Your Majesty, I’m Not that Man - Chapter 8: Escape and Pursuit (2)

Levinia was running. Had it been a mistake to tell Robert she was escaping? There had been years when she owed her survival to Robert, and she had hoped he would make it through this as well. She wanted to believe that such thoughts weren’t wrong.

“Maybe I was foolish.”

Still, there was a way out. Levinia decided to use her teleportation scroll as close to the city walls as possible and began searching for a secluded spot.

She had used a teleportation scroll before, back when the previous duke’s life was nearing its end. She had used it to be by his side in his final moments.

The late Duke Alexander had been a strict man, but he had doted on Levinia in his own way. While he believed the daughter of a ducal family should never become lax, and expressed his affection in his rigid, disciplined manner, Levinia had always known how much her grandfather cared for her.

“Grandfather, I’m so sorry to run away like this… But I want to live, too.”

If Alexander had lived just a little longer, Albert would never have been adopted as heir. Maxim wouldn’t have brought Hans into the household, and perhaps Levinia herself might have become the duchess.

“None of that matters now. It’s all in the past, and it’s no longer my concern. I need to think only of the future.”

At long last, the time had come for Levinia to walk a path focused only on herself, without Maxim or Zelenka holding her back.

Just as she reached into her pocket to pull out the teleportation scroll, a voice she least wanted to hear shouted her name.

“Leni!”

Grinding her teeth, Levinia turned and glared. It was Albert, again. From afar, he was sprinting toward her with desperate energy, a sword in hand.

“Why does he keep showing up? Is it because he’s the main character?”

In a city this vast, such a coincidence was nothing short of unsettling. No doubt, after hearing that the duke had dispatched knights to search for her, Albert had joined the effort as well.

But to meet like this? It was irritating beyond belief.

“Leni, run!”

“What?”

Albert hadn’t stumbled upon Levinia by chance. After hearing the explosion, he’d rushed toward the scene and spotted suspicious figures moving across the rooftops. Fearing Levinia might have gotten involved, he had pursued them—and found her.

The rooftop figures were rapidly closing the distance to her.

Sensing the urgency in Albert’s voice, Levinia turned to run. As she did, she pulled the scroll from her pocket, but the assassins hurled throwing knives and daggers at her.

“No!”

Albert, in his panic, unleashed a powerful slash toward the figures on the rooftops, but it was already too late. Levinia, unable to avoid the daggers, was struck as she tore the scroll in half.

Although teleportation scrolls could be used by non-mages, they required precise direction. Injured and bleeding, Levinia couldn’t control the spell properly.

Her figure vanished, but it was clear she hadn’t been sent to her intended destination. A brilliant, magical glow shot past the city walls, disappearing toward a distant forested mountain range.

“Leni…!”

A few drops of blood were all that remained where Levinia had stood. Albert’s gray eyes burned with fury as he stared at the crimson stains.

Why? Why were assassins targeting Levinia? She had done nothing wrong!

The assassins, realizing they had failed to kill her, clicked their tongues in frustration. One of their daggers had hit her, but it wasn’t enough to end her life.

“A teleportation scroll! Of all things!”

Still, it wasn’t entirely hopeless. Magic left distinct traces. With the help of a skilled mage, they could track her.

First, however, they had to eliminate the witness standing before them.

The assassins shifted their killing intent toward Albert. Sensing the change, he steadied his sword.

A fight was exactly what Albert wanted. He needed an outlet for the rage boiling within him.

＊ ＊ ＊

“Ugh… Ahh…”

Levinia collapsed onto her stomach on a patch of grass at the base of the mountain, clutching her shoulder. It felt like a blade had pierced somewhere on her back. Judging by the wound, it didn’t seem deep, likely because it had been thrown like a dagger. Still, the pain was excruciating.

‘I can’t pass out.’

Where exactly was this place? She had already given up on reaching her original destination, Ashton. The knights of the ducal family might have interrogated the coachman after she’d told him her destination.

‘A potion!’

The best course of action would be to descend the mountain and find a doctor to treat her injuries. However, Levinia knew teleportation spells could be tracked. That was why she had made sure to use the scroll in a secluded location.

‘I need to treat this wound quickly… and move.’

The pain was sharper than a burn. In her previous life, she had suffered a severe burn, though such things didn’t exist in her current life. Now, it felt as if one side of her back had been ripped apart by a searing blade.

As she trembled, her hand reached toward her back, where she felt the shape of a small dagger. Even a slight touch amplified the pain, making her clench her teeth in agony.

‘It didn’t go too deep… there’s some distance to it.’

Forcing herself upright, Levinia took out a medical kit from her bracelet—a precaution she’d prepared in case she encountered monsters while crossing the mountains. As the daughter of a duke, she had no trouble obtaining the highest-quality potions.

She pulled out two potions from the kit and reached back to assess the wound. It was no surprise that the pain radiated from the spot where the dagger had struck, but something felt… off. A cold numbness seemed to spread from the wound, as if her body was losing sensation apart from the pain.

‘Poison? Did they coat the blade with poison?’

It wasn’t unthinkable, considering the attackers were professional assassins. Clenching her teeth, Levinia grabbed the dagger’s hilt. She tried to pull it out with a firm grip, but the pain was overwhelming. Her vision swam, and she shook her head to stay conscious, cold sweat dripping down her face.

‘Pull the blade out, drink the potion, apply it to the wound, and then take the neutralizer…’

To prepare for injuries from poisonous monsters, she had packed both antidotes and neutralizing agents. However, her antidote wasn’t universal; it was only effective against poisons from certain mountain-dwelling monsters. She had never encountered a poison that caused symptoms like these.

“Ngh… Ahhh!”

Mustering all her courage, Levinia yanked the dagger free and let it fall to the ground. Tears streamed down her face as she unscrewed the cap of the potion and brought it to her lips. The bitter taste spread across her tongue, but in that moment, it was almost comforting.

‘Now… the wound…’

Levinia had no time to remove her clothing. Trembling, she unscrewed the second potion with shaking hands. Reaching behind her, she fumbled to pull apart the torn fabric around her wound before pouring the potion directly onto it. The burning, stinging sensation was almost unbearable, but it paled in comparison to the pain from the injury itself.

“Ughhh…”

The potion began to wash away the blood and seal the wound. Since she had used the highest-quality potion money could buy, the bleeding would stop in no time.

‘The neutralizer…’

She had barely managed to endure pulling out the dagger and drinking the potion, but her consciousness was already fading. Weakly, Levinia grabbed the bottle of neutralizer, clutching it in her hand as she collapsed forward.

“Ah…”

For some reason, the image of Cassion’s face came to mind.

＊ ＊ ＊

Albert clenched his teeth as he realized that three of the assassins had escaped. While he had managed to stop one from committing suicide, the other five had succeeded in taking their own lives.

“Assassins! Why in the world are assassins targeting Levinia?!”

If the target had been the Emperor, he might have understood. But Levinia was someone who had never earned anyone’s hatred. Then, a rumor surfaced in his mind—one about a jealous concubine in the Emperor’s harem.

Yanis Rière.

Yanis, supposedly sent from a tribe outside the empire, was a well-known figure in society. Unmarried noblewomen distanced themselves from her, scorning her as a mere concubine of the Emperor and a tribal outsider. Still, Yanis insisted on calling herself “Lady Rière” and pretended to be nobility.

Though she was merely the daughter of a tribal chieftain without a title, she claimed her father was equivalent to a king of a vassal state and, therefore, referred to herself as a princess, positioning herself as equal to a duke’s daughter.

This bold claim was tolerated because Yanis had managed to remain in the Emperor’s harem for an impressive six years. Many believed that if anyone in the harem bore the Emperor’s child, it would be Yanis. Because of this, it was rumored that powerful noble families occasionally funded her ambitions.

“Yanis… could she have hired someone to kill Levinia after being reprimanded for targeting her? Could she really have gone this far?”

Regardless of the reason, Levinia had to be found. With a dagger lodged in her back, she wouldn’t have been able to teleport far after tearing the scroll. Judging by the direction of the magic’s trajectory, she had gone toward the mountains. But the scent of blood could attract monsters or wild animals.

Even though the area wasn’t far from the capital and likely only housed low-tier monsters, Levinia wasn’t a swordsman. In her injured state, even weak creatures could pose a significant threat.

…If she wasn’t found soon, Levinia might be lost—not to the assassins, but to wild animals or monsters.

“I need to inform the Duke and bring a mage!”

Any high-ranking noble family typically had one or two contracted mages in their service, and the Wendell Ducal House was no exception. One of their mages would be able to track the spell Levinia had used.

“What’s going on here?”

The commotion caused by the fight had attracted the attention of nearby guards. Seeing their arrival, Albert, who had been debating whether to carry the unconscious assassin on his back, decided this was fortunate timing.

“I spotted some suspicious individuals and gave chase, only for them to attack me. I believe they’re tied to the explosion earlier. Please detain this one,” he said, gesturing to the unconscious assassin.

Albert still had the Wendell family crest in his possession. Showing it to the guards immediately made their demeanor turn more respectful.

“Is that so? We were in the midst of searching for suspects related to the incident.”

“Keep a close eye on this one. They seem highly trained and attempted to commit suicide when the situation turned against them.”

“Understood.”

“I need to pursue the others, so I’ll be off.”

Albert departed quickly, with no one stopping him.

His next destination was the Wendell Ducal House. Maxim would undoubtedly still be waiting there, anticipating news that Levinia had been captured.

＊ ＊ ＊

As more people were mobilized, the task of recovering the bodies and clearing the wreckage was completed quickly. The building had been a single-story structure, and with the help of lower-ranked imperial mages, the rubble and stone columns were easily removed.

The bodies recovered from the wreckage were gathered in one place, but no trace of Levinia—no fragments of a body that might have belonged to her—was found.

Levinia was alive. She might be alive.

The possibility lit a faint spark of hope in a heart that had been utterly crushed. Cassion stood amidst the corpses, his expression harsh as he inspected the scene.

He had a sharp mind and remembered the faces of all the imperial knights who had served under him. Every single one of them had a reputation for trouble. While they hadn’t been expelled from the order due to a lack of concrete evidence, they were men Cassion had once decided to kill the moment they slipped up.

“These scum were the ones guarding Levinia?”

All personnel assigned to the Hyacinth Palace had been chosen based on Levinia’s preferences. Both the head maid and the chamberlain would have deferred to her wishes.

While one or two such choices could be understood, the fact that so many questionable individuals had gathered made no sense—unless she had intentionally selected them.

“Levinia…”

She was a woman who seemed strong on the surface but had fragile, vulnerable moments. Every time Cassion showed his own weaknesses, Levinia would waver, her own vulnerability surfacing.

If she had been planning to run away, she would have been thinking about what would happen after she left.