27
“Hey! If you keep doing that, you’ll end up marrying the Golden Ghost!”
“What’s a Golden Ghost?”
“You don’t even know that? Evil spirits are covered in gold-♪”
Eliza stopped in her tracks when she overheard the children’s voices as she passed by.
The other children began singing along to the song the boy had suddenly started, and before long, it continued like a round.
From what she could hear, the lyrics were remarkably simple and clear. It was the story of a heroic prince who defeated the Golden Demon.
‘So this is how they’re making use of him.’
Eliza bit her lip and turned away.
Heroic tales were the easiest way for the royal family to elevate their own prestige.
Perhaps that was why, at some point, Leopold’s name had begun to be spoken of in a negative light.
The nobles scorned him as the bloodline of a filthy traitor, while the commoners mocked him for having fallen to a state beneath their own.
Moreover, rumors were circulating that some heresy inquisitor was following him around and keeping watch over him at every turn in every battle he participated in.
As a result, even the stigma of being one abandoned by God was being imposed upon Leopold.
‘Great Mother, please protect him.’
With a burning ache in her heart, Eliza murmured a prayer for Leopold as she headed toward her destination.
It had been about two months since Eliza had settled here. Fortunately, Eliza had met decent people in a moderately sized town with reasonably kind-hearted inhabitants.
They were the sort of people who would take in a collapsed woman and care for her, while still knowing to ask for a reasonable payment in return.
When Eliza paid them a single gold coin for taking care of her, they helped her adjust to life in the village.
“Miss Eli!”
“Jenia. I was just on my way over there.”
“Really? Is the work finished?”
“Yeah, here.”
Eliza handed her the bundle of papers she had been carrying. She had been copying manuscripts for pay, and it was thanks to Jenia’s family that she had found this work to pass the time.
“By the way, I told you that you don’t have to use honorifics so properly all the time.”
“I’m comfortable this way, so don’t worry about it. There’s something mysterious about you, Miss Eli. I mean, somehow, I naturally end up speaking respectfully to you.”
“Something mysterious about me…….”
“I’m serious. Aren’t you the only one in our village who could pull off lace like that, Miss Eli?”
Eliza smiled back at the excited Jenia. Though, with her veil and mask covering her, there was hardly anything that could be seen.
Jenia, who had been the one to find Eliza in the first place, knew exactly what Eliza’s face looked like and had been greatly impressed by her beauty.
After waking up, Eliza had disguised herself as someone who had fled after working as a maid in a noble household, and Jenia had believed it without a doubt.
“I was targeted by a marquis. I didn’t want to hand myself over to him, so I stole a horse and ran away.”
Thanks to her beauty, which was rarely seen around here, and the refinement evident in her manner of speaking, it was easy to believe that she had once been taken in by a noble household.
Jenia knew well that excessive beauty was a poison when one was of low status.
Therefore, Jenia also understood that Eliza had begun covering her face for that very reason.
Whenever someone asked about the veil, Eliza would say that she had a large scar on her face, and Jenia would always step in to back her up.
“I saw it myself! Her face was so beauti— I mean, it looked so painful. Oh, they really were some awful bastards, weren’t they?”
Awful bastards. For some reason, Eliza liked that expression.
Eliza had never been particularly meek by nature, so whenever she picked up Jenia’s plain expressions and used them herself, Jenia would be startled, only to burst into laughter moments later.
“By the way, the children were singing a song.”
“What song?”
“……The Golden Ghost.”
“Ah! You mean that evil spirit! It’s famous these days. I don’t think there’s a single child in this empire who doesn’t sing that song.”
“Is that so? It’s the first time I’ve heard it.”
“Well, Miss Eli, you don’t really pay much attention to your surroundings.”
“I don’t?”
Jenia nodded enthusiastically. Her pouting expression made her look slightly dissatisfied.
“What do you do cooped up at home all day?”
“There’s something I need to prepare. I’ll tell you once it’s finished. It’ll be good news for you, too, Jenia.”
“Come on, saying that only makes me more curious! Can’t you give me just a little hint?”
“Just wait a little. Soon…….”
Eliza’s gaze suddenly turned toward the distant sky. Her eyes, looking up at the blue of the daytime sky, seemed to be searching for something beyond sight.
Whenever she lifted her head like that, she gave off an air as though she would be leaving somewhere soon. And so, without realizing it, Jenia grabbed the hem of Eliza’s robe.
“Since you mentioned the Golden Ghost. It is ominous, you know? I heard that his parents committed some terrible crime.”
Jenia had been raised in the same village since birth, so she was not accustomed to people leaving.
So, with the hope that the girl her age who had recently appeared in the village would stay, she chattered away.
“That black magic…… Ah, it’s frightening even to say it aloud. Anyway, I mean that absurd nonsense! What if it really is connected to the monsters? I can understand why the soldiers dislike him, too.”
“The soldiers dislike him?”
“Yeees. They say it’s ominous if that ghost is involved. They say he might be losing because he’s teamed up with the monsters.”
“That makes no sense.”
This was not a war against humans. It was an endless battle to stop the monsters that kept emerging from a certain rift.
Countless lives had been lost because of that rift, which was said to have been created by the misguided experiment of a certain black magician.
Those who had suffered unjustly needed someone to blame, and as a result, hatred toward black magicians had already become widespread across the continent.
That was why even those who claimed to be inquisitors were permitted to cut off the heads of wicked sorcerers.
“Even if it doesn’t make sense. From the soldiers point of view, it must still make them uneasy, right? Besides, I heard he’s really tough. They say he doesn’t even blink no matter how much they torment him.”
“Torment him?”
He wasn’t the kind of person who would simply let himself be mistreated.
Eliza thought that unconsciously, then shook her head as her chest tightened.
The terrible habit of acting as though she knew him well still remained, repeatedly raising its head.
“They say the higher-ups turn a blind eye even if they torment him a little. What do they care if they use him as a plaything?”
“……Let’s stop talking about unpleasant things.”
“Ah, was that upsetting for you to hear, Miss Eli? Then, you know, my father showed me something interesting this time…….”
Eliza continued walking silently as she listened to Jenia’s chatter.
Jenia’s parents were small merchants who distributed daily necessities, so Eliza had been receiving a great deal of help from them.
She had also obtained the dye she used to color her hair red through Jenia, and on top of that, Jenia was a good source of information who brought back news from all over.
Thanks to that, Eliza at least knew from the rumors she heard that his treatment was not good.
Even so, the word ‘plaything’ left a bitter taste in her mouth.
‘On days like this, I always have bad dreams.’
Whenever Eliza thought of Leopold a great deal, she always had nightmares. As a result, she was short on sleep most days.
In the end, today was no different. Though she did not lie down in bed until late at night, Eliza could not fall deeply asleep and began to groan.
“……Hngh!”
Before long, she suddenly opened her eyes, drawing in a sobbing breath.
Panting, Eliza hurriedly grasped the reality before her eyes. This was my room, and that was just a dream.
As her heart pounded from the lingering emotions, Eliza wiped her damp cheeks. Why were nightmares always so horribly vivid, no matter how many times she had them?
“Enough already…….”
Slowly sitting up, she buried her face in both hands.
Her stomach felt unwell. She had even eaten a meager dinner because she somehow felt that today would be like this, yet she still felt sick.
Eliza dry-heaved before wrapping her arms around herself. Her thin forearms, which had withered away before she could put on any weight, were trembling.
“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”
Even though the contents of the dream were always similar, Eliza always shuddered.
At first, Leopold would appear as the fine young master he had been during those good days, only to collapse soon after, bleeding from his entire body.
He would crawl across the ground and scream in agony, yet he would never call her name.
As though she no longer even had the right to have any relationship with him.
That gaze as he looked up at her without saying a word.
‘No. No, Leopold. Leo…….’
In the dream, Eliza would mutter unconsciously, only to suddenly realize.
The truth was that, undeniably, she was the culprit who had done that to him.
Whenever she realized the truth that she was the one who had ruined and harmed him, Eliza would awaken from her sleep in excruciating pain, as though she had been pierced through by a spear or sword.
And then she would realize. She had fled all the way to this distant place, yet in truth, she had not escaped from him even a little.
Her ankles were still bound to the execution ground from that day, and perhaps she would spend the rest of her life bound there as well.
Eliza thought of this suffering as the price for her sins. Therefore, she wished for Leopold to suffer less.
Because he was innocent.
‘It may be a selfish choice, just so I can suffer less…….’
Staggering along, Eliza sat down at the desk and lit the lamp. Then she picked up a pen and began to think.
She was thinking for his sake. After finally coming to her senses upon reaching this place, Eliza had thought.
Since she had saved her own life, she would now save Leopold’s life as well.
“How can I change your story, too?”
