Chapter 05

The moment I saw him, my mind went blank for a moment.

His face looked emotionless and rigid, but I couldn’t help being deeply impressed by Hedius’s strikingly handsome features.

‘Of course, I’d never seen a man this handsome or beautiful even once in the world I used to live in.’

If I were to praise his appearance for a moment…

His jet-black hair, dark as the night sky, was neatly swept back, gleaming under the sunlight. His sharp nose and gracefully curved facial features looked like a work of art painstakingly carved by a sculptor.

On top of that, his deep-set, almond-shaped eyes gave him a decadent, almost dangerous charm.

And even though he was completely covered in thick leather clothing, it couldn’t hide his muscular, inverted-triangle physique.

With all of those features combined, watching him simply breathe and move was enough to make him seem less like a human being and more like a sculpture meticulously crafted by a god.

Even his amber eyes, glittering in the sunlight filtering through the branches, looked noble, as though someone had poured molten gold into them.

‘Hmm. I never imagined Hedius would be this young and handsome.’

According to the history books, Hedius had been a righteous thief who exposed corrupt nobles. To those very nobles, however, he was known as a demon wearing a human face.

Nothing was known about his origins, and ironically, he wasn’t even a noble himself, so even the history books didn’t give him much attention.

However, before he was a ‘righteous thief,’ he had been the Emperor’s de facto protector. Because of that, even in my generation, it was still widely known that Hedius had been the leader of the Shadow Thieves’ Guild.

And at the same time, that was pretty much the entirety of the information available about him.

‘Who could have imagined that I’d actually meet Hedius?’

Since Hedius wasn’t a noble, no portrait of him had survived.

So I’d vaguely imagined him as a frightening, heavily built man.

I was certain he must have been an older, imposing man, too.

But who would have thought he’d be handsome enough to make my eyes open wide on their own?

Even looking at him again, it felt as though my blurry vision had suddenly cleared.

‘Damn. He’s handsome in every possible way.’

While a quiet exclamation of admiration escaped between my lips, Hedius looked at Leo and spoke in a low voice.

“You’ve done something wrong, yet you’re hiding behind someone else, Leo. It seems I haven’t taught you properly.”

Leo, who had been clenching his teeth, finally exploded with the words he’d been desperately holding back.

“No matter what you say, Lord Hedius, I’m not going! I’m never going back to the village!”

Apparently, I was the only one getting anxious as Leo became more and more agitated.

The other thieves seemed completely unfazed, as though this confrontation between the two happened all the time.

“So just go back, Lord Hedius! Just don’t care whether I live or die. I’m not even a member of the thieves’ guild anyway.”

Not a member?

There were far too many things I didn’t understand, but I couldn’t intervene myself.

If I did, there was no doubt I’d never be able to clear myself of the accusation that I’d tried to kidnap Leo.

Besides, this was the territory of the Shadow Thieves’ Guild.

Once I’d entered the Black Forest, even if they killed me, no one in the outside world would ever know how I died.

Unaware of what I was thinking, Leo continued.

“You keep telling me not to do anything! I’d rather just leave with Angel.”

“Angel?”

At Hedius’s skeptical question, Leo immediately clamped his mouth shut.

His entire body stiffened.

It seemed he’d belatedly remembered his promise to me.

As expected, Hedius’s sharp gaze soon turned toward me.

“Right. I’ve been wondering since earlier. Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

The murderous intent in his eyes was definitely not my imagination.

He was clearly hostile toward me.

I swallowed nervously, unsure of how to answer.

“Guild Leader, judging from the circumstances, I believe that suspicious woman was trying to kidnap Leo.”

Hustler, the Vice Guild Leader, had reported me to him.

I screamed inwardly, but all I could do was clutch the hem of my dress with my damp palms.

His golden gaze slowly swept over me from head to toe, as though trying to see straight through me.

“…Yes. She certainly does look suspicious. Separate Leo from that woman immediately.”

The instant his command was given, two thieves moved in perfect unison and pulled Leo away from my arms.

“N-No! I don’t want to go! Let me go!”

Leo flailed his arms and legs in the air, resisting fiercely, but it was useless.

I bit down gently on the tender flesh inside my mouth.

‘If they brand me a kidnapper, they won’t leave me alone. Because Hedius knows that Leo is the Imperial Prince. So of course he’ll do everything he can to protect Leo… and someone like me supposedly tried to kidnap him?’

In other words, I could be killed by Hedius right here and now.

My fingertips turned pale, but I forced a smile and stepped forward.

“Um, excuse me… I’m not a kidnapper—”

“……”

But when Hedius stared at me with those icy eyes as though he were about to kill me on the spot, I gave up on trying to figure things out and shouted,

“I’m from another world!”

For a moment, complete silence descended.

When all I could hear was the rapid pounding of my own heart—

Pfft!

Someone snorted with laughter, followed by several thieves clearing their throats awkwardly.

“I-It’s true…”

It really is! I’m from another world.

‘But what is this? It doesn’t seem like anyone believes me at all.’

Hedius didn’t take his eyes off me as he spoke.

“A woman wearing a lavish dress fit for a banquet suddenly appears alongside Leo, and now she claims she’s from another world…”

The wind blew, revealing his eyes between strands of jet-black hair. His gaze flashed dangerously.

“You must be a spy who infiltrated this place with some ulterior motive.”

“!”

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, the tip of a razor-sharp blade was already pressed precisely against my neck.

“It seems you disguised yourself as a noblewoman, lured Leo in, and attempted to abduct him. Who sent you?”

It happened in the blink of an eye, but I desperately tried not to panic and gently bit the inside of my lip again.

“Tell me. If you don’t want to die.”

‘This is bad. If I say the wrong thing here, it’s over.’

They didn’t believe that I was from another world in the first place.

If I repeated something like that, he wouldn’t hold back anymore.

My heart was pounding so hard it felt as though it might burst from my chest, but when cornered like this, I couldn’t afford to act emotionally.

I had to think of some rational way out.

Yes.

Rationally!

Leo’s face, which was being held and struggling against the thieves, was slowly turning pale.

‘Are they really going to kill her? The Angel who saved me?’

The Angel’s expression revealed nothing of what she was thinking.

And Hedius had a sword pointed at her with every intention of killing her.

Leo’s eyes darted between the two of them.

‘I have to save her somehow. But what can I do when she’s been accused of being a kidnapper?’

To make matters worse, he’d already broken his promise to the Angel by calling her ‘Angel’ in front of everyone.

Leo had no idea how he could fix the situation now.

If it was Lord Hedius, he might really kill her.

Leo’s red eyes trembled as he looked at him.

‘But why did he come looking for me in the first place?’

In truth, Leo had thought that if he told Hedius that she was his savior and said he wanted to follow her, Hedius would simply let him go.

After all, Hedius, whom Leo had followed like a father all this time, showed him absolutely no interest except when teaching him swordsmanship.

Moreover, whenever the thieves went through the training that a thief was supposed to receive, Leo was always excluded.

The reason was simple: they wouldn’t accept him as a thief.

‘When was it that you said you didn’t need me? So why are you suddenly acting like this now?’

Thinking that he could simply leave, Leo had quietly slipped away from the thieves’ hideout without telling anyone.

There was no point in telling them. They would obviously have refused to let him go.

But because of him, the Angel was now in trouble.

Leo couldn’t simply stand by and let the woman who had saved his life be killed.

Leo remembered the expression on her face when she had run toward him as the black leopard lunged at him.

She had smiled so brightly, as though she were an innocent angel who had accidentally fallen from the sky, completely unaware of how dangerous this world was.

Her face had been flushed red from running through the forest, and her pink hair had shimmered like flowers.

But of everything about her, the thing that stood out most was her smile.

Although her expression had immediately turned serious the moment she’d discovered him, Leo had felt relieved by that smile.

‘It was strange that I felt that way. She was a complete stranger, after all.’

That was why he wanted to believe she was an angel.

And then she had claimed it herself.

The moment Leo wondered whether he could believe her was fleeting.

Ugh.

Leo desperately wracked his brain, trying to find a way to save her.

Come to think of it, everything about her had been strange from the beginning.

Her noble-like appearance was one thing, but she’d also used bizarre words.

S-Rank Hunter. F-Rank Healer…

And then there was the mysterious way she kept staring at empty space.

Could she really have come from another world, just as she’d claimed?

Leo shook his head.

‘What am I thinking? What does it matter who Angel really is? No matter who she is, she’s the person who saved my life.’

Regardless, Leo was certain she wasn’t a bad person.

Otherwise, she never would have thrown herself into such danger to save someone else.

“Didn’t I ask who sent you?”

Meanwhile, Hedius was slowly bringing the finely sharpened sword closer to her neck.

“It seems you have no intention of answering willingly. In that case, I can’t just keep waiting patiently.”

When Leo saw a tiny drop of red blood appear on the Angel’s snow-white neck, he shouted in alarm.

“Don’t! Please don’t kill her!”

Hedius’s fierce gaze turned toward Leo.

Leo had never seen him look so angry before, and he instinctively flinched.

But he didn’t back down.

“She saved me from the black leopard! That’s why I called her Angel, but she actually—”

Leo squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them with determination.

“She was a crazy woman who claimed she was an angel from another world! She’s just a poor, pitiful person. So please, don’t kill her.”

The thieves began murmuring among themselves.

In truth, judging only from her strange words and behavior up until now, she was no different from the ‘madwoman’ Aunt Etubebe in the village had told him about.

Someone whose mind had broken for some reason, causing her to fall into madness.

Unable to bring himself to look directly at her, Leo silently apologized to her.

‘I’m sorry, Angel… I had to make you out to be crazy.’

But in this situation, this was the only way he could save her.

“She looks perfectly normal. What if she’s just lying to Leo?”

“But didn’t she just say herself that she came from another world? If she were sane, she wouldn’t say something so absurd in a situation like this.”

The thieves began arguing among themselves, some agreeing and others disagreeing.

Then Leo began explaining clearly, making sure everyone could hear him.

“She kept staring into empty space and saying strange things, so I didn’t believe her at first either. But! Even though she could have been putting herself in danger, she threw herself at the black leopard and saved me! Look at her! She’s smaller and more delicate than you uncles. Do you really think someone like her would believe she could defeat a black leopard?”

The surroundings instantly fell silent.

As Leo had said, throwing yourself at a black leopard without even a weapon was nothing short of madness.

Unless someone was willing to die alongside it, no sane person would ever do such a thing.

“So… you’re saying that Leo believes she’s actually a madwoman?”

“That’s how I understood it too. Judging by how stubbornly Leo is defending her, it might actually be true.”

At Leo’s single explanation, the entire thieves’ guild began buzzing with discussion.

Hedius, meanwhile, watched her carefully, looking for any sign that she had been shaken by Leo’s words.

But she simply stared at him with a clear, blank expression, seemingly unaware that blood was even trickling down her neck.

As though she innocently believed that no one would ever hurt her.

And seeing her like that, Hedius was struck by an unpleasant feeling.

It almost seemed as though he were doing something cruel to a helpless, pitiful person.