Chapter 5

His tone was deceptively courteous, but the implication within it was unmistakably derisive. A cold, chilling pressure seemed to weigh on her shoulders. Although the man’s face carried no overt expression, the chill in his gaze and the hard line of his lips radiated a danger sharper than any scowl.

Adeline’s heart raced as her eyes flickered toward the dying hound bleeding into the earth. From the barrel of the gun in his hand, a faint ribbon of smoke drifted upward into the night air.

“…Let me go. You don’t want to be tied for life to a woman like me either, do you?”

For a fleeting moment, terror had seized her throat; now she forced her breath into steadier rhythm as she pleaded.

Whatever this man felt toward Velasque, she couldn’t imagine he welcomed a marriage to a woman he had never met. Especially since, until just a year ago, she had been his enemy.

Even with the war ended, she was certain he would never want to lie beneath the same blanket with a woman who had once been his enemy. Confident in that belief, she spoke, only for the man to tilt his head slightly.

“You ask me to look the other way… You must have taken the men of House Rübenhart too lightly. Even the notion of appealing to a soldier’s mercy is absurd.”

“…I didn’t mean to disrespect your family. I’m only asking for your magnanimity.”

“Ha…”

Leon stifled a derisive scoff at her bold retort. His expression remained devoid of emotion as his gaze traveled over her, dressed in nothing but a thin cotton dress hastily thrown on in her escape. Her already slender figure seemed even more fragile wrapped in that ragged garment, its ragged fabric baring her fragile lines with blatant clarity.

“Pitiful, but hardly enough to earn leniency. It seems you thought you were clever enough to escape by climbing this mountain, did you? But beyond this ridge lies the Neidel garrison returning from deployment.”

“….!”

Adeline’s eyes widened in sudden alarm.

“A lone woman slipping down a mountain in the dead of night, I’m sure the soldiers would be so eager to ‘help.’ Care to wager whether they’d report you to their superiors or pounce on you like horny dogs itching to vent everything the war left in them?”

At his brutal, scathing remark, Adeline’s eyelids fluttered.

〈 If you can just get past the mountain, you’ll reach the cluster of trade caravans. From there, you can slip onto a trader’s wagon bound for another country and escape unnoticed. 〉

Remembering the voices of her maids who had persuaded her, Adeline bit down hard on her lip. The realization that she could have faced a terrible fate sent a chill down her fingertips.

“I don’t particularly care what might have happened to you while you were escaping. But news of our marriage has already spread across the continent. If you disappear now, I’d be the one made utterly ridiculous.”

The barrel of the gun in his hand shifted unhurriedly before coming to a stop in a perfect line with her face. Adeline’s heart plummeted in a cold, sickening drop.

“I’ll say this only once.”

As her gaze flicked back and forth between the man and the gun, he extended his free hand toward her slowly. The thick scent of gunpowder and the metallic trace of blood made her stomach twist.

“Decide now. Will you become the wife of the commander who was once your enemy, or end your life here like that dog?”

It sounded as if he were offering a surprisingly merciful choice, though it was nothing less than a threat that he would kill her without a second thought if she didn’t give the correct answer.

Adeline swallowed dryly at the choices presented by the man, whom she had assumed would drag her to prison now that she had been caught while fleeing.

“Are you saying you’ll… spare my life?”

“If you make the right choice.”

She kept her gaze fixed on the man, urging her toward a cold, rational decision. It was only natural to find his attitude suspicious as he spoke as though her fate meant nothing to him, as though the only thing that concerned him was avoiding some unsavory scandal.

It wasn’t that he disliked her for being Velasque’s princess, nor that he resented the idea of marriage itself. She found it puzzling that his reason was simply that he had no desire to become the subject of scandals.

Still, if he truly was a man who valued only his own honor above all else, then perhaps…

After a long moment of agonized hesitation, Adeline extended her trembling hand. The instant she did, he seized it, gripping firmly as he pulled her upright in one swift motion. The force of it sent her stumbling forward, and she was pulled straight into his arms.

Startled, she tried to push herself away, but something heavy settled over her shoulders.

It was the outer coat he had been wearing just moments before.

When Adeline held her breath and looked up at him, he lifted one eyebrow.

“As you look now, who would ever imagine you’re a princess?”

Realizing how she must appear, draped in a dirty, earth-stained dress that clung to her like a rag, heat flared across her cheeks in sharp embarrassment.

“We’re going back.”