Chapter 68
Overcome by unease, Prina kept walking forward.
Tears blurred her vision so badly that she could hardly see ahead, but she walked and walked blindly. The only thing she could rely on was the small, soft-furred creature in her arms.
The shadows of the trees swaying in the wind looked like human figures.
Piiiiiii— A ringing filled her ears, and then, though her skin was not wet, she heard the sting of falling rain. Her entire body grew damp with nervous sweat. The sky was hidden. But her body was wet. It was rain. It had to be rain.
Rain was falling in the forest.
It had rained that day too. She remembered the merciless footsteps pounding behind her, the fierce peal of bells.
Crack—
Even the dull sound of a branch breaking seemed sharpened into a blade.
To Prina, it sounded like the crack of gunfire. Her heart lurched and dropped.
Step. Step. Step.
Step step. Step step step.
Someone was coming after her.
If they caught her, it was over. Groundless dread wrapped around her whole body.
She felt like prey trapped in a jar. She could not stop moving.
“No. No, no.”
Prina clutched Lucky tightly, gasping as though her breath would snap, and ran forward, ran again.
It couldn’t be Hunter. Hunter had gone to the market.
He couldn’t help but grant her wish.
That was his weakness.
No… no… what if he had sensed she would run away, and hidden himself in the forest? What if he really was the one chasing her now?
Like the countless mirrors filling the mansion, it felt as though his yellow eyes hid everywhere in the woods, watching her, pursuing her.
He could see anywhere.
Her breath rose up to her throat, choking her.
“Ahhk!”
Running frantically, Prina suddenly fell forward.
Her toe had caught on a tree root.
Her knee scraped, beading blood, her palms stung as if burned. But that didn’t matter. Pain meant nothing. She did not stop. She crawled along the dirt, clawing forward desperately.
“…Lucky?”
Something was missing. She turned her head. Lucky was gone. He must have slipped from her arms when she fell.
“Lucky… Lucky…”
She had lost that fragile, tiny life. But shamefully, Prina called for him in a hushed voice. She was too afraid of being found.
She could not go back to Hunter. Hunter would kill him too.
Please. Please…
Even crawling, her lungs burned as though set aflame, searing her chest. Her throat rasped like metal, and each breath scraped raw. Her arms and legs trembled violently, her body refused to obey.
If she were caught like this, she might be killed.
No. He granted her wishes. If she begged not to die, wouldn’t he grant it? Perhaps he would only lock her back into that safe room.
Then she had to find Lucky first.
But no, what if he killed Lucky too?
The knight with his neck snapped flashed before her eyes, the one who had tried to guide her out of the forest.
As vague dread consumed her, a sobbing sound broke from her throat, half-cry, half-scream.
Lucky… where are you. Come back. Lucky. Please… please…
As Prina cried out in a strangled whisper, there came a rustle.
She turned her gaze toward the sound. Lucky’s eyes glimmered in the dark.
A yellow glow like she had never seen before.
“This way.”
Then came a strange voice, like that of a young boy.
…Lucky?
Was it you calling me?
“That’s right, Prina.”
It was impossible that a rabbit could speak, but she felt an uncanny certainty that this was Lucky’s voice.
Bang!
Suddenly, a gunshot ripped through the air.
Prina hunched over, curling into herself. Rabbits were startled even by the smallest noise. But peeking out, she saw Lucky unchanged, unmoving.
Hadn’t he heard it? But it was a gunshot. She was sure of it. Yet it seemed she alone had heard it.
Behind her, he was pursuing. Without doubt. At last, as if warning her to stop, he had fired his gun.
If she moved recklessly now, that bullet of his would pierce her through.
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