There were three people in the wagon.
After untying his bound hands, I took out a hairpin and opened the locked compartment door.
The wagon was just leaving the village and entering a narrow path.
Soon, Carlos grabbed me and threw himself out.
“Gasp!”
I almost screamed. My vision spun.
After rolling several times in the snow, Carlos quickly helped me up and hid behind a large tree.
‘At least we got lucky. If I had been kidnapped with that idiot Edford……’
I shook my head, thinking of the clueless Edford.
Just then, the wagon, which was moving away, suddenly stopped, as if noticing something was wrong.
Fshh.
Cynthia, leaning against the tree, lit the fuse of the firecrackers she had brought.
Even though they were small firecrackers, Masera, with his good eyesight, might be able to see them.
‘If he’s not asleep, that is.’
I crouched down and covered my ears.
Bang-! Pop!
Several firecrackers soared into the air, decorating the dark dawn sky with fireworks.
Carlos grabbed my arm and pulled me up.
“Get up, Cynthia.”
But even though I had prepared myself……
My legs were weak and I couldn’t move.
Soon, I heard footsteps approaching.
“Ha, I can’t bring myself to abandon you.”
Carlos, looking regretful, hurriedly picked me up and started running.
Snowflakes brushing my cheeks, a dizzying view, a completely white path.
Lost in thought, I was seized by an unknown sense of déjà vu.
“Little one, don’t cry. Your brother will always protect you.”
Ah, it was because of my past life memories. I remembered my older brother’s reliable back as he carried me away in my school uniform.
“What if you go to heaven like Mom and Dad? What will I do?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you from heaven too. Mom and Dad will be watching us.”
I buried my face in Carlos’s shoulder.
* * *
The man driving the wagon spotted Carlos running into the forest with Cynthia on his back.
The red-haired woman hurriedly chased after them, shouting.
“Damn it, fire! We have no choice!”
They were still within range.
The three people chased Carlos and Cynthia, who had entered a forest thick with evergreens, and aimed their pistols.
Bang-!
A series of gunshots rang out, shattering the dawn.
But seeing that not a single shot hit, the woman snapped angrily.
“Are you guys really elite members of the Free Council? Your shooting skills are terrible!”
“Hey, damn it! What can we do if we can’t hit them? Then you do it!”
The three people ran furiously to close the distance, and Carlos’s speed began to slow down.
“Leave me and go first. Go and call someone for help. They won’t kill me…….”
Cynthia, who had been in a panic, barely regained her senses and said.
But Carlos shook his head, adjusting her on his back.
“I’m not that much of a scumbag.”
He added in a bitter tone.
“Wouldn’t it be better if you left me and ran away?”
Now that I looked, Carlos was limping.
‘He must have sprained his leg when he fell from the wagon.’
Cynthia got off his back and stood on her own feet. And she put strength into her legs, which were trembling from the continuous gunshots.
“You were wondering how lucky I am, right?”
Cynthia, trying to sound joking, took out all the firecrackers hidden in Carlos’s coat. And she grinned.
“I’m wondering too.”
She lit the firecrackers.
Her spine tingled and she felt goosebumps, but she calmed herself by thinking of her family from her past life.
I can’t live trapped in trauma forever. I have to overcome it.
“Die, you filthy remnants of the Bariesa Dynasty!”
The three people running towards them aimed their guns at Cynthia at the same time.
Cynthia, who had been tightly closing her eyes, opened them, reciting the words she had been repeating in her mind.
“……The war is over.”
Pheeing-!
At the same time, the firecrackers in Cynthia’s hand were launched.
The firecrackers flew and hit a tree branch directly above the three people, exploding.
Snow piled on the branches fell, obscuring the vision of the three people, and the sound of a stray bullet hitting a tree was heard.
The woman brushed off the snow and complained.
“What a joke……!”
Cynthia lit the firecrackers again with her trembling hands. Despite the cold wave, she was sweating and dizzy, but she pushed her mental strength to the limit.
Soon, the last firecrackers were launched, but they flew past the three people and went elsewhere.
At this, Carlos grabbed Cynthia’s hand and pulled her.
“Forget about the luck test, let’s run.”
While Cynthia was stalling for time, he had torn his shirt sleeve and tightly wrapped his sprained ankle.
But if they turned around and ran now, they would surely be shot.
“Is this the end of your resistance? I was going to kill you after getting a ransom, but it’s a shame.”
It was the moment when the man, having regained his composure, grinned and aimed his pistol.
“Then goodb…….”
“Krrroooarr!”
In that critical moment, suddenly something black and house-sized appeared between the trees.
“B, bear!”
The woman, seeing the bear, was startled and stumbled back, falling on her bottom.
Smoke was rising from the head of a baby bear, trotting along behind the enraged mother bear.
It had been eating winter tree berries with its mother when it was hit by the firecrackers Cynthia had shot.
“Did I burn the baby bear’s fur?”
I’m so sorry!!
Cynthia covered her mouth in guilt and bewilderment.
“Krrroooarr! Krrroooarr!”
Meanwhile, the angry mother bear roared and began chasing the three people who were running away in the opposite direction.
“What are you doing! Shoot the bear!”
“That size is too much for a pistol! And we don’t have many bullets!”
Watching them urge each other and move away, Carlos breathed a sigh of relief.
“It seems like the bear knows about guns. It must think they shot its cub.”
Gunshots were heard in the distance.
Cynthia closed her eyes tightly and crouched down. Carlos covered her ears and asked.
“Are you still afraid of gunshots? You weren’t like this when you were young.”
Cynthia, who had almost no memories of her childhood, didn’t answer.
Then suddenly, a fragment of the original Cynthia’s memory flashed before her eyes.
“Cindy, eat this secretly by yourself.”
It was a scene of Carlos as a young boy handing her a piece of cake.
The boy’s kind and innocent smile seemed to have no ulterior motives.
‘What made Carlos change?’
The original Cynthia must have given him her heart for more than just hiding the fact that he killed her own father.
“We survived thanks to your luck.”
Carlos smiled at Cynthia.
Unlike before, when it felt fake, that smile was a little like the innocent boy’s smile in her old memories.
It was probably the smile that the original her would have liked.
Does that man know that he lost someone who truly loved him?
Cynthia quietly looked up at the sky, which was brightening with a blue light.
* * *
Masera, who was searching Kint Village, discovered firecrackers exploding in the sky on the outskirts of the forest.
He had a strong feeling that it was a signal sent by Cynthia.
He immediately rode his horse to the place where the firecrackers had been launched.
“Krrroooarr!”
He heard the cries of beasts and the screams of people from somewhere.
Soon, two men and one woman being chased by a large bear appeared before him.
“Eek!”
The three people, upon seeing Masera, didn’t ask for help; instead, they were terrified as if they had seen a grim reaper.
Masera looked around. It was close to the place where the firecrackers had been launched.
And he looked at the angry bear again and thought.
‘There’s a cub nearby.’
He took out the shotgun he had been carrying on his back and shouldered it.
Taah-ahng-!
Unlike a normal gunshot, an explosive, heavy sound tore through the air.
“Krrroooarr!”
Whether his intention to scare it away worked, the bear turned around and ran into the forest.
The three people watching glanced at each other, bowed, and tried to leave.
But once again, a gunshot rang out.
“Aaaagh!”
The man who had been shot fell to the ground, clutching his leg and writhing.
“Where is my wife?”
Masera, dismounting from his horse, approached them and asked.
‘That man’s eyes are gone!’
The two people who were still unharmed began to back away in terror.
“Why are you doing this? A shotgun, are you really going to kill us?”
A shotgun was a cruel weapon that scattered bullets and embedded them in the body, a concept of crushing rather than penetration.
“You seem to know a lot, so you’re not civilians.”
The gun slowly turned, aiming at the man who was backing away.
“Aaaagh! Aaaagh!”
Again, a man who had been shot in the arm writhed in pain with the sound of a gunshot.
The woman sat down, her face pale.
Soon, Masera’s chilling command followed.
“Answer the question.”
The woman, terrified by the sound of reloading, began to beg.
“She’s in the forest! I’ll tell you everything I know, so please spare me!”
Masera ordered his aide who had followed him to arrest the woman, then slung the gun over his shoulder.
And he grabbed the fallen man by the hair and lifted him up, saying.
“Guide me.”
“Ugh, ugh…….”
Traces of blood were left with every step Masera took, dragging the man by the hair.
The aide, seeing his chilling gaze, trembled with goosebumps.
“He seems very angry.”
After Masera dragged the man into the forest, another gunshot rang out.
