TSPGD 05

Chapter 5

What on earth was going on?

Of all the seats, why did the one directly across from the robed pervert have to be the only empty one?

“……”

Seeing me frozen stiff, the coachman urged me from behind.

“Hurry up and sit down. We’re the last ones. It’ll be a problem if we don’t have the mercenaries with us.”

“Ah, yes, yes.”

With no other choice, I sat across from the robed pervert.

An awkward silence settled over the carriage.

There were four people inside: me, the robed pervert, a young red-haired woman, and a mercenary who seemed to be her escort.

‘Every single one of them has such a strong personality.’

I would have to spend the next six hours or so with these intense people.

Though, that was only until the halfway point.

‘They said it takes about twelve hours by carriage to reach the North.’

It wasn’t a distance we could cover in one go, so we planned to stop and rest halfway.

‘The midway point is managed by the knights of the Grand Duchy of Brühlhardt.’

The knights of Brühlhardt protected the area from monsters and bandits in exchange for a small toll.

But right now, I had to worry about more than just monsters and bandits…

The robed pervert was a threat, too.

‘I’m already tired of this.’

Between the motion sickness and the nerves caused by the robed pervert, my stomach was churning.

“Hoo…”

I let out an obvious sigh.

The red-haired woman, who had been staring at me, suddenly spoke.

“Hi. What’s your name?”

“Huh?”

“I’m Jessie.”

For a moment, I couldn’t think of a suitable male name to use as an alias, so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Sugar.”

“Hmm. That’s a sweet name.”

“Yes, yes. I suppose it is.”

“It suits your pretty face.”

She giggled.

“……”

Jessie smiled brightly, but I had nothing to say.

Judging by that smile, Jessie seemed like the type who loved to talk.

That immediately made me put some emotional distance between us.

‘Don’t talk to me.’

Unfortunately, she didn’t seem inclined to respect my wishes.

“I heard earlier that your sister married some good-for-nothing and is having a hard time?”

“Ha-ha… yes.”

“Are you going to go beat him up?”

As she asked, Jessie looked me up and down.

If I got caught by a person with maxed-out chattering skills, I’d be stripped bare of every secret I had.

And I had plenty of secrets to hide, so I was on high alert.

“With those delicate, pretty hands that look like a girl’s, I don’t think you could beat anyone up. Hoho.”

Her teasing irritated me, but I held it in.

“But are you really a boy? You’re so pretty… You’d be perfect to sell as Don Juan’s plaything.”

I glared at Jessie as she said something so creepy and raised my chin.

“I’ll take care of myself. Don’t worry.”

I turned my head sharply, and Jessie giggled.

“Cute. If I weren’t in a situation where I’m being sold off myself, I’d take a kid like you along and keep you around.”

“Being sold off?”

“Oh my. Don’t you know what a noble young lady heading to the North is for?”

At her words, the mercenary sitting quietly beside her twitched.

He reacted sharply even to Jessie’s slightest movement.

‘Rather than a mercenary… he almost feels like her lover.’

He looked like someone taking care of his girlfriend.

‘Whatever. Don’t worry about it.’

More importantly, I wanted to know what she meant.

“How can a noble young lady be sold? I don’t understand.”

Honestly, I had no idea what it meant for a noble lady to be heading north.

I was a noble myself, but I’d never entered high society or even attended a debutante ball, so I had no information about them.

“Is there some reason a noble lady can’t go to the North?”

“Hmm.”

Jessie didn’t give me a straightforward answer, so I frowned and continued.

“And what do you mean by ‘for what purpose’? Talking about people as if they’re objects doesn’t sound very elegant.”

A particular word had bothered me, so I criticized her indirectly, but I couldn’t hide my displeasure.

I disliked that even someone who seemed to be a high-ranking noble was lowering herself like that.

‘If a high-ranking noble can be treated that way, then someone like me, a low-ranking noble, could be sold anywhere.’

The thought that I would probably have been sold off long ago if I hadn’t been born with silver hair made me angry.

But unlike me, who was getting angry, Jessie simply smiled.

“I like you.”

“I don’t appreciate being liked by someone who treats herself like an object.”

“Pfft. Hahaha! Don’t worry about that. I’ll be kicked out in a month anyway.”

At her words, not only the mercenary but even the robed pervert flinched.

I also paused for a moment.

‘Ah. I know where she’s going.’

She was heading to the Grand Duke of Brühlhardt’s castle.

To become the next partner of the promiscuous Grand Duke.

‘What the hell? Is this how Yürgen replaced his mistresses? He’s not some monster devouring prey!’

I let out a deep sigh inwardly at Yürgen’s rotten approach to relationships.

‘No wonder his reputation is so terrible.’

If I became his mistress, I decided I would have to put a stop to this kind of behavior first.

Jessie stared at me, my brows deeply furrowed, and smiled prettily.

“Suga. Thanks to you, at least the journey to the North won’t be depressing.”

She was smiling beautifully, but somehow she looked sad.

Perhaps going to Yürgen wasn’t something she had wanted to do.

I was wondering whether I should offer her some words of comfort when—

BOOOOM!

The carriage suddenly shook violently with the sound of an explosion.

“Argh!”

“Aah!”

The carriage instantly descended into chaos.

My body was thrown forward, and I landed directly in the robed pervert’s arms.

Before I could even process how surprising and embarrassing that was, another explosion rang out.

BOOOOOM!

“Aaaah!”

I tumbled around inside the carriage, which had tipped onto its side, and instinctively wrapped both arms around the robed pervert’s waist.

“Aah!”

Jessie screamed in fright as well, while her escort—or perhaps mercenary—shielded her.

I tried desperately to regain my senses, but the constant explosions and the sharp clang of metal colliding made it impossible.

“Gah!”

I had never enjoyed amusement-park rides in my previous life either, so this was incredibly shocking.

‘What the hell is this?’

The sudden situation was far beyond anything I could handle.

I was instantly terrified, and although I knew the waist I was clinging to belonged to the robed pervert, I pressed myself even closer.

It was pure survival instinct.

As I trembled and clung to his clothes, the robed pervert called out to me.

“Hey.”

I heard him calling me, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer.

“……Can’t you hear me?”

The man muttered something before suddenly grabbing my cheek and forcing me to look him in the eyes.

“Hey! Snap out of it. You said your name was Sugar, right?”

“W-What?”

“Let go.”

“Huh?”

“If you don’t want to die here, let go.”

“W-Where are you goinggg?”

“I’m going out to deal with them.”

“D-Deal with what?”

“Bandits attacked us, didn’t they?”

“What?”

The robed pervert stared at me as I trembled and slowly raised a hand.

I flinched.

Thinking he was about to hit me, I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut and curled up.

Tap.

Instead of striking me, his hand gently landed on top of my head.

Then I heard him let out a long sigh.

“Hoo… Stay right here. Don’t move.”

“Huh?”

Surprised by his unexpected behavior, I looked up.

The robed pervert grabbed the edge of my hood and pulled it down over my face.

Now unable to see anything, I heard him calmly say,

“Don’t come out. Keep your head down.”

Then—

Tap.

He lightly brushed my hand away and seemed to step out of the carriage.

After he disappeared, I should have checked whether anyone else was still inside the carriage or whether an intruder had gotten in…

But I couldn’t open my eyes.

“Gaaah!”

“Urgh!”

Crack. Slash.

The sound of blood splattering, bones and flesh being torn apart, and screams of agony.

I couldn’t bring myself to face any of it.

‘Aaaah.’

I covered my ears, squeezed my eyes shut, and stayed completely still inside the carriage.

‘This insane world.’

The world where I died from overwork had been awful enough, but a world where I could be hacked apart with a sword was just as terrible.

“Ugh.”

The stress had reached its limit, and I felt like I was going to vomit.

But my stomach was already empty, so there was nothing to throw up.

“Sniff.”

Instead, tears streamed down my face as I finally managed to open my eyes.

‘I have to survive.’

I didn’t want to die in a place like this.

The instinctive desire to live surged through me, and I cautiously looked around through half-closed eyes.

And the reality before me was just as bleak as I’d expected.

‘The carriage… is completely wrecked.’

The carriage had overturned onto its side, and its door was now above my head.

I had been curled up with my back against what had once been the floor.

Fortunately, there was no one dead inside the carriage.

In other words, I was alone.

“It’s okay. I can still survive.”

I encouraged myself, determined to make it out alive.

I reminded myself that I was the protagonist and took a deep breath.

There was no way a protagonist would die this easily.

“Hoo… hoo… protagonist buff… hoo…”

I inhaled deeply, and the smell of blood filled the air, but I pretended not to notice.

My life mattered more than the smell.

After steadying my breathing, I made my decision.

“I’m going to sneak out… and hide.”

The carriage itself seemed like an easy target, so I decided to get away from it.

After roughly planning what to do, I stretched out my arms.

“Of all things, the carriage had to flip over like this.”

The carriage entrance was now on the ceiling. With my weak arms, climbing out through the door hanging above me seemed difficult.

So I aimed for the small door near the driver’s seat.

“I can get out through here.”

Using my small, slender body, I hurried to squeeze through as quietly as possible.

After wriggling and struggling several times, I finally managed to crawl out of the carriage.

“Ugh…”

I barely made it outside, but the moment I saw the scene before me, I regretted leaving.

“Whoa…”

What was this?

It was like some incredibly realistic, ultra-high-budget CGI scene.

I wanted to close my eyes and faint on the spot.

“……”

The brutality was beyond my limit, making everything feel unreal.

It was as if I’d walked onto the set of a Hollywood movie funded by an enormous budget.

“It’s a movie. It’s just a movie.”