Chapter 2

So when she grew older and Ritter asked about her plan to leave the mansion and pursue her dream, she told him everything without the slightest suspicion.

“I’ll help with your plan. I have access to more information than you, after all. Wouldn’t that be useful?”

“What? But… wouldn’t that put you in trouble?”

“It’s fine.”

Seeing her hesitation, Ritter spoke firmly.

“Honestly, I’ve always felt sorry for you.”

“…For me?”

“Yes. I wanted to help you.”

Unlike her bewildered expression, Ritter smiled like a true prince from a fairy tale.

“Just wait a little longer, my princess.”

“…I’m not a princess. I’m a noble lady.”

“Alright then, my lady. Will you grant this belated prince a chance?”

With his repeated persuasion, Beatty eventually shared everything with him—where she had secretly stashed her savings, how she planned to slip past the mansion guards, which merchant caravan she would join once she got out, and finally—

“…So when do you plan to leave?”

“I have to wait until I’m a full adult to properly conceal my Signum. On my coming-of-age day.”

Even the exact timing of her escape.

***

And finally, the day before her coming-of-age ceremony.

Everything was in place.

That night, when Ritter came to see her one last time before she left, Beatty was ready.

“Come here.”

“Hm?”

“It’s our last time seeing each other.”

With his arms wide open and a grin on his face, he spoke as if asking for a farewell hug.

Feeling slightly embarrassed, Beatty smiled and hugged him.

“Take care of yourself.”

“…”

He didn’t respond.

“Ritter? You should say some—”

Bite!

A strange sensation brushed against her neck, and Beatty abruptly shoved him away.

‘Did… did Ritter just bite me?’

A burning pain flared from her neck.

“Cough!”

Before she could even process what had happened, she coughed up a mouthful of something thick and metallic.

‘Blood…?’

Her body convulsed with unfamiliar pain. In a trembling voice, she called out,

“Ritter…?”

When she looked up at him, he was smiling.

Just like always.

As if nothing had happened.

As if she was imagining it.

‘Oh… maybe I misunderstood—’

“What’s taking so long? Is it not done yet?”

A voice.

Beatty’s eyes snapped wide open.

‘No…! How?!’

That voice shouldn’t be here.

Her aunt—Pirina.

Ritter had told her he had taken care of everything.

“You said… my aunt wouldn’t be home today?”

“Oh, that?”

Ritter turned to look at her, his usual sweet smile in place.

“I lied.”

“!”

Beatty’s vision wavered violently.

As her aunt stepped inside, she did something unthinkable.

Instead of treating Ritter as an outsider or even with hostility—she walked right up to him, like an old acquaintance.

“As if I wouldn’t get along with the one I personally introduced to His Highness.”

Noticing Beatty’s horrified stare, Pirina smirked, elegantly fanning herself.

The woman who had locked her away.

The one person she had trusted.

‘They… were in it together?’

“Ritter! Since when—cough, cough!”

Beatty tried to scream, but she couldn’t even finish her sentence.

Blood poured from her lips, soaking her hands and dripping down her arms.

She couldn’t breathe.

Her throat felt blocked, as if something was stopping the air from rising.

Crash!

Her legs gave out, and she crumpled to the floor.

More and more blood spilled from her lips, pooling beneath her.

‘It hurts… Someone, please… help me…’

She didn’t even know who she was pleading to.

“Khugh—”

Through the haze of pain, she barely managed to turn her head.

Her friend—the one she had thought was her friend—was standing beside her.

‘Ritter…?’

As if to comfort her, he reached toward her.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”

But instead of helping, he grabbed her wrist.

And tried to rip out her Signum.

“This is the most valuable thing, after all.”

Of course, she knew that a beastkin’s Signum was more valuable than the highest-grade mana stones.

But…

‘Even now…?’

The friend she had trusted for years—the person she had planned her escape with—was trying to steal from her while she lay dying.

‘Ritter… you bastard…!’

Even as her strength drained from her body, rage surged inside her.

“I’m on your side.”

She had believed that.

‘If only I had known sooner… what kind of person he really was!’

If she had known, she never would have fallen for his honeyed words.

Her teeth clenched.

‘That… that traitor… I can’t die without getting back at him!’

It was infuriating.

She had saved and prepared for years, yet now she would die without ever escaping.

All that money. All that effort. Wasted.

‘If I had escaped… if I had found my freedom…’

Her whole world had always been confined to a cage.

The regret weighed down on her even as her body grew colder.

Her vision darkened, shrinking at the edges.

‘I wanted… to go far… so far away…’

As she envisioned the dream she would never reach—Beatty closed her eyes.

And everything faded to black.

***

And now.

The sensation of her body turning to stone, the agony of dying, was still vivid.

Yet, standing in front of her was that same boy, extending his hand with an innocent smile, as if he knew nothing.

“Shall we introduce ourselves again? I am Ritter Astrum, the Second Prince of the Astrum Kingdom.”

Beatty stared at that outstretched hand, lost in thought.

Back then… I blushed and took that hand, didn’t I?

She had been so thrilled to have a friend her age for the first time.@@novelbin@@

Without knowing what kind of monster he really was.

The image of his hand reaching for her Signum, trying to tear it from her dying body, overlapped with the small hand before her now.

Unlike before, when it had been larger, stronger—now it was just a child's.

“…”

Beatty looked down.

Her hands were small again, just like his.

“Young Miss?”

Without hesitation, she raised her tiny hand—

Smack!

“KYAAA! Your Highness!”

A clean, satisfying slap landed on his wretched, deceitful face.

The sharp impact stung her palm in the best possible way.

“What—What the hell was that for?!”

Pirina screeched, nearly choking on her own breath.

“What in the—”

Ritter’s mouth hung open in shock.

Inside, she could see them—those venomous fangs.

The very ones that sank into my throat.

Just the memory of it sent her blood boiling again.

Beatty clenched her tiny fist, her maple-leaf-sized hand trembling with fury.

Thud!

I’ll break those damn fangs!

Determined to shatter his teeth completely, she rained down another punch. Then another. And another.

The entire room erupted into chaos.

“ACK!”

“Kyaaah! Guards! What are you idiots standing around for?!”

“Y-Your Highness!”

His stunned guards, finally snapping out of their stupor, rushed forward and grabbed the wild child swinging at the prince.

“We’ve secured her!”

“Hold her down! This insolent little—today, she must be disciplined—”

Hah!

Ignoring her aunt’s shrill shouting, Beatty tensed her body.

Poof!

In an instant, a cloud of smoke engulfed her.

“What? Where did she—?”

The guard, who had just been holding her by the arm, blinked in confusion.

Scurry scurry!

A small shadow darted out of the smoke.

“!”

Pirina, who had been keeping a sharp eye on her, gasped and pointed with a trembling finger.

“There! That little rat—catch her!”

Hah. I’m a squirrel, thank you very much.

Fwip!

With a snort, Beatty shot toward the window.

The window was high, but the ornate carvings along the frame provided plenty of footholds.

Easy.

Scaling it in her squirrel form was effortless.

Leaping out, she dashed straight through the garden.

“Stop right there!”

Pirina’s furious shrieks rang behind her, but she didn’t stop.

“You fool! Do you think you’ll survive out there?!”

The usual insults.

“You’ll be caught and sold at an auction, and by then, it’ll be too late to regret it!”

The curses disguised as warnings.

“Come back this instant!”

The sharp, commanding orders.

The chains that had bound her for so long.

Beatty never once looked back.

She kept running.

Kept running until her aunt’s voice faded into nothing.

***

Clink.

Something rolled in her mouth.

“Ptuh.”

Spitting it out, she looked down at the tiny white tooth.

“…Ha!”

With a disbelieving chuckle, Ritter let out a dry laugh.

Sure, it was already a loose baby tooth…

But no matter how he spun it, getting a tooth knocked out by a girl his age was a humiliation he couldn’t ignore.

Grind.

Clenching his jaw only made the missing space in his mouth feel even more obvious, deepening his irritation.

That little brat from the duke’s family…

He had tried to treat her nicely, but from the very first meeting, she had crossed a line.