Chapter 12
She had thought it must have been a hallucination born of desperate hope. But it wasn’t. The sounds of feet striking the ground and metal clashing rang out in chaotic bursts.
Her heart began to race violently. Hill pounded on the door in a frenzy. Trouble had already broken out. Somehow, she had to help. But no matter how frantic she felt, with the door still sealed there was nothing she could do. Panic set in, and she stamped her feet helplessly.
Hiss—!
Then, suddenly, there came a sound like air escaping.
“An intru—”
The voice, raised too hastily, collapsed and broke into the air. Hill roughly grasped what was happening outside.
Don’t tell me—
Clink. A faint sound of metal striking metal followed. Her pulse thundered in her ears. Without realizing it, Hill stepped back from the door and clenched her fists.
Clatter. Drag.
After a moment that felt like an eternity, the noise stopped.
Hill stared blankly at the figure standing in the now-open doorway.
A small-framed person wrapped in black cloth.
Behind the man—who looked even shorter than Hill—she caught a glimpse of two large guards collapsed on the floor, bleeding. The figure with his face concealed by a black mask, spoke.
“Just as I thought. I knew you would try to help.”
The voice she had only faintly heard through the thick wall now reached her clearly. Only then did suspicion solidify into reality. Hill realized belatedly that she hadn’t been breathing.
“You really are kind, just as I’d heard.”
The eyes not covered by cloth curved like a crescent moon.
So many emotions surged at once that she didn’t know what to say first. Hill parted her lips, then closed them again.
She couldn’t afford to waste time. No matter what this was, she had to act quickly. Words she knew were obvious shattered in her mouth. As the boy watched her quietly, he extended his hand.
“There’s no time. Quickly…”
“…Run.”
The word slipped out at last, just before his hand reached her arm. She looked straight into his dark eyes, as if asking him to reconsider, and said it again.
“If it’s now… you might survive.”
“……”
The boy didn’t move, merely scanned her as if observing. Under that gaze, Hill continued.
“Hide yourself by passing through the Seventh Palace, then escape when the chance comes. If you don’t get caught before reaching the Seventh, there’s a chance.”
“……”
“I’ll buy time. I’ll spread false information and cause confusion, so hurry—”
“Really. Just as I’d heard.”
The boy cut her off then.
In a strangely relaxed tone, he murmured those words, smiling faintly as he took hold of her arm.
“You’re almost foolishly kind.”
In the next instant, the world flipped.
She staggered as her balance was taken from her, then her body tipped completely. When she came to herself, she was slammed against the hard floor.
Weight pinned her from behind. Before she could understand what had happened, a voice poured down on her.
“I didn’t come here to help you, Hillstein.”
The tone was utterly businesslike, like a sentence being passed.
“I came here to kill you.”
4. A New Despair
Even after hearing that he had come to kill her, it didn’t feel real.
Hill tried to lift her body that was pressed down and restrained, only to be forced back to the floor. Her whole body throbbed, but it didn’t even feel like pain. Only one question kept rearing its head.
Why. Who. For what reason. How—
A calm voice flowed over her chaotic thoughts.
“You look like you don’t understand any of this.”
At the edge of her twisted field of vision, she glimpsed the boy’s face. Holding a blade to her throat, he whispered.
“Well, that makes sense. Someone who gets violated like an animal every day, who can’t even manage a proper act of resistance and does nothing but cry. How could you grasp the situation?”
The blade bit slightly into her neck. Blood welled.
“Run away? That’s not even funny. Is this really the time for you to be worrying about someone else?”
The blood seeped out and trickled down her throat. That chilling sensation oddly cleared her mind a little.
Hill opened her mouth and asked briefly,
“Who.”
The word was broken, with no explanation—but the boy understood immediately. A mocking reply came back.
“Looks like your head’s finally working.”
“…This is stupid.”
“That’s not for you to decide. You’d do better to worry about your own situation.”
Slide.
The blade traced a short arc along her neck. The cut was shallow but longer, and blood surfaced again. It stung, but compared to everything else, this was nothing.
Hill didn’t even let out a groan, speaking instead in a hoarse voice.
“What do you gain?”
“If only you’d shown that kind of cool-headedness before winter.”
The words were mocking, but the blade didn’t move further. Hill realized then that his goal wasn’t simply to kill her.
“If you don’t hurry, he’ll come.”
Reluctantly, she mentioned that man aloud. The boy’s mouth curved lazily.
“Is your life really so precious that you’re waiting to be saved by the man who killed your family and violated you like a dog?”
The sword rotated halfway. He lifted her chin with the cold flat of the blade and spoke, enunciating each word.
“What a base and pathetic way to cling to life. Or is this, are you still telling me to run away?”
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