Reniel was in a daze. Yet she could feel someone carrying her over their shoulder like a sack of rice, moving somewhere.

Her cheek was damp, perhaps from being hit on the head. Her ear was also wet, with hair sticking to it, as if blood had flowed from the crown of her head.

The blood seemed to still be flowing, feeling quite slippery and smelling of iron.

She could see her hand dangling in front of her eyes.

Her fingertips had turned pale, with red drops of blood hanging in contrast.

She only then realized that the blood from her head had flowed all the way down to the end of her arm.

Every time the assailant moved, her hair swayed along, almost like waves on a lake.

The assailant was taking her somewhere.

That meant they didn’t intend to kill her yet.

And it must be someone who had access to Prince Thanasis’s bedroom.

She felt like she was about to lose consciousness, but tried her best to hold on. However, her mind betrayed her efforts.

“……”

She tried her hardest to keep her eyes open, but her strength faded in an instant.

And so, Reniel fainted once again.

****

When she opened her eyes again, it was very dark in front of her.

Reniel only then realized she was wearing a blindfold. Her head still hurt; it was clear they hadn’t bothered to treat her wound.

In fact, the dazed feeling was worse than the headache.

It was a dual state of generally feeling dazed, with occasional dull pain.

Reniel tried to move her body. But strangely, her body wouldn’t move.

She couldn’t tell if it was because she was tied up, or if it was an aftereffect of being hit on the head.

She tried to turn her head, as her neck could move.

“Mmph……”

Then she realized her mouth was also tied with a string.

Judging by how rough her mouth felt, she thought she must have been unconscious for quite some time.

As she shook her head a few times, the blindfold slipped down slightly. This allowed her left eye to gain a bit of vision.

But having vision didn’t help much.

This place seemed to be so dark that not a sliver of light entered. Moreover, no other people were visible.

She couldn’t tell where she was imprisoned, or if she was even still in the imperial palace.

If she had been unconscious for a long time, she could have been taken outside the palace.

She pondered who could have kidnapped her and why.

If they had taken her from Thanasis’s room, then Thanasis must be their target.

After all, few people knew of her existence, as she had just started living as a woman.

At first, she wondered why they had kidnapped her instead of their target, Thanasis, but thinking about how strong Thanasis was, it didn’t take long to realize how dangerous it would be to rashly kidnap him.

It was only possible because it was Felix.

“Ugh……”

She recalled that Thanasis’s circle of relationships had been narrow even in the original story.

It was just absurd that even she, who had just entered the imperial palace, could be kidnapped to pressure Thanasis.

Not giving up, she tried to untie her hands bound behind her back. Looking closely, her ankles seemed to be tied as well.

The surroundings were very dark, but her eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, and images were starting to form.

She tried to check again if there really was no one around.

This was a large space filled with something.

Judging by the shadows, it seemed to be full of objects, but they were only faintly visible, probably due to blackout curtains being drawn.

She closed her eyes and held her breath to check if she could sense any human presence.

But all she could hear was the sound of her own heartbeat.

Soon concluding that there was no one around, she began to twist her whole body.

She shook her head vigorously to make the blindfold on her eyes slip down to her chin. Then she wriggled to try to free her arms tied behind her back.

However, her arms tied behind her back wouldn’t easily come loose.

Thinking it might be better if she stood up, she tried to rise.

“Ungh……”

But as she tried to stand, a severe dizziness overcame her. Because of this, she soon crumpled forward again.

For a moment, she thought she saw a glittering piece far away in front of her eyes.

She desperately tried to raise her body again. Once more, an intense dizziness made her head spin.

Reniel barely managed to stand by leaning against an object, overcoming the dizziness. But there was no helping the spinning in her head and the rising nausea.

Still, she tried to gather her strength.

She couldn’t know the kidnapper’s purpose or why they had brought her here, but having come this far, it might be difficult to survive.

Perhaps she could be quietly killed and buried somewhere like this.

The mastermind behind the person who had invaded Thanasis’s bedroom and kidnapped her would obviously be no ordinary person.

“Mmph……”

Reniel tried to immerse herself in various thoughts.

Because if she focused on the pain in her body, it felt like she couldn’t endure.

With her ankles tied, walking was difficult, but she was moving very slowly, bit by bit, like an earthworm forced to stand and walk, in a terribly slow manner.

“Ah.”

Finally reaching the glittering object with great effort.

“Haha……”

She realized it was just a large hourglass. As she approached, she could faintly see the shape of the hourglass and the sand inside.

Reniel hesitated for a moment, unsure if it was okay for sound to be heard outside, but she thought it was time to act regardless.

Thud! Thud!

She tried to knock the hourglass off the object it was sitting on with her shoulder.

The hourglass was quite large. About the size of her head.

Perhaps because of this, though it shook, it didn’t fall easily as it was precisely balanced on top of the object.

She sighed briefly as she watched the hourglass that dangled but didn’t fall, returning to its original position.

Then she rammed her shoulder into it again with all her might.

Thud!

That was the moment.

Crash!

The hourglass fell to the floor with a loud noise.

She quickly examined the glass shards on the floor.

And to grab them, she turned her body and groped the floor with her hands.

“Ugh!”

Reniel cried out in surprise at the sharp sensation on her fingertips. Still, she slowly felt for a sharp glass shard and grasped it in her hand.

Then she gripped the glass shard tightly to untie the string binding her wrists.

Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape…

She was trying to cut the rope using the glass shard.

She could feel her hand becoming damp. Like her fingertips earlier, her palm seemed to be bleeding profusely from cuts by the glass.

The sticky yet sharp pain continued to hurt her hand. But she didn’t want to die like this.

She kept thinking calmly and rationally accepted this situation.

If not, it could really be a matter of life and death.

“Huff, ugh……”

She couldn’t die like this when she had just been able to live as a woman.

There was still so much she hadn’t experienced, and she had money saved up in the bank for a lifetime.

If she died like this, she would feel too wronged.

Crack!

“Ah……”

The glass shattered in her hand. That was to be expected.

It wasn’t glass used for windows, but thin decorative glass used to make hourglasses.

But Reniel decided not to give up. She leaned towards the floor again and grasped a new, sharper and larger piece of glass.

It hurt just to hold it. But she ignored her pain and again made scraping sounds as she cut the rope.

She could feel the rope gradually loosening.

Reniel held her breath and applied strong force, then calmed herself as she inhaled, and kept scraping the rope with the glass shard.

She had lost so much blood that she could no longer feel sensation in her hand.

Even the rope was damp to the point of being soaked.

But paradoxically, she felt an illusion that the more blood she lost, the clearer her mind became.

Moreover, judging by the continued lack of any sound from outside, she was certain.

This place had no one guarding it. Then, could it be a warehouse?

It seemed she could escape if she just freed herself from the restraints.

And if she returned to Thanasis and told him about her situation, she thought he might provide better protection for her safety.

Reniel was just thinking that she shouldn’t think too far ahead for now, and should focus on resolving this situation well.

Snap, snap!

She finally broke the rope binding her wrists. She sighed in relief and quickly untied the bindings on her wrists.

“Puha…!”

Then she untied the gag in her mouth. She immediately tried to untie the rope binding her ankles.

The binding method was quite intricate, clearly not the work of an ordinary person.

After untying all the ropes, she found the window where faint light was coming in. Then she looked out the window.

And outside the window, she saw…

“M-Master?”

Felix. He was approaching her with that manic smile from the day they first met.