‘Why do I have to see you here too?’

An emergency signal rang in Natasha’s head. The scream of silence kept echoing in her mind.

She raised her nails on the flat surface with nowhere to grasp and scratched the floor randomly. It was a habit that sometimes emerged when facing an overwhelming, immense sorrow.

“Why are you here……”

A hollow murmur broke through the silence.

“Well. I was staying in this house as a law-abiding citizen, and wasn’t it you who came to a citizen’s house on your own two feet?”

“……”

“I don’t understand why I’m being treated like a scoundrel.”

He crouched down to kindly meet the eyes of the person sitting, then muttered. While slightly furrowing his thick eyebrows, pinpointing the other’s response.

‘Does he… not recognize me?’

Only then did Natasha realize the important fact that she had changed Tisha Winter’s appearance once more when moving to Baile.

Flare Village was a relatively small village, so security was lax. To the extent that when Tisha Winter, who had been in the village for over a year, claimed to have lost her ID and applied for a new one, they didn’t require the additional documents or procedures that should naturally have been presented.

But Baile was different. When trying to reissue an ID card on the pretext of losing it, additional documents had to be submitted without fail.

She had decided to continue living as Tisha Winter rather than living dangerously without an ID. Instead, she changed the face of Tisha Winter who had been living in Flare Village once more.

A man who had pursued her based on Tisha Winter’s old facial features or portrait alone would not recognize that the woman before him was that Tisha Winter.

Thinking this way, her mind suddenly cleared.

“Ah… I, I’m sorry. I must have become sensitive because I was too surprised.”

It was fortunate in misfortune.

It would only be a matter of time before the man discovered that she was Tisha Winter, but as long as it wasn’t right now, it was fine. She had roughly finished preparations to leave anyway, so she just needed to endure today.

She struggled to gather strength in her trembling body and stood up. It was when she fumbled to grasp the doorknob.

The man’s large hand made a dull sound as it blocked the wall.

“Trying to leave?”

The man was not kind enough to offer farewells. The confident question somehow frightened Natasha.

Could it be that her identity had been discovered?

She was too shocked to know what to say. She felt tense, fearing that everything would be exposed if she acted clumsily.

As she remained silent, thankfully the impatient man spoke first.

“Wouldn’t it be proper to pay a price to the good citizen who helped without knowing the reason?”

“…Ah, yes. Sp-speak. How can I repay you?”

“Do you know Tisha Winter?”

The simple question felt like a weapon gripping and shaking her lifeline. Natasha swallowed her saliva, filled with tension, feeling her heart sink.

‘Act calmly. If he’s staying here without business in the village, he already knows about Tisha Winter’s existence. You expected this.’

Then, pretending to meet the other’s eyes while actually looking below the eyelids, she answered calmly.

“What do you need her for?”

“Do I need to know the reason in the troublesome process of paying the price?”

Well, there was no need to know.

She knew best what the man would say to Natasha Charliee disguised as Tisha Winter, what absurd proposal he might make.

This was just a ploy to buy time.

“No. As a villager, I know of her existence, but I asked again because I didn’t know what you wanted to inquire about.”

“Oh my, I misjudged your kind heart and questioned you. Then do you also know where that woman lives?”

Sieghart added, pretending to be sorry, and then asked the main point. It was about Tisha Winter again, as expected.

“That’s……”

“I don’t need details. Even an approximate answer would be helpful.”

She pretended to think about the location while deliberately considering her answer.

“Miss Winter lives in this village where you are staying, sir. You can visit by finding the sign that says ’13-32′. Coincidentally, it’s not far from here.”

“You know well.”

“It’s a small village. She was also famous for being a new neighbor after a long time.”

The reason she didn’t lie was that he might be testing her, just in case. Wondering if the man who had searched the whole country to find her who had run away and finally arrived in Baile would really not know Tisha Winter’s exact home address.

A moment later, Sieghart gently creased the corners of his eyes. A faint smile added delicacy to his features made of thick lines.

“…Is that enough now?”

She didn’t know whether she had avoided suspicion, or satisfied the man by confessing the truth after a misstep. Whatever it was, escape was the priority for her.

“Yes, the price was sufficient.”

“Thank you. Thanks to you, I avoided a difficult situation.”

Afterwards, Natasha turned the doorknob. After uttering another insincere thank you, she squeezed through the smoothly opened door and ran out.

‘Escape… I must escape.’

The imperial knights and inquisitors seemed to have collapsed from exhaustion at the unresponsive house. The front of house 13-32 was so desolate that not even a mouse would pass by.

‘I must escape from that man!’

She ran out to the outskirts of the village, which had become pitch dark as even the moonlight that dimly lit the streets had hidden.

She fell more than once or twice because she ran recklessly without considering the dark sky and obstacles placed here and there on the road. Each time, she stood up, holding back her tears, and moved forward to her destination.

There was nowhere for Natasha to escape in the middle of the night. The only place she could think of was Tisha Winter’s workplace.

She repeatedly knocked on the door with the ‘Closed’ sign. Striking the door with her hands, already raw and painful, made the injured areas feel like they might burst.

“I said we’re closed, why do you keep…! Goodness, could it be you, Tisha?”

Lady Sherry, who came out angrily, was shocked as soon as she confirmed the identity of the uninvited guest. Continuously exclaiming “Oh my, what should we do,” she hurriedly let Natasha inside.

“Would cocoa be alright?”

“Yes… Thank you, my lady.”

Looking at the woman who seemed to have barely calmed down, Lady Sherry eventually sighed.

“No need to thank me. Oh my, I don’t know why the village is so unsettled! Let’s go to the security office together tomorrow. It seems like the same villain who did something terrible to young Peter, we need to catch him quickly. What era are we living in that they can’t catch one measly criminal and make the whole village uneasy?”

“No! The security office… the security office is fine. I was just unlucky and encountered a wild animal while coming home late. It must have been hungry, it ran at me quickly and attacked.”

Even if her house was in a remote area, the intrusion of a wild animal was an absurd excuse.

However, thinking that the agreeable Tisha Winter must have a reason for hiding the truth, Lady Sherry pretended not to know.

Lady Sherry’s offer to stay and sleep here for the time being couldn’t have been more welcome. Natasha closed her eyes with the determination to diligently mop the tavern floor as soon as she woke up.

‘I’ll be discovered soon.’

Lady Sherry’s consideration was only a temporary measure. Since they could end it by searching for who Tisha Winter was right now on the street, they might reach here as soon as tomorrow.

‘Surely he came to make a frivolous marriage proposal.’

Her trapped past kept repeating the same situation. So Sieghart’s purpose would be no different.

‘Princess, you must marry me.’

‘The fact that you’ve been hiding and not appearing in public for the past year means you know your life is in danger too, Princess. Come stay with me at the Asthart ducal family. I’ll protect you from death and poverty.’

The man’s purpose is a damned marriage proposal.

He must have come all the way here for the beginning that gnawed at Natasha’s pure soul, for the peak of misfortune.

‘Fine, I’ve prepared all the money, I can just leave right away.’

Recalling the distant past, she ended up looking back even at moments she shouldn’t have touched. She finally steadied her breathing after suffering from the trauma she suddenly encountered.

The past is just the past. It’s a matter of not repeating the tragedy in this life. As much as she’s returned to the past, as much as she’s chosen survival instead of death, doesn’t she have plans?

Natasha comforted herself and reviewed her plans for the next day.

Sweat streamed down under the white hair, even though it wasn’t that hot. The armor of the proud Imperial Knights felt cumbersome and unnecessary because immense fatigue had overtaken Theodore.

Theodore Leven, the senior knight of the Imperial Knights, took a break with the other knights after finishing the day’s investigation.

“Um, Sir Leven, about the investigation. Is the criminal that vicious?”

At that moment, one knight approached and carefully asked. Although the words seemed to focus on the criminal, in reality, they were pointing out the situation. It was a lamentation about whether the Imperial Knights should be mobilized for such a trivial investigation.

“It seems to be a very vicious criminal. In fact, I’m only telling you this, but the method is similar to what we’ve seen before. It’s a criminal who hasn’t been caught for years, and it seems they’re involved in this case as well.”

“In other words, the criminal in this case is a serial offender?”

Theodore nodded his head in response. Soon, the knight’s face stiffened.

“I shouldn’t have asked. I need to focus on the investigation. Shouldn’t we catch the criminal before the village becomes unsettled!”

“That’s a determination well-imbued with the spirit of the knights. But today’s investigation ends here, so it’s better to get enough rest and work harder the next day.”

“Understood, Sir Leven! Have a pleasant afternoon, Sir Leven!”

Theodore secretly smiled as he watched the knight leave after a polite greeting.

‘Yes, a vicious criminal.’

Then he recalled the identity of the vicious criminal they were referring to.

The criminal was a very arrogant person. A scoundrel who knew how to give orders to the senior knight of the Imperial Knights as he pleased.

The important thing was that this scoundrel was Theodore’s colleague. It hurt his pride to even call the man his friend.

“You caused trouble again?”

Theodore, who barged into the scoundrel’s house, shouted in an exasperated voice.

Eventually, the man sitting casually turned his chair to face the other. He unfolded his legs that were crossed insolently and stood up.

Sieghart Asthart, Theodore Leven’s damned friend.