That night, I kept my eyes wide open, pushing away the heavy drowsiness that washed over me.

‘I absolutely won’t fall asleep.’

Tonight, I had no intention of sleeping. I sat crouched on the bare floor, staying up all night.

After deciding to leave the duke’s residence yesterday, I chose to leave early in the morning to avoid people’s eyes.

It was difficult for my young body to wake up at dawn, so I compromised by staying up all night instead.

However, something felt strange. I tilted my head and touched the floor.

‘Why is the floor so soft and squishy?’

An irritated voice rang in my ears. At the same time, the floor I was standing on trembled.

Gasp! Surprised, I froze in place.

It was an angry voice. I looked around with question marks filling my head.

‘Wh-where are you speaking from?’

The floor wriggled again. At the same time, a thud was heard, and a cold pain was felt on my forehead.

“Ouch…”

I rubbed my head after lightly hitting it on the bare floor. Looking up, I saw the early dawn moon hanging in the window. The wriggling floor had disappeared, and a solid bedroom floor was felt.

‘It was a really strange dream.’

A dream where the floor was soft, squishy, and wriggling. Lost in thought for a moment, I hurriedly looked around and checked the time.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too late yet. There was still plenty of time before Sophia and Delma would come.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to chase away the sleepiness.

‘If I had slept on the bed, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to wake up.’

Yesterday, I witnessed the duke killing a person. That’s why I decided to escape from this villainous family.

However, others wouldn’t let me go so easily. I had to avoid Sophia and Delma, who took care of me.

To do that, the time I chose was dawn, right when the sun was dimly rising, like now.

‘By the way, what was that dream earlier?’

In the dream, the floor wriggled and was soft and squishy. Narrowing my eyes and getting lost in thought again, my eyelids felt heavy.

Without realizing it, I slowly blinked my eyes. I tilted my head to one side and suddenly woke up with a start, getting up from my spot.

‘I can’t fall asleep again!’

I slapped my cheeks to snap out of it. I quickly got up from my seat.

‘Let’s go.’

I put the last cookie in my pre-packed bag and left the room.

Usually, the time I woke up was late morning, when almost everyone had already started their day and roamed the mansion.

The corridor at dawn, much earlier than that time, was dark. As soon as I opened the door, an eerie feeling seemed to envelop my entire body.

As I slowly moved my steps, my gaze automatically turned to the portraits hanging on the corridor walls.

I recalled Sophia’s explanation that they were portraits of the previous dukes and duchesses, starting from the first duke.

The paintings, which were only splendid during the day, felt creepy in the dark night.

‘It’s a bit scary.’

I swallowed my saliva.

However, if I had been afraid of such things, I wouldn’t have even made an escape plan in the first place.

I tried hard to take my eyes off the portraits and began to move.

Actually, if I were a normal 4-year-old child, I wouldn’t have even thought of leaving this house.

Far from leaving, I might have been overjoyed to be away from my mother.

I might have genuinely stayed here comfortably, being simply happy with the food and toys Sophia gave me.

‘Maybe I would have even considered the duke as my real father.’

Among the children in the back alleys, there were occasional rumors circulating.

Rumors like someone’s child was actually the lost daughter of some count, or someone’s parents were actually a huge tycoon, and so on, with unknown origins.

Those rumors were mostly baseless, but even so, when hearing such rumors, one couldn’t help but have a little expectation.

Because I didn’t have a father either.

Maybe I also had a hidden father somewhere, who might be desperately searching for me.

I used to have such thoughts when I was younger.

With those thoughts, every night when my mother fell asleep early on lucky days, I always imagined my father coming to find me.

‘There’s no way that’s possible.’

So all these imaginations were thoughts I had before recalling my past life.

Now I knew well that I had nothing to expect.

‘No one will come to take me away.’

For an extra like me, the best course of action was to avoid getting caught up in the fate of the main characters.

Fortunately, I made it across the second-floor corridor without any trouble. I briefly looked at the corridor I came out of and carefully opened the door leading to the back stairs.

As it was the staircase used by the servants, the surroundings were even darker. It was a bit damp too.

The back stairs I descended led directly to the kitchen and storage areas. The kitchen and storage were located near the back gate.

I opened the storage door and exited the mansion, briefly looking back at the mansion. My steps became a little heavy.

‘Sophia, Delma. I’m sorry for leaving without a word.’

I sent an apology, at least in my heart, to them who truly cherished me. They would be very surprised to see me gone in the morning.

Moreover, I hadn’t seen Yan even once since the first day. I should have at least thanked him. Regret filled my heart belatedly.

Yan does face a crisis in the middle, but he eventually sides with the protagonist and survives safely.

In other words, he wasn’t someone I needed to worry about.

‘I probably won’t see them again.’

If I left like this, I, who had no connection to the main characters, would be forever forgotten from their memories. That was a bit regrettable.

Still, if there was a chance, it would be nice to see them again next time. I thought of the unlikely hope and moved towards the back gate.

But it was strange. There shouldn’t be anyone at this hour, but the back gate area was noisy.

“Yes! I will work hard, my lord!”

Upon hearing the booming voice that seemed to shake the ground, I was startled and my entire body froze in place.

“Young lady?”

An unexpected sight caught my attention.

* * *

Before the child secretly left the mansion at dawn.

Even though the sun had not yet risen, unlike other days, the duke’s family started their day unusually early.

At the back gate, where only silence should have descended, several strong men were gathered.

They all wore dark-colored clothes, but their attire lacked uniformity. Although they were gathered in one place, they were each tying their shoes tightly, stretching their bodies, or doing their own tasks.

If a stranger saw it, it would seem like a gang had gathered inside the mansion.

At that moment, a man appeared from the mansion. The men who were standing irregularly got up from their positions and lined up in unison.

“My lord, you have arrived.”

One of the men stepped forward and bowed his head. Following him, the men standing behind him also lowered their heads in unison.

Philen followed behind Cailius. The men who had come out earlier greeted him with a light nod, familiar with his presence.

Philen also greeted them with a nod and opened his mouth.

“Even thinking about it again, it’s strange. To think that monsters are descending. It hasn’t been long since the subjugation ended.”

The men who had come out earlier were knights belonging to the Leviche Knights Order, gathered to leave for the Keduark border area with Cailius.

Keduark was an area bordering Hesera, the territory of the Krustel Duchy, and was called the land of death.

It was a place where people could not live. Not only was the terrain steep in many places, but due to the unique energy of the region, monsters were concentrated there.

Hesera, which was located close to Keduark, was the same. Monsters frequently descended and swarmed the villages, often harming people.

However, that was all before Cailius took root here. As soon as he received the Hesera region from the emperor, Cailius immediately launched a monster subjugation operation.

It took a year to completely drive the monsters out of the Hesera region for the first time.

The next time took ten months, and the next took half a year. As the subjugation period was gradually reduced, the duke’s family began to rebuild Hesera into a land where people could live.

Cailius tried to claim Keduark as his territory as well, but due to the constantly emerging monsters, he failed to conquer Keduark.

The monsters, unable to descend further into Hesera, ended up staying only within Keduark.

Their numbers increased every year, so to reduce the damage to the villages, Cailius had been regularly subjugating the monsters until now.

Monster subjugation was not over until all the monsters inhabiting near the border were eliminated and their habitats were completely burned down.

It had been less than 100 days since the last seasonal subjugation ended. So it was indeed strange to hear that monsters were descending again so soon.

“We’ll know when we go.”

Cailius replied nonchalantly to the abnormal situation.

The largest man among the knights raised a hand and spoke.

He had reddish-brown hair and was wearing noticeably lighter clothes compared to the other men.

“What if we go and find that their numbers have increased, my lord?”

“Then we’ll reduce them.”

“What if they come down again?”

“We’ll send them back up.”

“What if the ones who ran away bring their friends along?”

At the last question, Cailius fell silent. He had a lot to say, but given the current situation, he decided not to speak further.

He just thought that the guy was very dissatisfied with being called out so early in the morning.

“I’ll take out two days from next week’s training. Is that enough?”

“Yes! I will work hard! My lord!”

The large man, Bart, shouted loudly. At Bart’s booming answer, the corner of Cailius’s mouth curved up crookedly.

With the mood loosened, Bart laughed heartily and tapped the shoulder of the slender man standing next to him.

“Chrissy, you haven’t forgotten the bet, have you?”

“What bet?”

“I told you, didn’t I? A hundred gold to the one who cuts off the most heads. Did you forget?”

“Well, I don’t talk to someone who fainted after seeing a low-level monster.”

“What did you say, you punk?”

As the grown men began to chatter one by one, the quiet surroundings quickly became noisy.

Yan, who was standing at the very front, handed a note he had received from a messenger bird to Cailius.

“A messenger bird sent by the advance party has returned. They say they have begun setting traps.”

“I see. Let’s depart now.”

Cailius grasped the reins of his horse.

Tap, tap. It was then that light footsteps were heard.

It was a discordant sound that didn’t fit the current scene.

It wasn’t difficult to predict who it was, but it was impossible to know why the footsteps were coming from here.

Cailius turned his head with furrowed brows. It seemed Yan had noticed the same thing.

“Young lady?”

The child, whose eyes met his, stood still in place.