62. With Enough time to cool down (2)

Wearing a black suit, Joshua led the dance elegantly in front of her.  For some reason, she felt empty. So-hee soothed herself by hoping that Kelly’s love story would have a happy ending. If Kelly was really the culprit who killed her child, she couldn’t wish her happiness anymore. That may be why she felt a mixture of displeasure and emptiness while watching that scene now. ‘The woman who might have killed my child looked happy. That’s all,’ Sohee thought. As she looked at the well-matched couple, she got confused by the thoughts filling her head. So So-hee turned to another place, albeit belatedly. When she tried to turn her gaze, unfortunately, there was Charles Endro, whom she had been avoiding. So-hee tried to hide her existence by lowering her head, but it was too late.

“My Lady, I’ve been looking for you for a long time. Here you are!” He stretched out his gloved left hand forward. “Please dance with me.”

With an ambiguous smile, So-hee had no choice but to hold his hand. The song changed they moved to the center of the hall. On the contrary, some men and women dancing earlier seemed to be escaping. Among them were Kelly and Joshua. As they passed each other, it seemed that Joshua’s red eyes had brushed against So-hee. So-hee tried hard to ignore his gaze and walked away casually. Even though the cool gaze looking at her was unfamiliar, it wasn’t unbearable.

* * *

The ball lasted two days. Therefore, the nobles living outside the fortress spent their schedules in accommodations provided inside. So-hee left the building while waiting for night to come. She turned her hooded long robe over to cover her exposed purple hair. The place where she walked for a long time was the entrance to the crown prince’s palace. She couldn’t get in because of the knights guarding it but she repeatedly stood in front of them. She came recklessly for now but there was no way to get in. She looked shabby as she mimicked the clothes of employees working here as much as possible. However, it wasn’t certain it would deceive the knights. After so much hesitation, So-hee eventually took her foot off.

“Who are you?” In the end, she was caught without passing the entrance as expected. So-hee hid her face as much as possible with a cloth wrapped around her head and altered her voice. “I’m Mary, working at the Crown Prince’s Palace.”

“Mary?” He asked. The man seemed to think of something before he blocked her path again.

“Mary, you said you were going to the forest a few minutes ago to pick raspberries, but did you come already?”

“What? Raspberries at this hour?” So-hee muttered without realizing it. Gradually, the man’s eyes narrowed and there was a sign of doubt in him. Subsequently, something more difficult happened in the awkward atmosphere. The wind suddenly blew and the hood that So-hee was wearing over her head came off. When she tried to put her hood on again, her purple hair had already been revealed. Hers was the only hair color in the city of Latvea.

“Lady Ariad?” When their eyes met, So-hee smiled awkwardly and slowly backed away. “Alright. Mary went to the forest, right?”

“Excuse me, Lady Ariad!”

“I’ll get going, too!”

“It’s not that way, it’s on the right!”

“Oh, it’s the right. Haha! Thank you.”

The knight shouted from behind as she widened the distance while moving away.

So-hee ran around like that and tried to think positively. She finally figured out where Mary was. Now the key was how to find Mary in that big forest. It was much easier to have a conversation if she was alone in a place other than the Crown Prince’s Palace. When she walked as the knight told her, she found the way to the forest. So-hee clasped the lantern in front of her. The road to enter was better than she thought, but when she saw the dense forest at night, she became afraid. Perhaps, it would be better to wait at the entrance without having to go in.

“Argh!”

The familiar screams rang out in the distance. So-hee suddenly came to her senses and turned her head.

“Mary?”

It was clearly Mary’s voice. It wasn’t a sound she could hear in front of her nose, but it wasn’t that far away either. So-hee eventually shouted as she entered the forest path. “Mary! Are you there by any chance?”

It was strangely quiet after that scream as if it had never been heard in the first place. So-hee called the name again and again, but the only thing returning was its echoes when she walked for a long time relying on only the small light from the lamp. It was terribly quiet, and her hearing gradually became acute. Her ears naturally turned toward the sounds that she wouldn’t normally hear. The sound of owls, grass bugs, plants swaying in the wind, and———

*RUSTLE*

Footsteps following her footsteps. So-hee’s breath gradually narrowed in tension. And, apparently, someone was after her.