Chapter 3

Wanting to Escape (2)

“Hey, it’s an attack! What the hell is this?!”

The High Priest jumped and screamed.

His face was tinged with astonishment as he saw the poison dart on my back.

“Who dares to hurt me! Servant of the highest god!”

I stretched my back and sighed.

The darts weren’t aimed at the High Priest, but at Ian Wade, but he seemed to get it wrong.

Actually, his reasoning was reasonable, since there were more enemies of the High Priest than of Ian.

“It’s certainly the work of the atheists!”

Atheist terrorism was also so common that it seemed possible.

Because of that, Ian led the knights and even escorted them.

“God will not forgive you!”

I didn’t expect such a misunderstanding, but it was a very ‘oh right’ moment.

The more people thought of it as a terrorist attack on the High Priest, the better.

The more that happens, the more Reid and I would move away from the line of suspicion.

I quickly scanned Ian’s body as the High Priest poured out his anger.

Fortunately, not a single dart passed through Ian.

“Annabelle Nadit? What is this?”

Ian’s red eyes looking at me were filled with astonishment.

“Well, it would have been a big deal if the High Priest got hit, but for a swordsman who handles swordsmanship, it’s no big deal.”

I said coldly without looking at him properly.

“There was nothing wrong with my movement.”

It was only natural that I had already eaten a lot of the antidote.

“Then goodbye.”

Now that no one was hurt, I had hoped that they would bury this incident.

“Aren’t you Annabelle Nadit?”

As I was about to leave, the High Priest suddenly grabbed my hand.

“I understand you were second in the last two swordsmanship competitions. God bless you for saving me.”

The High Priest’s eyes were shining brightly.

I answered bluntly with a bunch of poison darts in my back.

“I just did what I had to do.”

“No, but this kind of favor…”

The High Priest, who was about to retire due to his age, was so moved that he could not speak.

“I even asked the Knights of Duke Wade to escort me, but you, without any responsibility, came forward and made a sacrifice like that…”

Since I’ve started lying, I might as well end it beautifully.

“I respect the High Priest so much that I couldn’t just sit still and watch.”

The High Priest, even more impressed by those words, grabbed my hand.

“The temple will surely repay you no matter what!”

“Thank you.”

I thought it would be nice if I could be given some money, so I answered quickly.

Still, I had to try my best to pretend that I didn’t notice Ian’s hot gaze on my face.

“Then I’ll get going now…”

I was about to disappear into the crowd again, but Ian jumped off the black horse and caught me urgently.

“Something’s strange.”

A cold sweat ran down my back at the sound of his voice.

But I asked with my eyes wide open.

“What?”

“You, who had been silent for a few days, suddenly appeared now.”

After reminiscing about my past life, I stopped visiting him.

“Let me go!”

I didn’t have anything to say, so I got angry and shook off his arm.

“And you did something that helped me.”

In fact, it wasn’t something I would normally do at all.

“Hey, don’t get me wrong! I didn’t really help you!”

But his eerie words continued.

“More than anything, the strangest thing is…”

His red eyes flashed.

“You always said harsh things when you looked at me. There’s no way you’re backing down so quietly. What the hell are you up to? Tell me right now.”

Ah! I forgot the most important thing.

In the original story, I would have already poured out all sorts of curses.

I couldn’t just show my sudden change!

It would have been disgraceful to have been trampled on by the tail for no reason.

“Ha, I tried to be patient in front of people…”

But my mindset toward him had already changed.

Ian didn’t do anything wrong to me, and my desire to win disappeared.

I had a guilty conscience from swearing before for no reason.

Along with the memory of my past life, I decided not to swear vulgarly again so I wouldn’t add more shame and hopefully regain some dignity.

So, I threw an appropriate level of bad words in his face.

“I hope you find half of a cockroach while eating a sandwich! And you better avoid pigeons that fly around your head or else it will give you parasites!”

Ian’s face distorted miserably.

Aaron, the pink-haired lieutenant who was standing next to him, blew air into his cheeks to hold back his laughter.

Anyways, Ian had to keep escorting the High Priest’s procession, so he couldn’t hold onto me for too long.

‘Now, we have passed the first obstacle like this.’

I turned back proudly and mingled among the people.

~*~

After the High Priest’s escort was over, Ian returned to the residence of Duke Wade, and he sat still while deep in thought.

Aaron, who came to report the knights’ affairs, said with a smile.

“Ian.”

“What.”

“Are you thinking of Miss Annabelle?”

“Shut up.”

“I think it’s true.”

Aaron’s dark blue eyes shone roundly, and Ian chose not to respond.

In fact, Aaron was right. He only thought of Annabelle during the escort.

There was actually one more atheist terror attack on the way back from the imperial palace to the temple, so the poison darts incident was just buried away.

However, Ian could not let that slide as it was.

It was very weird. Recalling the angle and direction from which the poison darts flew, it was reasonable to assume that it was aimed at him, not the High Priest.

That was even more bizarre.

But then why the hell would Annabelle take the dart for him?

Even though there were a lot of darts stuck in her back, she didn’t mind, so it was not a big deal, but…

“There are two possibilities that we can think about here.”

Aaron snuck in front of him and opened his mouth in a serious tone.

“First, the big picture to steal your credit, who escorted the High Priest, and shine.”

“No.”

Before he knew it, Ian, who focused on Aaron’s words, immediately answered.

“The old High Priest was moved, but it didn’t really increase Annabelle’s reputation.”

“Second.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows and said.

“I’m afraid she thought that it might not be fair on the day of the competition if Ian were injured!”

“No way.”

Ian shook his head.

“Anabelle and fair play don’t go together at all.”

“Anyway, don’t you appreciate it? Maybe you should thank her or something.”

“If it weren’t for Annabelle, I still would’ve avoided it.”

Perhaps, no matter how unlucky she was, she only skimmed one.

It didn’t seem to be very poisonous, so there was no need to thank her.

“But she hasn’t come at all for the past few days. It may have been a change of heart.”

There was silence for a moment at Aaron’s words, and finally Ian waved his hand in anger.

“Whatever. As always, just turn off your attention and live your life.”

“I am very curious.”

Aaron chuckled and laughed.

“The last insults were different from usual, it was too cute and even specific… You have to avoid pigeons and be careful of sandwiches.”

“Get out.”

“Such harsh words…”

“Won’t you get out now?”

After driving Aaron out, he went to bed later than usual.

Suddenly, Ian realized that the time he had been thinking of Annabelle for the past 22 years combined was less than how much he thought of her today.

‘It’s probably just a temporary whim.’

He tossed and turned and thought that as he went to bed.

When he closed his eyes, why did he get reminded of Annabelle with the poison darts on her back? The visual effect was too great to ignore.

The back with countless darts on it… and disappeared into the crowd.

Eventually, Ian jumped up and called a servant.

“What happened in the middle of the night…?”

“I need to know if Anabelle Nadit’s body is okay. Especially her back.”

“What? Now?”

“As soon as possible.”

He sat up completely, crossed his arms, and thought while sending the servant out.

‘It’s just a strange incident that just happened. There won’t be anything like this again, so let’s just make sure she’s safe and sound and not worry about it.’

~*~

“Are you really crazy? Why would you do that…”

“You have to thank me.”

Reid came to me after hearing the rumors, but I answered bluntly.

I drank the antidote beforehand and had already been secretly treated by a doctor, so I was completely fine.

“They were all ready to dodge with great reflexes. So, I got hit instead of being caught without any injuries.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’m in second place. I fought with Ian countless times. You don’t know, but I know.”

Being second in swordsmanship in the Empire was quite comfortable because it was too easy to bluff to someone other than Ian.

Reid, with his brown hair and brown eyes, was nothing like me.

He didn’t even have an ounce of talent in swordsmanship, so he couldn’t even handle them.

“Well, you can’t always succeed on the first try. Next time it will work.”

Reid didn’t seem to have any doubts about me because of the exhilarating discussion of what I thought would injure Ian.

“This is our last chance to lead a decent aristocracy. We must destroy Ian Wade at all costs.”

Yes, we were the only ones who were broken, but it was frustrating.

It was Reid who planned the whole thing and somehow, I needed to coax him to tell me the details so I could screw it up.

“So, what’s next?”

Reid answered triumphantly when I asked a subtle question.

“The day after tomorrow, the Hibiscus explosion we discussed, let’s blow it all up!”

I sighed inwardly.

If one of Ian’s nails were to fly away, we’d be in jail instantly.

In the end, I was the only one who could step up.