Chapter 122
Taking the woman to the Black Forest was remarkably easy.
In fact, it hardly qualified as luring her at all.
Just suggesting a picnic in the forest was enough.
“Is this you playing with me…?”
The woman, already with large eyes, opened them even wider, her face filled with delight.
He had always ignored her when she loitered around his study, being a nuisance.
But now, initiating the idea of a picnic himself, she jumped for joy.
She counted down the days until the picnic, bragging about it to everyone she met.
She spread the word so widely that even his knights mentioned it in passing.
On the day of the picnic.
The servants brought over a picnic basket packed with food.
As always, they quietly followed Kierne’s orders.
“….”
Kierne narrowed his eyes at their demeanor.
It was subtly different from usual.
“Thanks!”
The woman smiled brightly as she took the picnic basket, but weren’t they showing a hint of concern for her?
It wasn’t just the servants.
The knights of the Basilian household also pretended not to care while looking after her.
Without being ordered, they had formed teams among themselves to clear out the monsters.
Even so, without Kierne there, they couldn’t have eradicated them completely.
Seeing them all sneak out to see off Kierne and the woman heading to the Black Forest, he sneered.
“I can’t tell who’s the master of this castle.”
At his cold rebuke, the servants and knights meekly dispersed.
The Black Forest wasn’t far from the castle.
Kierne mounted the horse with the woman.
“Let’s go!”
The excited woman giggled and shouted.
Kierne, finding it a bit annoying, slowly urged the horse forward.
Since the woman didn’t know how to ride, he seated her in front of him.
Their bodies naturally touched, but she remained carefree.
Without a hint of tension, she leaned against Kierne and hummed a song to herself.
It was because she was ignorant about sexual matters.
Watching her sing like a little bird chirping, he thought that if she didn’t regain her memories soon, he might have to give her some sex education.
She couldn’t behave like this with just any man.
And finally, they arrived at the Black Forest.
“Ugh….”
Only then realizing the picnic spot was the Black Forest, the woman made a disappointed face.
“A picnic here? Your tastes are really weird.”
She grumbled incessantly but didn’t suggest turning back.
Instead, she clutched the picnic basket dearly and nestled obediently against Kierne.
Kierne picked her up and walked toward the heart of the Black Forest.
‘She mentioned she could walk a little lately.’
He had heard her leg had recovered enough to limp slowly.
Even so, she couldn’t run properly, so she wouldn’t be able to flee far.
He set her down in a spot with a moderate number of monsters.
The woman cautiously placed her feet on the ground.
She stood up straight, proudly puffing out her chest.
“Look at this!”
Kierne was momentarily speechless.
But he gave her the brief praise she wanted.
“You stood up on your own.”
“Yeah. I’ve been practicing hard. Want to see? I can even walk a little now.”
The woman set down the picnic basket and took a step forward as if to show off.
Kierne silently stepped back a few paces from her.
Wondering why he was acting that way, she turned with a puzzled look.
“Gruk….”
A monster’s growl echoed from the darkness of the forest.
Soon, the monster revealed itself.
The woman froze in place like a startled rabbit.
From a short distance away, Kierne observed the monster.
The monster showed no special reaction to the woman.
It displayed the same killing intent as it would toward any other human.
The monster approached her with a threatening growl.
Kierne furrowed his brow.
‘Pointless.’
He had wasted time on something meaningless.
Perhaps the woman had survived the Black Forest through a series of coincidences, a miracle.
If he left her here any longer, she might actually die.
Kierne snapped his fingers.
With a click, the monsters charging at her turned their attention.
Kierne drew his demonic sword.
The sword, excited at the prospect of drinking blood, let out an eerie sound.
Deliberately releasing his killing intent, the monsters’ target shifted completely.
He raised the demonic sword toward the charging beasts, in a motion so familiar it was tiresome.
Just before slashing the monster.
“No!”
The woman suddenly leaped in front of him.
Kierne barely twisted the sword away.
He nearly cut her in half.
He saved her, but he paid the price for altering the sword’s path.
“Kieeek!”
The monster’s claws raked across his skin.
A warm pain spread through his forearm.
Kierne slightly distorted his expression.
The metallic scent of blood spread.
‘This is going to be a headache.’
Of all places, it had to be his right arm, the one he used for the sword.
Monsters got even more excited and rampaged when they smelled blood.
To face them alone without the knights, while protecting the woman….
Annoyed by the troublesome situation, he frowned and looked down at the woman.
Her leg was impaired, yet she had jumped in unexpectedly—he wanted to know why.
“….”
Kierne unconsciously hardened his face.
The woman was trembling all over.
Her whole body shook, yet she stood in front of Kierne, glaring at the monsters.
It was an act beyond foolish.
Even more astonishing was the monsters’ reaction.
Until moments ago, they had been snarling with killing intent.
Having smelled blood, they should have gone berserk….
But faced with this small woman who could be torn to shreds with one claw, the monsters stood dumbly frozen.
The woman shouted sharply.
“Go away!”
Her frail cry spread out.
But the monsters flinched back as if hearing a command from a supreme being.
Ssssh.
With a wet sound like snakes slithering over damp leaves, the monsters vanished into the darkness of the Black Forest.
The trembling woman, her legs giving out, collapsed to the ground.
“Haa, haa….”
Panting with her shoulders heaving, she suddenly lifted her head with a gasp.
She staggered to her feet and hurried over to Kierne.
With her uncomfortable leg, having used all her strength to jump in front of him earlier, it took quite a while to reach him, limping.
Yet she stubbornly persisted without giving up, and upon confirming the blood dripping from Kierne’s arm, her face crumpled.
Moisture welled up in her pink eyes.
In an instant, tears filled them and rolled down her white cheeks in beads.
The woman, who hadn’t cried even in front of the vicious monsters, burst into sobs at the sight of Kierne’s forearm.
Her face flushed red as she sniffled and called his name.
“Kierne….”
He had taught her multiple times to call him “my lord” or “Count.”
She didn’t even know how to use honorifics… She was a woman who never listened.
Normally, he would have corrected her title immediately.
But for some reason, right now, he didn’t feel like it.
The woman trembled in front of Kierne, worrying.
“D-Does it hurt? It must hurt a lot, right? I-It’s going to be okay. You can get treatment….”
It was just a scratch from a monster.
His arm wasn’t severed, yet she treated him like he was on the verge of death, shedding tears profusely and fretting.
Thinking it was unnecessary worry, Kierne left her be.
He felt a bit dizzy.
Not from losing too much blood, but just….
Because of the floral scent.
He took a deep breath.
Amid the bloody smell, a fragrance unfit for the Black Forest filled his lungs.
It was the sweet floral aroma that always emanated from the woman.
Wrapped in the scent with a slightly dazed mind, he suddenly wondered about her name.
The woman, having lost her memories, couldn’t even recall her own name.
Because of that, he had always called her by vague terms.
When she had stood in front of him earlier….
It would have been nice to call her by name then.
Even dogs kept at home had names.
He felt like he needed a name to call her by, anything.
Inhaling the floral scent from her, Kierne impulsively uttered the word that came to mind.
“…Rose.”
Her pink eyes, like dew-kissed roses, reflected Kierne.
Meeting her gaze, he said softly.
“Your name.”
“My name…?”
“I can’t keep calling you ‘you’ forever. Until your memories return, at least temporarily.”
The woman’s face, chaotic from crying moments ago, brightened.
She stopped crying and smiled radiantly.
“Yeah!”
Her smile bloomed brilliantly like a flower bud bursting open, and Kierne unconsciously thought.
Yeah, smiling suits her better than crying.
