May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 76.1
Lucian ran frantically through the thickly overgrown trees.
If I stop, I’ll be caught and devoured.
He never looked back. He had no time to think about whether he was running in the right direction. He could only desperately wish to return to his comfortable bedroom, to his nursemaid’s arms.
Then, like a miracle, a tall gray wall appeared before his eyes. It was the very wall he had climbed over earlier.
Lucian scrambled up the tall tree growing close to the wall and crossed over to the other side in one breath. Only then did he stop running. Finally, he felt safe.
“This place is where only Wills may enter, Lucian. It was your father’s most beloved spot in the high fortress. Now you are the master of this place.”
This dark forest, which he had visited a few times holding his mother’s hand, was a place where only Wills could enter. So no matter how powerful the witch, she would not be able to follow him here.
His chest ached and his ears were ringing. After bending over for a while, catching his ragged breath, Lucian suddenly turned around and lifted his head.
The world was quiet, and there was no sign of anyone. Finding it strange, Lucian blinked his round eyes once.
“…She’s not chasing me?”
Just then, a cold wind swept through, and the black leaves rising above the high walls danced. The eerie sight made Lucian flinch with his trembling legs and involuntarily step back. In the meantime, the leaves one by one returned to their places as if nothing had happened.
One step, two steps—after slowly backing away, Lucian soon turned around and quickened his pace. He had been outside far too long than usual. If he didn’t return quickly, Margery might wake up. If that happened, he would no longer be able to come outside freely.
Crossing the empty forest, there was no need to be cautious. After escaping from the rear garden, he moved only after the guards had passed, hiding his body in the shadows. They seemed busier than usual, as if something had happened, and perhaps because of that, the number of guards stationed at the separate palace was fewer.
Thanks to that, Lucian was able to return to his bedroom more easily than usual.
*Creak.*
The old nursemaid’s snoring was louder than the sound of the door opening and closing. Phew, letting out a small sigh of relief, Lucian tiptoed his way and crawled into the soft blankets.
The surroundings had already taken on a bluish hue. He could tell how long he had been outside today.
Yet sleep would not come. Even though he had returned safely, his heart still pounded as if being chased by something.
Lucian couldn’t believe what had just happened to him.
‘There really was a witch.’
It had been a month since he started sneaking out of the separate palace at night because he wanted to see a witch.
But he hadn’t been able to find even a trace of a witch, and Lucian had thought Hilda was just teasing him again. Still, he kept going outside purely because he had grown fond of discovering new places every day.
But Hilda’s words had all been true!
Lucian tried to recall the woman standing beyond the wall.
The woman hiding deep within the fortress, wandering the garden like a ghost when everyone was asleep—she must surely be the witch.
Her long, wavy hair had a reddish hue. Her face was white as the moon, and her eyes were enormous. Her voice was like a bell…
The witch wore a much younger and prettier shell than he had imagined. And surprisingly, she looked so fragile that she seemed as if she would collapse with a single touch. Now that he thought about it, he felt a little embarrassed for having run away in fear at the sight of her…
Come to think of it, she was said to have lost her memory. Was it because she was a sick witch that she couldn’t chase after me?
That is to say, the witch didn’t seem like a ‘bad witch’ at all.
A pretty-looking witch who had lost her memory and was weak in power.
He had grown more curious about her, and in the end, Lucian could not fall asleep that night.
***
After walking around the stone fountain a few times, Reyna suddenly approached the shrubs that surrounded the garden like a fence and peered between the bushes.
Her actions, as if searching for something, made Aileen look at her with puzzlement and ask.
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