The place where Askan was dragged by Tanashia was her room.

He had a myriad of thoughts on his way here.

Should he resist?

Should he run away again?

But the reason he couldn’t make such a choice was because he realized that Zen, whom he had encountered a while ago, was an extremely skilled individual.

Zen would have discovered a suspicious person and started a search around, and it was realistically impossible to break through the heightened security of the Brellop mansion.

Askan recalled the scene where he had encountered Zen.

The moment Zen drew his sword, he couldn’t find any weaknesses in him.

If they fought as is, he would lose.

That thought filled his mind.

Askan had seen many people who claimed to be good with a sword. Dozens of people had lost their lives in his hands while escaping the laboratory.

But among those he had met so far, there was no one who felt as strong as Zen.

‘Why did it have to be today of all days…’

The fact that he encountered Zen, not anyone else, on the day he decided to escape, was nothing short of a great misfortune.

It was ridiculous, but not unusual. The world had always been cruel to him.

Tanashia left Askan standing alone in the room and looked outside the door to see if anyone was following.

Askan, looking at her back, unknowingly gripped the bag he was holding tightly.

In his bag now were simple clothes, the money he had secretly collected, and the food that Tanashia had packed for him to eat.

He didn’t know why she rescued him there, but if she saw this, she would know that he tried to run away.

‘She would resent me…’

In his mind, he envisioned Tanashia ripping him apart and criticizing him with all sorts of words.

She might swear at him for being ungrateful even though he had been kind to her.

He couldn’t argue even if she experimented and abused him like before.

Whatever happened, it would be hard to return to a good relationship.

‘A good relationship?’

He was filled with doubt at the word that came to mind momentarily.

Tanashia had been kind to him because she had a scheme. He was choked at the thought that he considered it a good relationship.

Startled, Tanashia carefully closed the door she had been looking at when she confirmed that no one was following, and approached Askan.

Askan, watching Tanashia get closer, steeled himself. It was clear that he would be criticized by her from now on.

As he expected, Tanashia first snatched the bag he was holding and checked its contents.

“Were you really trying to run away?”

“Yes.”

There was no use lying at this point.

Askan admitted it plainly. He was waiting for the harsh words Tanashia was about to spill, unknowingly closing his eyes.

Thunk, thunk.

A sound he hadn’t expected made him open his eyes, and for some reason, he saw Tanashia rummaging through a jewel box.

It was such an abrupt development that he could only stare blankly.

“So you planned something so important without consulting me? Even if you didn’t trust me, that’s disappointing.”

With that, Tanashia came with a handful of jewels in both hands. As she shoved the jewels into Askan’s bag, she continued to speak.

“You were going to hide with just this amount of money? It’s too little. If you want to launder your identity and not get caught, you need ample funds.”

Askan could only watch Tanashia, unable to say a word.

Tanashia often said things he couldn’t understand, but this was the first time he was curious about what she was thinking.

“If I were you, I would have stripped this room of everything a long time ago.”

“Are you telling me to steal?”

“Weren’t you going to run away anyway? You know that a runaway slave gets his ankle cut off, right? It wouldn’t make a difference if you added theft to that.”

She was not wrong, but it was out of place for Tanashia to say that.

Tanashia handed Askan the bag full of jewels again. Taking it in a daze, he couldn’t accept the situation.

“What… what are you doing now?”

“Can’t you see? I’m preparing your escape funds.”

“Why are you preparing my escape funds?”

“I might have forgotten, but we agreed to be happy together.”

He hadn’t forgotten. The absurd thing that Tanashia had said.

From now on, I intend to execute the project to enjoy life and live happily for a long time. If you want, I’ll include you.

It wasn’t that he had forgotten exactly. He just didn’t believe it.

He wasn’t naive enough to believe the words ‘let’s be happy together’ without any kind of cost. The world he had seen so far was not that warm.

Askan unknowingly gripped his bag, now heavy with jewels, harder than before.

Given the situation, he wanted to know.

So far, he thought that even if he asked her, she wouldn’t answer honestly. No, he wouldn’t have believed it even if he heard the answer.

But now it was different. He couldn’t help but ask what was on Tanashia’s mind.

“Why are you so good to me? Please tell me honestly. If there is anything you want, I’ll give it to you.”

“There’s really nothing…”