Chapter 03
Even though her once-full skirt had been completely torn apart and dirtied with dust, Evelyn continued running forward without a second thought.
Her once-white and smooth legs were covered in small wounds from branches and thorny vines, stained with dark red blood. Her feet, which had not stopped striking the ground, were mixed with blood and dirt.
Every time she took a step forward, she felt intense pain stabbing through her feet, but she had no time to worry about it.
The voices of the Hesta soldiers chasing after her were getting closer.
Whenever the sound of branches crashing against their bodies grew louder, Evelyn’s mind became increasingly blank.
She did not even know which direction she was running in or where she was going.
She had no other choice.
If she stopped now, she would die at the hands of the Hesta soldiers chasing her.
That obvious fact became despair, slowly eating away at Evelyn’s mind.
Clenching her teeth against the tearing pain in her lungs, she turned her body toward an area thick with bushes.
At that moment, her foot caught on a large protruding stone, causing her to fall and roll across the ground in an ugly manner.
She rolled so violently that she bit her tongue as she fell.
Blood that she could not swallow flowed down from the corner of her mouth.
Even then, she had only one thought.
She had to run.
She had to escape.
Otherwise, she would die.
Evelyn desperately tried to force strength into her legs and stand up, but her body continued collapsing onto the ground.
Perhaps because she had exhausted all the strength she had possessed until now, she could no longer move properly.
Nothing worked.
With tears falling down her face, Evelyn tightly clenched her dirt-covered hands.
As if things were not already bad enough, the pain she had not been able to feel until now began rushing over her all at once.
Meanwhile, the sounds of the soldiers continued getting closer.
The hand Evelyn placed against the ground began trembling.
It had been a life where she had never experienced happiness even once.
She had never been loved by anyone, nor had she ever loved someone.
The closest person to her had been her mother, yet even from her mother, she had always been abandoned.
The work was exhausting, and everyone was cruel toward Evelyn.
Because many people disliked Glena, Evelyn had been the one forced to endure all the abuse meant for her instead.
The only time she could feel any happiness was when she fell asleep without having to think about anything.
She thought her life had no meaning.
But she had never once thought that she wanted to die.
Evelyn did not want to die like this.
“You ran quite far.”
A low voice, as if announcing her death, reached her ears.
The sound of someone breathing roughly came from directly behind her.
“Such an inconvenience. Even though you were destined to die anyway.”
Evelyn turned around with eyes filled with despair.
A Hesta soldier wearing old clothes to disguise himself as a bandit was slowly approaching her with a raised sword.
The soldier, apparently irritated by the unexpected chase, frowned deeply and swung his sword once.
Although it was too far away to reach her, Evelyn flinched in fear and shrank back.
Soon after, laughter mocking her reaction could be heard.
Seven more Hesta soldiers appeared before her.
“P-please spare me.”
Evelyn begged in a barely audible voice.
“I beg you like this……”
With her powerless hands clasped together, Evelyn pleaded for her life.
That was all she could do.
She was nothing more than an insignificant maid of the royal palace.
She had only thought that she would live like the other maids, doing chores her entire life until she grew old and died.
“Please, spare me.”
Who could have ever imagined it?
That the maid Evelyn would become the fake Princess Ophelia and be placed in a situation where she would be killed by the soldiers of her own homeland.
At that moment.
Along with a rustling sound from far away, one of the Hesta soldiers closest to Evelyn suddenly fell backward.
With a heavy thud, everyone’s attention turned toward him.
An arrow was lodged in the fallen soldier’s forehead.
The soldier no longer breathed or even blinked.
He was dead instantly.
“Who is there?!”
The other soldiers, realizing the situation too late, drew their swords and searched their surroundings.
At that moment, another arrow flew and pierced another soldier’s forehead.
Then a third, a fourth……
Finally, the eighth arrow flew and struck the forehead of the last remaining soldier.
It was a clean and precise display of skill.
Evelyn slowly blinked as she looked at the fallen Hesta soldiers.
No one moved.
No one’s chest rose or fell.
The Hesta soldiers who had filled Evelyn with despair and hopelessness met their deaths so easily.
Even with corpses lying before her eyes, Evelyn could not regain her senses.
She could not understand what had happened.
There was certainly no one here who could help her.
Then who?
As Evelyn stood there confused, a group of people began approaching her.
They were soldiers dressed in a way completely different from the Hesta soldiers.
“From the looks of it, they don’t seem to be bandits.”
A man wearing white armor that shone under the sunlight muttered quietly while holding a bow.
He was a handsome man with vivid bright purple hair, confident amber eyes, and tanned skin that suited him perfectly.
The man was Raynard Theodore, the Emperor of Vite and the ruler of the Western Continent.
Raynard tilted his head slightly while examining the dead Hesta soldiers.
From his perspective, there were many suspicious things about these so-called bandits.
“Well, does it matter?”
“Your Majesty, that woman……”
Raynard lightly shrugged his shoulders and looked at Evelyn when his adjutant spoke.
Raynard first examined her from head to toe.
Her messy hair, cheeks covered with tear marks, and blood flowing from the corner of her mouth.
Considering what he had witnessed earlier, it was easy to assume she had ended up in such a state because of that incident.
After remaining silent for a moment, Raynard handed the bow he was holding to his adjutant.
The adjutant accepted the bow and carefully stored it away.
“…You are Princess Ophelia.”
Raynard muttered as if confirming it.
Frowning slightly in displeasure, he looked over Evelyn’s torn and miserable dress.
“Who are you…?”
Evelyn asked him foolishly.
Even though she had heard his adjutant call him “Your Majesty,” she still found it difficult to accept the reality before her.
The only country bordering Hesta was Vite.
The only person nearby who would be called “Your Majesty” was the Emperor of Vite.
However, his appearance was completely different from the rumors Evelyn had heard about the Emperor of Vite.
“Introducing myself first is not really my style.”
After a brief pause, Raynard smiled slightly.
In a situation this chaotic, and especially toward Evelyn, who looked half-empty and lost, he had no intention of forcing her to listen to a formal introduction.
“Raynard Theodore, Emperor of Vite.”
Raynard said while extending his hand toward Evelyn.
Evelyn stared blankly up at Raynard.
The sight of his calloused but unmistakably human hand, along with his respectable appearance, left her stunned.
“Are you planning to just sit there? Other bandits might come soon.”
Since Evelyn only continued staring at his offered hand without moving, Raynard urged her.
Still unable to regain her senses, Evelyn slowly raised her trembling hand and placed it on Raynard’s.
At least Raynard did not seem to have any intention of killing her.
Raynard grabbed her hand and used his strength to pull Evelyn up.
However, because her tension had disappeared, standing properly was too difficult for her.
Supporting her waist, Raynard caught Evelyn before she collapsed.
“It seems like walking by yourself might be difficult?”
“……I’m sorry.”
“I am not blaming you, so don’t worry. Please forgive me for being rude for a moment.”
Raynard quickly lifted Evelyn into his arms.
He moved so quickly that she did not even have time to scream.
After picking her up, Raynard turned back toward the people who had accompanied him and ordered them to return.
Held in Raynard’s arms, Evelyn moved her eyes and examined his head.
The fur covering his entire body and the horrifying rumors surrounding him were all lies.
But because Evelyn had believed those rumors to be true for so long, she wanted to confirm one last thing.
The horns said to have grown from his head.
Fortunately, there were no horns on his head.
After returning to the camp with Evelyn, Raynard placed her on a wooden box of an appropriate size.
Evelyn felt slightly relieved, as she had been uncomfortable staying in Raynard’s arms for so long.
When the people at the camp confirmed that Raynard and the soldiers following him had returned, they gathered around him.
“This is Princess Ophelia of Hesta. We ended up joining together due to unavoidable circumstances, but treat her with nothing lacking.”
