Chapter 4
‘…Of course he isn’t okay!’
A moment later, Lucy finally realized what position she was in and screamed internally.
She was currently being carried in a princess carry by a man radiating a terrifying aura.
The hard, burning thing she had touched earlier…
…turned out to be his chest.
‘Well, technically his breastplate.’
His chest was so broad that the breastplate seemed ridiculously large.
‘Would you be okay if you were him, Lucy?’
A woman had just fallen out of the sky and started feeling up his chest!
Maybe that was why the crimson eyes staring down at her were so chilling.
Quietly pulling her hand back, Lucy carefully looked him over.
At least one thing was fortunate.
He didn’t seem like he was about to hurt her.
Still…
That huge build.
That overwhelming, intimidating presence.
And…
‘With armor like this…’
Could he be one of the Holy Knights guarding the temple?
‘This is bad.’
Cold sweat trickled down her back as her eyelashes trembled.
‘Calm down.’
She couldn’t let him see she was afraid.
If he became suspicious…
She’d be dragged back.
‘No.’
She didn’t want to return to that cold prison and spend the rest of her life waiting to die.
‘Never again.’
…Her previous life hadn’t been much different.
“Stay hidden here, okay?”
“Big Sis! Little Sis! Don’t go!”
“It’s alright. We’ll be back soon!”
Coincidentally, monsters much like the ones in this world had also appeared in her previous life.
They showed up right after the nightmare of college entrance exams had ended and she had finally become a university student.
Just like in novels…
It would’ve been nice if hunters or awakened people had appeared to fight them too.
But no such miracle happened in Lucy’s world.
The survivors formed civilian defense groups.
Lucy’s older sisters, both former sports majors, joined one of those groups and left.
Lucy, who had no fighting ability, stayed behind in the shelter.
But…
“Hey! Parasite! You should be grateful we even let you stay here!”
“We claimed this shelter first! Keep your head down and know your place!”
Life in the shelter was harsh.
Her sisters never came back.
If she didn’t want to be thrown out…
She had to lower herself, crawl, suppress her desires, and endure everything.
That life in the shelter was no different from living in prison.
Her only comfort had been the web novels she’d downloaded onto her phone for offline reading.
‘I reread The Last Dragon’s Bride so many times back then.’
Then one day…
Monsters finally attacked the shelter.
The collapsing ceiling crashed down on top of Lucy.
…
That was the last memory of her previous life.
‘And now…’
She was supposed to go back to another prison that wasn’t much different?
No.
She was sick of cold walls and stale air.
‘I’ve finally been given another chance to start over.’
And there was something else.
“Lucy… They say there’s a place called the sea outside. And fields full of purple flowers.”
“Do you think we’ll get to see them someday?”
In this life…
As the memories of the body she had possessed resurfaced, so did the voices of the other expendable children who had died before her in prison.
The reason those voices felt so painfully familiar…
“I hate monsters…”
“Big Sis… Do you think we’ll get out someday?”
…was because they overlapped with the voices of the children from the shelter in her previous life.
‘In both lives…’
They had made the same promise.
That at least one of them would survive…
…and go out into the world.
Determination flared inside her.
‘That’s right. This time will be different.’
Across both her previous life and this one…
She would survive for the sake of everyone who hadn’t.
She would build them proper graves.
‘And then I’ll beat every last one of them.’
Beat them all…
And become the boss—
No, the owner of her own life.
Of course, before gaining the strength to move forward…
She also needed to know when to bow her head.
‘That part is easy.’
She had spent her previous life trying to please powerful people.
Someone weak like her had to stay on the good side of those who ran the shelter just to survive.
So this time too…
“Haha… Nice weather we’re having, isn’t it?”
The sky was completely covered in clouds.
“The temperature is just perfect too…”
It was the middle of a sweltering summer night.
“Let’s see… Sir Knight… you’re very handsome…”
His face was completely hidden behind his helmet.
The more she talked, the more miserable she felt.
Still, she had to distract him somehow.
Patting his armored chest, Lucy smiled brightly.
“And you even caught such a delicate, feather-light young lady when she fell from a tree. You must be a very kind person.”
“…”
“So… would you mind putting me down now?”
Hearing that, Edward silently tilted his head.
‘What is this?’
The tiny, shabby girl looked so thin it was obvious she hadn’t eaten properly.
Yet…
Even while facing someone whom everyone feared and revered…
She didn’t seem frightened.
Not only that…
She casually chatted with him as if they were already acquainted, her large eyes darting around innocently.
The whole situation was absurd.
But more than anything else…
‘…It stopped.’
His body, which had been on the verge of going berserk only moments ago, had suddenly calmed down.
More precisely…
The places where this woman was touching him were becoming peaceful.
‘It’s quiet.’
The violent power raging inside him gradually settled.
The pounding in his head faded.
The scales covering his body slowly receded.
Most of all…
This feeling.
‘It feels like I’ve finally gotten my own body back.’
If he had ever received a truly proper purification…
If someone removed that disgusting crawling sensation from Sepina’s purification and left only its pure essence…
It would probably feel exactly like this.
Feeling both refreshed and strangely unfamiliar with the sensation, Edward looked down at the woman in his arms.
‘She’s like a tiny, half-starved little animal.’
Small.
Soft.
Pale.
Always cautiously reading other people’s expressions.
Big black eyes.
“…You look like a mouse.”
“Huh?”
Lucy narrowed her eyes.
What?
‘Not even a squirrel?’
That sounded suspiciously close to calling her a rat.
She couldn’t deny that she looked the part.
But…
‘Who says something like that the first time they meet?’
She couldn’t help admiring his complete lack of social skills.
‘Still… I guess it’s better than being called a parasite like I was in the shelter.’
Considering the dangerous aura surrounding him and the way he spoke…
She wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d already thrown her onto the ground.
‘Actually…’
…Was he holding her even tighter than before?
His warm breastplate seemed closer now.
His eyes somehow looked… lazier.
Just then—
“…Duke Edward!”
A shout came from behind them.
Lucy’s entire body stiffened.
‘Temple guards!’
That alone was shocking enough.
‘Wait a second.’
Duke Edward?
Lucy looked back into those blazing crimson eyes.
The familiar name and overwhelming presence made her swallow nervously.
‘Then this is…’
The male lead!
‘I didn’t realize…’
Sure, his armor had looked incredibly luxurious and expensive.
And his crimson eyes had reminded her of beautiful rubies.
But…
She hadn’t imagined it was because he was the male lead.
‘Of all people!’
Normally, meeting the male lead in a romance novel should have been accompanied by sparkling lights, flowers floating through the air, and the comforting feeling that her savior had arrived.
Instead…
Her tension only increased.
‘Am I going to die at the male lead’s hands before the temple even catches me?’
The male lead in this story treated everyone except his true mate like garbage.
‘Even in the original novel, he never liked touching Sepina.’
Although it was funny that he still spent nights with her anyway.
Either way…
He might already be furious simply because she was touching him now.
Maybe that was why.
Instead of flowers…
The air felt thick with killing intent.
‘What should I do?’
Lucy shrank into herself anxiously.
Clank. Clank.
The sound of armored footsteps approached from behind.
“Duke, may I ask you something?”
“…”
“A pri… that is, a criminal has escaped from the temple.”
Hearing those words, Edward slowly tilted his head again.
A criminal.
The woman in his arms had stiffened the instant she heard that word.
So…
She must be the one they were talking about.
Then again…
She was dressed in what looked like filthy rags…
“…”
After reaching that thought, Edward looked at her more carefully.
She was painfully thin, as though she hadn’t eaten in ages.
Covered in dirt.
Her clothes were torn in several places.
There were wounds around her wrists that looked as if blood had been repeatedly drawn from them.
Needle marks covered her arms.
Rather than looking like a criminal…
She looked like…
“Duke?”
“…”
“I’m terribly sorry, but if you don’t mind… could we please see the face of the young lady you’re carrying?”
The soldier reached out his hand.
Smack!
A sharp sound echoed through the garden.
The soldier staggered backward.
The back of his hand swelled instantly, as though it had been struck by a red-hot iron plate.
“…”
The stunned soldier slowly looked at Edward.
“D-Duke?”
“I’m not okay with that.”
“…Pardon?”
“I said I’m not okay with it.”
Both Lucy and the soldier stared up at Edward at the same time.
