Sched didn’t give a long explanation. However, Carlyle and the knights followed his orders like well-trained dogs and ran down.

Werner, who had just woken up, was fidgeting with his eyes blinking, unlike his usual neat appearance with his disheveled hair.

“Master.”

“Riana.”

“Yes?”

“Riana Serpens has disappeared.”

“M-Miss Riana?”

“Wake everyone up immediately and find out if anyone has seen her.”

Sched put on his belt and stared at the stable outside the window.

As if staring at it would make the horse wake up and prepare itself right away.

It wasn’t a long conversation, but the experienced butler was quick-witted.

Werner immediately woke up the servants in the mansion and asked where Riana was.

The servants, who were woken up early in the morning because of Riana Serpens alone, rubbed their eyes and answered irritably.

“I haven’t seen her.”

“Isn’t she sleeping in the back room?”

As the insincere answers continued, a large shadow approached, cutting through the center of the corridor.

“She must have been awake until late, but no one saw her?”

At the low but chilling voice, the servants’ eyes opened wide. The Duke himself was asking about Riana Serpens’ whereabouts.

Was there no one who saw or stopped Riana from running away? With so many people here?

Sched looked over the disheveled servants one by one.

Only then did they realize the seriousness of the situation.

“W-Well… I did see her when we were loading the luggage on the carriage.”

A servant who remembered the maid Caroline’s work quickly answered.

“Exactly.”

When. Where?

“It was a little past nine in the evening… When we were loading the luggage and finishing up. I saw her passing by the central garden.”

At the servant’s words, a few nodded their heads.

“And then.”

“After that… I’m not sure. I thought she came to move luggage or check something.”

The servants of the Lester family saw the newly arrived maid in old clothes passing by the luggage.

She had a hood over her shoulders, but they didn’t pay much attention.

They only recalled what happened to the maid Caroline who had touched her.

They were disgusted by the new maid, found her unpleasant, and thought that the long-standing discipline of the Lester family had been broken because of her.

They didn’t want to associate with her, didn’t talk to her, and didn’t care about her.

They thought it was better when she wasn’t around.

Therefore, no one looked after the unfamiliar maid who appeared during their busy time.

Some saw her leaving through the main gate following the luggage, but that was it.

It was late at night. A time when a young woman couldn’t possibly leave this mansion alone.

Moreover, it was a night when it was hard to imagine a woman with a leg injury leaving the mansion empty-handed without any luggage.

Furthermore, Riana Serpens probably didn’t know the geography of Lester territory well.

So no one paid attention to her passing through the main gate.

Why bother and get in trouble for it?

Sched’s temples tightened upon hearing the servant’s words.

“So no one stopped her?”

It was a low voice no different from usual, but a chill ran down the servants’ hearts.

Sched looked at the complacent and stupid servants, grinding his teeth.

‘Damn it.’

He turned his body to leave and slammed the door shut.

The sound of the door closing was so loud that everyone trembled like startled birds.

Creak, the door couldn’t withstand the force and twisted, then fell to the floor with a thud.

Through the fallen door, Sched’s back could be seen passing through the corridor.

People swallowed dry saliva as they watched his back.

Larger strides than usual, fast pace, rough footsteps.

“I-It’s the first time I’ve seen the Master like this.”

“Damn it. What a mess because of that crazy bitch!”

Even the servants who had worked at the Lester family for a long time had never seen Sched Lester so agitated before.

Although he was scary, he always remained cold and calm, but today he seemed to be possessed by madness.

Werner felt dizzy at this situation.

‘If we don’t find that woman, we’re all dead.’

Sleep had long fled. A cold sweat ran down his spine.

Meanwhile, Sched swiftly mounted the horse brought by the stableman.

“She couldn’t have gone far. Immediately issue a blockade order and find her.”

Sched gripped the reins and commanded.

And he thought.

He needed to tighten her leash a bit more.

[This is the timeline separator]

Riana looked down at her leg that hadn’t fully healed yet.

Blood was visibly seeping through the bandage wrapped around her leg.

Perhaps because she had walked for a long time, the pain intensified, making it difficult to take even a single step.

Her already slow pace noticeably slowed down even more.

‘They will realize I’m gone when the sun rises.’

Riana thought as she dragged her throbbing leg.

And she also made a slightly hopeful assumption.

If Sched realized that the fallen lady was so worthless that she wasn’t even worth caring about and didn’t try to find her.

Riana harbored a vain hope and shook her head.

That could be possible, but she couldn’t be negligent relying on a slim chance.

‘Walking like this, I’ll be caught up in no time.’

The pursuers would be on horseback, and with this pace, she would be caught in an instant.

Moreover, Lester territory was under his control, so it was only a matter of time before she was caught.

She had to leave this land at least before dawn.

Riana hid her body in the darkness and quietly stroked near her collarbone.

The crescent-shaped mark under the old clothes.

Riana recalled the sin that seemed to be engraved on her body.

‘Just this once.’

Just this once, so that she could escape from his grasp.

Calming her trembling heart, she closed her eyes.

At the same time, black mist flowed out from the wound on her leg.

“Urgh…!”

Riana collapsed on the grass.

Pain that seemed to tear her whole body apart engulfed her.

As if retaliating for ignoring her for years, the price of the ability was more painful than her memory.

Her body was instantly drenched in cold sweat, and her muscles convulsed and trembled.

The swollen cheek from being hit by the head maid and the remaining wound on her leg ached as if they were being burned.

Riana bit her lip to hold back her groans and tore the grass with her pale hands.

Blood flowed from her bitten lips, but even that wound disappeared in an instant, and new flesh grew.

It was the same with the wounds on her leg and cheek.

The deep wound from the dog bite healed monstrously.

The torn flesh that was ripped to the point where the bone was visible began to return to its original state perfectly as if nothing had happened.

The purple bruised and torn cheek had been clean for a long time.

It was a time that didn’t even last a few minutes.

As the pain gradually ceased, Riana collapsed on the grass and let out the breath she had been holding.

“Haa, haa…”

Lying under the night sky, Riana recalled how terrible she was.

The remarkably exceptional regenerative ability was one of the curses she possessed.

And Riana did not know how to kill the demon with this terrifying ability.

She had faced death countless times.

But it was always a failure to completely cross that threshold.

She shouldn’t have looked into the abyss mirror after all.

“Urgh, ugh…”

The nausea from the past surged up.

“Rejoice. You will live for eternity, Louise.”

The demon she faced after years was utterly disgusting.

And the fact that the disgusting demon was herself was so despairing that it was unbearable.

Riana cried alone under the night sky, in the pitch-black darkness.

Sched wouldn’t know.

How terrible the truth she had hidden was.

Why she was trying to run away.

Why she was afraid to return to Ideana.

Sched Lester would try to end his revenge by ultimately killing Louise Ideana.

But even if she wanted to fulfill that wish for him, she couldn’t.

Riana tightly clenched her hand that was wrapped around her arm. Her insides twisted with pouring emotions.

She forcibly swallowed and swallowed the emotions that were tearing her heart.

She couldn’t afford the luxury of savoring her misery.

If they discovered that she was gone, Sched would quickly pursue her.

She had to leave as soon as possible.

From Sched’s grasp.

From the Lester Duchy.

[This is the timeline separator]

The sound of horse hooves pierced through the darkness.

The pursuer was ignorant but had good instincts, was persistent, and tenacious.

“She probably couldn’t have gone far. If we still search this vicinity thoroughly…”

The knights’ words were heard distantly.

No, she couldn’t be caught that easily.

Even after issuing a blockade order and deploying all the people, the impatience did not disappear.

Sched looked at the distant river tinted with dawn.

“She’s heading to the Kellintz River.”

The Kellintz River was a long river that separated the Lester Duchy and the Marlhein Viscounty.

It was too far for Riana with an injured leg to reach in a single night.

Nevertheless, he was anxious.

It felt as if she had already left this land.

It felt as if she would slip through his fingers like fine sand and disappear without a trace forever, just as she had done before.

His insides were boiling.

Uncontrollable anger devoured his reason.

The target of his greatest anger was none other than Sched himself.

8 years. He had lived thinking she was dead for a whole 8 years.

The joy he felt when he faced her, whom he thought was dead, was greater than any fortune he had obtained in his life.

But he wanted to kill himself for missing this precious opportunity due to his complacency.

If he lost her like this…

Creak, the horse’s reins he held twisted and cried.

He couldn’t let go of this fateful reunion.

‘When she ran away, she must have had something to rely on.’

The Louise Ideana he knew was smart and thoughtful.

She wasn’t someone who would make a reckless decision without any thought.

If his prediction was correct, Louise would try to cross the river as quickly as possible.

Once she crossed the river, she could escape Sched’s jurisdiction.

If it was Marlhein territory, there would be limitations to Sched’s movement of soldiers, and it wouldn’t be easy to freely deploy people.

While getting permission to mobilize soldiers, Riana might take a boat and disappear to a far, far away place.

‘I have to catch her before she crosses this land.’

He couldn’t just rely on the blockade order.

He rode towards the Kellintz River until his horse was exhausted.

Before he knew it, the dawn was breaking in the distance.