“After the blockade order was issued, no one has passed through here.”

The bridge over the Kelintz River.

At the entrance of the bridge, there was a gateway that managed the passage between the Marlhein territories.

“With her injured leg, it would be impossible for her to already reach this place.”

A knight accompanying him spoke.

Without a word, the night road was dark and unfamiliar.

Even at a normal pace, it would take half a day to reach this place, and she had a serious leg injury on top of that.

“Perhaps she is hiding somewhere nearby?”

Wanted notices for her had been issued to the places the knights had reached.

A small-statured woman with brown hair and light green eyes. Injured right leg, possibility of disguise.

The knights inquired about Riana in each village and ordered them to report to the duke immediately if they discovered her.

Sched pressed his throbbing temples upon hearing the knight’s report.

No, something is missing.

It felt like he was still overlooking something.

“Carlyle.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Search all the ferries on the Kelintz River and check if anyone has crossed it.”

Despite the blockade order and the distance making it unlikely she crossed the river, he felt this unease would only subside after confirming it.

“Yes, understood. My lord.”

Carlyle bowed his head, seeing Sched looking as if pursued by something.

He had served Sched for several years, but this was the first time seeing him appear so anxious.

The Sched Lester he knew was not like this. The only person who remained unshaken even in crises where everyone sensed defeat. The person who calmly judged a situation even when facing unknown monsters. That’s why even knights of noble birth had no choice but to silently follow him.

And yet, to see him so restless and worried over a mere maid’s disappearance.

Carlyle could not understand Sched’s behavior, but as always, he faithfully followed orders.

He immediately headed to the large and small ferry points on the Kelintz River with the knights.

They checked with all the boats and boatmen if anyone had been ferried across the river and also blocked the small ferries.

Sched stood at the gateway of the Kelintz bridge, waiting for the knights’ reports to return.

Just then.

“My lord, this man says he ferried a woman across the river.”

Carlyle brought a boatman before him.

The sturdy boatman knelt before Sched with a tense expression.

“He ferried a woman across?”

“…Yes.”

Sched asked about the woman he had ferried.

“She was a beauty with brown hair and green eyes.”

He said the pretty woman pleaded so earnestly that he had no choice but to take her across the river.

“Ha…”

Sched let out a hollow laugh at the boatman’s words.

“Did you not see the blockade flag raised?”

If it were daytime, the blockade order would have already spread here.

And yet he dared to defy his order and ferry the woman across?

“Well, that, at that time the blockade flag wasn’t yet…”

“If it’s revealed you gave false testimony, even your family will be executed, so answer carefully.”

Sched coldly warned the boatman, seeing his shifty eyes.

At that, the boatman’s eyes wavered and he soon confessed the truth.

“I have a sick younger sibling in Ashapen and she said she needed to quickly return after getting medicine. That if she didn’t go right away, her young sibling would die…”

The time the woman came was just when the blockade flag was being raised on the Kelintz riverbank.

The boatman said he couldn’t refuse when the woman tearfully begged him.

“With the sudden blockade order, who knows when it will be lifted. I couldn’t just wait here indefinitely, leaving my sick sibling behind.”

The boatman lowered his head, saying he had no choice but to understand the woman’s circumstances.

Sched nodded at his words.

“You’re right. It’s quite an unfortunate story.”

At Sched’s gentle voice, the boatman raised his eyes to look up at him.

“She said she was going to Ashapen?”

“Yes, yes! She definitely said she had a sibling there! I dropped her off near the riverbank around there.”

The boatman, wearing a hood, nodded his head repeatedly.

“Thanks to kind-hearted people like you, that sibling’s life was probably saved.”

“Th-thank you. After all, isn’t it a world where we help each other?”

“However.”

A chilling, metallic voice reached the ears of the boatman who had been delighted by the duke’s praise.

“You will lose your life due to that foolishness.”

At the same time, with a slicing sound, blood splattered on the bridge.

The body of the boatman who had been kneeling before Sched toppled over and fell to the ground.

Everyone froze at the scene that unfolded in an instant.

But Sched coldly looked down at the boatman’s body sprawled on the ground.

He knew Louise Ideana very well.

She was someone accustomed to holding back tears, not shedding them.

Louise Ideana fabricating a family story to sell tears? Ridiculous.

No matter how desperate, she wasn’t the type of woman to even think of such a thing.

Sched recalled the face of the boatman who had mentioned that “pretty woman” with a faint smile.

The emotion in his eyes was obvious. He had been enchanted by her appearance and ferried her across.

After all, she possessed a beauty one couldn’t easily encounter in life.

Sched was not merciful enough to spare the boatman who brazenly lied after defying his order.

“That woman has escaped the territory.”

A sharp voice flowed out from his clenched teeth, as if they would shatter.

The reason for ferrying her may have been a lie, but it was likely true that he dropped her off near Ashapen.

Sched wiped his blood-stained sword and sheathed it before turning to Carlyle.

“Shall we send men to Ashapen?”

The perceptive Carlyle stepped forward and asked.

Sched looked down at the corpse sprawled on the ground, thought for a moment, then shook his head.

“No. Not Ashapen.”

Sched knew Louise Ideana well.

She was not foolish enough to reveal her destination to others while escaping.

Although the boatman may have dropped her off near the riverbank by Ashapen, Riana would never actually go to Ashapen.

Excluding Ashapen, the places she could possibly go were narrowed down to a few.

Among them, areas where she might run into people from Baron Godwin’s side were eliminated, as well as cities that had active exchanges with Lester territory.

Therefore.

“Brillon.”

He thought of a port village in Marlhein.

Brillon didn’t have large merchant ships, but it was a place where fishing boats and small vessels came and went.

If she were to board a ship there and leave, it would not be easy to meet her again.

Sched immediately mounted his horse.

“We’re heading straight to Brillon.”

He couldn’t lose her here any further.

He had to catch her before she left, no matter what.

“We’ll depart before dawn. If you’re late, we won’t wait for you, so be on time.”

Riana nodded at the rough boatman’s words that carried the salty smell of the sea.

The sun was slowly sinking beyond the horizon.

‘It’s fortunate we narrowly avoided the blockade order.’

The fact that a blockade order had been issued probably meant Sched had noticed her absence.

‘The cross flag announcing the blockade order at the Kelintz bridge went up just before sunrise…’

It was discovered faster than expected, but there was still some time to spare.

Even if they had sent out people around that time, it was nowhere near enough time to search the entirety of Marlhein territory.

Moreover, Brillon was half a day’s distance from Lester territory, so it would be difficult for them to send people to search here within today.

Riana left the harbor where nets were piled up and headed towards the village.

She needed a place to rest briefly until dawn.

She had been walking non-stop without a wink of sleep since last night.

She had walked for almost an entire day without sleep. Although she had hitched a ride on a wagon or cart in between, her leg throbbed. Blisters had also formed because the new shoes she had received at the Lester household did not fit her feet well.

If she used her power, the wounds would heal in an instant, but Riana did not want to face the curse again.

She headed to a tavern near the harbor.

To avoid missing the boat, it was better to kill time at a tavern rather than stopping by an inn.

The sound of waves and seagulls could be clearly heard from the tavern right in front of the sea. The harbor could also be seen in the distance, allowing her to check when the boat departed.

Thanks to the loud and gruff voices of the sailors conversing, it seemed she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep. If she fell asleep by chance, she might not wake up until dawn when the boat was leaving.

“Your order?”

The tavern owner with curly, bushy hair on his arms gruffly asked.

‘My travel money…’

Riana, who had intended to have a meal at the tavern, hesitated upon seeing her light purse. She needed to save at least enough for a day’s worth of expenses after reaching her destination by boat.

She didn’t have much money due to leaving in a hurry. It seemed she couldn’t afford a proper meal.

“A mug of beer, please.”

She ordered the cheapest beer, just to quench her thirst at the very least, and went to the long bar table by the window.

There were no chairs, so she roughly sat on a nearby crate and looked out the window.

The sun that had been floating and dyeing the water red until a while ago was now slowly sinking below the surface.

As darkness spread behind the bright red sunset, lanterns were lit one by one in the tavern and on the streets.

As the day grew darker, more people came to the tavern.

Riana quietly hid among the crowd and anxiously waited for time to pass.

The beer, which was only a few days old, had gone flat and had a stale, poor-quality grain smell, but Riana had to drink it sparingly.

Riana stared at the distant harbor, contemplating her bleak future livelihood.

‘Still, if I can just escape this place, I’ll be able to survive somehow.’

As she fiddled with the rough beer mug, a bright light suddenly flared up at the distant harbor.

Riana jumped up from her seat and ran out of the tavern. The sailors who had been noisily chatting and singing did the same.

And a cry that shook the night air.

“Fire!”

“Damn it, there’s a fire at the harbor!”

The flames that started in one place quickly began to spread sideways.

Even though the wind wasn’t strong, the flames rising from the harbor instantly soared into a massive blaze.

“No…”

Riana immediately ran towards the harbor.

The ships docked at the harbor were all engulfed in flames, burning bright red.

As if forcibly dragging back the sunset that had just disappeared beyond the horizon, the sky also turned a reddish hue from the huge flames.

The flames burning fiercely on the water created a tragic spectacle.

Riana stood in front of that desperate scene.

But then.

“…So you were here.”

A large shadow walked from inside the harbor.

As if the unfurled flames belonged to him, a person walked with the fake red sunset behind him.

“So, did you enjoy running away?”

Above the dark silhouette with his back to the flames, his pupils shone brightly.