The Escort Knight Who Is Obsessed by the Villainess Wants to Escape - Chapter 24

Bang!

The door swung open violently.

Eliza, who had fallen over, looked flustered.

And the man who had been holding her hands earlier was there too.

My heart pounded as if it would burst, and my whole body felt hot.

The obscene conversation I heard inside had already snapped my rationality.

It wasn’t even a conversation.

It was a one-sided coercion.

Violence wielded through authority.

Does Eliza still lack the magical power to resist?

There was no time to think.

I just realized once again.

The world is disgustingly harsh to the weak.

They both turned to look at me.

I had overheard the man’s name.

Marquis Sardis. I didn’t know who he was.

It didn’t matter.

“Judas…?”

The moment Eliza spoke, I threw the lantern hanging by the door at Sardis.

“Ugh!”

Sardis reflexively raised his arm to block it.

Thanks to that, Eliza was freed from his grasp.

I didn’t stop and threw the bottle that was on the desk in front of him.

The liquid splashed onto Sardis.

I didn’t know what it was.

Judging by the surroundings, this seemed like a special laboratory.

There were beakers, flasks, oddly shaped herbs, and small bellows or furnaces.

So, I just hoped that the liquid wasn’t ordinary water.

“What the… Aaaagh-!”

The liquid got into Sardis’s eyes.

He screamed and staggered back.

“Aaaargh-! What is this? What did you throw at me?”

As hoped, it didn’t seem to be ordinary water.

Ignoring his frantic screams, I approached Eliza.

“My lady.”

“Judas…”

Eliza’s body was trembling slightly.

Tears streamed endlessly from her eyes.

And those eyes.

The original eye color, a red outline.

A burning orange trapped within.

A golden pupil, solidly shining at the center like a noble sun, resembling yellow.

This is a characteristic that appears when Eliza controls her fire.

‘The completed mad fire takes on a bright golden color… Eliza has awakened…’

The scattered pieces of the puzzle are put back together one by one.

The gears interlock and turn.

The accident when she was young. The awakening. Her birthday.

“Those bastards! Where are you-!”

Sardis’s shout brought me back to my senses.

“First, let’s get out of here.”

I recklessly grabbed Eliza’s hand and led her.

Her small hand was cold and soaked with sweat.

As I tried to take her to the door, a lantern came flying.

I quickly hugged Eliza and fell backward.

The lantern shattered against the door.

The kerosene inside spilled out.

The flames rose unrealistically high and then exploded.

Eliza and I were unharmed, but the door was blocked.

“Over there, are you….”

Sardis opened his eyes.

His bloodshot eyes were not normal.

Unable to see properly, he looked around slowly, like a snake searching for prey.

Eliza’s body trembled even more violently.

“Miss.”

I called her, suppressing my rapid breathing.

There’s no one else.

Only I can take her out of here now.

I have to do it.

I must keep my composure.

I must stay calm.

“Miss, look at me.”

I held her cheeks and fixed her gaze on me.

Her round face filled my view.

I spoke soothingly, meeting her tearful eyes straight on.

“We’re going to get out of here. Do you understand?”

She only looked at me with vibrating eyes.

Her small lips trembled uncontrollably.

I wrapped the red blanket I had around her neck.

It was hard to keep my hands from shaking.

“The weather is very cold today. You’ll feel better if you wear this.”

I said whatever came to mind.

Without waiting for a response, I placed the cat doll that was on the desk into her arms.

I tried hard to ignore Sardis’s frenzied screaming.

“Have you ever played hide-and-seek?”

“Yes….”

“From now on, I’m going to find you. So you have to hide well.”

I said as I hid her under a desk in the corner.

It didn’t make sense.

Playing hide-and-seek and I’m the one searching her, but I’m the one hiding her.

Neither Eliza nor I had the mental capacity to point out the contradiction.

“You have to stay here until I come to find you.”

Eliza nodded instead of answering, trembling.

The traces of awakening still lingered in her eyes.

It might be faster to kill Sardis with that.

Even if I get caught up in it and burn to death too.

Why didn’t she kill him?

Because I intervened?

Was there no need to get involved?

With that personality and strength…

What is Eliza now?

Is she the Eliza I know?

Can I really say that I know Eliza?

I don’t know, I didn’t have the luxury to ponder that now.

“You, what kind of bastard are you!”

Sardis shouted furiously.

When I turned around, his bloodshot eyes were staring straight at me.

I stared back at him, grabbing a fountain pen from the desk.

A fountain pen with a sharp, pointed tip.

He sneered.

“Do you plan to kill me with such a thing? With that trembling body of yours?”

“………”

I lowered my gaze.

My hand trembled.

My legs were shaking too.

What I had to do from now on was too obvious.

I would cross the line.

It was unfamiliar and terrifying.

But I couldn’t back down.

I forced my breath down.

Pushing away the tension, I summoned only the anger.

“What a shame. I could have shown you some affection too.”

My molars clenched tightly on their own.

Inhale, exhale.

My breath moved slowly between my clenched teeth.

I didn’t bother to respond to his nonsense.

Emotions surged.

It felt like my entire body was breaking and about to explode in all directions.

[Mana Release (Lv.3)]

The trembling stopped.

My emotions settled down.

Only the necessary anger remained.

I kicked the chair next to me abruptly.

Something that would normally have been impossible.

But with a body enhanced by magic, the chair flew like a cannonball.

“Gah!”

Sardis rolled to dodge the chair.

Books rained down from the bookshelf the chair hit, burying Sardis.

I jumped over the long desk between us and ran towards him.

Clutching the fountain pen tightly in my hand.

The fallen Sardis appeared from the pile of books.

He was reaching out to me.

He took a stance as if aiming to fire something.

‘No way.’

A red glow gathered like a lump in his palm.

The image of the lantern exploding earlier flashed through my mind.

The reason it had exploded, not just caught fire.

‘A mage?!’

Sardis looked at me and gave a sly smile.

A smile that sensed victory.

Whoosh! A dazzling fireball appeared.

Instinctively, I raised one arm.

Even though I knew I couldn’t block it.

Sizzle…

“…?”

Clearly, I shouldn’t have been able to block it.

The fire that touched my arm turned to smoke and disappeared.

“What…!”

Sardis was flustered.

I was also taken aback, but this was no time to hesitate.

I had to seize the moment while he was stunned.

I ran across the desk and lunged at him.

He fired another flame, but again, it disappeared upon touching me.

I bit his struggling arm with my teeth to push it away, grabbed his collar, and mounted him.

Holding the pen in a reverse grip.

Targeting the side of his neck, between the jaw and the collarbone. The carotid artery.

Before stabbing, I used my ability.

[Weaponization of Objects]

Sardis muttered in a voice filled with astonishment.

“You, the moon’s…!”

Thud!

He couldn’t finish his sentence.

***

“………”

Eliza, curled up under the desk, trembled and cried silently.

She squeezed her eyes shut and kept her mouth tightly closed.

She pulled the blanket up to her face and hugged her cat doll even tighter.

The abuse she had tried so hard to ignore bore transparent fruit.

Years of endured abuse.

It fell as tears.

Cracks appeared in the dam she had built.

There was a commotion outside.

It must be Judas and Sardis fighting.

With every loud noise, Eliza shook more and curled up tighter.

She wanted to know.

Even though she didn’t know what the outcome would be, she couldn’t help but be curious.

But she held back.

Judas had told her to stay put until he came for her.

“Mom…”

An uncontrollable emotion burst out in a single word.

Her weak self, unable to kill, invaded her reality.

The emotions and memories she had forcibly suppressed.

The things she had ignored to keep moving forward.

She missed her mom.

She was sick of the reality that made her feel so miserable.

She wanted to give up on everything. Just everything.

Scary and exhausting.

A memory of a day when I was left alone.

On that day, Mom had told Eliza to stay quietly at home.

She said she had somewhere to go for a moment.

Eliza did as she said.

But since then, Mom never returned.

Not even as a corpse did they reunite.

What if the same happens this time?

If Judas doesn’t return?

If the one who returns is Sardis?

Because she stayed quiet, such a situation occurred.

Maybe if she had been by Mom’s side, it would have been different.

Although the power was difficult to control, surely, together, they could have saved Mom. Definitely.

It was a fire, after all.

If she had been the one handling the fire, she could have been of help.

So, it’s her fault for not being by Mom’s side.

It’s all her fault.

Buried in self-blame, the fire whispers.

Burn everything down and kill them all.

You have the right to do that.

It was the right thing to say.

No matter what she did, the world would not leave her alone.

Why insist that the responsibility for sin lies only with her?

Weak emotions were a luxury.

There’s no time to hesitate for a moment.

The Bevel family must be destroyed.

Their ashes will be spread in the fields, where the crops grown there will feed the livestock.

She must not become weak.

That moment comes only once a year.

If it’s Mom’s memorial day, it’s enough…

“Miss.”

Judas’s voice woke her up.

The whispering fire in her heart fell silent.

A voice like a beam of light cutting through the darkness.

But why was she trembling as if about to collapse?

Eliza tried to turn her head sharply, but Judas stopped her.

“Don’t look.”

Eliza obediently complied with that command.

Like someone ensnared by a curse.

“So, right now, I’m a bit dirty… It’s not good for you to see me like this. And this space is also messy.”

“Yeah….”

“Just wait a moment.”

“Don’t, don’t go…!”

Eliza shouted, clutching the doll.

At the plea-like scream, Judas smiled weakly.

“I’m not going anywhere. My hands are dirty, so I’ll clean them a bit.”

“Yeah….”

Judas really didn’t go far.

From nearby came the sound of wiping hands with a cloth.

“As I said, it’s dirty around here. So, I’ll hold your hand and guide you. Just close your eyes and follow me.”

“Yeah….”

Eliza closed her eyes.

Her eyelids trembled.

Something wrapped around her hand.

“Hm…!”

“It’s me. It’s okay.”

“Huh, Huh…”

A gentle hand led her.

She stood up, slipping away from the desk.

She couldn’t see ahead.

It was terrifyingly dark.

She walked like that.

It felt as if the steps I took would suddenly plunge underground.

But still, I walked.

Following the hand that led me.

Step, step.

The sound of burning.

The sound of something collapsing with a creak.

The death throes of someone choking.

Our footsteps erased all of it.

In the darkness where nothing could be seen.

There, the only thing that shone like a firefly was the hand that held mine.

As if following it would lead to a distant and peaceful paradise.

Yes, a firefly.

When I was very young.

At night, I once visited a forest where fireflies held their festival.

The sight of green lights floating and dancing in the darkness was more beautiful than any work of art.

During the days when I lived alone with my mother, far from my hometown, hiding from Narcissa’s

Judas took a step back from them.

It was then that Eliza saw Judas.

His face and body soaked in blood.

Though Eliza knew it wasn’t Judas’s blood, her heart sank as if in despair.

“I’m, I’m sorry. I realized it too late. What in the world happened… Ah, why… I’m sorry…”

Lia examined Eliza’s body as if she were insane.

A voice that felt quite different from the usual stiff and businesslike tone.

But Eliza had no room to notice the difference.

She just stared at Judas in a trance.

With a terrifying figure covered in blood, he smiled at her.

As if to say not to worry.

A tender smile. She had seen it somewhere before.

A reassuring smile that made her feel like everything would be okay no matter what….

Suddenly, a thunderous scream rang out.

“You!”

The knight who rushed forward struck Judas.

A kick infused with magic.

In her eyes, the exploding magic was clearer than ever before.

Caught off guard, Judas collapsed.

Spewing blood.

The knight raised his sword to strike the fallen Judas.

All of these scenes slowed down.

Eliza pushed Lia aside and ran.

“Where did you come from! How dare you touch the lady…!”

The knight’s sword fell.

And his arm too.

“Don’t touch.”

Eliza said firmly.

Unknowingly, she stood between Judas and the knight.

Behind her, the magic laboratory was ablaze.

Eerie-colored irises.

Red, orange, yellow-gold.

Around her, flames flickered like whips resembling the color of her eyes.

Those flames severed the knight’s arms.

“Everyone, step back.”

Eliza uttered sharply.

The flickering flames that wavered suddenly wrapped around the knight’s body, which had lost its arms.

“If you don’t want it to end like this.”

The ominous flickering flames.

People couldn’t approach and took a step back.

Judas saw her lying on the ground.

‘Mad fire… Complete awakening….’

He knew how dangerous she was in this state.

That they shouldn’t get too close.

Eliza’s flames drew a circle around her and Judas.

As if trying to confine.

Judas tried to move away.

But he couldn’t stand up because of the blow to his abdomen.

At that moment, stepping back on the Palo floor, a streak of flame swiftly approached.

“Ugh…!”

Reactively, he raised his arm as if to block the flame, much like he had shielded against Sardis’s flames.

But the flame didn’t extinguish.

It didn’t even burn him.

It merely flickered around him, as if protecting him.

As Judas watched this, he lifted his head.

In front of him, he saw Eliza’s small figure, as if shielding him, as if to protect him.

Eliza had fully awakened the power of the Mad fire.

But it was different from what he knew.

‘What on earth…’

As he was bewildered, a knight who had been cornered by Eliza screamed.

The symbol of the Bevel family, the sun motif engraved in the center of his armor, burned black like paper.

The tip of the rounded burning part glowed orange.

Like a distorted eclipse.

The burn spread across his entire body in an instant.

The knight turned to ashes and collapsed to the ground.

In the distance, someone stepped forward among the crowd.

The culprit who had burned the knight Eliza had cornered to death.

Blonde with red eyes. Well-built middle-aged man.

Barak de Bevel.

The current head of the Bevel family, known as the Emperor with the Black Crown.

Duke Bevel.

Eliza’s biological father and the most powerful mage on the continent.

“Eliza.”

His eyes shimmered with crimson.

Similar to Eliza yet different.

There were no golden glowing pupils in the middle.

Eliza looked at him hostilely.

Once again, the fire whispered.

Burn them all and kill them.

Temptation like a snake’s tongue.

However, one thing had changed.

It was Eliza’s own transformation.

Judas’s presence behind her was clear.

If anyone threatened him, she would consider them an enemy and burn them, even Barak, who pretended to be a gentle father figure before his eyes.

“What happened? Can you explain it to this father?”

The moment he heard that question.

Darkness flooded his mind.

Barak demanded an explanation.

What happened.

What had happened earlier.

That incident….

When the fire surged more intensely.

“I…”

Judas staggered and interjected.

“I will explain.”

I couldn’t let Eliza talk about it.