaten people; he was not someone capable of doing much himself in practical terms. Even when he had tried to poison Ejekail, he had seized her weakness and forced her to carry out the crime.
But the soldiers before her, including the spy standing in front of her, were men who had mastered the practical art of killing people. A soldier’s killing intent was unmistakably different. Even if she wanted to draw back, Rijan could not move at all because of the necklace clutched in Akenaus’s grip.
“You can understand, miss. We have a deep grudge. Anyone would turn twisted after spending an entire day hiding among corpses to escape the trap Major Ejekail Valdemaera had laid. All our subordinates were killed, and the few of us lucky enough to survive will probably be punished for failing the mission once we return.”
“What should I do with you? If that pretty face of yours ended up crippled like mine, do you think that bastard would regret it a little?”
Akenaus rubbed Rijan’s cheek with his thumb. Rijan held her breath.
“But the Valdemaera main house is in the capital, isn’t it? What man would send his fiancée alone to the north? Isn’t this a trap, too?”
It was a misunderstanding. Rijan had never been engaged to Ejekail. But she had no way to convey that, and these men already seemed convinced of her relationship with Ejekail after seeing the ring.
And if asked whether she and Ejekail were truly nothing to each other… that was not the case.
“Then he wouldn’t have given her the ring. She was a student at this school to begin with. She was here from the first time I met her. Ah, right. This place is close to Derosa. After committing his little crime, he ran to the school, then went to find that bastard hiding in Derosa. Why? Did she feel sorry for ruining his eyes? Or was that bastard more to her taste than I was?”
“Come to think of it, judging by the fact that there isn’t even a hint of the king’s army or whatever, perhaps the goddess of fortune is on our side this time. It’s about time she took our side.”
Though he kept grinning and speaking in an endlessly light tone, Rijan knew very well that neither man was in the mood to laugh.
“In any case, this is an unexpected harvest. Honestly, if we returned just like this, we would have been punished severely. But if we say we captured Ejekail Valdemaera’s fiancée, the story changes a little.”
They’re going to take me… to Dabis?
They were going to drag her to Dabis?
The blood in her entire body turned cold.
Seeing Rijan’s pale face, the man clamped his powerful hand around her wrist.
“There really is no rule that says a person must simply die. By the way, miss, what’s your name? I’m Rebion.”
Akenaus answered for her.
“Rijan. I still remember your name. Rose was an alias I gave you.”
“Ah, Rijan. I see.”
Rebion handed Rijan’s wrist to one of his men and issued an order.
“Hold on to this young lady properly so she can’t escape. We’ll gather some food from the kitchen here and be on our way.”
“We should gather anything worth money, too. We couldn’t capture the target, so there’s a problem with our settlement payment.”
Akenaus tried to take the ring hanging around Rijan’s neck.
In that instant, Rijan seized Akenaus’s hand and clung to it. It was an act of defiance that escaped her before she knew it.
It was not a ring she had received with a promise of marriage. Ejekail had only said that he wanted her to keep it as a memento of him.
She knew it was foolish. Ejekail was the sort of man who would tell her to simply give it up rather than get hurt wrestling over a mere ring.
Even so, her determination not to let the ring fall into Akenaus’s hands was stronger. Rijan struggled desperately to protect the necklace chain bearing it. Even she was astonished by the strength that came from somewhere within her.
“Why is this wench fighting so hard? You’ll have to hand it over eventually if you want to survive.”
A flash of light burst before her eyes. Irritated, Akenaus had slapped her across the face.
“What are you all doing? Let’s hurry. Once he realizes his woman is gone, he won’t sit still either. We don’t have time to dawdle when we’re taking a hostage with us.”
Rebion’s urging came from ahead. Akenaus reluctantly released the ring.
But there was no time to catch her breath. The brute force of his subordinate yanked Rijan away. Having exhausted all her strength struggling with Akenaus, Rijan had no energy left to resist and was dragged out.
For now, all she could do was pray that no one would hear these suspicious sounds and awaken from sleep. Whoever came out of their room would only throw away their life for nothing. She tried not even to glance toward the shelves where her young sister was hiding.
“That’s what makes life interesting. Do you think he ever imagined you would fall into my hands?”
The mockery pouring into her ear was sly.
“I wonder how he’ll react when he hears that you’re in Dabis with us.”
She tried not to look at or listen to the man as much as possible. She might have succeeded for a while if not for what he said next.
“Especially when he hears that you’re carrying my child in your belly.”