Chapter 291
Even if I break
Freesia unconsciously held her breath at Canopus’s words. Can’t possibly come out unscathed?
‘What does he intend to do by pointing a sword at such a small child? Could he be trying to cut off her hand?’
Even the thought made her heart feel as if it would stop.
‘No, that must not happen.’
Freesia staggered to her feet to try to stop Canopus… Perhaps because, with her weakened body, she had used her supernatural ability for the first time in a long while.
“Ugh!”
Her knees shook unsightly and she collapsed to the floor. However, even if her dress hem and body were stained with blood, she clung again at Canopus’s feet and begged.
“Please, don’t touch my baby, Nova hasn’t done anything wrong…!”
“……”
Canopus looked at Freesia with a face of genuine pity.
‘I hadn’t wanted to see her begging so abjectly over the vermin born of r**e.’
Somehow the sight left such a bitter taste that even the tip of his tongue stung. He cast a light glance at the vermin seized by the scruff.
The brat was all but fainting, not moving at all.
‘There’s no need to deal with such a thing right in front of Freesia.’
‘If I disposed of the vermin outright, she’s the kind of woman who would blindside me in some unexpected way. For now I should humor her a little, and once we’re completely out of here, I can just sever her ankle tendons to prevent escape.’
He carelessly handed his niece to the subordinate who had followed him.
“Take her.”
“Canopus…!”
“Don’t worry, Freesia. I was joking earlier.”
But at that moment, his subordinate pressed a dagger to the throat of the trembling child. Seeing Freesia’s eyes tremble as her face went ashen, Canopus gave a low, derisive laugh.
“But if you use your divine ability to drive away the monsters instead… you understand, yes?”
“Ah!”
No sooner had he finished the warning than he slung Freesia over his shoulder. She thrashed, choking for breath, but she could not possibly break free of the man’s iron grip.
With the feelings of a captured beast, Freesia hurriedly darted her eyes around the corridor.
‘Is Izar still underground?’
Judging from how the smell of blood had been growing thicker for some time, was a melee still raging on the passage connected to the underground?
“Izar—”
“There’s no point waiting for him. It’ll take him quite a while to get out.”
Izar was currently at the place connecting the underground and the surface. Since Canopus’s men were holding back that party, it would take time to break through.
The power of the ‘sanctuary’ that the Temple had been aiming for would, by its nature, be located at the place closest to the ley lines.
‘In that case, it would be beneath the palace of this canyon.’
Moreover, judging it a place important figures would be likely to use as a hideout, breaking through to here first had been a masterstroke.
Thanks to that, he had disposed of the imperial grandson, and secured Freesia as well, so his revenge was thereby complete.
“That’s enough. Withdraw.”
“Yes!”
Canopus’s order brushed past Freesia’s ear as she struggled. But all she could see was Riegel collapsed on the floor, drenched in blood.
“Brother…!”
A cousin who had granted a difficult request that could, if mishandled, have soured his relationship with the Emperor, and further, with Izar.
Had she ever adequately expressed her gratitude to him for looking after Nova?
She had left a letter, but because she was afraid to admit she was dying, she had never properly said it in words.
He was the first blood relative in her life who had treated her warmly without asking anything in return.
So she had thought she would, on the final day, say that shamefaced thank-you out loud for sure…
Meanwhile, the ones dragging her and Nova along had already broken out beyond the palace. Since they had prevented Freesia from using her ability to repel the monsters, the inside of the palace was pandemonium everywhere due to the monsters newly infiltrated.
‘We’re getting farther and farther away, what should I do?’
More than anything… would Canopus really intend to release Nova unharmed?
‘No, there’s no way!’
The only feeling he had shown toward a child that young was pure revulsion. For now, because it was convenient for him that she behave docilely, he was only pretending to have had a change of heart.
‘Because she carries the blood of House Arcturus, without a doubt…’
Freesia looked with devastating sorrow at her daughter, hoisted like a shabby piece of baggage in the mercenary’s arms. Just the thought that somewhere on that child’s body blood might be flowing made her nauseous, and cold sweat broke out all over her.
But Freesia bit her inner mouth until she tasted blood.
‘I have to pull myself together.’
If she didn’t want to witness another death of her child again, she had to use her head, no matter how much it felt like fear would paralyze her.
‘I need… to buy more time. Until Izar can catch up to us.’
Because he was by far the strongest person she knew, he would surely be able to break through the enemies and make it out of the underground.
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