Ch.59Dieta (6)

Her mother hanged herself right before her eyes.

This was the story of her seventh birthday.

Daughter of a whore, abandoned child, dirty blood—the whispers of servants and the mockery of her brothers and sisters echoed in her ears. She ate cold food at a table where no one came to join her, just like any other day.

This was the story of her eighth birthday.

Harassment from servants. Her brother’s lies. Her sisters’ testimonies. She was confined to her room for something she never did. She spent the day watching the sunset through the window.

This was the story of her eleventh birthday.

No one.

Twelfth.

No one came.

Thirteenth.

False accusations, lies, things she never did, harassment, cold food, mockery, ridicule, daughter of a whore. Abandoned child. A day filled with nothing but mockery.

Fourteenth.

In solitary confinement, Dieta smiled while facing a mirror.

Fourteenth.

The mask was complete. Her eyes no longer wavered even before her mother’s grave. She became convinced she could laugh off everything.

And so, on her fifteenth birthday.

Dieta left her family.

With a vow that someday she would return and devour them all.

2.

In a dark cell without a single ray of sunlight.

Dieta curled up, hugging her knees.

Her ankle hurt. Though her eyes kept closing from not having slept properly for the past three days, the throbbing pain in her ankle kept waking her up.

Sleep deprivation. Pain. And hunger.

Meals reeking of drugs. Cloudy water handed over without any attempt to hide what was in it. She couldn’t bring herself to touch anything, not knowing what they had put in it or what they had done to it. Everything in the villa was suspicious.

There were no allies here.

Everything was an enemy, everything was a trap.

Sharply heightened nerves bring fatigue. But Dieta had no way to relieve that fatigue now. After three days of being worn down, her mind began to hit rock bottom. Her mask wavered, and her dulled thoughts turned her mind into a mess.

‘A plan. A way out. Available means.’

Her usual self might have found a way. But at this moment, pushed to her limits, she couldn’t. As if her mind was shrouded in fog, her thoughts wouldn’t connect properly.

Eventually, Dieta reached her limit.

Finally, the mask covering her face came off.

Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins, the young merchant who wrote a success story in the City of Opportunity, investment genius, a genius among geniuses with the qualities of a great merchant…

The brilliant ornaments that adorned Dieta Albania began to fall off one by one. The mask, the uniform of a merchant guild leader, expensive accessories, everything she had built up to increase her value—all fell away.

When everything was stripped bare, what remained was.

Not the Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins.

Not the abandoned child of Albania.

Not Dieta Albania.

What remained there was just a girl curled up tightly. Wounded, broken, festering, and a girl who had adorned herself lavishly to hide all of that.

Dieta curled up even more.

She buried her face in her knees.

Her lips trembled and her eyes twitched. Soon, tears rolled down her cheeks. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had cried, but once the tears started flowing, they wouldn’t stop.

The emotions suppressed by her mask were pouring out. Things she had laughed off, ignored, and pretended didn’t matter. Such trivial things had found their trigger and were now overflowing. With her shoulders slightly trembling, Dieta gritted her teeth.

The mask had come off.

She needed a new one.

She needed a mask that was stronger, more elaborate, and would never come off again. Cornered, Dieta slowly began to break. That was Ottoman’s intention in planning this situation… but there was one thing Ottoman had miscalculated.

A broken person doesn’t necessarily give up.

Dieta is stubborn among the stubborn.

You can break her, but you can’t bend her.

Gritting her teeth, Dieta spoke to herself.

I will never trust anyone again.

If I put on a new mask tonight after shedding all my remaining emotions… I will never take this mask off again.

Sell me off in a political marriage? Extract value from me until the very end? Go ahead. Do as you please.

I’ll sell everything that can be sold. I’ll use every means available. Even if it means throwing myself into a fire pit, I will look forward to the next opportunity. I will definitely return here and devour all of you.

…It is through hardship, trials, and pain that children become adults. In Dieta’s yellow eyes, black flames began to rise.

Let me say it again.

Dieta Albania is a genius.

Though not yet complete, her talent for judging the flow and value of money while grasping gold coins is unrivaled. Given enough time, she has the qualities of a great merchant who will grasp the commercial path and reach the highest place, and the qualities of a power holder who can control people.

But she couldn’t discard what she needed to become complete.

What?

Her humanity. The being that is Dieta behind the mask.

A genius who has experienced failure learns from that failure.

There’s a saying that pain that doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Despite her knight’s worries, Dieta doesn’t make foolish choices like ending her life here or breaking down in frustration.

She will become more thorough.

She will become more perfect.

She will become more tenacious.

But in other words… this is the ‘death’ of Dieta. After tonight passes, the girl named Dieta will be gone. Only the Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins will remain.

‘Still, one night should be fine.’

The night that came to the cell where time seemed to stand still was long, very long. The snake that had not yet shed its skin wanted to spend its last day as Dieta by pouring out its emotions.

Crying unsightly, trembling shoulders, burying her head in her knees and exhaling blocked breaths.

That’s when it happened.

Thud.

Wooden pieces fell on Dieta’s head.

Slowly, Dieta raised her head. A cell without a single ray of light. However, there was a white light shining on the ceiling.

And then, creak.

The light moved. As the light moved in a rectangular trajectory, part of the ceiling was torn off. Only then did Dieta realize that the shining thing was a sword.

Thud.

Someone entered the room through the hole in the carved ceiling. The figure who softly landed on the floor couldn’t be seen due to the darkness. Only their presence could be felt. It was the moment when the frightened Dieta caught her breath.

Whoosh.

The unidentified figure took out a lamp from inside their clothes. A sunset-colored mineral dimly lit the room. In the dim light, Dieta met the intruder’s eyes.

“…Ivan?”

Gray hair and sunset-colored eyes.

An unexpected figure was standing before her.

3.

Dieta blinked her eyes blankly.

Was she seeing a hallucination?

Why was this person here? He had no reason to come here, nor should he have been able to.

“Your knight, Passion, asked me.”

Najin spoke to Dieta, who was blinking her eyes. Najin put the mineral lamp down in front of Dieta and bent his knee to meet her gaze.

“To be a messenger so you could communicate with the outside world. I came to play that role, but…”

Najin’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Dieta.

It was because he noticed her emaciated appearance after just a few days, and her ankle with cut tendons. Najin exhaled a long breath and continued.

“Is there anything you would like to request?”

“How……”

Dieta murmured in a trembling voice.

The man who suddenly appeared before her.

Dieta was considerably surprised by Najin’s appearance. Passion’s request? He would be a messenger? Dieta blinked as she mulled over the words Najin had spoken.

Her mind wasn’t working properly.

Because sitting here now was just Dieta, not the Snake that Swallows the Gold Coins. The girl couldn’t keep up with the sudden situation. Her usual self would not have missed this golden opportunity that had come to her, but…

“Why…”

The girl suddenly murmured.

“Why did you accept the request?”

Was it because she had feelings for the man before her?

Or was it because he was the only one she could be comfortable with, or because the time she spent with him in Cambria was quite enjoyable?

Or was it all of the above?

Dieta asked in a trembling voice.

“This… brings you no benefit at all. It’s dangerous. Getting involved with the Duke’s family could put your life at risk.”

She couldn’t help it.

The joy she felt at his visit was momentary, as she immediately thought that the man before her shouldn’t be involved with her.

“Why…?”

Dieta knows.

She knows how great a price must be paid for this. She knows it means directly confronting the Albania ducal family, and perhaps risking one’s life.

Not as a merchant who never misses an opportunity.

But simply as a human being, Dieta.

She thinks that she shouldn’t drag that man into this situation. Because if he gets involved with her, he too will fall to the bottom. Dieta didn’t want to see that man, who was similar to her yet walked a completely different path, fall.

Above all, it was unfamiliar.

She had never experienced such kindness, such favorable stories, stories that seemed to come straight out of a fairy tale. That’s why Dieta ends up asking the question even in this situation.

Why did you do it?

She can’t help but ask for the reason.

“Why, you ask.”

And to that question, Najin simply answered as if asking why she was asking something so obvious.

“I promised you before, didn’t I?”

“…Promise?”

“That I would help you once without asking questions. That’s what I promised.”

There was such a time.

A promise for which there was no written contract, no trace left of anything, just the memory of a conversation while looking at the sunset as the only evidence.

Just… because of that?

For a promise that no one would blame him for not keeping, just a few words, he would do this?

Unable to understand at all, Dieta blinked her eyes, and Najin continued.

“So.”

“You just need to speak without overthinking. Why, how, such complicated stories can be postponed for later.”

Help me.

If you say so.

“Then, I will help you.”

Compensation, risk, danger, Albania ducal family, whatever—I’ll help you. Because I’ve decided so, you just need to ask.

It’s such a comfortable story.

Such a convenient story.

But the moment her eyes met Najin’s, who was looking straight at her, Dieta’s lips were already moving. With a face ruined by tear stains, Dieta murmured. What leaked out was the girl’s true heart.

“From here…”

Dieta said.

“Please help me get out of here.”

A small voice, as if creeping in. The moment he heard that voice, Najin nodded firmly. He didn’t ask questions like: Do you have a plan? What will you do after you get out? Do you have a method? Najin simply gave a short answer.

“Let’s do that.”

Najin stood up.

He turned off the mineral lamp with a click and put it in his pocket, making the room dark again. In the cell that suddenly became dark again, Dieta blinked her eyes.

CRASH!

The wall shook.

Dieta, who flinched and trembled, slowly opened her eyes. In the rising dust, she saw it. Moonlight seeping into the dark cell.

Najin had kicked and shattered the wooden boards nailed to the window. Faced with such a refreshingly direct action, Dieta blinked her eyes blankly.

Moonlight, or perhaps starlight, seeping in. Najin’s gray hair sparkled in the platinum-colored light.

“We’ll decide on a destination later.”

Let’s go for now.

Saying that, Najin approached Dieta.

Thump, thump, thump.

As if responding to the commotion Najin had caused, footsteps echoed in the corridor. Perhaps the knights were coming. But Najin, as if not caring about such things, bent his knee and picked up Dieta.

Carefully, so as not to touch her ankle.

But firmly enough not to drop her.

Carrying Dieta, Najin kicked off the ground and jumped out the window. In the swaying scenery, Dieta looked up at Najin’s face. His face wasn’t clearly visible as he had pulled his robe down deeply, but his eyes were visible.

Sunset-colored eyes.

As if enchanted by something, Dieta blankly stared at Najin’s eyes.

4.

“You expect me to believe that?”

Griffin, the captain of the Albania ducal family’s knights.

He slammed the table as he received reports about the incident that had occurred the previous night from all the knights he had dispatched to the villa.

“Not only did someone break into the villa, but they carved out the ceiling and smashed the window on their way out, and not one of you saw them? Do you think this makes any sense?”

The servants might be excused.

The villa was in chaos due to the sudden fire, and if a skilled martial artist deliberately sneaked in, the servants wouldn’t have been able to notice.

But the knights were different.

It was nonsensical that trained knights couldn’t detect it.

“I asked if it makes sense that none of you saw the intruder when seven knights were guarding.”

Seven. As many as seven well-trained knights.

Was it even possible for someone to bypass their eyes and ears and openly kidnap the confined noble lady? Griffin rubbed his face and stood up.

“Move aside. I’ll check with my own eyes.”

Sighing, Griffin moved forward.

The situation had taken a strange turn. This was an unexpected variable, and Ottoman’s eyes had widened when he received the report. After all, something unimaginable had happened.

Breaking into the ducal family’s villa and kidnapping a noble lady.

It was hard even to imagine how absurd this incident was and how much commotion it would cause. This was a major incident directly linked to the reputation of the Albania ducal family, and it was a story that should never leak outside.

It needed to be resolved before it escalated.

Clutching his throbbing head, Griffin checked the traces left in the villa. After confirming the route the intruder seemed to have used to sneak in, he narrowed his eyes.

‘Seven Sword Experts.’

To face seven without making a sound, sneaking in and kidnapping a noble lady. This wouldn’t be easy even for Griffin, a Sword Seeker. It would be much simpler to just barge in from the front, causing havoc.

‘A Ranger?’

The first suspect that could be inferred was a Ranger.

Was there a Ranger among those Dieta Albania could employ? Certainly, there were a few skilled Rangers in Cambria.

The first to come to mind was Kaufman Theosis.

Kaufman Theosis, the Ranger of the Tetzel Mountains, evaluated as a strong warrior on par with a Sword Seeker. If he had collaborated with Dieta, tracking would certainly be impossible. But that man didn’t seem like he would get involved in such matters.

‘What kind of madman…’

Griffin exhaled a long sigh.

The plan had gone awry, and the situation had flipped.

In such situations, quick judgment and response were needed. Having roughly calculated the seriousness of the situation, Griffin made a decision. He called out to one of the knights following him.

“Tell Duke Ottoman.”

He said.

“That I will form a pursuit team to chase after the ruffians who infiltrated the ducal family.”

And.

“Tell him that I will lead the pursuit team.”