I, A Shut-in, Was Proposed to by a Tyrant - Chapter 4

When I entered the next room with the noisy restaurant at my feet, I saw a fairly clean and cozy bedroom.

In the monotonous white bedding, oil lamps were lit. There was also a small window, but when I got closer, knights were camped around the building.

“He’s thorough.”

I sighed as I looked at the unnecessarily heavily guarded surroundings. I have nowhere to go and nothing to do even if I run away from here anyway.

I’d rather be on this side than be left alone in the middle of nowhere.

As I closed the window where the cold wind permeated, I saw the old lady whom I had not seen since I followed the Grand Duke.

“What the hell were you doing? I’m having a hard time because of you.”

[What do you mean……. This punk, you are doing great.]

“Are you kidding me? I’m getting married here. Do you know that?”

[Ahem…]

Avoiding my burning gaze, the old lady coughed for no reason. I wanted to grab her floating body and throw it far out of the window.

[You look so happy. What do you mean…….]

Did all the blessings in the world freeze to death? What do you mean, I look so happy?

I forgot for a moment that I was the only one left annoyed whenever I talked to this old lady. I decided to leave tomorrow’s work to tomorrow’s me, and then I fell on the bed to sleep.

[Hey, you should thank me for catching such a handsome man.]

“If he’s so handsome, you should live with him instead.”

[Did his face convince you? Did it?]

“Oh, come on!”

I’d rather sleep. Holding next to me, I lifted the pillow where I buried my face and swung it in the air.

“Go and marry him instead!”

I let out an angry cry.

***

The unwanted morning came the moment I closed my eyes and opened them. The voices of the knights woke me up naturally because of the noise outside.

‘Where am I….?’

Is it because I was drunk on a dazed mind? As I was looking into the strange room with eyes that couldn’t open well, I was suddenly awakened by someone’s voice, “Wake up hostage!”

“Hey!”

My face, as I slept without washing up, made it obvious that I was an aristocrat from a moneyless, ruined family. It was believable to say that except for my beautiful face, I was very insignificant.

“If you’re awake, come down!”

“Y, yes!”

I heard a loud sound of armor friction when the knight, who was screaming outside the closed door, went away once he saw that I had gotten up.

My f***cking hostage day has begun again.

As I stepped outside, the knights were getting ready to ride their horses after preparing. I quickly smoothed my disheveled hair.

“Did you sleep well, wife?”

Holding onto the railing of the stairs and watching it blankly, I flinched my shoulders at the voice from behind.

“Why are you so surprised?”

The man behind me was Grand Duke Noctis, who came out with still damp hair.

He was shaking off the small water droplets hanging from the end of his hair with his rough hands, and he called me “wife.”

“It’s strange.”

“You have to get used to it. We’re going to get married soon.”

“But that’s…….”

I had never dated a man before, so it was awkward as I was about to get married. Even if it’s just a contract marriage with my life as collateral.

“Why? Why don’t you call me to the imperial palace too?”

The Grand Duke, who bowed his upper body and looked at me at eye level, laughed annoyingly and sarcastically at my words.

“You’ll get caught before you even cheat on the Empress.”

I couldn’t find anything to refute and just chewed my lips.

As if it was funny to see me like that, the Grand Duke headed down the stairs first, leaving a word, “Take care.”

“Being unlucky in the morning is also a skill, a skill.”

I followed the Grand Duke while grumbling. The thought of riding a rumbling carriage on an empty stomach already made me feel sick to my stomach.

“From now on, we will travel nonstop until we arrive at the territory.”

The horse was like a bolt from the blue, and I grabbed my stomach and stumbled. People need to eat and sleep in order to gain energy.

“How long is it until we arrive?”

I didn’t want to talk to the Grand Duke, so I grabbed a knight and asked him.

The knight looked down at me and looked displeased, but he didn’t ignore the question.

“It originally took about two days, but we’re going to take a shortcut, so we’ll arrive after a full day of travel.”

As if he had seen something unpleasant, the knight turned his head around and walked on his way.

This was the attitude of the knights who knew that they no longer had to be polite to me, as I was no longer the daughter of a Duke.

The chaotic atmosphere faded gradually, and the knights who had finished preparing got on their horses.

“What are you doing there?”

The Grand Duke pointed at the carriage and made a gesture to me, who was only looking at it from afar.

“Yes, yes.”

As soon as I tried to get on the carriage,

[I’m not telling you because you’re pretty, but I’m telling you because you’re lucky because your husband is blessed.]

“……What?”

The voice of the old lady, who I couldn’t even see, suddenly rang in my head.

I looked for the old lady while looking in the air, but I couldn’t see a soul floating in the air.

[Don’t take the shortcut. You’re all going to die.]

I looked at the shortcut the Knights of Perus would take, just as the old lady forced my head to turn.

[Since you decided to accept me, you should know how to do this by yourself. How long do I have to help you? Yes?]

Ability to foresee the future and sense danger. I was well aware of this ability that this old woman was telling me.

My mother was born with that ability and lived her whole life helping others.

[Hah, it takes a lot of work]

Saying harsh words, the old lady instructed me to blink slowly.

Telling me that it takes effort and concentration to see what’s invisible.

‘I, It’s a landslide!’

‘Your Excellency, avoid it!’

‘Arrrgggghhh!’

As I focused my attention on the shortcut, terrible things passed in front of my eyes. Horrible landslides starting from a huge mountain.

A disaster that caused countless Perus knights to be crushed to death by piles of rock and dirt.

With his quick response, Grand Duke Noctis saved his life, but he saw many people’s deaths which made him feel guilty.

The short passing scene ended the moment deep frustration filled the Grand Duke’s eyes.

Even the carriage I was in was swallowed by the falling rock. When I thought of the flattened carriage, I felt a cold sweat in my spine.

‘What the hell…….’

If it’s really the future, I have to stop it right away.

“Hey, hey!”

I waved at the Grand Duke in command of the knights, but he didn’t see me as I was too far away.

“Knight, you can’t leave now. We could all die.”

Then, I appealed to a knight who said we would take a shortcut because we were in a hurry.

I only knew how to see ghosts, but it was my first time experiencing this power of foresight, so I was embarrassed.

Still, if it’s the old lady, she wouldn’t lie to me.

“What are you talking about? Get out of my way!”

“Oh…!”

Because she never lied to my mom.

The knight pushed me, annoyed.

“If you want to go crazy, don’t bother me.”

His tongue clicked as he quickly left. No one helped me, who was thrown helplessly.

When I fell on the muddy ground, the only dress I had been wearing since I left the Duke’s house was ruined.

“Why don’t you believe that you’re all going to die…….”

Of course, I wouldn’t have believed it if someone who was taken hostage said this. But he doesn’t have to make me fall like this.

As I stood up and looked at the muddy hem of my dress, someone held out a handkerchief in front of me.

“Are you okay?”

The knight who did me a favor was a man who didn’t fall off next to Grand Duke Noctis. He looked bitter, but he had at least some courtesy.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Perus’ knights will be unfriendly to the lady. They suffered a lot because of Duke Bevenia.”

“Yes……”

“We’re going to leave soon, so it would be better for the lady to finish preparing quickly.”

“Wait a minute. I have something to tell you before that.”

It was best to tell the Grand Duke right away, but he was already so far away that he could not be seen.

With a feeling of grasping at straws, I gave the knight who gave me the handkerchief a desperate look.

“You know my ability, right? The knight knows that I saw the Grand Duke’s Black Lion.”

In response to my words, the knight’s expression was unpleasantly twisted. An ordinary person would not see a black lion.

Obviously the Grand Duke was hiding something special. And someone like me seeing that is useful.

“What do you want to say?”

Unlike before, I didn’t care about his sharp voice. The most important thing now was to save my life.

“We can’t go the way we’re going now. Even if it takes a little longer…….”

I pointed in the opposite direction of the shortcut that the old lady taught me.

“We have to go that way.”

“That’s a way around the mountain range, so it takes about two more days.”

“I know. But if we take a shortcut, we’ll be caught in a landslide.”

The handkerchief knight murmured softly, ‘A landslide?’ As if he could not believe it.

It wasn’t common, and he could think that the hostage was faking to escape.

“I’m telling you. If you don’t believe me, just deliver my words to the Grand Duke. Please.”

“…….”

It was a life I got by accepting the old lady, whom I hated all my life. If I throw it in vain due to a landslide, I may wander through Gucheon because of resentment.

The handkerchief knight looked suspicious even in my firm voice, but soon he sighed and nodded as if he understood.

“I’ll deliver it. Do you happen to know exactly where the landslide occurs?”

“Uh……”

I reflected on the scene that I saw a while ago.

It was difficult for me to pinpoint where it was because it was all mountainous and I didn’t know the geography.

“A landslide occurs about an hour away. It’s very big, and there’s a steep cliff in the high mountain. There are a lot of rocks.”

“Hmm… It’s around the Blue Gorge.”

“It starts as soon as the first line passes and the second line passes below. It falls so fast that we don’t have time to avoid it, and everyone dies.”

I had the illusion that there was a cold energy in my eyes. Gray visions alternately passed by before my eyes with reality.

“Survivors are…….”

Only one.

“His Excellency is the only one.”