Chapter 06

“So, if you spare Angel, I’ll obediently go back to the village.”

Although Leo had called her a madwoman with his own mouth, he still stubbornly addressed her as “Angel.”

Considering the circumstances, Leo’s words weren’t entirely wrong.

Throwing herself into danger to save a complete stranger’s child, despite knowing she could be attacked by a black leopard, was certainly not something an ordinary person would do.

And from the way she looked, she didn’t appear to be someone who had undergone any kind of training.

But that didn’t mean he could completely trust her.

For one thing, it was suspicious enough that a woman who looked like a sheltered flower raised in a greenhouse had somehow entered the Black Forest, a place rumored to be cursed.

‘I still can’t rule out the possibility that someone who wants Leo dead secretly sent her here as a spy.’

Leo was the Imperial Prince of Pandenion, and if it became known that he was still alive, his life would naturally be in danger.

‘But judging from the Empress’s movements, it seems they still don’t know that Leo is alive.’

Then what exactly were this woman’s intentions?

Just as Hedius, lost in thought, loosened his grip on his sword for a moment—

Two small hands, cold to the touch, gently wrapped around his hand.

“!”

Hedius felt as though a massive boulder had dropped directly onto his heart.

Her hands were cold, yet with that single touch, he felt the mana that had been tightly condensed inside his heart, hard as a stone, begin to loosen.

“……”

Trying to find the source of this strange sensation, Hedius lowered his head.

His face stiffened.

The woman’s bright, sparkling eyes, which looked as though stars had been embedded inside them, were utterly innocent, as if she had no idea what she had just done.

Hedius looked once more at the hand holding his and furrowed his brow.

‘She doesn’t look like she’s in pain at all.’

After staring intently at his face for quite some time, as though carefully observing him, the woman finally opened her mouth.

And the words that came from her pitiful, almost tearful expression were—

“Pretty Crow, don’t be angry. When you get angry, your pretty face makes you look just like a nasty villain. Okay?”

What?

For a moment, Hedius wondered if he had heard her correctly.

But then she suddenly broke into a bright smile and tightened her grip on his hand.

“But were your eyes always this pretty, Mr. Crow? They look like someone put gold inside them! And you know what? This is the first time I’ve ever seen a man this pretty!”

Apparently, she still had absolutely no idea what was going on.

Hedius finally sneered.

‘…Yes. She really does seem crazy.’

She had to be insane to dare say something like that while holding his hand.

Meanwhile, the thieves who had been quietly watching this absurd scene all sucked in a deep breath.

Then one of them shook his head, as though he could already predict the woman’s fate.

“That woman is finished.”

“Do you really think the Guild Leader is going to kill that crazy woman? She clearly doesn’t understand the situation at all. And our Guild Leader is usually quite lenient toward the weak.”

Another thief chimed in from beside him.

“Hey, even if she really is crazy like Leo says, she dared to grab the Guild Leader’s hand. Don’t you know how much our Guild Leader hates being touched? Unfortunately, there’s no way he’ll let her off.”

“Tsk, what a shame. From what I can tell, she really is a crazy woman who got lost and somehow wandered all the way into the Black Forest, just like Leo said. Or maybe someone abandoned her.”

“That does happen sometimes, but we still can’t be certain that she wasn’t trying to kidnap Leo.”

In the end, all the thieves gathered there watched the scene, convinced that Hedius was going to kill the woman.

After all, Hedius never allowed anyone to touch his body.

Everyone fell silent, watching the tense standoff between Hedius and the woman.

Then Hedius slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.

As though he had made a decision, he pushed her hands away and returned his sword to its sheath.

It meant he had decided not to kill her—not for now.

The thieves seemed surprised by Hedius’s decision.

Yet the woman herself still appeared completely oblivious to the situation. She simply scurried after his arm again and grabbed it tightly.

Hedius spoke in a thoroughly displeased tone.

“Let go.”

The woman let out a small gasp.

“Oh.”

She hurriedly released his arm and quickly stepped backward.

Then she clasped her hands behind her back and looked at him with an expression that seemed to say, ‘There. Is that good enough?’

Almost as though she were waiting to be praised.

Seeing her like that, Hedius suddenly had the absurd thought that he looked like a butler who had been chosen by a stray cat.

Unfortunately, he doubted anything like that would actually happen.

Suppressing a chuckle, Hedius withdrew his gaze from her and gave the thieves an order.

“There’s something I need to confirm. Take this woman to the village.”

Everyone was surprised by his unprecedented decision—not just the thieves.

Even Leo, who had been watching the confrontation nervously, widened his eyes and mouth in astonishment.

Hedius looked at Leo and spoke coldly.

“Leo, make sure you keep the promise you made.”

Leo, his expression much more relaxed now, quickly nodded.

“Yes, Lord Hedius!”

How much time had passed since then?

The sound of dozens of horses’ hooves echoed through the forest.

A green-haired thief with his hair tied into a ponytail was riding a red horse with me seated in front of him.

Hedius was leading the group, while the other members of the thieves’ guild followed behind us.

They kept stealing glances at me and snickering.

Meanwhile, my lips were twitching from the forced smile I was desperately maintaining.

Being escorted like a prisoner while dressed in a flashy gown decorated with flowers probably made me look like a bride on her way to a wedding.

And on top of that, a woman claiming to be an angel from another world?

Of course they would find me ridiculous.

I swallowed a sigh at my bleak reality.

The deeper we went into the dense forest, the thicker the greenery became.

Towering sequoia trees, each of which looked more than a hundred years old, stretched their branches in every direction. Even though it was the middle of the day, the forest was so dark that it looked like nighttime.

The only light available came from the faint rays of sunlight filtering through the dense branches and leaves.

‘So this is why they call it the cursed Black Forest.’

But since I had suddenly been dropped into this world from a destroyed one, even scenery like this seemed mysterious and fascinating to me.

Just as I was eagerly looking around and observing everything—

“Haha, you’re really taking your time looking around. Angel, is this your first time entering a forest?”

The green-haired thief holding the reins burst out laughing from behind me.

‘Ha! Even this guy keeps calling me Angel.’

My cheeks instantly turned as red as tomatoes from embarrassment.

But I pretended that I had merely blushed shyly and smiled brightly before answering.

“Well… is it my first time or not? Want to guess?”

At my innocent smile, Tanto chuckled.

“Even in a situation like this, you’re still joking around. You really are interesting, Angel.”

Apparently, he couldn’t imagine anyone who had never seen a forest before.

I turned my gaze back toward the forest and gave him a distant look.

‘I’m not joking… I really have never seen a forest before.’

And it seemed that this man named Tanto was still suspicious of me, but because he was conscious of Leo, he was deliberately calling me Angel.

Or perhaps he was simply being sarcastic.

Either way, having even an adult call me that was so embarrassingly awkward that I almost got goosebumps.

‘It’s fortunate that I managed to survive by accidentally becoming the madwoman of this place, but what am I supposed to do from here on out…?’

Still, in that situation, pretending to be crazy had been my only option.

‘Hmm. If Leo hadn’t treated me as a madwoman first, I might already be dead.’

In the end, pretending to be a madwoman who stubbornly insisted that she was an angel from another world, just as Leo had claimed, had been the best strategy.

And since I had to deceive Hedius, the person who ultimately made all the decisions, I had tried my best to act crazy.

But his expression at the time had been extremely complicated.

‘I’m surprised my acting actually worked.’

My honest assessment of him as a “pretty Crow” seemed to have gotten through surprisingly well.

Hedius had certainly looked displeased, but that was all.

After that, he neither became angry with me nor threatened me again.

His reaction was much better than I had expected.

‘Maybe I really have a talent for acting?’

Although I had unwillingly become the madwoman of this place, I was just glad that I had managed to stay with Leo as planned.

My eyes sparkled.

When I went over everything that had happened again, things weren’t actually that bad.

‘It means I’m one step closer to completing the quest.’

Just as I was unconsciously smiling to myself, thinking that this was a good start—

“Angel, what’s your name? Even if you don’t know anything else, surely you know your own name.”

The green-haired man spoke to me again from behind.

Finally, someone asked my name.

Honestly, I had been a little hurt that no one had asked until now.

“My name is Ibi. What’s yours, Green Onion?”

His green ponytail, tied high on his head, really did look exactly like a green onion.

Since everyone already treated me as a madwoman, I figured they would let a little joke like this slide.

“Ahem! My name isn’t Green Onion. It’s Tanto. It’s an honorable name given to me by our great Guild Leader. Haha!”

Just as expected, he didn’t seem bothered by my joke at all.

Instead, he proudly placed a finger beneath his nose and puffed himself up.

‘So he’s still just a young man who doesn’t know much about the world.’

Despite my cynical thoughts, I smiled brightly and played along.

“Tanto, that’s such a cool name!”

Pleased by my compliment, Tanto puffed out his chest even further.

“You can just call me ‘Tan.’ Everyone in the village calls me that.”

“Okay! From now on, I’ll call you Tan!”

‘Hmm… Come to think of it, maybe it’s because they’re righteous thieves? None of them really look particularly frightening or evil. And even Hedius…’

Naturally, my gaze shifted toward Hedius, who was riding at the very front of the group.

Mounted on a massive black horse, he simply stared ahead without saying a word.

Even his back radiated charisma.

‘I can more or less get a sense of the others, but I still can’t figure that man out. I know I should be concerned about him since he’s definitely going to suffer a terrible fate in the near future… But who exactly is going to kill him?’

He looked so strong and sturdy that it seemed as though neither swords nor arrows could pierce him.

While I was lost in thought, Tanto continued speaking.

“The people in our thieves’ guild are all good people whom our Guild Leader personally brought here one by one. There are people who lost their homes because of the nobles’ tyranny, orphaned children, and even criminals who were falsely accused and had nowhere else to go. We have all sorts of people.”

So that was how this village had been formed, one person at a time.

I nodded lightly.

They even took in criminals if they had been treated unjustly.

I could begin to understand why Hedius had been given the title of a demon wearing a human face.

“Still, you’d better not have any bad intentions.”

At those words, the smile disappeared completely from Tanto’s face.

“If you do, you’d better run out of the forest as quickly as you can while you still have the chance.”

I could feel the cold aura unique to a thief emanating from him.

Before he could misunderstand me any further, I quickly shook my head.

“I’m not a bad person, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Anyone would say that. Anyway, the Guild Leader has spared you for now, but if you try anything suspicious, we won’t let you off.”

“But I really don’t do bad things.”

I answered while deliberately tightening my grip on the reins.

Tanto shrugged.

“Sure, sure~ But did you know? Our Guild Leader likes to do everything himself.”

“Everything himself?”

I slowly blinked at him.

Tanto lowered his head toward me and whispered quietly.

“Every intruder who has entered the Black Forest has been cut down by our Guild Leader’s blade and disappeared.”

“Hehe…”

The low chuckle that slipped into my ear at the very end sounded like the laughter of a grim reaper who had just walked out of hell.