Chapter 17 - In the language of escape,
17. In the language of escape,
Psyche was running through the dark forest.
She regretted her decision to come out alone in the eerie forest.
She should have just followed the prince.
The determination she had made with optimism crumbled mercilessly.
But since she couldn’t turn back time, she just kept running forward.
The sky was pitch black, and the forest was even darker.
“Haak, haa….”
Still, she hoped that this fear would end soon, running with expectation. She was feeling a strange liquid between her legs since a while ago, but there was no chance to check it.
If she stops, she might die immediately. She thought that.
“Ha! Haa!”
The sound of her breath coming back to her ears was very rough.
Psyche was about to faint. Something felt odd. A ringing in her ears, the body’s temperature rising to its limits.
And the night air, which was in stark contrast to all of that.
Her whole body felt hot, and her vision was spinning.
Her mind was a mess. Even the feeling in her legs disappeared.
It felt as if she had plunged into a chasm.
She resisted the urge to sit down and cry right away.
If she stops running now, it felt like someone might kill her, so she couldn’t stop or rest.
With every step, her strength was dwindling, and her heart felt like it was pounding on the ground.
She had run away to escape death, but instead of saving her life, it felt like she might die right away.
“Haa. Haa.”
Paat, taak!
“……!”
There were certainly people chasing her at a speed faster than she was running.
How many of them? Two? Three?
The fact that someone was chasing her was perhaps a stroke of luck since the mountain was silent and quiet.
She couldn’t shake off the chaotic thoughts throughout her run.
‘Who on earth is it? Did the Duke prepare in advance!’
‘It was as if they were waiting for me to come out!’
Moments of despair that choked her breath continually seized her ankles, but she struggled not to succumb to the anxiety.
Just a little more, just a little more running!
The place where she promised to meet the prince is coming up.
Just a bit more!
Psyche led her seemingly dying body and continued to run.
However, a problem arose in her running not long after.
Severe pain suddenly struck her abdomen.
“Damn it!”
Words she would never normally say escaped her lips.
Psyche, despite her cursing, couldn’t stop.
She felt like if she stopped here, the pursuer would catch her and kill her.
It was a life-and-death situation indeed.
She bit her lip.
“Ah…!”
Screams and sobs mingled.
Sweat poured down like rain.
She regretted not saving more energy with a child, but now it was a futile thought.
“If eating a lot at once is uncomfortable, how about eating a little bit frequently?”
Was it in the early stages of pregnancy? She remembered the Duke’s advice, which he had given so passionately. Why did that advice come to mind now of all times?
“Why don’t you have anything you want to eat? I’ll prepare everything.”
That memory made her even more miserable.
She couldn’t understand why she suddenly had tears in her eyes, remembering the time when he used to be kind and warm.
“How about singing a lullaby to the child every night?”
Clint’s face as he said those words seemed somewhat flushed. In response to the childlike question, she burst into laughter.
However, she politely declined his offer, saying that she was fine with him not coming to her bedroom every day.
She had only made that promise to sing pretty songs every night, and it was quite exhausting to sleep early.
But the Duke didn’t give up. At a later mealtime, he brought up the topic again.
“After a certain period, the child should be able to hear everything. It’s important for the child to know his father’s voice, so how about I read bedtime stories to him every night?”
In response, Psyche laughed once more.
While she found those words burdensome at the time, they seemed rather endearing deep down. It was during moments like these that all sorts of thoughts came to mind.
She felt like she might cry with a strange sense of despair.
She longed to return to the warm, quiet, and comfortable past.
What made her even more despondent was that the Duke was always a part of the happy scenes she had envisioned.
“Oh dear!”
She was now running and crying.
As Psyche ran through the trees, she raised her head high to avoid thinking about the Duke.
“Ahh!”
While running, Psyche didn’t notice the large rock in front of her and tripped over it.
She tried to stifle a scream with one hand while, during the fall, she used the other to protect her stomach.
The ongoing pain had been a cause for concern since a while ago.
She felt like she should request a doctor when she met the prince.
She clutched the scratched area as she fell.
Her legs were covered in blood, and there was a strange liquid flowing between them. It was a total mess.
“Ugh… ugh… uuuu…”
Upon reaching the ground, the pain in her belly was too much, and her situation was so dire that she couldn’t help but shed tears.
Thudding and thumping.
But it was not the time to sit down and cry.
The pursuers were still relentless in their pursuit.
In fear that she might reveal her location, she bit her clothes to stifle her sobs.
“Ugh…”
As she got up, she clutched her belly.
She couldn’t afford to lose the child.
“My dear, please. Be safe. Hold on!”
With all her remaining strength, she started running again.
It felt like superhuman strength even to herself. The thought of needing to survive dominated her mind.
If she lost her mind or gave up here, she couldn’t save the child.
She absolutely couldn’t stop or give up.
“Just a little more, just a little more!”
With each stride, her vision repeatedly blurred and cleared.
She realized her body was nearing its limits, but she couldn’t stop.
A faint glimmer of light seemed to appear ahead.
“Just a little more…!”
She bit her lip tightly. She ran with all her might, not knowing how hard she was biting.
She thought that if she went a bit further, she could leave the forest. She mustered the last of her strength to lift her feet.
She didn’t know if she was walking or running now, but she had to keep moving forward.
“Haah, haah, haah…”
The sound of her breathing, which constantly pounded in her ears, was harsh.
It was still cold outside, and each breath she exhaled created a white, fleeting mist that appeared and vanished like a mirage.
With each step she took, her breath formed a cloud that would materialize and then dissipate.
“Haah, haah, haah…”
Her heart was in pain from running too much.
Or perhaps, there was no part of her that didn’t hurt.
Yet the thought of reaching her destination soon gave her the strength to continue running.
There, the prince was supposed to be waiting.
With the hope that if she reached the agreed-upon location, she would be safe, she summoned her last remaining strength.
Gradually, the shadows of the trees shortened, and now and then, light seemed to appear.
Finally, she thought she would survive.
As the dense forest shadows disappeared, bizarrely, there was no sign of the pursuers.
She couldn’t run anymore, and her body felt like it was about to give way. She dragged her legs as she walked.
The forest had completely ended by now.
‘Here… I should meet the prince…’
It was strange.
She slowly came to a halt, scanning her surroundings for the prince.
An eerie silence enveloped her.
‘What’s going on? This is strange…’
Standing there alone, she felt like she might lose her mind when she realized that the prince she had promised to meet was not there.
She breathed heavily, desperately holding onto her waning consciousness. She suppressed her sobbing.
‘How long has it been?’
After fidgeting around, she couldn’t stand still any longer and sat down suddenly.
It seemed like quite some time had passed. She had spent more than an hour cautiously leaving the Duke’s estate, and the time she spent navigating the forest felt about the same.
At this point, the Duke’s people probably knew she was missing, so they might have started searching for her. There was no turning back if she were caught. She bit her lip.
‘I wasted too much time!’
She was in trouble if she didn’t meet the prince soon.
But… why?
‘Why.’
Why didn’t he come out?
Could it be… he deceived her?
In her haste, she bit her lip so hard that she didn’t even notice she was bleeding.
From the beginning, it was strange for him to agree to such an unreasonable request.
‘Oh. Did I naively trust someone again?’
Trust? This is a deal. The price he paid was his life debt to me. But how…
Psyche felt tears welling up but clenched her jaw to hold them back.
She heard the sound of movement from the direction of the forest again.
‘Darn.’
It seemed like it was the Duke’s knights this time. The familiar clanking of armor echoed from a distance…
She couldn’t be caught and taken back after escaping.
But now, it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep her wits about her.
Her strength was at its limit.
The sky was spinning.
‘No… not like this.”’
That’s when it happened.
“Psyche!”
Someone urgently called her name as they approached.
Before she could even identify who it was, she lost consciousness immediately.