“Annie, hurry!”

“Are you okay?”

As the successive voices reached me, I raised my head and saw a black-haired girl running toward me.

She was the girl who had been sitting in the corner for the past few days, her black hair framing her face.

The girl who pushed me quickly retreated, and several others followed suit.

“No, don’t!”

If they all rushed out like this, they would get caught…!

In my confusion, I hastily got up, intending to follow them.

“We want out too! Let us out!”

“Open up!”

Children in other cells grabbed the iron bars with their bound hands, shaking them wildly.

Clang! Clang!

The iron bars rattled loudly from all directions, and shouts echoed in the confined space.

This loud and chaotic noise was unlike anything I had ever experienced in my entire life. I involuntarily froze in place, feeling like my ears were about to burst.

“Annie, hurry!”

“What are you doing? We need to escape.””

“Oh? Ah, yeah.”

Prompted by Lux and the sky squirrel, I finally regained my composure.

Right, we need to escape…

“Open up! Open this side, too!”

“Please open this one!”

The noise echoed again, but this time, it wasn’t as solid. However, I found myself unconsciously looking toward the iron bars.

It felt inevitable.

Amidst the rattling sound, familiar faces emerged through the iron bars, and my chest tightened.

Was this inevitable?

Beyond the iron bars, I spotted a familiar face. I felt my heart sink.

It was the boy from Mrs. Mallon’s mansion.

The boy from Mrs. Mallon’s mansion, the one who asked for help but received my rejection and faced a terrible fate.

“Help! Help… Ah!”

“This brat! How dare he escape?”

Old memories surged, leaving me breathless and overwhelmed.

“Get it out! Please!”

The boy reached out toward me, shouting, and memories of his pleading expression resurfaced.

The desperate look he had when I didn’t help him, gradually turning into resentment and hatred.

“Ah…”

No, this is just an illusion. The boy is not being beaten right now.

I attempted to turn away and leave, but strangely, my body wouldn’t cooperate.

The pleading expression of that boy and the voice shouting for me to open up continued to overlap.

Chewing my lips anxiously, I tightly gripped the keys and turned to the sky squirrel.

“Can you throw this inside the iron bars?”

―Hm?

“I’m asking for a favor.”

―Uh! Okay. I don’t like humans, but I’ll make an exception for a kid.

“Thanks. I’ll be waiting outside.”

I quickly handed the key bundle to the sky squirrel.

Just as it had brought the keys to me, the sky squirrel agilely darted into another set of iron bars.

“This is my best option.”

I averted my gaze, unwilling to face the boy behind the bars.

In truth, I regretted turning away from him before.

But there was no time to waste in the midst of the escape.

If it had been Mari, she might have rushed to the iron bars where the kids were and opened the door for them…

“This is the best I can do.”

I handed them the keys, leaving it up to them to get out.

I ran toward the door and safely exited.

―You did it, tsk!

“Don’t relax yet. We need to go completely outside through the hole. Lux, where is the hole?”

“Uh…? I don’t know.”

“What?”

I unintentionally let out a bewildered voice.

“Sorry. I thought Sister Rat would guide us…”

“My mistake.”

Considering I had asked the sky squirrel to deliver the keys…

-No! Sister will come out soon, tsk!

“Yeah. Let’s wait for a bit.”

I didn’t know the layout of Risolante. Moving recklessly might lead us to the wrong place.

I didn’t want to worry about the kids who went out first—whether they had escaped safely or were caught again.

Concealed in the shadows next to the building, I kept a close eye on the entrance.

I waited for the sky squirrel to call out as it emerged.

Fortunately, the sky squirrel quickly emerged, blending in with the kids running away.

-Sister! Over here, tsk!

Before I could speak, Lux called the sky squirrel, and it flew toward me.

-Phew, running such errands…

“Sorry.”

I apologized while embracing the sky squirrel.

“I need to get out through the hole. Do you know where it is?”

-Of course! Trust me… Behind, behind!

-Watch out, tsk!

Before I could finish my sentence, shouts echoed in the air.

“Oh, such a rat-like creature…!”

“Ugh!”

Eugene grabbed me by the collar, his expression grim.

From where on earth did he come?

In an instant, my body seemed to hang in mid-air. However, I only realized that fact for a moment.

“Ugh!”

Because I was immediately thrown to the ground.

“While I briefly left the spot, you managed to pull off such a cute stunt. Originally, you shouldn’t make a mistake, but you seem incapable.”

Eugene held my elbow as if to inspect it and turned his shoulder away. His demeanor and the clenched fist hinted at the all-too-obvious events about to unfold.

As I tightly closed my eyes and braced myself.

Boom!

With an explosive sound that felt like my eardrums would burst, the wall right next to me collapsed.

It crumbled down so close that if I had been a little closer, I would have been buried under the debris.

Thick dust filled the air.

“What the…ugh! What’s going on?”

Surprised by the unexpected situation, Eugene waved his hand as if trying to disperse the surrounding dust.

It appeared futile amid the thickly gathered dust.

-Now’s the time! Let’s run away quickly

-Get up, tsk!

“Oh, uh, okay.”

Startled, I belatedly rose from the ground.

The words of the sky squirrel and Lux were proven right.

“Now’s our chance!”

This unexpected situation was the only opportunity to escape.

Due to the dense smoke, it was hard to see ahead, but I ran in a different direction, avoiding Eugene.

“Oops!”

As if something caught my shoe, I tilted forward in an instant.

Thud!

“Ouch, ah…”

I confirmed reflexively that I had been made to fall.

At the tip of my foot, I saw the debris piling up as the wall collapsed.

My palm and knee stung; they were likely scraped.

“Fool. Idiot.”

Running, and of all places, running toward me! Even if the path ahead wasn’t visible, it shouldn’t have been this way.

I was about to rise quickly.

“…..Found you.”

Suddenly, a deep, unfamiliar voice reached me, and instead of getting up immediately, I searched for the source of the sound.

During that time, the dust settled, and visibility improved.

Not only on my side but also on the opposite wall, I could see it crumbled.

What surprised me, however, wasn’t the collapsed wall that had been pierced.

A man standing amidst the debris.

He was staring directly in my direction.

I froze, forgetting to even breathe.

‘Grand Duke Belroc!’

His gaze, fixed on me, was as fierce as before.

How could I forget those menacing red eyes?

Furthermore, the Grand Duke’s face was nearly identical to the one I last saw.

Even Mallon, the self-indulgent lady, and Eugene, all looked much younger than the faces I knew, but he seemed only a couple of years younger.

“You, who are you?”

Wary and alarmed, Eugene shouted at Grand Duke Belroc.

But the Grand Duke silently approached me, stepping on the debris and collapsed walls.

“What are you! Where do you think you’re stepping right now…!”

“Noisy.”

The Grand Duke furrowed his brows and waved his hand.

It was just a single gesture.

“Cough!”

Eugene spewed blood and collapsed.

“…..”

Instinctively, I understood.

He was dead.

Thump, thump.

Along with the echoing heartbeat, some memories surfaced.

The red blood, the collapsed wall, and through them, Grand Duke Belroc approaching me.

“Ah….”

Memories that hadn’t surfaced for days suddenly flashed fragmentarily.

“Ani, are you okay, tsk?”

Lux asked me, but I couldn’t respond. There was only one thought filling my mind.

‘He’s going to kill me.’

Was it because in the past I couldn’t comprehend it, but now I knew it was possible?

My body trembled severely, even more than when I faced danger with Eugene just a while ago.

As the Grand Duke approached me step by step, my tension heightened.

Finally, with only one step of distance left between us, just as I was about to close my eyes…

‘Huh?’

The Grand Duke passed by me. The edge of his cloak gently brushed past my arm.

Following his back, it was hard to believe.

‘He just passeds by like this?’

Indeed, it was fortunate for me.

Because I was convinced that he was going to kill me.

But why did I feel so relieved? Did he just pass by, saying, “Found you”?

In any case, I should escape now…

‘Wait a moment.’

Come to think of it, Grand Duke Belroc should be missing an arm, right?

Why are both his arms fine now? Could today be the day the Grand Duke loses his arm?

Numerous thoughts passed through my mind in a brief moment.

“Um, excuse me!”

I quickly stood up and grabbed the man’s cloak.

And froze.

It was an action even I wasn’t aware of.

‘What did I just do?’

Why did I grab this man? Even though earlier, I couldn’t move, why now, of all times?

I released the cloak immediately, but the Grand Duke had already sensed me pulling it.

His red eyes with a ruthless gleam turned toward me.

It felt as if my brain had stopped.

Even so, perhaps due to the instinct that if I hesitated, I might be in danger, I urgently spoke.

“Just go! Oh, no, I mean, don’t harm me, just fly away! Faster!”