TRHK Chapter 4

Among the things I had grown reasonably proficient at over the long years of caring for my mother was herbology.

This was because the physicians who had given up on her had long since stopped setting foot in the forest cottage.

I had read and re-read the herbology books my younger sister Dana brought me, searching for any knowledge that might help. The forest, at least, had never run short of plants.

"So here they call this herb aterin."

At present, I was cleaning the count's study while covertly sneaking glances at the herbology books. They were apparently not popular reading among aristocrats—they'd been stuffed away at the very end of a tucked-away shelf.

The herbs of my previous world and this one had slightly different names, but their appearances and properties seemed largely the same. Their applications, however, were another matter...

"Maylin! Come out now that you're done!"

I startled at the head maid's shout and hurried toward the entrance.

"Dawdling! Go to the noblewoman now! You said yourself you wanted to be in charge of her care—I trust I won't be hearing any complaints?"

The head maid seemed to think I'd acted on a simple whim. She pointed toward the noblewoman's rooms with an expression that promised consequences if I changed my mind. I went obediently.

"Madam. It's me. Did you sleep well?"

The noblewoman gave no answer, as always—but I knew by now she wasn't ignoring me.

I was chattering on deliberately, wiping her down and helping her drink, when someone opened the door and walked in. A middle-aged man in a brown velvet waistcoat with a protruding stomach.

"And who are you?"

Given his dress, his manner of addressing me, and the fact that we were in the noblewoman's chambers, there were only two people he was likely to be. The Count of Courtner, or the butler.

But the butler, whom I'd encountered several times before, had a different face entirely. I straightened at once and bowed my head.

"I am Maylin, my Lord. A maidservant attending the noblewoman."

When I said my name, something peculiar flickered through the count's eyes.

"So you are that Maylin. You are certainly beautiful..."

That Maylin? I had no idea where he'd heard of me, but the gaze that traveled over me from head to toe raised the hair on my skin. Though that wasn't the only reason for the unease.

According to the original story, this man and his wife were the ones who would kill Maylin. For daring to dream of marrying their son, Joel Courtner.

"Wa... water..."

The peculiar silence—born of the count's relentless examination—was broken by a voice that arrived without warning. Both of us startled and looked toward the noblewoman.

"Water..."

In a voice that sounded as though it might break apart at any moment, the noblewoman was asking for water.

"Yes, yes! Just a moment, Madam."

I brought the water glass to her lips where she sat propped against her pillows. Those thin lips took the water in small movements, like a bird at a feeder. The count drew closer.

"Mother. Are you well? It has been so long since I heard your voice..."

But the noblewoman's words were only those.

The count tried speaking to her a few more times, then gave up. Before he left, he delivered his instructions.

"Continue to attend her well. If her condition improves, I will reward you with gold."

If he wanted to give a reward, I'd have preferred he simply dissolve the binding contract. I thought this, even as my mouth produced the words, "Thank you, my Lord." Because I wanted to live.

When the count left, a breath of genuine relief escaped me.

I looked back at the noblewoman. Her gaze was fixed on empty air, nothing in it. And yet—thinking about it now—the noblewoman had already had water not long before, and still she'd gone to the effort of speaking with a voice that seemed barely capable of holding itself together, as though desperately thirsty once more. That was strange. Could it be that she'd been trying to help me?

"Thank you, Madam."

As always, no answer came.

The one currently hh-hh-ing was not Seyron, but me. Each step felt like fire spreading through my thighs.

"Why is this body so—hh—out of condition."

The face was identical to my previous life's, and truly, only the face was. The hair color was different. The stamina was entirely different. What had the previous inhabitant of this maid's body been doing—had she really been shirking every duty, as the other maids claimed? I'd walked somewhat more than usual and was already struggling to breathe properly.

"This is hopeless."

I dropped to the ground where I stood. The cart driver, who'd made a face when I asked to be let out in the middle of a stretch of open wilderness, had probably foreseen exactly this outcome.

"But if I go just a little farther..."

Crossing the boundary of the estate was the first objective of today's outing. I needed to confirm at least once whether the binding contract would actually constrict my breathing when I stepped beyond Courtner territory.

If I could leave the Count of Courtner's estate without incident... then I might be able to escape completely, and soon.

With an effortful grunt, I hauled myself up and pushed forward again. From what I'd been told, only a little farther from here was Baron Taeriton's territory.

Then the space below my line of sight blazed with light.

I looked down. Light was encircling my neck in a neat ring.

"What is this—urk—"

Invisible hands, closing around my throat. I clawed at my neck with my fingernails and struggled against the tightening pressure, but it made no difference at all.

'I have to go back!'

The thought struck like lightning. I turned and ran back the way I'd come—and not long after, the force and the light strangling my neck vanished as though by—

Well. By magic.

"Hh—hh—"

All of it was real. The binding contract. The magic. The fact that this was the world inside a book.

I suppose some part of me had been holding on to a 'surely not.'

A sudden, fresh dread arose—the particular kind that comes from being dropped alone into an unknown place. Which was strange, given I was nearing a full month of waking up here.

The objective of confirming the contract's effect had been accomplished. I could not bring myself to feel glad about it.

I settled my heart as best I could and trudged back the way I'd come.

After walking for a good while, the cart that had carried me out—returning now from a delivery to a neighboring estate—spotted me and offered a ride back. I'd already paid for the return trip. The driver let me off at the village.

"Come use me again next time!"

The cheerful driver disappeared. He was a man who made his living moving goods between estates—Hwirozen, Eifel's boyfriend, had introduced us. He was a genuinely useful person.

I stood in the square for a moment, staring at nothing. The aftereffects of being strangled still seemed to linger somewhere in my body. Magic... it really does exist, then.

"..."

Hollow and drained, I had turned to head back into the castle when I remembered the second objective of today's outing, and changed course.

With the situation as desperate as it was, I couldn't simply go on waiting indefinitely for the red-haired knight to warm to me. Even more so now that I had confirmed with certainty that this was the world of the book.

Fortunately it was still midday, so there was time.

I passed through the village and entered the forest. My legs felt ready to give out, and yet the forest air—which I hadn't breathed in some time—was welcome. Strange, given that when I'd actually lived in one, I'd wanted nothing more than to be somewhere else.

"Ah, there."

For a forest so close to the village, it seemed rarely walked—I found herbs almost immediately. I dug them up with the small wooden spade I'd prepared and tucked them into my pouch.

But the specific herbs I most needed were nowhere to be found. More time would have been useful. Better stamina would have been more useful.

Even in this unfamiliar world, I had enough common sense to know one should leave the forest before dark. And there was something wrong with this particular forest. Too quiet—if that was the word for it. Past the first stretch of trees, there was not even the sound of insects.

With that lingering sense of reluctance, I turned to leave.

And froze.

Something large.

A creature with green skin, bigger than an ordinary human. An axe in one hand. Its body resembled a muscular human figure, but its face was close to a skull.

A monster.

I recognized it immediately—I'd only ever seen them described in books. First magic, and now a monster. Perhaps the universe was collecting on every day I'd spent failing to take seriously the fact that this was a book world.

Grrrrr.

It bared its teeth at me. A boiling, churning sound spilled out. Just hearing it made my legs go weak.

I had to run. But could I turn my back? In my previous life, when I'd come face to face with beasts in the forest, I had always backed away slowly, avoiding provocation, and then fled when there was distance enough. The question was whether that approach would translate to a monster.

By instinct, I began to back away slowly. The monster remained where it was, grrrr, grrrr, staring at me without moving.

Perhaps I might actually survive this—I felt something like hope begin to form—

"GROAARRR!"

The monster swung its axe and charged straight at me. I abandoned any thought of backing away and turned and ran with everything I had.

Thunk!

The monster's axe buried itself in a tree I'd barely cleared. Cold spread down my spine.

All I had wanted was to find a way to survive in the Courtner household. I had never imagined I'd end up face to face with a monster.

The original Maylin had been killed by the count and countess—not by a monster. Which meant this situation was entirely my own fault for not being careful. Why hadn't I thought harder about why the herbs in this forest showed absolutely no sign of human hands?

"Hh—urgh—"

Dying had forced my body into running past all its limits, but my body had been exhausted before I'd even entered the forest. Each time my legs threatened to give out, the sound of the monster's breathing seemed to close in, and the cold crept up my skin.

I was going to die here, I thought—

And then I spotted a figure standing alone among the trees in the distance.

Red hair. A sword at his hip. His hair was a little shorter than Seyron's, and no ponytail. Even through a field of vision jolted and blurred by running, I knew him immediately. Pure instinct took over.

"Kahron!"

His gaze came to me at the sound of his name. I couldn't see his expression.

"Run! There's a monster—it's coming after me!"

Despite my desperate cry, the man didn't move a single inch. Had he not heard? At this rate he was going to be in danger too.

There were two red-haired knights. I still hadn't confirmed which one was the Sword Master from the original story—and if this Kahron was not, then something very bad had just occurred. Even the strongest knight was only human where human limits applied; something like this monster might be an entirely different matter.

I gritted my teeth and wrenched my direction sharply sideways. Fortunately, the monster hadn't spotted the knight and continued hard on my heels.

"Ah!"

My foot caught a root and I fell. The monster roared and lunged.

The village. My mother. Dana. A life I had barely gotten to live. In that single instant, all of it flickered past behind my eyes.

...Until the monster's head was separated from its body.

Thud.

The green neck and the body came apart and dropped heavily to the ground. From the monster, not red blood but green ran out.

The knight appeared behind the fallen monster, flicking green blood from his sword with a small, clean motion. His expression was the picture of indifference—more than indifference, if anything, a little bored.

Those dark red eyes met mine.

I flinched without thinking—and he walked slowly toward me.

He raised the sword. For one instant I held my breath—but the blade descended not toward my throat but toward my skirt. He wiped the green blood from the sword on my skirt with two unhurried strokes.

"Did I give you permission to use my name?"