The Reason Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion

Ba-boom.

A loud boom blasted their ears.

Raeliana who had been inadvertently burying her face in Noah’s chest squirmed and punched his back.

“Wait, wait! Let me go!” 

“Stay still.”

“Up there, Sir Adam is in trouble!” 

“Who? Adam?”

Noah asked, looking puzzled. 

“What…?.”

What kind of response is that?! Raeliana managed to get out of Noah’s grip and looked up.

They were standing on the road below the cliff and the monsters who were about to attack Adam were falling from above like rain.

Raeliana’s gaze incredulously followed the shadows of the falling monsters.

“Oh…”

“Why’re you making such a fuss?”

Raeliana groaned but Noah spoke in a lofty tone as if nothing had happened.

Wasn’t this a dangerous situation?!

He took Raeliana in his arms and walked around the path to jump his way up the low walls.

Just mere moments after she fell, dozens of monsters had pathetically perished while only the Starved Mountain Demon, exhausted, remained to face Adam.

The Starved Mountain Demon let out ragged breaths and used his tail to lunge his body toward Adam.

Adam jumped on top of the monster’s head with ease, drove down his sword at the center, and began to slide down.

The monster writhed in pain and rocks strew across like bullets but Noah blocked all of them with his sword.

Blocking flying particles, killing that kind of monster easily, is that… normal for people living here?

It couldn’t be… Doubting herself, Raeliana shook her head.

“Squeeal!”

The Starved Mountain Demon shrieked and raised his head up high.

Then, unable to support its giant body, crashed to the ground, raising a storm of dust clouds nearby.

Adam stood proudly on top of the carcass. Finding Noah and Raeliana, he shook off his bloody sword, put it away, and lightly jumped back down.

That monster, it was giant... really big, about to eat us…

Raeliana blankly looked at the Starved Mountain Demon’s carcass with hazy eyes and gave it a soft poke. She could feel its rock hard skin. It would be difficult to even penetrate it with a sword.

Why do I have humans stronger than monsters next to me…

Aghast, Raeliana touched the monster again.

Noah approached Adam and asked. “Did they get away?”

Adam nodded once. Noah accepted the situation, but Raeliana bit her lips.

What if she had asked Adam to finish the deed? If not for Adam’s abnormal powers, they could have fallen into a truly dangerous situation.

Raeliana hesitantly called out to Adam.

“Sir Adam, I…”

“…?”

As Adam, who had been conversing with Noah, turned to walk toward her, a loud sound of hooves approached them from afar.

It was Ansley and her company. Ansley jumped off the horse immediately and ran toward Raeliana.

Looking at her, Raeliana could not help but notice a figure standing behind. To the side of Ansley’s horse was a man with his hands tied. The man had a mole on his face.

“My lady, are you alright?”

“Ah, yes. I have worried you, Lady Ansley.”

As Raeliana answered while staring at the captive man behind her, saying ‘oh,’ Ansley began to explain.

“We came across him on the way, but he tried to run away from us. I suspected that he may have something to do with this so I brought him over just in case…”

Reading the situation, Ansley trailed off.

“It’s that man. Francis Brooks and that man abducted me.”

Raeliana explained how he partook in the abduction and how she had just escaped, praising the knight for her decision to capture the culprit.

Then, after turning her back on the others, she faced Langston and motioned her thumb across her neck as if to slit her neck while smiling.

You are so dead.

Seeing a reaper-like shadow gracing Raeliana’s face, Langston paled.

Raeliana gave a low chuckle at Langston’s distorted face.

“Fuhuhu.”

Observing them from nearby, Ansley turned her head away as if she had not seen anything.

The duke’s knights began to gather one by one. Noah assigned an area to each knight to search for Francis Brooks.

Sitting on a large rock, Raeliana quietly accepted the frock coat Noah put over her.

As she had ripped away the dress in a fit of survival mode, she had been feeling quite exposed. With the excitement gone, she was feeling suddenly cold too….

Thanking him with a bow, Raeliana found a familiar handle on his waist.

A pistol?

On his waist was a pistol along with a sword.

As the knights got on the horse to start the search, she heard a shuffling sound behind her.

“…?”

Raeliana’s eyes turned to the direction of the noise. Behind her she could see frantic hand movements through the bushes.

Surprised, Raeliana raised her body a little.

Francis Brooks?

It was Francis Brooks who had been searching for Raeliana, and was looking for Langston as he had disappeared as well.

Realizing the situation before him by looking at the surrounding crowd, he immediately turned around and began to run.

A knight put a hand on the hilt of the sword and moved toward Francis.

“There he is!”

As the knights began to run toward the man, Noah turned his head to where the knight was pointing.

With a sharp glaring look, Raeliana whipped out the pistol from Noah’s waist, swiftly loaded it and shot at the ground below Francis’s feet.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.

“Eek!”

Francis twisted his body like some pathetic dance, then slumped to the ground. Raeliana strode toward him.

“Francis… Brooks…”

She uttered his name poetically.

“Rae, Raeliana.”

He stuttered, looking up at the pistol. “Such trouble. All because of you.”

Seriously, you put me through so much. 

Raeliana swallowed back her tears. All the past happenings flashed before her eyes. Coming to another world by itself was okay. She couldn’t do anything about that.

But let alone finding a comfortable life, she had found herself extorted! Abducted! In flight! With monsters! With men worse than monsters! All because of this one man…

If not for this idiot, she would be enjoying her new life as a happy rich lady.

“It, it’s a mistake. Listen to me.”

“What mistake? I hope you brace yourself.”

She aimed the pistol between Francis’s legs.

“Wa, wait. Wait!”

Turning pale, Francis waved his hands and head, making unintelligible sounds.

Raeliana grinned and spoke.

“This would have all ended well if you hadn’t tried to marry me.”

She shot once more. 

“Eeek!”

Bang.

Panting as if he was about to drop dead, Francis looked down at his thighs where the bullet had just grazed past with a pale face.

A dark wet stain began to spread between his legs.

“Hah… “

Lowering the barrel of the pistol, Raeliana sighed and tilted her head to stretch out her stiff neck.

Oh, that feels good.

She had suffered for so long because of him. Looking at his dumbfounded face, she felt like ten years worth of constipation had been cured.

She felt tempted to photograph the scene and keep it for whenever she felt down in the future.

The man would wet his pants whenever he remembers the scar on his thigh.

Not only that, but it felt exhilarating to know that Francis would live out his life in a dark dungeon.

Kyaa…

Her body trembled with excitement. As she turned around to join the group again, Noah, Adam, the knights, and everyone in the search party were quietly staring at her.

Except for Adam, everyone seemed to have much to say.

“Oh.”

Lightly clearing her throat, she looked back to throw a glance at Francis who looked out of it and turned back to her audience.

Raeliana hid the pistol behind her back and cocked her head to throw a shy smile.

“I have some experience with guns.”

***

It was not Raeliana’s choice to ride with Noah.

They were just short on horses.

Langston had killed all the horses pulling the carriage to silence them and since the searchers had each brought one horse only, she had to ride with Noah.

Raeliana sat with her torso bent forward in order to keep her distance from Noah’s chest.

For a while it worked but soon her back started to ache from the awkward posture.

Silently complaining about how slow they were riding, she cautiously spoke out.

“Noah, the horse seems to go a little too slow.”

“It’s because you’re too heavy.”

She furrowed her brows. Tilting her head backward, she spoke staring at him.

“I’m very, very light.”

“The horse doesn’t seem to agree.”

As Noah tapped the horse’s neck, it snorted briefly in response.

He smiled as if to say ‘see, I’m right.’

Ugh, really…

Raeliana whipped her head back around.

“Hah.”

To calm herself down, Raeliana drew out a long sigh and removed Francis Brooks from the top spot in the most hated list, replacing him with Noah Wynknight.

Congratulations, Noah Wynknight. You deserve to be on the top. As a reward, you get the title, ‘Raeliana’s Most Hated.’

The sun was beginning to rise. Was one day always this long?

Raeliana looked at the golden sky and opened her mouth to speak.

“Noah.”

“…?”

“Thank you for coming to find me.”

Raeliana spoke while petting the horse’s mane.

I should thank other knights later as well.

“You’re welcome.”

She heard a small chuckle from behind.

For a simple thank you, she didn’t know why she felt so shy. She rubbed her face in embarrassment.

The rising sun had now fully revealed itself in front of them. Raeliana narrowed her eyes and observed the sunrise. It felt different. She really felt like she was saved.

She finally felt relaxed. With a regular click clack of the horse hooves, Raeliana felt her eyes drooping shut.

I shouldn’t fall asleep like this….

Despite Raeliana’s last effort to rub her eyes and not fall asleep, she soon nodded off to a slumber.

As Raeliana’s face made a dive toward the manes, Noah pulled her into his chest, petting her hair. The warmth from her body spread through his chest.

As he stared at Raeliana’s sleeping face, he tilted his head to one side.

Why did I get so mad earlier? The woman who was blackmailing him had simply disappeared.

When he thought about it, if Raeliana were to die, it would have been to his benefit.

However, he found himself searching for her and holding her dearly to his chest.

“Why…”

As he played with Raeliana’s hair, he called for Adam and gave an order in low tones.

“Those two, take care of them quietly.”

Adam nodded.