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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: The Reason for That Feeling, I Don't Know. (2)
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The dress shop run by a famous designer was spacious and lavish. Isabel seemed to be a regular, as the owner greeted her with a beaming smile.
"Today, I didn't come to buy something for myself, but for her."
"Oh, and who might this distinguished young lady be?"
"She's my younger sister."
"Ah. Your sister..."
The shop owner seemed surprised that the House of Hern had another daughter, but he didn't press for details.
"It's for the festival, so blue. It needs to be the most extravagant. I'll buy shoes to match the dress too. And all the accessories, so arrange those while they take her measurements. Oh, and she's still growing rapidly, so make it one size larger."
Isabel gave instructions as if accustomed to such matters. While the female staff came to take Ariana's measurements, Isabel flipped through catalogs, showing Ariana pretty dresses whenever she found one.
"This style would suit you well too. Oh, this one's pretty. This one's too mature for you... How about something like this?"
Isabel looked as pleased as if she were buying a dress for herself.
BOOM—! BANG—!
A massive explosion, powerful enough to shake the ground, echoed from the street just as her measurements were nearly complete.
"I will go out and check."
As soon as the guard knight standing at the shop entrance stepped outside, a shout was heard.
"Who's there!"
Clang—! Clank—!
The sound of swords clashing.
"Ugh."
Someone's groan.
The people inside the shop screamed and scattered in all directions. Isabel gripped Ariana's hand tightly, glaring at the shop door as she backed away.
Slam—!
The person who opened the shop door and entered was not the guard knight. It was three masked men, wielding swords that dripped with blood. One of them seemed to have been injured fighting the knight, as his arm was bleeding heavily.
Ariana's eyes met those of the man at the front.
Ariana's heart sank.
'The Western Duke sent people!'
While life at Chase Castle had been comfortable, she hadn't been unprepared for such a situation. But she hadn't expected it to happen precisely today, while she was out with Isabel. It was faster than anticipated.
'They must have been told to bring me alive if possible, and kill me if not. Think. Panicking won't do any good. There's a way out. Figure it out, Ariana.'
If she tried to fight here, Isabel might get hurt.
'It's better to go along willingly. They won't expect me to have hidden weapons, so I can seize an opportunity to stab them and escape.'
Being a young girl with a frail-looking body meant she could lull her enemies into complacency. The self-defense techniques Cyrus had taught her, while not perfect, could at least create an opportunity to escape.
"Sister, run!"
But Isabel did something Ariana hadn't expected.
"Who are you? Do you even know who I am, daring to do this?"
Isabel raised an arm, pushing Ariana behind her as she spoke.
Isabel shed her usual image of a spoiled noble lady, becoming a warrior with chilling eyes.
Cyrus's words came to mind: 'Even the women in the Eastern Territory are exceptional warriors.'
The masked man spoke.
"We have no business with you. We don't wish to create unnecessary casualties, so if you want to live, step aside."
"In that case, I'll gladly step aside."
As Isabel gripped Ariana's hand and began to retreat, the masked man spoke.
"Leave the girl."
"Ah, so you're assassins sent from the Western Territory? Daring to come all the way into the Eastern Territory to abduct my sister—you've got a lot of nerve."
The masked man flinched at Isabel's words. The masked man standing behind him raised his sword.
"If she knows our identity, we must kill that girl."
Just as the masked man was about to lunge, Ariana cried out.
"Wait!"
Ariana held the tip of a hidden dagger to her own throat. The masked man, who had been about to charge, froze and glared at Ariana.
"You were promised a greater reward if you brought me back alive, weren't you? If you lay a hand on this girl, I will die right here."
"It's a bluff. Kill her."
Ariana mercilessly pricked her own neck with the dagger. The tip of the blade pierced her skin, and blood trickled down her pale throat.
"Wait!"
The masked man behind him shouted.
"If you take that girl alive, it's double."
"Hurry, the knights are coming."
At the words of the masked man keeping watch, the masked men inside cursed and sheathed their swords. Ariana also lowered her dagger. As Ariana walked towards the masked men of her own accord, Isabel grabbed her.
"No, Ariana."
Ariana embraced Isabel tightly and whispered softly.
"Sister, once they have me, they'll kill you. While I go with them, you escape through the back door and alert others."
"But..."
"They won't chase you, so this is how both of us can survive."
Ariana released Isabel and spun around. At the same moment, she heard Isabel turn and run.
A masked man roughly grabbed Ariana by her hair.
"The young girl used her head."
Ariana, with her blue eyes, stared back at the masked man fearlessly.
"Won't I be enough? If you all return alive, the testimony of that young girl won't serve as any evidence at all."
If, as Ariana said, all the assassins returned alive, Isabel's testimony would only sound like a baseless accusation against the Western Duke.
Moreover, since the assassins were not from the Western Territory, even if they died here and left bodies, it wouldn't be proof that the Western Duke had sent them.
The assassins took only Ariana and left the scene.
+++
Her mouth and eyes were covered, and her wrists and ankles were bound as she was loaded onto something. From the hard floor, the damp smell, and the sound of movement, it seemed to be a cargo wagon.
Ariana was wrapped in a thick blanket, making it hard to breathe. Bundles, seemingly for disguise, rolled around, bumping into Ariana.
'They must be planning to disguise themselves as peddlers and leave through the city gate. The Western Duke truly leaves no openings.'
She didn't think Rachel would have sent assassins. Only the Western Duke would boldly undertake something that could, with one wrong move, escalate into an international incident.
The assassins sent by the Western Duke seemed to be operating as a group.
'They must have caused a commotion outside to separate me from the guard knight and dealt with him first. Without an escort, capturing just me wouldn't be difficult.'
Ariana swallowed a sigh.
'Such a thing happens when I haven't even properly proven myself yet...'
One of the family's guard knights was dead, and Isabel had almost died too. Even if they cast her aside, thinking her a nuisance, she would have no room to complain.
Her chest felt heavy. She felt drained, as if all her careful actions until now had been in vain, but she steeled her resolve.
'I expected something like this.'
Cyrus, who would appear from somewhere to help whenever such things happened, would likely be in the Northern Territory by now. But Ariana had a few techniques he had imparted to her.
- "It seems your life won't be smooth, so I'll teach you how to easily escape if you ever get kidnapped."
His languid way of speaking came to mind, and for some reason, she found herself smiling despite the situation. As his arrogant gaze, which used to look down on Ariana, reappeared in her memory, she felt her lost strength inexplicably return.
- "If you pass out before you're tied up, it's useless. So if you can't avoid being kidnapped, it's better to just let yourself be captured and stay alert. That way, escaping will be easier."
Ariana checked the feel of the ropes against her palms.
When they were tying Ariana up, she, as Cyrus had taught her, curled the end of the rope into a loop and gripped it. Fortunately, the men were in a hurry and didn't notice Ariana tampering with the ropes.
"Hurry, we need to get out before the city gate closes."
Listening to the voices from outside the wagon, Ariana released the tightly gripped rope. She twisted her wrists back and forth, and the tightly bound ropes loosened.
The rough ropes chafed her wrists, leaving marks, but she grit her teeth and pulled her wrists free.
'I have to escape before we leave the city gates.'
With her freed hands, she pulled off her blindfold and removed the gag from her mouth.
Next, she tried to untie the ropes binding her ankles, but they were tied so tightly that they wouldn't come loose easily. The dark, rattling space made it even more difficult.
Even as she struggled to undo the rope knots, the wagon kept moving.
'At this rate, we'll be out of the city gates soon.'
If they left the city gates, even if she escaped from the wagon, she wouldn't be able to hope for help. Nor could she simply throw off the cargo wagon's cover and scream.
'If I scream here, those bastards will kill me and flee before anyone can come to help.'
Therefore, she had to get out of the cargo wagon when she was capable of escaping on her own.
Suddenly, it occurred to her that they hadn't searched her. Perhaps because the situation was urgent, they had put Ariana directly into the cargo wagon without searching her body.
'Ah, right. I have that.'
On her way to the Eastern Territory, she had purchased a few more small daggers that could be hidden on her person. This was in preparation for situations like today.
The assassins must have been complacent, assuming Ariana only had one dagger.
The dagger hidden in the inner pocket of her voluminous skirt was small, palm-sized, but sharp enough to cut through ropes. Ariana pushed aside the blanket wrapped around her and crawled towards the seam of the cargo wagon's cover.
Peeking through a small gap, she saw that they were still within the city. They seemed to have left the bustling district, as buildings were sparse.
'Did Isabel call for help?'
Isabel was Count White's daughter, so knights would surely be mobilized.
'There must be at least five assassins.'
One person caused the explosion, three entered the shop, and one prepared the wagon. That's at least five people, even by a conservative estimate.
'Even if it was a sudden attack, the fact that they easily dealt with the White family's guard knight means they must be highly skilled. They'd quickly notice even the slightest movement if I tried to jump out of this wagon.'
In that case, she had to escape at a place where there were people capable of definitively dealing with these assassins. There were guard posts at each city gate, so there would be several soldiers stationed there.
'Averster told me to alert the guard post if I needed his help. That means not only regular soldiers but also knights are stationed there.'
Therefore, her escape should be at the moment they neared the city gate.
Ariana used her dagger to cut the rope securing the seam of the cargo wagon's cover. She kept her eyes on the outside, ready to escape at any moment.
After what felt like an eternity to Ariana, she heard the voice of an assassin driving the wagon.
"What's with all these knights...? Has word already reached this far?"
"Impossible. No matter how fast that escaped girl was, the knights would only just be starting to move."
"Stay calm. The Eastern Territory isn't harsh on merchants, so as long as we don't act suspiciously, we should be able to get through easily."
"Right, trying to talk our way out here would only make us look more suspicious."
The wagon was moving slower than before but continued onward.
Ariana counted to three silently, then threw back the wagon's cover and leaped out.
