The Chaser and the Chased

In front of the woman sitting expressionlessly on the throne, three men were bowing their heads.

Among them, the old man with wrinkled skin was trembling faintly.

Each time the torch illuminating the throne flickered, faintly revealing his figure, his shoulders would twitch slightly, something the other men beside him couldn’t possibly miss.

, “…So you’re saying you don’t know what happened to his whereabouts.”

“Ah, he’s probably dead. He jumped into the river with such severe injuries…”

As a cold, low voice flowed from the woman’s mouth, the old man trembled and replied.

The order given to him was, ‘Execute the traitor.’

Although he hadn’t disobeyed the order, and he had done his best to execute the traitor, the reason he was trembling so much was not that.

It was because he somewhat guessed that his actions were endlessly insufficient to the woman before him.

“Probably dead, huh…? That’s strange. I clearly ordered, ‘Kill him.’ Why are you using words of conjecture? Archbishop.”

As an unidentified aura, as sharp as a blade, began to spread around her, the old man, sensing this, trembled and slammed his head into the ground.

“I, I have no excuse.”

“No excuse, huh? I feel like I heard the same words not too long ago.”

“……!”

He was doing his best to apologize for his mistake, but the woman’s rage didn’t seem to subside.

The dark red aura spreading around crawled along the ground, and when it finally filled the old man’s vision, he was startled and raised his head.

Even in such a desperate situation, he didn’t dare to look up at the woman.

Because he knew better than anyone that his life, like a lamp before the wind, would disappear in an instant.

“You couldn’t even bring the key, and you even had the magic sword I gave you stolen by the enemy. Archbishop, what is your value? Can you explain it in a way that I can understand?”

“P-please give me one last chance. This old man will definitely repay Apostle-nim’s expectations this time…!”

“…Hmph.”

A reaction came back that was hard to tell whether it was a scoff or if she was genuinely interested.

It was a pity for the men that they couldn’t dare to look up at her face at times like this.

If they could at least read her expression and match her mood, it wouldn’t be as frustrating as it was now.

“Cardinal, what are your thoughts?”

As her question turned to another, the man who was chosen as the target flinched for a moment before opening his mouth as carefully as possible.

“…I dare not say, but I think it would be good to give the Archbishop one more chance.”

“Is that so? Even if the Archbishop messes things up again and comes back, even if your neck is hung along with his?”

“……!”

However, as an unexpected question came back, the man’s body froze for a moment.

In fact, even he thought that the Archbishop had received more than enough chances.

Despite the saying within the Dawn’s Eye that there are no two failures, hadn’t he already tasted failure twice?

No, if you think about it, he was the one who suggested the attack on the Lyarde family, so it could be considered three times.

But if he fails to carry out the order again in this situation, it would be an overestimation to even expect that her anger would subside with just the Archbishop’s life.

Perhaps the words she just spoke were sincere.

Even if they are high-ranking figures within the Dawn’s Eye, it doesn’t matter to her.

If a tool doesn’t work well, just break it and get a new one.

There isn’t a single person in this group who doesn’t know that that is the woman’s iron rule.

“If that is Apostle-nim’s will…”

“Apostle-nim, if that’s the case, please listen to this old man’s words for a moment.”

Still, the Cardinal couldn’t bear to abandon the Archbishop, whom he had seen for a long time, so he tried to move his stiff lips and open his mouth.

The Archbishop bowed his head again and dared to plead with the woman.

“Actually, I recently found the bloodline of the family that Apostle-nim was looking for in the past.”

“Are you talking about that family with the miracle?”

“That’s right. If Apostle-nim gives me a chance, I will bring that girl here. So please, just one more chance…”

“Indeed.”

At the Archbishop’s suggestion, the woman raised her eyebrows as if intrigued.

Of course, the content of the proposal itself is interesting, but what’s more interesting is that the Archbishop is subtly presenting a negotiation to her.

If she kills the Archbishop here, he will try not to reveal the girl’s location until the very end.

There may be others who know this information besides him, but if that’s not the case, she will be in a pretty troublesome situation.

In other words, he is conveying a message close to blackmail, saying, ‘If you kill me, I won’t tell you the girl’s location.’

But at this, she wore a faint smile as if she was rather enjoying it.

The old man, who was always busy bowing his head and trying to please her, showed his true colors like a sly old fox when he approached the threshold of death.

Moreover, he must have known that she could have been displeased with this proposal and taken his life, but the fact that he threw such a gamble means that if he was going to die anyway, he was trying to struggle as much as possible.

Admiring his courage, she decided to give him one more chance.

“Okay. But keep in mind, Archbishop. This is truly your last chance.”

“I will obey Apostle-nim’s command.”

Paaht.

With that conversation, the torch went out, and the presence that filled the hall disappeared in an instant.

＊＊＊

After Vermillion left, Anise, who was left alone in the house again, continued to live her life as before.

It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t sad that he left.

But if you ask if her heart was aching and she was so sad that her daily life was impossible, that wasn’t the case.

This wasn’t because she didn’t have any feelings for Vermillion, but simply because she believed in him.

Because he had confidently promised that he would come back someday and find her.

‘Next time, I’ll have to teach him a lesson so he can’t leave so suddenly like that.’

Only she would know how she would teach him a lesson.

As she recited her resolution inwardly, her left arm with a dark burn mark came into her sight.

In fact, although she had made a resolution inwardly, she felt that her confidence was gradually decreasing.

From the beginning, he said he was a member of the Drake family.

He was a person too far away from her, a mere commoner, no, even among commoners, she was so shabby that she was even poor.

Besides, where in the world would there be a man who would like such an ugly body?

She would be happy if he came back to find her, but she began to argue with herself almost every day about whether it was right to accept it.

“Hoo…”

As the worry was replaced with a sigh and flowed out of her mouth, Anise felt her mood sink accordingly.

Still, he wouldn’t be back right away, so she just had to come up with an answer herself before that time came.

Forcibly shaking her head and shaking off her thoughts, she got up from her seat to go outside for some fresh air.

It was then.

Sssseuseuseut…!

“……!”

Suddenly, as she felt the presence of a number of people from the forest, she widened her eyes and stopped walking.

She wondered if she had misheard the sound of the wind shaking the bushes, but the blowing wind wasn’t that strong.

Moreover, she felt that the presence she had heard a little while ago was getting closer and closer.

Taat.

At that moment, Anise instinctively realized that she had to run away and ran out of the house without any hesitation.

She briefly had a glimmer of hope that Vermillion had come to find her, but she thought that if it was him, he wouldn’t have come while hiding his presence as much as possible.

Moreover, she had a feeling that it wasn’t him because the number of presences was quite large.

“It’s over there!”

“Catch her!”

“Archbishop-nim said we have to capture her alive!”

Eventually, as she began to reach a certain point towards the opposite forest.

As she heard a faint voice from the house she had just been in, her eyes trembled with fear.

Still, she was confident that no one knew the forest in this area better than she did, so she moved her feet busily without stopping, thinking that it would be okay if she ran away as far as possible.

Seureuk.

“…That’s a girl with good instincts.”

“You, Eun…”

A somewhat familiar man appeared on the path she was heading towards, and before Anise could even finish her words, he reached out and easily subdued her.

‘Vermillion, I’m sorry…’

In the fading consciousness, Anise apologized to him, who couldn’t possibly hear her, and slowly closed her eyes.

Tuk.

At that moment, the small pendant that Vermillion had given her as a gift when he was with her slipped out of her pocket and fell weakly onto the grass.