I can’t move my body at all.

Is it because it’s a dream?

[Stay still!] [If you cause any more commotion, I won’t let you off easy.] [They say she’s a useful wench, so don’t treat her roughly for now.]

When having nightmares, it was almost always the same recurring memory.

Memories of being captured by Krianet knights and dragged away by royal soldiers.

“If you don’t want to die, stay still.”

“……!”

At the clear voice, unlike the hazy voices in dreams, Sharti’s eyes snapped open.

Soon, she felt the cool touch of a blade against her nape.

The moment she met those gleaming eyes, Sharti felt sleep completely leave her.

Someone, a man she had never seen before, was straddling her body, gripping her hair, and threatening her.

“……”

Sharti bit the inside of her cheek and gathered her wits.

As her crimson eyes moved to assess the situation, Dodint’s eyes narrowed.

“Kihihi, hik, finally coming to your senses, are you?”

“……!”

Only after seeing Dodint move along with her gaze did Sharti’s complexion turn deathly pale.

Her hood had been removed.

‘My face!’

As Sharti hurriedly tried to move to cover her face, he thrust his face close to hers.

“I told you not to, kik, move.”

Because Dodint was straddling her body and holding a blade to her, it was not easy to even struggle.

As Sharti’s lips trembled finely, Dodint’s lecherous smile deepened.

“You’re the village doctor, kik, aren’t you? Hm?”

Smirking, Dodint carelessly tilted the blade against Sharti’s nape.

Sharti’s eyes quivered finely.

“You were going down to the village to treat, kehek, the men I used as bait and discarded, hik, did you save them all?”

“……”

“Beasts go crazy at the smell of blood and attack, kik, thanks to those guys I survived.”

He was the culprit behind the injured soldiers gnashing their teeth.

He was the one who threw his own subordinates as bait to escape the mother bear that charged to protect her wounded cub.

[Aaagh!! Captain!!] [Eeek! How dare you grab me! At least act as decoys!!] [Uwaaaagh!!]

To lure with the scent of blood, Dodint swung his sword without hesitation, cutting down his subordinates. If it seemed he would be caught by the mother bear while fleeing, he would cut down more subordinates.

Cutting and cutting again, he survived that way.

“Tristan, seeing how he even kindly, kik, kek, saw you off, your skills must be really impressive?”

Recalling the horrific state of the injured soldiers, Sharti glared at him with wide eyes.

As her crimson eyes revealed clear anger, Dodint sneered dismissively.

“Treat me right now. Kuk, kik, and hand over everything you have. And, kek, you’ll have to be my guide.”

The soldiers’ speculation overheard at the inn was wrong.

Dodint did not rashly descend the mountain.

Rather, he had been hiding in the mountains all along, planning to recover through Sharti’s treatment and then drag her along to safely escape the mountain.

‘This person still doesn’t know about Ren’s existence.’

Fortunately or unfortunately, Dodint had not noticed Ren’s presence.

At least it was fortunate that Ren was safe.

‘I need to draw his attention first.’

Despite her rapidly beating heart, Sharti’s mind was calm.

Sharti desperately racked her brain.

Right now, Dodint was in dire need of her treatment.

Though her hood had been removed and her face exposed, her identity had not been revealed.

‘It’s okay. This is a situation I’ve prepared for dozens, hundreds of times.’

Sharti squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists.

Having finished her mental preparation, Sharti stared directly at Dodint and opened her mouth.

“…Get your hands off.”

A terrible frog-like croak.

For a moment, Dodint looked down at Sharti with a startled expression.

Everyone had the same reaction upon hearing her dreadful voice.

Ignoring the familiar pain in her chest, Sharti spoke clearly, putting strength into her eyes.

“I don’t take patients like you.”

For an instant, the blade threatening her faltered.

‘Now’s my chance!’

As she moved her arm to grab the scissors hidden under the pillow-

Slap-! Dodint mercilessly struck her cheek.

“So you’re not, hikhit, mute after all?”

Dodint’s mouth corners rose in a grotesque grin as he thrust his face close to hers.

His strange and repulsive face made her feel like all the hair on her body was standing on end.

As Sharti swallowed dryly, she tasted something acrid.

“Right. Hik, I thought it was strange. They said you had burn scars, but your face is fine. Huh? Hik, kikhikhik, you lied? You hid it? I wonder why?”

His crazed, chilling gaze was scrutinizing every part of Sharti’s face.

It was a different kind of terror from 5 years ago.

“I’ve seen quite a few like you. Hiding your face, hihihik, making false excuses and avoiding people’s eyes? Kehehek, showing your face would cause trouble for both sides, wouldn’t it?”

Thud. The feeling of a stone dropping in her chest spread throughout her body.

Dodint’s mouth corners rose endlessly as he stared at Sharti, who couldn’t even breathe.

“It’s a definite weakness, that’s what I’m saying. I saw it, didn’t I? I saw it! That weakness of yours!”

Kik, kikikikikik, kikik, kigigik, kik……

The laughter seeping through Dodint’s yellowed teeth was disgusting and hideous.

Above all, Dodint’s sincere threat towards Sharti was the most terrifying.

However, her hand diligently searched for her pocket.

“…So what if my face is a weakness?”

Dodint’s laughter cut off.

Sharti, with a frightened face, looked up at him and managed to lift the corners of her mouth.

“Did you think I wouldn’t have any defenses?”

Whoosh-! The defensive powder Sharti pulled from her pocket scattered into the air.

Riding on the fierce wind that entered through the half-open window, the defensive powder instantly engulfed Dodint.

“Uwaaaaagh!!! Aaagh!! My, my eyes!!!”

True to its effect of stinging and burning the eyes, Dodint clutched his eyes and screamed.

‘Now’s my chance!’

Not missing the opportunity, Sharti rose to leave the bed, but Dodint immediately reached out and roughly grabbed her clothes, throwing her down.

Thud! The impact caused Sharti’s shoulder and back to hit the bed board.

“…Ugh……”

Due to the shock that reached even her head, Sharti couldn’t immediately get up.

“You! You X!!!”

Dodint fumbled around the bed, unable to open his eyes, while breathing heavily.

Unable to be caught by him again, Sharti barely managed to curl up her body when-

Bang bang!! Bang!!

“-Sha!”

Amidst the sound of someone pounding on the door as if to break it down, Ren’s voice was heard.

As Sharti was about to mouth ‘don’t come’, Dodint found her first.

“That face, that face!! I’ll, remember it.”

Dodint threatened Sharti with bloodshot eyes.

“I’ll remember it, definitely remember it and catch and kill you. No, before that, I’ll somehow find someone who knows your face and sell you out!! So just quietly…!”

Crash-!!

Just as Dodint was about to grab Sharti’s hair to drag her away, the bedroom door shattered and Ren appeared.

The back of Ren’s hand, breathing heavily, was drenched in blood.

“Sha!!”

As Ren immediately rushed towards the woman huddled in the darkness, Dodint cursed and threw the knife he was holding.

Ugh. With his forearm barely grazed, Ren hesitated for a moment, during which Dodint hastily escaped through the window.

“Damn it, Sha! Sha, are you alright? Sha!”

Ignoring Dodint’s retreating figure, Ren immediately checked on Sharti’s condition.

Her slender body was shivering, soaked by the rain. Ren pulled the blanket to wrap around Sharti’s body.

“Wait, why is there blood…? Don’t tell me you’re injured?!”

“……”

Startled by the blood on the pillow, Ren tried to examine Sharti, but she only let out small whimpers like sobs while covering her face.

Though Sharti’s crying was barely audible over the wind, Ren could vaguely grasp the situation.

Someone had attacked Sharti. Sharti had shown her face to that someone, and that someone who saw Sharti’s face had instilled fear in her before fleeing.

The anger that boiled coldly erased all expression from Ren’s face.

Ren quietly stood up and picked up the broken blade that Dodint had thrown.

“I’ll catch him, Sha.”

“……!”

The large hand wrapped the blanket even tighter around her before disappearing without hesitation.

Sharti belatedly raised her head, but Ren was nowhere to be seen.

Whooosh-. Into the typhoon that would erase all sound and trace, Ren disappeared.

[This is the timeline separator]

Splash splash. Having frantically fled from the log cabin, Dodint began to wander aimlessly through the mountains.

As time passed and the rain gradually weakened, along with changes in the wind’s intensity, Dodint’s face contorted.

‘Damn it! Who was that guy from earlier!’

Starting with the unexpected appearance of that man, things were going awry.

The plan to easily gain cooperation by using Sharti’s face as a weakness had gone up in smoke.

Moreover, in his frantic escape, he had ventured deep into the mountains.

“Huff, huuuff, hu……”

Thinking he had run far enough from the old log cabin, Dodint stopped walking.

Thankfully, since the rain hadn’t completely stopped, some of the defensive powder Sharti had sprinkled was washed away.

‘I should hide for a while, no. I can just escape the mountain like this and report that doctor wench. If I say she’s the wanted criminal we were trying to find with this search, they’ll investigate her identity and something might turn up.’

If he said she was a cunning wanted criminal and he deliberately deceived his subordinates to break through her wariness, the higher-ups might accept and overlook it.

“Or, kihit, she looked quite pretty and useful, so I could sell her off.”

Just as Dodint, still not fully recovered, was about to smile lecherously again-

Whoosh-! Along with a small footstep behind him, a cool blade grazed Dodint’s cheek and flew by.

“…Wh-who’s there!!”

“Did you pollute her ears with such filthy words?”

Simultaneously with the icy low voice, Dodint’s face was buried in the ground.

“…He, heack, huok, huk…!”

As Dodint’s rough breathing grew closer, Ren’s rationality became thinner and finer.

Hadn’t Sharti been too terrified to even breathe properly?

The image of Sharti curled up and trembling in the messy bedroom kept flashing before his eyes.

That’s why.

This unfamiliar killing intent was boiling.

“You’ll sell her? How dare you, who?”

Before being Ren’s benefactor, Sharti was a fragile woman.

The fact that this scum had made such trashy remarks about Sharti was unbearable.

Above all, Dodint had forcibly seen the face that she so desperately wanted to hide.

That’s why Ren couldn’t stay by Sharti’s frightened side.

He had to chase after Dodint right away.

Just as Sharti had kept Ren’s secret, now it was his turn to protect Sharti’s secret.

“Aaagh!! St-stop!! Stop…!!”

The pig-like squealing echoed through the mountains, but Ren ignored it.

Thud. Thud thud. Thud!! Thud!! Grabbing Dodint’s collar and slamming him into the ground, Ren continued to swing his fists.

Dodint’s face, already a mess from the poisonous mushroom’s side effects, gradually swelled to the point where it was hard to recognize.

However, Ren’s anger showed no signs of subsiding.

“So you can speak. Trash like you can actually speak.”