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Chapter 8 : The First Step to Escape (1)
*****
Looking around, she noticed that quite a few holy knights were moving in groups as if it wasn't an illusion.
When she visited before, I don't think she'd ever been like this before.....
Regina, who was looking at them with a curious mind, spoke to a passerby just in time.
“Hey, I’m sorry, but is there something wrong today?”
When she asked while looking at the crowd holy knights, a woman who looked like a believer followed her gaze and looked at them. She nodded her head lightly, as if she knew what she was talking about.
"Oh, that one. You know, that thing."
There certainly seemed to be something. As if she is talking about a very famous rumor, seeing it's referred to 'that thing'.
Regina tilted her head as if asking what she was talking about, the woman put her face in her ear, and she whispered.
"Haven't you heard? Rumor has it that someone is selling holy water outside the temple."
For a moment, she felt like someone hit her on the head. The dim pink eyes opened wide.
"Holy water?"
Her heart tightened with tension, and she almost stuttered without realizing it. She barely got past that, but this time the tip of her voice trembled a little.
“They say they change the appearance to a tea and sell it, but the contents inside are like holy water, or something like that.”
The heart, which had fallen all the way to the stomach, now seemed to be stuck to the floor. No matter how you look at it, this was her story.
"So, so what do they do?"
Regina asked nervously as she looked at the holy knights walking somewhere, and the woman shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't know.
"I'm not sure about that either. Well, won't they find out who the seller is?"
No, that was a no-no.
If they found her as the supplier, it was likely that the fact would be revealed to all. That way, apart from letting others know, Arsene will find out that she is setting up personal funds.
She had to stop that. If he knew, it was clear that she would fall over before she could even run away.
Regina, who hurried outside, walked as if running to the carriage.
"Iz! Let's go back to the mansion now."
Iz made a puzzled expression at her appearance, which seemed a little urgent. Because of what she saw in the temple, there was a stark difference between when she entered and when she came out.
However, as requested by Regina, they quickly headed for the Duke of Greroy mansion.
The door of the carriage stopped, the front door opened, and she came out as if she was vomiting. Iz's hand, which was trying to open the door, wandered in the air as she unexpectedly got off first.
Regina went up the stairs almost like flying. She arrived upstairs more easily than usual, probably thanks to her recent training in swordsmanship and her stamina.
"Miss?"
Even Sally was taken aback by the sight of her rushing as if she was about to come in. Her eyes followed the movement of her fluttering dark hair.
Returning to the room and heading to the inner dress room, Regina immediately picked up her cloak. She was thinking of going to see Ella.
Regina was going to stop selling the potion for the time being. She had to hold her breath at least until this disturbance went away.
"I'll be right back."
She looked at Sally standing in her room and raised her index finger to her mouth. She meant to make sure that no one entered the room while she was out, and that if they were looking for them, she should not say that she went out.
Sally nodded, her round eyes flickering.
Relieved, Regina put on her cloak, took Sally's ID, and left the mansion.
It hadn't been that long since she started selling the potion, but she didn't expect the temple to notice it already.
Her planned funds had not yet been met, so she could not escape as she was unprepared. She was due to leave soon, but she seemed to have to adjust her schedule a bit.
Regina rented a carriage from the rental shop and drove it to Ella's pharmacy.
"Please drop me off here."
As she got off the main road near there, she moved as quietly as possible, but as fast as she could. Her impatience and nervousness were revealed in her footsteps.
If the medicine room seemed to have been caught by the temple, she was going to recommend Ella to stay away for a while.
As she walked to Ella pharmacy, with a thousand thoughts running through her head, she turned the corner of the alley and stopped suddenly.
'Even?'
Arsene's aide, Even, was right in front of her. Fortunately, he could not find her thanks to a reflex step back.
His eyes looked around the corner to make sure, then he opens the door and enters the building. She was not mistaken.
'Why does Even go into Ella's pharmacy?'
Her heart skipped a beat with strange anxiety. Her feet didn't move as if they were stuck to the floor.
However, doing this here did not resolve her doubts.
She took a deep breath and made up her mind and approached Ella's medicine room. Of course, she did not go in, but stuck to the wall near the window and looked inside.
"The temple noticed."
"Already? That's pretty fast. Why is it so fast?"
The street itself was not that good and neat, so the sound from the inside was heard dimly through the sloppy window.
Ella and Even were facing each other and talking.
Regina doubted her ears for a moment with their conversation.
They seemed quite acquainted. Ella and Even? What kind of connection is there between them?
No way. She hopes it can't be.
Her pink eyes trembled mercilessly.
"The lord said it would be better to stop selling for a while."
Regina was dazed. She prepared for the shock that hit her, but it was a tidal wave that was difficult to handle.
From those words, she knew that the lord was not the lord, which means the emperor.
She mean, Arsene knew that she had been selling the special medicine.
"For a while...."
Regina heard their conversation with her ears, but she couldn't interpret it in her head.
However, for a moment, Evan's voice, which was continuing to talk, suddenly stopped.
Regina, who stopped breathing at the same time, left immediately without hesitation in the sensation of standing on edge like a beast's instinct.
As she pushed her cloak deeper, passing the road between the buildings and moving away from the pharmacy, she could hear the door opening from behind. Her senses were right. Perhaps if she had stayed there, Even would have found her.
She grabbed a heart that was about to pop out of her mouth and completely moved away from it. Her mental health, which was still damaged, has not recovered.
She doesn't know what kind of spirit she came back to, but she was facing Sally's light blue eyes. Sally was watching her strange condition with concern.
"Are you all right, miss?"
Normally, she would have formally nodded her head, but she couldn't even do that now. Her stiff neck refused to agree.
"I'll be alone for a moment."
Sally left the tea. Regina, who sat in front of her, looked at the tea cup containing herbal tea with shaking eyes.
All sorts of thoughts dominated her.
'Since when did you know Arsene? Did you know that I was planning a runaway? Why did you let them secretly create personal funds? But Ella, talking to Even...'
Like a snapshot, the scene of Ella and Even having a friendly conversation flashed through her mind.
At first she thought she was a nice person to help her.....
'Ella was Arsene's person?'
Realizing that again made her feel like all the time had been denied.
Doesn't that mean that all the actions and words she showed were calculated?
When she learned the truth, everyone around her began to become suspicious. From the closest one.
'Can I trust Sally?'
She had revealed all her actions to her without any awareness until now. She thought she was her own, since she had brought her from Blois house.
But now that the person she thought had nothing to do with Arsene turned out to be his subordinate, she wasn't sure if she would be innocent...
Arsene knew she was saving money by selling special medicine. Then whether he knew about her escape plan, it made her nervous.
'Do I have to run away right now?'
She wasn't ready, but her mind was on edge and it was hard for her to wait any longer.
Now it seemed that securing funds through Ella would be even worse. All that movement goes into Arsene's ear.
Her troubled mind had driven her half out of her mind, but she had thought that in front of Arsene she should not show it off. So she acted as usual as possible, but as a result, she couldn't avoid his gaze, which was as dense as a spider's web.
"What's wrong, Regina?"
The purple eyes that looked anxiously at her looked really sincere.
But when she found out that he had been cheating on her all this time, she couldn't believe it either. Now she felt as if she had been beaten in reverse while trying to hit him in the back of the head.
She even pretended to be in love, and she tried to catch him off guard, but before she did anything in earnest she was caught.
If doubts sprout once, they remain vigilant and suspicious even in other situations later. It was that if she lied once, she wondered if she would lie again the next time.
Knowing that she was raising personal funds behind him, it seemed that whatever she did next, it would be difficult to avoid suspicious glances.
But why did he leave it alone?
Why didn't he yell at herself that he knew everything?
She had no idea what the hell he was thinking.
Regina looked up at him with confused eyes and shook her head.
"No, nothing happened."
Arsene may not believe this, but she denied it for now.
As expected, his worried expression was still there. Even in the middle of this, it was a little dumbfounded to see a handsome face in her eyes.
"I'm a little tired today, so I'll go to bed early."
She chose to go back to her room before the conversation with him continued. He didn't catch her as she walked away.
Being exhausted due to the heavy mental exhaustion, she lay in bed and sighed.
It seemed like a long day.
The special medicine that used the healing ability was taken by the temple, and it was learned that Ella, who believed in it, was a person from Arsene, and was being deceived by the person she thought was deceived.
A deep sense of exhaustion engulfed her from her fingertips.
She struggled to keep her spirit from slowly drifting away from her. Yes, she might as well have gone to sleep and forgot about it for a while.
Her pink spinel-like eyes disappeared under her eyelids.
*****
Regina, who opened her eyes again in the dark, rose from her bed.
She sat in a daze with a half-asleep mind, then turned her head and looked out the window. The sky was dark, as if it were a deep dawn.
When she thought about why she woke up, she became thirsty. She wanted a drink of water. It seemed to be caused by her stress and her eating recklessly.
However, it was too much to call the maid by pulling the rope now.
Thinking so in her sleep, she got out of bed and walked to the door. She could feel the texture of the carpet on her bare feet.
Quietly she opened the door, and she went out to the hallway and headed for the stairs. She was thinking of going to the kitchen and drink some water.
Her whole body felt languid, and the hallway where she stepped slowly was filled with moonlight.
However, the moment she breathed in, a familiar yet unfamiliar smell filled her nostrils.
She've smelled it before, It's–
Rattle.
A black figure stood in front of her over there.
At his feet he painted a dark picture of a puddle that made a muddy sound.
That black figure lazily turned his head and looked at her, as if he had known her existence long before.
"Oh, dear."
A familiar and unfamiliar voice flowed softly. The puddle that had soaked his feet slowly spread.
"This isn't something I want you to see."
He moved slowly and stepped out under the moonlight.
The soft light that poured divinely and touched on the platinum hair made him mysterious.
"You should have slept more, Regina."
Covered in the blood, he took a step closer to her. She couldn't say anything and just looked at him.
Is this an illusion seen in sleep? Or is she still dreaming?
Amidst the suffocating smell of blood, his purple eyes shone brightly.
The moment he pulled his lips and smiled, like a lightning she realized that it was real.
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