How to Run Away from Obsessed Men

Episode 44

As Kenyan listened to Count Rewan speak, he felt a surge of unease growing within him.

Just as Rewan had said, clerics like Lindsey were necessary for transcendents, just as espers needed guides. The connection between them was a natural order, an unbreakable bond. Rewan’s mad ramblings about eliminating clerics only revealed his insanity.

“We don’t need clerics anymore, especially ones like you,” Count Rewan continued, his eyes gleaming with malevolence.

“Clerics like me?”

“Clerics with filthy divine power who bewitch powerful transcendents like Kenyan Radian and Bianca Rosset.”

Lindsey stayed silent, not letting his provocation affect her.

“Wouldn’t it be better for you to die a noble death, like the other clerics who sacrificed themselves for the transcendents?”

His words were laced with danger, and his eyes flashed with something sinister.

“You’re quite beautiful on the outside, so I imagine extracting your divine power would be a pleasure.”

“I don’t care what you think of divine power,” Lindsey snapped, unable to hold back any longer. Count Rewan’s self-justification for his atrocities was infuriating.

She could tell, without a doubt, that this man had never been a good husband to his wife.

“Cut the nonsense.”

“…….”

“Sacrifice? A noble death? It’s all garbage. You’re just a murderer!”

Her words struck a nerve. Count Rewan’s eyes reddened with rage.

“Fool. If you had obeyed, I would have killed you less painfully.”

With that, Rewan grabbed Lindsey roughly and started dragging her. Her face twisted in pain as the rough stones of the underground prison scraped against her ankle, causing it to bleed.

“So arrogant… Looks like I’ll have to teach you a lesson.”

⋆★⋆

Lindsey was dragged into another room within the underground prison. Her heart sank when she saw the boy from earlier curled up in a corner, feverish and trembling.

The boy she had seen being beaten earlier was on the verge of losing control—on the edge of a transcendent’s deadly berserk state.

Count Rewan chuckled darkly as he shoved her inside the room.

“I’ll let you out… right before you die.”

With those parting words, he left the room, locking the door behind him.

‘There’s still some time before Bianca and Kenyan return.’

Lindsey hurried over to the boy’s side.

She knew exactly why Rewan had put her in the same room as this boy.

He wanted her to experience the terror of facing a berserk transcendent, to witness the threat of death firsthand.

Normally, a cleric couldn’t heal a transcendent in this state.

‘But this is actually fortunate.’

Rewan had no idea how powerful her healing abilities were. This far-flung territory was too disconnected from the capital for rumors to have spread.

‘Even though he knows I’m a cleric, he doesn’t know my true abilities.’

That was a blessing for her.

“What’s your name?” Lindsey asked gently, trying to calm the boy.

His body trembled violently.

“Fifty…three…” he stammered.

A number instead of a name.

Lindsey clenched her teeth in disgust. Count Rewan was truly despicable. She pulled the boy into her arms, trying to soothe him.

⋆★⋆

Meanwhile, Kenyan frowned deeply.

He had left Count Rewan’s mansion with Bianca to begin their expedition.

Though it bothered him to leave Lindsey behind, he had no choice. He glanced at Bianca.

‘She’s worried about Lindsey too.’

It annoyed him that someone else was also thinking about Lindsey.

‘What am I even thinking?’

He tried to clear his head. He had already made peace with his mistakes and had resolved to let Lindsey go from his heart.

‘That mansion is supposed to be the safest place in the lawless territories. There’s no need for me to worry.’

Most clerics who had come to the lawless territories disappeared during subjugation missions. Still, Kenyan couldn’t stop thinking about Lindsey.

The way she had protected that boy today… she had looked different than he had ever seen her before.

He had always thought Lindsey hated transcendents. Whenever she looked at anyone other than Bianca, her expression was always one of disdain.

‘She always looked at me like I disgusted her.’

But when she had looked at that boy…

Her face had been filled with pity. She had even stroked the boy’s head.

Without thinking, Kenyan placed his hand on his own head, as if trying to recall the sensation of Lindsey’s touch.

‘So she’s capable of showing kindness too.’

But Kenyan knew the truth.

Her touch was something he would never have.

‘If anything, she’d probably pull my hair out.’

He imagined Lindsey yanking his hair in anger and smiled to himself.

It seemed like something that might actually happen soon.

‘She’ll hate me for the rest of her life.’

Wherever she went, Lindsey would continue to despise him. Oddly, the thought of her thinking about him—even if it was in hatred—gave him a twisted sense of satisfaction.

As long as she was alive, he didn’t care how she thought of him.

He believed that, in time, he would be able to forget her. Whether she hated him or found him repulsive, it didn’t matter.

‘Yes, that’s fine.’

He tried to put his thoughts of Lindsey to rest. His goal was to complete the subjugation and return to the estate with Lindsey safely.

But at that moment, Bianca’s face turned pale.

“Kenyan. Oh no.”

“What is it, Lady Bianca?”

“Lindsey is in danger.”

“Count Rewan is trying to kill her!” Bianca shouted, her face pale with urgency.

It didn’t make any sense on a rational level. But Kenyan didn’t have time to think. Without another word, he bolted forward, his body moving on instinct.

⋆★⋆

How much time had passed?

‘By now, it must be going berserk.’

Count Rewan picked up his sword. The boy in cell 503 had always been a failure. His estate was full of such failed experiments—beings he deemed as failures because their injuries couldn’t be healed by refined divine power. He had been waiting for this boy to reach his breaking point and go berserk.

He imagined Lindsey must be crying in terror by now.

Maybe she’d lose a limb or two to the boy, but as long as she survived, that wouldn’t matter.

Actually, even if she died, it wasn’t a big deal. After all, Lindsey’s divine power, tainted by her “dirty blood,” disgusted him.

This was nothing more than a game to him.

‘No one would care if someone like her disappeared.’

Even if Bianca and Kenyan seemed to favor her, that was where their concern ended.

‘And I have to make sure to finish what Prince Flute entrusted to me.’

Before Lindsey had arrived, Count Rewan had been given an order from the prince.

“Eliminate the girl named Lindsey Kesion when she arrives.”

“She’s the discarded daughter of Marquis Kesion. It wouldn’t hurt to send a message to the marquis by getting rid of her.”

So, Count Rewan had waited patiently until Kenyan and Bianca left for their subjugation.

‘Let’s see what’s left of her now.’

He fully expected to find Lindsey broken and sobbing, her face streaked with tears and snot, utterly humiliated.

But when he reached the underground cell, it was empty.

“What the hell?!”

Count Rewan scanned the prison.

‘She hasn’t been gone for long.’

Traces of mana still lingered in the air.

Somehow, Lindsey had escaped with the failure.

“I won’t let you get away.”

Lindsey had been injured. The boy, a failed experiment, wouldn’t be in good shape either.

“You’re just a murderer!”

Her words rang in his ears, making his blood boil.

He couldn’t let someone who dismissed his beliefs so casually live.

“Please… spare me.”

“Forgive me, I’ll become stronger, I swear… Please, just give me another chance.”

“Just one more chance…”

He remembered the pleas of the clerics and failed experiments who had begged for their lives at his feet. All those pitiful, resentful stares. He had endured it all for the sake of his greater vision.

A better world.

But Lindsey—she dared mock his ideals.

That foolish woman!

Count Rewan had no intention of letting her escape.

⋆★⋆

Lindsey was running as fast as she could.

Thanks to her divine power, she had been able to stop the boy from going fully berserk.

With his help, she had managed to escape from the underground prison.

But this was as far as they could go.

The boy had been in terrible condition even before his berserk state. Now, he could barely stand.

They weren’t going to make it far like this.

Lindsey’s expression hardened as she realized the gravity of their situation.

‘There’s no one to help us.’

Kenyan and Bianca were gone, and all the transcendents at the mansion were loyal to Count Rewan.

‘I can’t die here.’

She had gone through too much to survive, only to die in this place.

A wave of sorrow threatened to overwhelm her.

Even just living—surviving—had been unbearably difficult.

What kind of life was this for someone like Lindsey Kesion?

Sure, Han Ji-yu had faced her share of challenges in the past, but it had never been this constant battle for survival.

‘I just want to live… that’s all.’

But too many people in this world hated her.

And not just hated her—

‘They want to kill me.’

How could she be so unlucky to always end up in situations like this? Blood trickled from her leg, where it had been scraped raw when Count Rewan dragged her.

“C-can you move?”

The boy asked, his face pale with fear as he tried to help her.

Lindsey gritted her teeth.

There was no time to feel sorry for herself.