MTMD 4

Chapter 4

The carriage window she had deliberately smashed shattered and scattered before Eloise’s eyes.

And her eyes—imbued with the ghost’s power—clearly caught where each and every one of the countless ghosts reflected in each shard was looking.

“If you go straight toward—that direction……”

At the same time, in that brief moment when their forms were reflected, she could clearly hear what the ghosts were saying as well.

Simultaneously, the reactions of the startled knights and horses—even their breathing—were all caught by her sharpened senses.

“With power this strong…….”

Not only could she not maintain it for long, but the aftereffects of borrowing the power would be considerable.

I have to run away as fast as I can!

Gritting her teeth, Eloise rolled on the ground to disperse the impact as she landed.

The reason she—who had never learned anything like a breakfall in either her past life or this one—could rise without any particular injury was, of course, thanks to the body’s memory that the ghost had passed on to her.

“Wh-what?!”

“The young lady has escaped! Catch her!”

They seemed to know as well that she was being “married off” against her own will.

She could see the knights of the Marquess’s household swarming toward her as if chasing a criminal.

Even with power gained through possession, could she stand against knights?

Before she could even properly hold that question, the knights came rushing at her.

“Subdue her!”

Clang!

Sword and something that was not a sword collided.

A sword is, by nature, made to harm people.

Its cutting power was incomparable to an iron rod pulled from a drawer—and yet.

“Huh?”

What broke, as if shorn away, was the Marquess’s knight’s sword.

She didn’t know what the ghost whose power she’d borrowed had done in its past life, but it was thanks to delivering several impacts with powerful vibrations in the brief instant the blades met.

It was truly an astonishing technique.

“Didn’t they say the young lady was frail?”

“To think someone who was supposedly shut in a room had strength like this……!”

Though confused, the knights began to form ranks.

Prolonging this was dangerous.

Thud!

Eloise flung herself toward the coachman, who was struggling to calm the agitated horses.

It was, as expected, a daring movement she could never have imagined in normal times.

“Block her!”

Having parried and dodged the swords that came in succession, she cut the line connecting the carriage to the horse and mounted the horse.

Hihihing!

Once what had bound it was gone, the horse began to pull away from the center of the battlefield as if it had been waiting for this.

It was a speed that was almost a bolt—but perhaps it was nothing remarkable to her possessed body, as Eloise instinctively lowered herself immediately.

And she asked the ghost faintly reflected in the iron rod in her hand.

“Where is the Duke?”

“Straight that way!”

The ghosts that had followed along shouted.

Perhaps because they weren’t subject to air resistance, they were keeping pace with the horse that was running for its life at full speed.

Sweeesh!

The problem was.

She felt an arrow graze right past her, and Eloise twisted her body.

“Shoot the—shoot the horse!”

She heard the knights’ shouts.

If the horse were hit by an arrow while running at this speed……!

“No—aim for Eloise Flodel! Just don’t kill her!”

Perhaps their objective wasn’t to kill her, as the Marquess’s knights changed their orders.

“Capture her alive by any means!”

But that couldn’t be easy.

Clang!

When she deflected and dodged several arrows, she heard the men cursing.

Still, she thought she was escaping fairly smoothly—and then.

“Catch her!”

The speed of the horse that had been running for its life began to noticeably flag.

It was only natural that its stamina would be spent, having originally been pulling a carriage.

Moreover, the horses the knights rode and the horses that pulled carriages were originally bred for different purposes.

Which meant their speed was different from trained horses.

As a result.

Hihing!

She could feel the horse running excitedly but staggering greatly.

On top of that.

“Ah……!”

A burning sensation, as if her body were on fire, spread from her fingertips.

With pain that felt literally like being scorched, Eloise clenched her hand tightly.

Soon the pain would spread through her whole body.

The possession was reaching its limit.

And once this possession released, she would surely fall from the horse.

“Surround her!”

She could feel several horses carrying knights gradually wheeling around to her sides.

They apparently intended to cut off her escape route entirely.

If she were blocked ahead like this, it was over.

Her vision grew dim.

I have to at least reach the Duke.

To the Duke—I have to prove that the one who sent you that letter is useful—

Just as even the ghosts’ shouts around her grew indistinct as her senses darkened.

At some point, the horse staggered and collapsed, and her body seemed to be flung off.

“To think this is what you meant when you asked me to watch.”

Even as her senses were fading, a clear voice pierced her ear.

It felt as though she had been caught in someone’s hot embrace.

“it was certainly an interesting sight.”

“Ah…….”

In her vision, which she barely managed to open, she saw a man’s lips drawing a curve.

“So now, rest.”

Her vision blurred.

At the same time, she felt a man’s firm arms support and hold her body.

Immediately after.

Piercing through her darkened senses, a tremendous roar and an immense force swept through the surroundings.

She seemed to hear people talking.

“……has never once used……”

“Traces of training……”

“The carriage was half-destroyed, and……”

Are they talking about me?

At some point, Eloise opened her eyes.

The first thing she felt upon regaining consciousness was suffocation.

She couldn’t move her entire body even an inch.

She could see her surroundings when she opened her eyes, but her vision was still blurry.

She tried to move her fingers a little, but.

“Ah,”

Excruciating pain rose from her fingertips, and she groaned.

It felt as though she were trapped in a red-hot mold fitted exactly to her body.

A dreadful pain, as if her entire body were stuck to the mold and burning, set her whole body ablaze.

It was hard even to scream.

It was the price of possessing a ghost and borrowing its power, so it would heal with time—but knowing that didn’t make the pain any less.

“Haa,”

So all she could do was barely exhale.

As if she had inhaled dry heat into a parched mouth, even the air touching her made the inside of her mouth unbearably sting.

“Inform her that the Flodel young lady has awakened.”

A voice came at that moment.

Soon she could barely see, at the edge of her vision, the door opening and closing without a sound.

And then.

Thud.

The door opened roughly—almost rudely—and a man entered with quick steps.

The owner of the voice she had last heard before losing consciousness—Castian von Edgart.

“Having lain for so long, I thought my long-awaited guest had died.”

He was the man she had been trying to meet.