The boss’s eyes widened in surprise at Karina’s answer.

That was brief, as he let go of Karina’s collar and immediately grinned, splitting his mouth wide.

“Ah. So you really were the Grand Duchess? That’s why you knew so well! Well, this is quite an honor.”

The escapees around also looked at the boss’s cue and laughed along.

The boss who was laughing cheerfully suddenly changed his expression.

“Did you think we would bow and follow you saying ‘Oh, yes, Your Highness’ just because you’re the Grand Duchess? You stupid girl.”

“Of course not.”

Karina replied indifferently.

“I wanted to take the Grand Duchess hostage anyway, so this works out well. With you in our hands, the Grand Duke’s household won’t be able to recklessly try to catch us.”

The boss sneered as he said so.

‘Is that really so?’

While maintaining an expressionless face outwardly, Karina was also inwardly sneering at the escapees.

‘The stupid one is you. Even if you take me hostage and threaten, there’s absolutely no way Jeremiah would ever negotiate with escaped prisoners.’

From what Karina knew of Jeremiah, he would never give in to the escapees’ demands.

Rather, in front of many people, he would look at her, who was taken hostage, with contemptuous eyes, calling her pathetic.

‘Saying there will be absolutely no compromise, he might even publicly abandon me in front of everyone.’

Imagining such a scene was nauseating and horrifying.

She had already experienced being coldly rejected and abandoned to a devastating degree.

She couldn’t bear to be thrown into such misery again, being manipulated as a hostage.

‘I absolutely hate it. Rather than being in that kind of situation, I’d rather…’

Karina forcibly suppressed the rising emotions and maintained her composure coldly.

She scanned the surroundings with an indifferent face.

On a nearby table, she saw a water bottle half-filled with water and an overturned glass.

“……”

Lost in thought for a moment, a way to overcome this situation came to Karina’s mind.

She picked up the glass with slow movements.

The boss, who had been watching Karina’s actions, snickered and sneered.

“What, you want us to serve you water here? Are you asking us to wait on you now?”

Laughter also erupted among the escapees.

Karina snorted and loosened her grip on the glass she was holding.

Crash!

With a loud noise, the glass that fell to the floor shattered into pieces.

Sharp fragments of the broken glass scattered here and there at Karina’s feet.

Karina picked up the largest shard among the broken fragments.

Then she gripped the sharp part of the shard upright and raised it so the escapees could see it clearly.

“Oh my? A glass shard? Are you trying to threaten us with that?”

Laughter erupted among the escapees at Karina’s action.

“Hahahahaha.”

“She’s using her brain somewhat.”

“Should we praise her?”

Their laughter mixed with mockery faded at Karina’s next action.

Karina brought the glass shard to her own neck.

“What trick are you trying now?”

The escapees just stared silently at Karina’s action.

At this moment, Karina decided to take a gamble.

‘I’m not sure if this method will work as well as I think.’

Karina steeled herself to keep her voice from trembling and opened her mouth.

“I told you I’m the Grand Duchess.”

Karina was grateful for the escapees’ carelessness and stupidity.

“Not only have you taken the Grand Duchess hostage, but you’ve also caused her death. The Grand Duke’s household will absolutely not let you live, will they?”

Karina pressed the sharp edge of the glass shard against her neck.

“…!”

“She’s…!”

The escapees’ eyes filled with confusion.

Thinking she had gained control of the situation, Karina demanded.

“Release all the hostages. If not…”

Karina gripped the glass shard tightly.

Everyone realized what would follow.

But despite Karina’s sharp warning, the boss showed no reaction.

“Go ahead, continue.”

Rather, he seemed to be goading her on, as if daring her to do it.

His sneering expression revealed his inner thoughts.

He believed Karina was just making empty threats.

It was quite understandable.

Most high-ranking noble women would faint at the mere sight of a drop of blood.

So he thought that Karina, being a noble woman as well, could never cut her own throat.

But Karina pressed the glass shard strongly against her neck, as if to prove him wrong.

Then the sharp edge dug into Karina’s neck.

Blood trickled down from the delicate skin cut by the edge.

Even though it was cut quite deeply, Karina’s hand did not stop.

Seeing Karina’s unwavering gaze, the boss’s expression finally twisted unpleasantly.

“You crazy bitch!”

He looked like he was about to rush over and snatch the glass shard from her.

“Don’t move! If you move, I’ll stab deeper!”

Karina shouted as she backed away, avoiding his hand.

The boss breathed heavily with an angry, agitated expression.

Yet he couldn’t move easily.

A tension different from before filled the space.

“Release the hostages outside right now. You’d better listen to what I say.”

Karina spoke in a firm voice.

Though she appeared calm on the outside, Karina was actually feeling urgent inside.

She thought this was the only chance to get the hostages to escape, not knowing how the situation might change when the knights arrived.

She felt like her insides were being twisted with anxiety.

But she made her demands calmly without getting excited.

“You there.”

Karina pointed to the man closest to the exit among the escapees.

“Slowly stand up, open the door, and step back.”

The man who was pointed at glanced around, checking the boss’s reaction.

“I said open the door.”

Karina frowned and gripped the glass shard more tightly.

“Tch!”

The boss clicked his tongue and nodded as if telling him to do as instructed.

The man who had been pointed at reluctantly stood up slowly, opened the door, and stepped back.

“Everyone get out now!”

Karina shouted at the people who had been taken hostage.

[This is the timeline separator]

At that time when Karina was captured by the escapees.

“This way, Your Highness.”

Jeremiah and the knights were inspecting the nearby monster disposal site while making their rounds.

It was the place where Mikhail had disposed of the monster and saved Karina.

“Who could it have been?”

Jeremiah looked around the area.

At a glance, the marks looked similar to sword cuts, but upon closer inspection, they were different.

Rather than clean cuts made by a hard metal object, they were more like traces torn and ripped by something moving at high speed.

Jeremiah had seen such traces before.

‘Magic?’

As he realized it was traces of magic, Karina’s escort mage naturally came to mind.

But he soon shook his head.

There was no way Karina’s escort mage could have been here.

‘Because there’s no way Karina would have been here.’

His eyes sank deeply.

At that moment.

“Your Grace! Something terrible has happened!”

A knight who ran from the mansion reported the hostage situation with the escapees to Jeremiah.

“A man who came to deliver a letter from the escapees said his family was being held hostage. He begged and pleaded for us to save them.”

“A hostage situation, is it.”

Jeremiah remained impassive even after hearing the report.

“What are their demands?”

“They’re asking for the imprisoned mage to be released. And they want eight horses and a carriage loaded with sufficient water, clothing, and food prepared.”

“Ridiculous.”

Jeremiah found it laughable that mere escapees would make such unreasonable demands.

“From what I heard, there are about 9 hostages in total. It’s said that there are also 2 young children among the captured hostages.”

Displeasure clouded Jeremiah’s face at hearing that even young children were being held hostage.

“They say they’ll kill one hostage every hour if their demands aren’t met.”

But Jeremiah had not the slightest intention of giving in to the escapees’ demands.

He was only irritated that they had staged a hostage situation at a time when troublesome incidents were happening one after another.

“What about those sent to patrol the town?”

“I apologize. They say they haven’t seen the Grand Duchess.”

“Is that so.”

Though she would likely be in no great danger since she was with her escort, he still felt somewhat concerned.

‘If not the northern part of town, where did she go?’

Jeremiah let out a slow breath.

“For now, half will continue the inspection as scheduled, and the rest will come with me to the scene where the escapees are.”

“Yes.”

The knights and soldiers quickly divided their numbers and reorganized their ranks according to his orders.

Ron, the captain of the knights, approached Jeremiah and asked.

“What should we do about their demands?”

“No need to prepare anything. I have no intention whatsoever of negotiating with criminals.”

“Yes, understood.”

Ron had already anticipated such an answer.

He withdrew without adding anything to Jeremiah’s words.

‘Only those captured children are to be pitied.’

Though he felt sympathy for the hostages, their chances of survival were extremely slim.

Ron swallowed his bitterness and followed behind Jeremiah.

[This is the timeline separator]

“……”

The people who had been watching the situation blankly hesitated.

“I said get out now!”

At Karina’s shout, Jen snapped to her senses and quickly pulled people along.

“Hurry and leave! Quick! Hurry!”

Jen urged, moving people along.

The children’s mother also seemed to come to her senses, firmly grasping the arms of her two children and dashing out the door.

With that as the start, the remaining people also began to escape through the door.

Jen also supported a man who couldn’t walk quickly due to his injured leg and helped him out the door.

While they all exited, Karina remained vigilant to prevent the escapees from moving.

“……”

Even after everyone had left, Karina held her position for a while.

It was to buy enough time for the people to escape.

‘If these guys catch me again, I’ll really die then.’

Karina swallowed hard.

“All of you, over there.”

Karina raised her hand that wasn’t holding the glass shard.

And she pointed with her finger to the corner farthest from the door.

“Gather in that corner over there.”

The escapees glared at Karina with fierce eyes but had no choice but to do as she said.

Karina slowly gathered the escapees in the corner farthest from the door as she wanted.

The blood flowing from the wound on her neck wet Karina’s hand and soaked the front of her chest.

As a large amount of blood loss occurred enough to feel hot, she felt dizzy.

‘No! If I collapse here, I’ll really die. I absolutely can’t lose consciousness!’

Karina desperately clung to consciousness, squeezing out every last bit of strength.

“Haa, haa.”

Every second felt unbearably long.

The hand holding the glass shard trembled and exerted more force than necessary.

Though slight, she felt a small cut on her palm.

The stinging pain brought her mind back a little.

‘Okay, it’s alright. I can get out.’

Karina maintained her composure.

She slowly backed towards the door while facing the escapees.

But the escapees seemed to notice Karina’s condition and subtly narrowed the distance between them and her.

“Stop! I said don’t move!”

Karina shouted, but her voice already came out cracked.

“…!”

She felt at a loss.

Rather, hearing Karina’s voice, the escapees smiled viciously again and tried to approach her.

“Don’t come closer!”

Though knowing it was useless, she strained her voice with all her might.

But contrary to expectations, the escapees’ actions stopped abruptly.

The color drained from the faces of the escapees who had been approaching, and they turned pale.

‘……?’

The atmosphere seemed to have frozen.

An inexplicable tension lingered.

Karina was puzzled but didn’t stop backing up.

Just as she was about to cross the threshold and go out the open door.

Thud.

“……?!”

Something blocked her from behind.

Startled, Karina turned to look at the doorway.

An unidentified figure with a deeply pulled-down robe stood in front of the door.