Chapter 16
Before that, how many soldiers were guarding this carriage? Since one fell moments ago, she hadn’t heard a sound.
Were they all already taken?
If someone from the attacking Aitalos side opened the carriage and came in now… If they mistook me for a Taringian, the emperor’s plaything.
She didn’t know whether to crouch in the carriage as quiet as a mouse, or to step outside and search for a way out. Shouldn’t she at least know whether Aitalos or Taringia was winning right now?
So Lenasia decided to carefully steal a look at the situation outside. The moment she pulled back the curtain covering the window and peered out, she flinched in shock.
‘Prince Regnos.’
The one person she had never once forgotten, even while thrown into the mud and put to shame.
The one she had tucked tightly away in her heart and cherished dearly.
Regnos, who had vanished leaving her behind at the royal palace, was right there. Of all people, it was he who had rallied the remaining Aitalosians.
Holding a bloodied sword and scanning his surroundings, he looked as if he were searching for someone.
‘Who are you looking for?’
Perhaps he had risked danger and attacked the emperor’s troops to find her, Lena herself. She lifted her head, shamelessly unaware of how absurdly hopeful that assumption was.
But soon, Lena shook her head. Attacking the emperor at this moment just to find a mere slave girl like herself would be a wholly detrimental act for Regnos. Godfrid’s army was still powerful.
Now, believing that Taringia had killed or captured all the royals, he needed to rally his forces and gather his strength.
On top of that, this was the very heart of battle. If he let his attention stray to her, he could lose his life to a blade flying from anywhere at any moment.
In short, her presence here was nothing but a burden to Regnos.
She clamped her mouth shut tight again. Then, pressing her body firmly beneath the window in case he looked this way and spotted her, she trembled uncontrollably.
How desperately did she wish to throw open the carriage door and run into his arms right then? If even the smallest cry of hers reached him, he would never turn away from her.
But precisely because of that, precisely because he was such a kind prince, he must not be tripped up by someone like her now. Lena clasped her hands together and prayed.
If moments ago she had wished for her own safety, this time she gathered even that desperation and prayed for just one person, Regnos.
That the prince would be safe, that the prince would be victorious. That he… would remember her.
How much time had passed? The turmoil that had filled the surroundings gradually died down.
“The Aitalos remnants are fleeing!”
“Pursue the leader! It’s the one with silver hair!”
And with the shouts of the Taringians, the sound of a group of horse hooves faded into the distance.
Only when that sound had completely vanished did the tension drain from Lenasia’s entire body and she collapsed in a heap.
She picked up a rag that had been tossed aside and haphazardly covered her trembling body, when a sob suddenly burst out of nowhere.
“Huh, hnhk…”
She had made the right choice. Compared to the heavily armed Taringian troops, the Aitalos side, which had heightened their mobility for the ambush, would be far swifter.
Prince Regnos would have escaped safely.
But why did she feel so unbearably sorrowful?
“Uh-huhk…”
Outside, it was bustling for a while longer as they tended to the casualties. Amid the footsteps of many, Lenasia could make out the particularly heavy and bold stride of that man.
“The leader of the rebellion?”
“He fled far too quickly, we could not capture him. I am deeply ashamed.”
Emperor Godfrid seemed to let out a faint sigh. Even the last trace of tension born from worry drained from Lena’s body all at once. At that moment, the carriage door in front of Lena burst open and Godfrid appeared.
“…”
“Huk. Huh, huh-hnk.”
Still, Lena could not stop crying. No, once she confirmed that Regnos was safe, the tears fell even more.
So many emotions were tangled together that she herself could not define what she was feeling.
Godfrid quietly watched her sobbing as if her breath would stop, his eyes deeply sunken.
Thud. The door closed. Outside, the emperor gave the order to depart, and soon the carriage began to roll smoothly forward.
Left alone, Lenasia curled up and fell asleep.
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