Please Die, Your Highness - Chapter 106

Maeve remained lost in thought with her chin propped on her hand. It was because she remembered the three corpses she had seen in the forest of that vast land, Eloa. They were wearing high-quality clothes by anyone’s standards, and surveying tools and such were scattered around them.

In a situation where she was already certain they were the people dispatched from the Viscount’s estate, Maeve carefully recalled how they had died.

They were lying side by side, half-rotted. If they had truly died of a disease, shouldn’t there be at least some trace of them struggling? They were simply lying with their limbs stretched out as if their entire bodies had been paralyzed.

……Ah.

Right. Just like what had happened to Maeve herself.

It was the same method. Since the muscles of the entire body were paralyzed and would not listen, they had no choice but to fall over like sticks. That thing that imitated the owner of the land, that thing wearing the skin of a doe—that was its way of hunting humans.

“In any case, we can’t stand it anymore. I’m going to say that we must leave here too.”

Mrs. Marley spoke with a face of finality.

Her son, who had injured one arm, had already stood up. With a face utterly fed up, as if just remembering it made him shudder, he stood up and was pacing around the house indignantly.

One way or another, it seemed the higher-ups had judged that this entire area was cursed.

But I suppose they still needed the wood from such a land? When her thoughts reached that point, Maeve could not hide her doubt and tilted her head.

Just then, she made eye contact with Prince Declan, who was watching her. He asked with his lips what was wrong. Maeve shook her head, saying it was nothing.

Having unburdened herself, Mrs. Marley lowered her head with a face that looked relieved.

“Anyway, since there’s no longer any need to endure here, we’ll stop bleeding innocent people dry as well.”

“Billy did it for the village because he had no choice, Mother.”

Her son retorted as if offended by his mother’s words again.

Prince Declan and Maeve looked at each other while listening to the conversation between the mother and son in silence.

Mrs. Marley spoke to Prince Declan again.

“In any case, since it’s the same for you being stranded and isolated, why don’t you wait until the bridge is fixed?”

Maeve thought once again that Mrs. Marley’s way of speaking was very refined. She was a person who used a noble and elegant tone similar to Prince Declan. Judging by that, she guessed she was likely someone who had married into the family from a reasonably good household. If so, it was fully understandable that she felt disillusioned by the villagers’ actions, which were no different from banditry.

At Mrs. Marley’s kind suggestion, Kiaran openly scoffed from a distance.

“You’ll have to help. Who was it that made my arm like this and made it so I can’t even work?”

Kiaran’s reproach was directed at her as if it were only natural, and Maeve looked at him, flabbergasted.

“Your intentions were impure from the start, yet someone listening might think you were an innocent victim.”

When Maeve spoke sarcastically on purpose, Kiaran strode toward her. However, having approached, he could not do anything and merely glared.

Maeve wordlessly lifted both fists and made a cracking sound with her knuckles.

“Maeve. Stop. You stop as well.”

Prince Declan, unable to watch any longer, stepped in as if to mediate.

In any case, Maeve, who had not expected to be stranded for such a reason, had been in a foul mood throughout. Starting from the early autumn rainy season to the eerie thing she encountered in that ominous land. Every single thing was a stroke of bad luck, and the more she dwelled on it, the filthier she felt.

She did not believe in superstitions, but it felt as if the heavens were telling her that her journey itself was wrong from the beginning. Truly nonsensical as it was.

“Let’s get going now.”

Prince Declan spoke to Maeve and gestured toward the empty house next door. It seemed he meant for them to go inside and discuss matters thoroughly between themselves.

Maeve nodded obediently and stood up from her seat.

As soon as she opened the door, she made eye contact with a village youth who seemed to have been about to knock.

The village youth stepped aside so that Prince Declan and Maeve could exit easily, and as soon as they had both come out, he hurried into Kiaran’s house.

“There’s a meeting tonight. They’re going to decide what to do from now on.”