Your Majesty, I’m Not that Man - Chapter 8: Escape and Pursuit (4)

Of course, the emperor was not alone. He was surrounded by a sea of people, with layers of guards forming a protective barrier around him. As Albert approached, the guards predictably stepped forward to block his path.

“I have something to report to His Majesty! It concerns Lady Wendell!” Albert shouted desperately.

At his words, one of the emperor’s aides stepped forward, recognizing Albert’s face. Cassion had ordered a background investigation on Levinia, so it was only natural for those close to him to know of Albert. Cassion himself also recognized Albert and furrowed his brow.

“…Let him through.”

At the emperor’s command, the guards stepped aside, allowing Albert to approach. He quickly rushed forward and knelt before Cassion.

“Your Majesty! I saw masked men abducting Lady Wendell!”

“What?” Cassion exclaimed, his tone sharp. “Explain in detail!”

The emperor stepped closer and pulled Albert to his feet with a rough hand, though Albert barely noticed. There was no time to dwell on such matters.

“In the commotion, I attacked the assailants, and during the chaos, Lady Wendell managed to steal their teleportation scroll and rip it apart. However, they realized what she had done and attacked her. She disappeared with a wound on her back!”

The story was different from what Albert had told the guards, but he knew the emperor’s first priority would be finding Levinia, not questioning the details. Cassion turned his piercing gaze toward the people around him.

“Summon the mages immediately!”

＊ ＊ ＊

“Ahh…”

A chill seeped into her body. Levinia shivered as she raised her head, her senses on edge. In the distance, the faint cry of a beast reached her ears, sending a shiver down her spine.

“Ugh…”

As she tried to push herself upright, pain shot through her wounded back. Though the potion she’d applied had sealed the visible injuries, the internal damage hadn’t healed completely. Any sudden movements could reopen the wound.

“How long was I unconscious?”

Judging by the coldness in her body, she suspected she had lost quite a bit of blood. The chill clung to her, yet her body radiated heat, causing cold sweat to pour from her skin. The poison on the assassin’s blade seemed to be taking effect.

“But I’m not dead yet.”

With trembling hands, Levinia opened the antidote vial she had managed to hold onto even while unconscious and downed its contents. The bitter, acrid liquid slid down her throat, leaving a burning sensation in its wake. While it wouldn’t work immediately, it might buy her some time.

“My medicine vials…”

The emergency kit was still within her reach. With a sigh of relief, she tucked it back into the bracelet she used to store items. Though she could feel the poison circulating through her body, it didn’t seem particularly strong. Was it meant to paralyze her? Or perhaps…

“Could it be that damned aphrodisiac the emperor used?”

She had heard that frequent exposure to such substances could lead to resistance. If something so absurd had actually been helpful in this situation, she thought bitterly, it would almost be laughable.

“Whatever it is… I need to find a physician. They’ll recognize this poison.”

Clenching her teeth, Levinia forced herself to stand. The sun was already beginning to set, and darkness was creeping over the horizon. Scanning her surroundings, she hoped to spot smoke rising from a chimney—a sign of nearby civilization. But no such luck.

“Nothing. Did I wander too far? I can’t see anything.”

Camping out in the middle of this mountain was not an option. Her injury was causing her body temperature to drop, and worse, the scent of her blood might attract monsters or wild animals.

“Being this close to the capital, wild animals are probably the bigger threat, right?”

The thought of being mauled to death by a wild animal felt terrifying, but was it worse than being tortured or executed? Both were horrifying ends, but she couldn’t decide which was worse.

“I guess… a peaceful death just isn’t in the cards for me.”

Tears welled up in her eyes as she smiled bitterly. Her body trembled uncontrollably from the cold, while a pounding headache throbbed in her fevered mind.

“It’s not fair…”

Maxim, Cassion, even Zelenka—each of them lived selfishly, yet she was the only one who seemed to bear the brunt of all the suffering.

If only she had managed to escape through the southern gate that day, she wouldn’t have encountered the assassins. If the explosion in the commercial district hadn’t happened, she might have slipped out through the eastern gate instead. If Robert had honored her grandfather’s will and shared its contents with her, she would never have become the emperor’s concubine.

Hell, if she hadn’t reincarnated into this damned novel in the first place, she wouldn’t be in this mess at all.

“Maybe I was destined to be miserable all along.”

Levinia’s tears flowed freely as she stood there, dazed. Her back ached terribly, and the fever left her head pounding. Why, of all people, did she have to reincarnate as Levinia? If only she hadn’t retained her past life’s memories… she might have been able to flee just like the original Levinia had.

In the novel, Levinia successfully escapes and lives peacefully. Near the end, Albert learned of her whereabouts through someone who had known her and discovered that she had been living quietly.

“Couldn’t that have been me, too?”

But Levinia shook her head.

“No, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”

The original Levinia had been someone who passively accepted her circumstances. Unlike her, she hadn’t competed with Albert or taken over the responsibilities of the Wendell household. Even when Zelenka struggled with addiction and infidelity, the original Levinia had only endured her pain and never actively tried to fix things.

The current Levinia, however, had helped Zelenka overcome her addiction and prevented her from associating with the wrong men.

“From the moment I was born as Levinia, was my death already decided?”

Memories of her past life came flooding back—dying after being hit by a car while simply doing her best to get by. The thought made her resolve harden. She didn’t want to give up, not yet. She had to survive, no matter what.

“Someone… might be tracking me. For now, I should head up the mountain. I’ve taken the antidote, and maybe… maybe I’ve developed some resistance to the poison. I’ll endure.”

If she descended the mountain and ran into her pursuers, she would surely be killed. Even poisoned, she had no choice but to run.

Levinia considered pulling out her compass but decided against it for now. She would climb to the peak first, then consult her map to get a sense of the terrain. The compass would come in handy then.

＊ ＊ ＊

The imperial mage had been summoned to track Levinia’s teleportation trail, but progress was frustratingly slow. When Cassion inquired whether they could use teleportation magic to quickly close the distance, the mage admitted that combining tracking and teleportation spells was beyond their skill.

Summoning a more capable mage would take too long. Impatient, Cassion led the mage to the foot of the mountain where the trail had pointed. By then, night had fallen.

Searching a mountain in the dead of night was a dangerous endeavor. Cassion ordered the soldiers and knights to carry torches and had the mage lead the way.

The mage quickened his pace, aware of the emperor’s darkening mood. He understood all too well that if the noblewoman they sought was found dead, his own life might as well be forfeit.

About two hours into the mountain search, the mage finally pinpointed the end location of the teleportation spell. Nearby, Cassion found bloodstains and a bloodied dagger. His composure snapped.

Ignoring the warnings of his escort knights, Cassion shoved past them and began racing up the mountain, following the trail as if possessed. His personal guards and Albert followed close behind, but none could match the emperor’s speed.

“There are no more bloodstains… but there are human footprints.”

The lack of a clear path meant Levinia had likely struggled through the wilderness, leaving plenty of signs of her passage. Even without a torch, the moonlight was sufficient for Cassion. His superhuman senses picked out crushed grass and faint footprints in the dirt with ease.

The evidence that Levinia was still alive filled Cassion with a wild determination. He felt an overwhelming urge to find her and ensure her safety, though he knew time was of the essence. The mountain was a perilous place, and there was no room for hesitation.

He sharpened his senses, casting them out to locate Levinia, but she was still beyond his range. Considering that his detection extended several hundred meters, she must still be some distance away.

“Could she have stopped moving because… she’s already dead?”

The very thought made his heart sink.

Suddenly, Cassion’s senses picked up on something: movement. A group of low-level monsters was heading in a specific direction, their guttural cries carrying through the still night air.

“They’re chasing something!”

Judging by the direction the monsters were moving, it aligned with Levinia’s likely path. The realization that she might already have encountered the monsters made Cassion push himself harder, his pace quickening as fear and urgency drove him forward.

＊ ＊ ＊

Levinia pressed onward, heading up the mountain with no real direction, hoping to get a vantage point to map out her surroundings. Yet, the deeper she went, the thicker the forest grew, blocking any view of what lay below. Realizing she had no hope of reaching a village before nightfall, she resigned herself to spending the night in the woods.

“Will I freeze to death before a monster even finds me?”

She shivered uncontrollably in the relentless cold. Despite the chill, her head burned with a fever, leaving her wondering if she wasn’t simply imagining things.

Though her body begged for rest, Levinia forced herself to keep moving. For a while now, she had felt as though something was following her.

“A low-tier monster? A wolf? Or maybe… a bear?”

She had heard that predators could sense the weakness of their prey. With sweat pouring off her body, it wouldn’t take a genius predator to figure out she was in terrible shape.

“I’m not worth eating, you know. I’m poisoned. If you eat me, you’ll get poisoned too…”

It was a bitter and grim thought, but exhaustion and pain had left her mind twisted. At least in death, she might take revenge on something—however small a comfort that was.

The thought of being eaten alive terrified her. It would be a far worse death than in her previous life. That death had been painful, but at least it had been quick. There was no telling if she’d be so lucky this time. Tears welled up in her eyes, unbidden.

“They probably know I’m scared.”

She turned sharply, glaring into the darkness. There, she saw two glowing lights watching her. Eyes. The eyes of a beast or a monster.

She remembered that fear released certain hormones, causing a scent predators could detect.

“I don’t want to die like this!”

Driven by sheer willpower, Levinia pushed herself to walk faster, but no matter how hard she tried, the distance between her and the glowing eyes didn’t grow. It felt as if they were waiting—biding their time, confident she would collapse soon.

She promised herself she’d keep moving until the very end. But if one of the creatures decided it didn’t want to wait any longer, that would be it.

Tears fell freely down her cheeks. Of all people, the one she most wanted to see in that moment was Cassion. He had been the only person in her life to show her genuine kindness.

“Ca…ssion…” she whispered hoarsely through labored breaths.

As she stumbled forward, her foot caught on something in the dark—a tree root she hadn’t noticed. Losing her balance, she fell hard to the ground.

The low-tier monsters that had been stalking her seized the opportunity.

“Aahhh!”

Levinia screamed as one of them emerged from the shadows. She had seen monsters before, but that had been back when the Wendell knights and soldiers had protected her.

Scrambling away, she rolled across the dirt and managed to push herself to her feet.

There was no one to protect her now. Not Robert, who had ultimately sided with Maxim when it mattered most. No one. If she was going to survive, it would have to be by her own strength.

Crying wouldn’t help. No one would come.

Despite the fever clouding her head and the dizziness threatening to pull her under, Levinia forced herself to keep moving. The monsters struck at her with clawed limbs, their blows grazing her arms and legs, tearing at her back. But none of the injuries were fatal.

It dawned on her why the monsters had been waiting. These were pack hunters—creatures that worked together to wear down their prey before going in for the kill. While not individually strong, their numbers and strategy made them formidable.

“If only I weren’t poisoned…”

Levinia staggered through the forest, her body barely cooperating, yet somehow, she managed to keep moving. But it wasn’t long before her legs gave out again. The darkness tripped her up, and she fell to the ground, rolling over jagged twigs and sharp undergrowth that scraped her skin.

She tried to push herself up, but one of the monsters leapt toward her.

“Ah… this is it.”

“Just… please, make it quick.”

Her tears fell without her even realizing it as she shut her eyes, bracing for the inevitable. But instead of pain, she felt the spray of hot blood.

A shrill, ear-piercing scream rang out.

“Levinia?! Levinia, are you alright?”

Her eyes snapped open, her mind reeling. That voice—it was Cassion’s. But how? He couldn’t possibly be here. Was this some sort of hallucination?