Looking for the Villainess’s Contract Husband
Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Rustle—
“Mm….”
The night was still dark.
Gretel curled her body against the cold wind leaking through the gaps of the carriage and squinted her eyes open.
Even in her half-asleep state, a call that had become like a habit escaped through her teeth.
“Livi…?”
Perhaps because the effects of the medicine hadn’t fully worn off, Gretel’s voice sounded like waterlogged cotton.
Searching for Laviella, she lifted her eyelids a little further to take in the opposite seat of the carriage.
Immediately after. Her groggy mind snapped awake as if doused in freezing snow.
Her eyes snapping wide, Gretel jerked her upper body up, bracing herself against the carriage seat.
“…Livi?”
The child was gone.
Thump!
Gretel tried to scramble up in a hurry but tumbled off the carriage seat. Yet, she didn’t feel a single shred of pain.
Like a madwoman, she felt around the carriage seat where Laviella should have been lying, praying that this was a dream.
“Ba—baby. Baby?”
However, all her fingertips met was the fabric, retaining a warmth so faint it was almost imperceptible.
Crinkle.
Right then. Gretel froze as she discovered a small slip of paper held in her hand.
At the same time, the outside of the carriage grew noisy, and she heard the sound of someone hurriedly undoing the chains.
Bang!
The carriage door swung open, and light flooded in.
Gretel hadn’t even checked what the note in her hand was, but she instinctively balled her fist to hide it.
The one who threw the door open was Gilbert.
Finding Gretel looking back at him with a half-delirious expression, his face contorted as he shouted.
“The child is gone!”
“A horse is missing as well!”
“Damn it, that bastard Paul finally did it…!”
It was night outside, but the area was lit orange everywhere by the torches held high by the knights.
Turning around, Gilbert stomped away fiercely, shouting orders to the knights.
Meanwhile, Gretel, who was sitting with her back to the carriage door, checked that the knights’ attention was momentarily diverted and shakily unfolded the note with trembling hands.
A familiar handwriting greeted her.
<Mom, that birthday present I mentioned. I’ll take it now.>
The moment those words entered her sight, her heart inevitably sank.
Her trembling gaze moved toward the bottom of the letter.
But time was tight, and a note wouldn’t be enough to explain everything.
So, just like I said about the birthday present, please just wait a little while without asking anything.
We will probably be able to meet again soon. I will definitely come back to Mom’s side. I really, truly promise.
So until then….
Please stay alive, Mom.>
That was the entirety of the note.
Gretel unconsciously tightened her grip. Her expression crumpled just like the note in her hand.
‘Livi….’
The sound of her heart thumping filled her ears.
Through the gaps, the clipped voices of the knights drifted in.
“…Follow them!”
“They couldn’t have gone far…!”
Even in her dazed state, Gretel recognized those words. She hid the note inside her sleeve and scrambled to her feet.
Leaping out of the carriage, she pushed aside a knight who was about to grab the reins and mount his horse, snatching the reins away herself.
“Young Miss!”
“What do you think you’re doing!”
The knights immediately showed signs of wariness. Some even brought their hands to the hilts of their swords.
But Gretel gripped the reins as if they were her lifeline and wouldn’t let go.
Taking a step back, she bit her lip desperately.
“You’re going to find the child. I’m coming too.”
“That’s ridiculous…!”
“The child vanished while I was unaware. That man named Paul might have taken her with the intent to harm her, and you expect me to just sit here and wait?”
The knights who were about to argue shut their mouths involuntarily upon seeing the fierce expression on Gretel’s face, looking as if she might wring someone’s neck at any moment.
They were overwhelmed by her intensity.
Eventually, Gilbert muttered a small curse under his breath and stepped forward. He shouted with a deep scowl.
“I’ll escort the Young Miss, so the rest of you pursue them immediately! If the snow piles up, the tracks will be erased! We must find them before then!”
“…Understood!”
The knights answered loudly and quickly mounted their horses.
Following the tracks left in the snow, they moved out, with the horse carrying Gilbert and Gretel trailing behind.
It had been a long time since Gretel had been on a horse, and as Gilbert began to gallop at speed, she felt the nausea that had finally subsided begin to surge again.
However, she bit her lip until it bled, holding onto her consciousness.
‘It hasn’t been long.’
Considering the warmth left on the carriage seat and the fact that it wasn’t even dawn yet, it couldn’t have been long since Laviella disappeared.
‘…Paul did seem like the type who babbled nasty things about the child.’
It wasn’t clear how it happened, but if Laviella had truly managed to persuade the knight named Paul and succeed in escaping.
‘It might actually be better if she doesn’t come back.’
Rather than both of them being dragged tamely to the Capital and falling into the Marquis’s clutches, it might be better for Laviella alone to escape.
The Marquis’s main target was her, anyway.
‘Livi….’
Suddenly, Gretel’s jaw tightened.
Something even Gretel, an adult, couldn’t do—Laviella had managed the escape on her own.
‘She isn’t a child who would do something without thinking.’
Then, at the very least, she should not be a hindrance to the child’s plan.
Gretel resolved to interfere as much as possible so that they wouldn’t catch Laviella and the knight named Paul.
‘If it comes down to it….’
Her indigo eyes glanced back over her shoulder.
She looked coldly at the glittering sword hilt at Gilbert’s waist.
“Stop! Stop!”
Just then, an urgent voice came from the front of the group.
The knights hurriedly pulled their reins and brought their horses to a halt.
“What is it!”
Gilbert’s shout seemed to make Gretel’s whole body vibrate.
She frowned and looked at the knights who were milling about in confusion at the front.
‘Why are they acting like that?’
Then, a knight with a pale face shouted.
“The—the tracks have cut off! But… there’s a cliff ahead.”
“…What?”
The moment she heard those words, Gretel’s and Gilbert’s hands moved like lightning.
Thwack!
“Ugh…!”
Gretel, who had tried to snatch the sword hanging at Gilbert’s waist as soon as she heard the knight, had her wrist struck by him.
As Gretel groaned and dropped the sword, Gilbert pulled a handkerchief from his coat and stuffed it into her mouth to prevent her from biting her tongue.
He held onto the struggling Gretel and shouted.
“Seize the Young Miss!”
“Understood!”
Several knights hurriedly dismounted and took hold of Gretel.
After confirming they were holding her firmly, Gilbert dismounted and strode forward.
Relying on the light held by the knights beside him, he looked down at his feet.
Tumble—
As Gilbert nudged one foot forward, snow fell down the cliff with a rustling sound.
Lifting his gaze, another cliff sat at a distance that seemed difficult to jump across.
“Captain! Look here!”
A knight who had been searching for other nearby tracks called out to Gilbert.
Approaching to examine the spot the knight pointed to, there were faint claw marks.
“…Wolves.”
“It certainly… seems like it. More than one or 두 found footprints nearby as well. They probably fell while being chased by a pack of wolves….”
The knight clicked his tongue as if it were a pity.
However, Gilbert still seemed bothered by something; he stared at the claw marks with a furrowed brow before shouting.
“Bring more torches!”
At his command, the knights holding torches scrambled to gather around Gilbert.
“…….”
Gilbert squinted his eyes, staring intently at the opposite cliff.
After scanning the cliff with a sharp gaze for a while, he finally clicked his tongue and waved his hand to dismiss the torches.
“There don’t seem to be any notable tracks on the other side.”
“Th—then what do we do?”
“If they fell from this height, they’re either dead or at least injured enough that they can’t move immediately. There doesn’t seem to be a way down right now, either….”
Gilbert glanced back.
Gretel was struggling in the hands of the knights, staring toward the cliff with bloodshot eyes.
If one were human, no matter how much humanity they had lost, they wouldn’t dare meet the eyes of a parent who had just sensed their child’s death.
He couldn’t hold Gretel’s gaze for long and turned his head, lowering his voice.
“…If we linger, there’s no telling what the Young Miss might do, so we return to the Marquis’s estate as quickly as possible. Since the child is gone, we can save a lot of time if we push through the night.”
“As you command.”
As Gilbert and the knights prepared to return, Gretel struggled even more violently.
Gilbert considered knocking her out with a blow to the back of her neck, but fearing the Marquis’s reprimand if she were bruised, he threw her over his shoulder like a sack of luggage and began to walk.
“Mmph…!”
Tinkle—
Just then, the clear sound of a bell rang out from somewhere.
Gretel, who had been struggling desperately even while hanging over Gilbert’s shoulder, flinched in surprise.
But Gilbert and the knights simply kept walking as if they hadn’t heard a thing.
‘Was it a hallucination?’
But it felt too strange to just ignore.
Gretel forced strength into her neck and lifted her head.
And there, beyond her blurry vision.
“…!”
Between the leaves swaying in the night wind. A green ribbon with a yellow bell fluttered like a leaf, catching her sight for a fleeting moment.
It was Laviella’s ribbon.
