Lady Devil - Chapter 217

At the entrance to the village, even the smell seemed shabby.

“Who goes there!”

A voice dropped from atop the watchtower where torch smoke flickered. The deep, phlegmy voice sounded like that of a middle-aged free man. I stopped abruptly outside the wooden palisade. Had my footsteps on the dirt road been so loud? The sentry was truly skilled, I marveled, to detect my approaching presence without even looking out.

I took a light breath. Craning my neck toward the watchtower, I called back.

“And who are you?”

“Me?”

“Yes! You!”

The sentry fell silent, seeming perplexed by my attitude and question. Only the yellow torchlight flickered like a human shadow atop the bewildered watchtower. I did not wait long for the man’s response. Hey, you pitiful commoner! I called out with cupped hands.

“When a man stands before a noble lady, he should state his own name before asking for hers!”

I didn’t bother to suppress the smirk rising to my lips.

Even now looking back, my whole body was overflowing with some long-pent-up mischief or spirit at that moment. Even the night air gently biting my skin felt like a symbol of freedom, making me tremble pleasantly – any obstacle was merely an exciting plaything to me. To the point where I have no excuse if you call it the recklessness of a bumpkin. I hugged my goosebump-covered arms as I waited for the sentry’s response. Beneath a childlike, burning elation, I exhaled a cool breath.

After a short while, a large head poked out from behind the embrasure, so worn and crumbled its original shape was hard to discern. The sentry raised his torch above the embrasure as if to closely examine the intruder’s appearance. Thanks to this, I too could clearly see his gruff face.

The man’s face, with some cloth-like headgear pressed down tightly, was thickly overgrown with dark bristly beard, and his suspicious gaze, which created crow’s feet by his nostrils, was scrutinizing me quite thoroughly. Though eyes alone would suffice, why on earth was he sniffing like that? I laughed with a deflating sound.

The sentry’s eyes and mannerisms looked just like a dimwitted animal to me.

“…Hey!”

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