The Sand Bride - Chapter 44

“Since you mentioned seeing the outside, why not take her out once? If she clearly realizes whose land she’s in, that arrogant attitude of hers might change.”

At Hakan’s following suggestion, Greta’s bowstring paused. Though her eyes were fixed on the target, her mind was lost in other thoughts. When and where had it been? Greta suddenly remembered that Hakan’s words sounded familiar—something she had heard before. This situation, too.

Karzhen stroked his chin as if deep in thought, then soon rose from his seat. Waving his hand dismissively a couple of times, he walked away. Only after Hakan had also disappeared did Greta recall when and where she had heard those words.

‘Take her outside and make her see where she is. Then even that man will… to his sister…….’

The strength drained from Greta’s bowstring, and her bow lowered.

If her memory wasn’t mistaken, what Hakan had just said to Karzhen was identical to the words he had once spoken to Hemor before his suicide.

* * *

Karzhen sat slouched in his chair with a displeased expression, glancing at Esther’s profile. Since she had been staring outside day and night, he had taken her out once, but Esther didn’t seem particularly happy.

Her indifferent eyes meticulously observed everything beyond the carriage window, but it was closer to mindless watching than genuine interest. Karzhen propped his chin on his hand, silently observing Esther as she gloomily gazed outside.

A dull atmosphere weighed heavily inside the carriage. Contrary to expectations, the mood remained overwhelmingly somber, giving Karzhen a chance to reflect on his own actions amid the boredom. He suddenly realized he was doing something very uncharacteristic.

Even if Esther had been selected at the coronation and exempted from her former status, her situation was fundamentally different from the few select individuals promised positions as close aides. She was still someone whose life or death depended entirely on Karzhen’s whims.

Their relationship was undeniably one where Esther should be prostrated at his feet, moving only as he allowed. Yet the situation kept shifting as if he were considering her feelings.

It was only at this moment that Karzhen intuitively grasped how bizarre the unfolding events were. For the first time, he who had always charged toward his goals with single-minded determination found himself at a dead end.

But before he could fully process that the obstacle before him wasn’t a barrier but the realization that he was on the wrong path, Esther, who had been staring out the window, suddenly jerked upright.

“Ah……!”

Her lips parted as if she couldn’t find the words, stammering incoherently before springing up from her seat like a bouncing puppet. Before Karzhen could stop her, she thrust her head out of the carriage.

Her eyes, wide with shock as if she had seen something unbelievable, soon flickered with near-delirious hope. Her reaction was so intense that Karzhen wondered if she had finally lost her mind.

“Father!”

And when she uttered that word like a dying plea, Karzhen almost felt compelled to validate his own hypothesis.

* * *

Only after Karzhen stopped the carriage and even moved it backward did they arrive at a place where slaves toiled at filthy, menial tasks. Among them were the lowest of the low, working like sewer rats in the shadows.

Among them, Esther couldn’t tear her tear-filled eyes away from a middle-aged man. His cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones protruding, and his skin deathly pale—but Esther recognized that face instantly. It was none other than the father she had spent her entire life with.

It was a face she had always remembered, so the moment she glimpsed the man straightening his back from the moving carriage, she nearly leaped out. There was no doubt. It was him. Her father—her own father—was working as a slave, shackled in chains!

Seeing her father’s visibly poor condition, Esther was at a loss. Staggering with the most unstable expression Karzhen had ever seen, she tried to rush out, but his grip yanked her back into the carriage.

Even after several attempts to escape, Esther only seemed to regain her senses when Karzhen grew irritated.

Once her thoughts settled, Esther realized her father was enslaved and in terrible health. She also understood that even if she went outside, there was nothing she could do for him. But as she searched for another solution, Karzhen’s presence finally entered her mind.

The moment the thought that he could save her father crossed her mind, Esther desperately clung to Karzhen’s leg, pleading before even considering the possibility.

She couldn’t just leave her father like this. But of course, Karzhen had no need for a middle-aged man—especially a frail-looking slave. He looked down at Esther clinging to his leg with an awkward, almost dumbfounded expression.

Yet when she said the man was her father, Karzhen narrowed his eyes, alternating his gaze between Esther and the man.

His persistent stare shifted to the man’s hair color, and it wasn’t hard to guess that those dirt-streaked locks had once been the same shade as Esther’s.

“Please, Lord Karzhen. Please…… save my father.”