Chapter 8

Louisa was astonished by her daughter’s sudden vomiting. At her shriek, Erel glanced at her as she pressed her lips onto a handkerchief.

Are you going to get angry?

Her actual parents did not love her. It was not abuse but a parenting method that was bordering on neglect. When Raeyeon occasionally made a mistake or asked for help, they grumbled and got angry at her.

But Louisa was not that kind of parent.

Rather than getting angry, Louisa was restlessly worried. Erel’s small white face was so pale, she looked on the verge of collapse.

Gobble me, swallow me, drip down the side of me (Yeah)

Quick, jump out ‘fore you let it get inside of me (Yeah)

“Stop the wagon!”

Louisa shouted at the coachman while holding her daughter’s cold sweaty hand. She then proceeded to ask her with worried eyes.

“What’s wrong with you all of a sudden, Rel? Are you sick?”

The hands held together were warm. Is that why she felt like she wanted to rely on her mother’s body temperature?

However, Raeyeon did not forget that she was not Erel Elorence. It must be strange for Erel, who rode on a wagon since she was young, to get motion sickness now.

“I just had a little headache, but when I got on the wagon, it suddenly got worse…… I’m sorry.”

“Oh god, I told you! You are weak, so you should always be careful.”

Louisa was as concerned as she was sad. She then folded the blanket and helped Erel lay her head down.

She felt sorry for her daughter, who was crouching and wheezing hard. How can her daughter be born so frail, unlike her son who is too healthy? It was all the more heartbreaking because she felt like she didn’t give birth properly. Louisa looked down at Erel with pitiful eyes and suddenly came up with an excellent idea.

“My maid told me there is a new pharmacy somewhere around here, maybe they will have a simple headache pill.”

She doesn’t know why she didn’t think about this earlier. Louisa quickly called the coachman to explain briefly about the new pharmacy and asked questions.

“So, do you know where it is?”

Fortunately, the coachman who was dreaming and thinking about something soon replied.

“I think I know, ma’am. You’re probably referring to the new warehouse in front of you.”

Louisa’s face lit up at last thinking that she could do something for her daughter.

“Thank goodness! Then I’d like you to take care of it.”

The coachman bowed his head and left to get the headache pill, but he didn’t come back for a long time.

“Why are is he so late? The sun is about to go down.”

Louisa, unlike her elegant appearance, was surprisingly quick-tempered. Having rarely waited for anyone in her life, she started stomping her feet as she looked out. It was obvious that if he was a little late, they wouldn’t be able to get to the downtown area on time.

“Maybe not. He said it was right in front of us, so let me go for a second.”

Louisa told her daughter to wait a bit longer. Louisa knew the shop was close to the main street, so it’s not dangerous. It was the unknown that she was worried about.

“Don’t go. Just stay in the carriage with me…..”

“You know, there’s no parent who’s going to stay still when their children are sick.”

Louisa wiped the sweat from her daughter’s forehead and gently rubbed her cheek so that it wouldn’t hurt. With her loving touch, Erel managed to open her eyes and look up at her. As she made eye contact with Louisa, Louisa smiled as if she was reassuring her daughter, but her smile made Erel feel like crying.

“I’m really sorry for… this.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for. I’ll be back soon, so take a break.”

Louisa kissed her forehead tenderly and got out of the carriage but unlike what she said, she too didn’t come back in over an hour.

What should I do?

Her motion sickness must have subsided from a good rest, so Erel lifted herself up. She was worried about Louisa, who went to the pharmacist through a rough mountain path because of her.

It wasn’t just that. As she waited alone in the carriage, she had ominous thoughts for no reason especially because of the things Michael said earlier.

Be careful, mother. Recently, Kitans are becoming more and more active.

Maybe that’s why the woods looked particularly dangerous over the wagon window.

Somewhere in the unknown, Louisa seems to be in trouble.

With her thoughts being as it was, she couldn’t wait. Fortunately, as she moved around, the motion sickness that plagued her seemed to be almost gone. When she carefully stepped on the ground, the first thing she noticed was the red sunset falling over the mountain.

I need to find her before it gets dark. 

I’m sure he said it was in front of us, so she’ll face it in a minute. Erel, immersed in her own thoughts, turned to the corner and panicked for a moment. It was because the road in front of her was divided into two parts.

After a moment of agony, she casually looked down at the dirt floor. Fortunately, she could see markings of a heavy sack being dragged on the left side of the road. It may probably be a sack full of medicinal herbs.

“Maybe this is the pharmacy?”

Erel decided to head left. Fortunately, at the end of the road stood a large warehouse as expected.

“Here……”

Erel couldn’t be certain, but this was the only building that could be seen through the dense trees.

She approached the building hesitantly. As she was about to knock on the big locked door, she heard a sound coming from the window.

Is it the sound of her mother or the coachman who came this way first? Thinking so, Erel approached the window and looked inside, which caused her complexion to be blue.

“Save me, please… I’m sorry.”

A man with his arms tied back was kneeling on the stone floor. As if he was rolling on a thorny path, he wore a miserable look of tears and blood everywhere.

“I’m begging you, please spare my life…….”

Ask for a car while you ride that dick (While you ride that dick)

You really ain’t never gotta fuck him for a thang (Yeah)

The man jerked his knees as if he wanted to escape somehow. He clearly looked frightened. However, black-clothed men on both sides of him were armed with clubs, and threatening him.

Erel intuitively realized she had witnessed something dangerous. Perhaps the sacks she saw that attracted her gaze was filled with a person and not medicinal herbs.

Let’s get out of here for now. Don’t get caught.

As she was biting her lips tightly so as not to make a sound, she quietly fell from the window. No, she was about to fall but her feet soon froze into place.

Because a man had appeared like a flame across the night sky.

“Hi, we meet again.”

She thought it was a greeting for her. Erel breathed out her suppressed breath as she pressed down her thumping chest.

The moment she saw a man with red hair, her heart stopped beating. The man in front of her was the same one she saw as Erel, or Raeyeon, in her dream. He was incredibly beautiful, sensual, and above all, he exuded the aura of a cruel predator.

Thanks to this, Erel forgot she was trying to escape and stiffened. It was as if she was wandering in a nightmare with her eyes open.

Fortunately, the red-haired man had not noticed her yet. The object he spoke to was the man who was on his knees.

“Well, you were on the run. You want to live like this, Jack?”

“Hikk! Please, save me. I beg you. I made a mistake….”

“Shh.”

A man called Jack stuttered and begged as though he was having a fit, but the red-haired man who heard him frowned darkly.

“You know I don’t like noisy things.” The man, who put his finger up to his sensual lips, said softly.

Contrary to his similarly mischievous way of speaking, his shoes mercilessly trampled on Jack’s knee. Jack twisted his body in pain and a muffled scream came out of his throat as if he was on fire.

“Aarrrhhh!!… Mmhh! Mmhh!”

For a moment, the tearing screams were briefly blocked by the men on both sides. Only then did the man with red hair laugh contentedly.

“Look. It’s so nice to be quiet.”

It was terrible to torture a person who looked half-dead and still be able to smile as bright as a flower. Even though such a handsome man was smiling, she got goosebumps down her spine.

“Oh, do you like dogs?”

He was kind enough to get down on one knee and meet the man at eye level and whispered, lowering his eyes, which looked poisonous and red because of his eyelashes.

“I’m quite fond of it. I’m ashamed to say it myself, but I’m an animal lover.”

At the same time, she heard something growling behind the man. It was not an ordinary animal just by hearing the harsh and heavy cry.

“Loyal and sweet. Who could hate dogs?”

At the same time as his monotone murmur, his men pulled something out. It was a two-headed dog the size of a bull.

A fearsome dog wrapped in chains barked, revealing its forearm-sized teeth. It was so powerful and violent that it was staggering even though several of his men were holding its chains. However, the man who saw it cheered and called the dog joyfully.

“Choco, you cute little thing.”

His subordinates around him trembled at the name coming from his mouth.