TWCMH 06

Chapter 06

*Tak tak tak tak.*

As Roelia chopped on the cutting board, the horrific memory flashed through her mind.

*”N-no, Father! P-please…!”*

*”Run, sis!”*

*”Fuck, how dare you bastards conspire…!”*

A father trying to sell his daughter to a brothel, a brother holding onto the father to help his sister escape.

Pushed back by the grown Dietrich’s strength, the father, enraged, picked up a liquor bottle and struck his son’s head.

*Clang!*

Dietrich staggered, his head and the corner of his eye split open. Seeing her brother stagger, seemingly dizzy, Roelia’s eyes rolled back in fury.

—

*”No, Father! Diet…!”*

—

She turned back from her escape and ran straight to her father. She pushed with all her might against the father who was kicking the fallen Dietrich indiscriminately, but her strength, less than half of her father’s, was of little help.

Rather, as if annoyed, the father shoved Roelia aside and snarled.

*”Think you won’t get hit too? Don’t even think about running, just lie down there. If you run, this bastard dies right here today. Got it?!”*

—

Terrified, she had frozen, fallen to the floor. That was when it appeared.

A beautiful white butterfly, shining like a flash of light…

The pure white light, swirling around the dark, foul-smelling small house, fluttered and flew over the father’s head.

He frowned repeatedly, shaking his head as if drunk, and began to stagger backward.

*”What the… what is this, fuck?”*

Taking advantage of the father’s retreat, she quickly pulled Dietrich into her arms. There was a lot of blood, but thankfully, it wasn’t torn too badly.

Pressing her hand against her brother’s blood-soaked forehead, she frantically looked for something to stop the bleeding.

As she grabbed a tattered apron lying on the floor—

—

*”Aaaagh!”*

*Crash! Thud, thump!*

Along with the scream, a series of dull sounds followed.

Startled, she turned around to find the spot where her father had been standing was empty.

Could it be…?

She didn’t remember what possessed her to look down the stairs.

The massive body sprawled on the floor like an object, a neck bent in the wrong direction. Gurgling sounds, then the breath ceasing.

Every time she blinked, her vision darkened and brightened like a dream.

*”…Let’s run, sis.”*

It was Dietrich who came to his senses first.

*”He just fell down the stairs drunk. Accidents like this are common. No one will pay any attention. But sis… Father must have talked about you somewhere. They might come to capture you.”*

At Dietrich’s cool-headed words, her heart plummeted.

Fear of the future that awaited her made her whole body tremble violently

*”So it’s only now. Let’s run. Hurry!”*

Frantic, they cleared away whatever they could, and hurriedly left the place as Dietrich led the way.

They took the earliest night coach and ran without a set destination. When the coach reached its terminus, they took another coach going the farthest distance, and when there was no coach, they moved even on foot.

When they ran out of money, they begged, and they did any work they could get paid for to raise travel expenses. When there was no other way, they didn’t hesitate to steal.

Life for the siblings was desperate, and standards like morality or goodness held no power in the face of a threat to their lives.

That was how they reached this place, Phernados.

The southernmost tip of the country, a tiny port town straddling the border. A rural village that didn’t even appear well on maps.

A year had passed since that night.

Perhaps because the two, who looked like a young couple, seemed quite affectionate, or perhaps thanks to Dietrich’s friendly and handsome looks, the village was quite favorable to them.

Though they had few encounters, it was a relief that it helped them adapt quickly.

*Crackle, crack…!*

The sound of firewood burning in the hearth snapped her out of her thoughts, and just as Roelia was about to hurriedly stir the stew ingredients with her ladle—

*Knock, knock, knock.*

“……”

Like a broken machine, Roelia’s body clattered and stopped. As if all the blood in her body had drained out, her fingertips grew cold. She creakily turned her head and stared at the door.

She prayed desperately that she had heard nothing, but the knock that came again shattered her hope.

*Knock, knock, knock.*

“……!”

There was no way Dietrich, returning home, would knock.

An outsider. And one who had come abruptly in the middle of the night.

An eerie premonition ran down her spine.

Instantly terrified, she quickly put down the ladle with a pale face and extinguished the fire in the hearth.

Her hands trembled violently, but there was no time to delay.

Tiptoeing, she ran around the hut, stuffing all her visible belongings under the bed, and hurriedly summoned the ‘butterfly’.

“Ch-check outside.”

As she whispered, a pure white butterfly dimmed its light and melted into the curtain of night.

The butterfly, fluttering through the wall and outside, overlaid its vision onto Roelia’s retina. Roelia’s face turned ashen as she confirmed the figures standing outside.

‘Knights…’

Five men wearing deep indigo cloaks over their silver armor. The cloaks obscured the armor, but she could feel an extraordinary aura.

Her heart sank with a sense of foreboding.

Roelia clenched her trembling fist tightly.

‘They’ve come for me.’

It was obvious that such men would have no reason to visit this small rural village, and especially a small hut deep in the dark mountains.

The butterfly, surveying the men from a distance, slowly and cautiously flew around the knights following Roelia’s will.

When there was no response, the men in front exchanged glances and then turned to look at the tall man at the very back, who was observing the situation. Their faces awaited his command.

‘Is that man the leader?’

Because the butterfly had circled around the hut, only the man’s back was visible. Hair black as night that shone sleekly even in the dark veil of night, broad shoulders draped in a cloak, straight legs.

Even with the cloak on, she could feel a body trained to be threatening.

She, who had been living in hiding, had no way of knowing such a formidable man, but the armor and dark blue cloak visible beneath his shoulder seemed somehow familiar.

Thinking she might recognize him if she got a little closer, she recklessly flew toward the man.

Just as the butterfly’s fluttering shadow loomed over the man’s head, he suddenly looked up and stared at the butterfly.

“……!”

Blue eyes gleaming with golden light stared directly at the butterfly.

As if he had noticed the presence of Roelia, who was observing him through the butterfly.

She hastily retreated, but the butterfly was caught in the man’s hand in an instant.

“Haaahk…!”

Burning pain shot through her eyes. The small, fragile butterfly was crushed and vanished in the man’s palm.

Crouching and breaking out in a cold sweat, Roelia hurriedly turned around to find a place to hide.

The moment she met the man’s eyes, Roelia remembered who he was.

Lampez of the Holy Knight Order, the Paladins.

Hugo Brighton!

A man perhaps more famous than the king himself in this country, Gargo.

Four years ago, in the sluggish Black Sea War, this man assisted the royal army and led them to victory. She had seen him during the triumphant march of thousands of holy knights returning under his command.

How could she forget that dazzling figure that had burned so intensely into her eyes even from a vast, distant view?

Wasn’t he said to have slaughtered tens of thousands of enemy soldiers? And wasn’t it also him who rooted out the heretics obsessed with apostasy?

The Blue Chain of Ademors. The Blue Flame!

When she had only heard the rumors, she thought he was just a brutal and terrifying man, but on the street, he had merely seemed elegant and pious.

That this man, as beautiful as a freshly plucked lily, was the fearsome head of the Paladins.

It was so unbelievable that she must have stared at him quite blankly.

That was about four years ago.

The man appeared before Roelia’s hut with the same sacred appearance as he had back then, unchanged.

‘Why is he here…’

She knew that the temple defined Flona as a ‘witch,’ but they weren’t a presence that warranted dispatching Lampez.

There were terrible rumors circulating—that a single Flona had annihilated an entire noble house, that they had led people into corruption and orgies—but that was all over ten years ago. Now, people feared the Black Lands and the demonic hands that blackened the world far more than the Flona, who rarely appeared in the world anymore.

Surely, the temple should have been the same. Shouldn’t the Holy Knights be busy purifying the Black Lands?

At the sudden appearance of such a major figure, Roelia stared at the closed door with a pale, terrified face.

The thick wooden door that had protected Roelia from wild beasts and unwanted guests looked as flimsy as paper before Hugo Brighton.

She had to run.

She had a feeling that something beyond her capacity was coming towards her, riding on that man’s shoulders.

That eerie premonition, as if gripping her by the neck.

“If you don’t wish to be forced inside, it would be wise to open the door willingly.”

……The man beyond the door spoke to her.