You Looked Like an Easy Mark
The sun had climbed quite high. I was crossing the plain, dressed in rags and clutching a withered wildflower to my chest.
“...”
I had already been walking for a long while. I wasn’t sure exactly how long, but it felt like at least five hours. When I first set out, the sky had been a pale dawn blue. Now the sun hung near its zenith.
But the imperial capital was nowhere in sight.
The plain stretched on endlessly. No matter how far I walked, the scenery never changed. The same grass. The same wind. The same horizon. It almost felt like I was running in place.
I glanced back once.
‘...What the hell is this?’
I had definitely walked a long way. Yet the village still didn’t look that far. It had gotten smaller, sure, but after five whole hours…
‘...Why isn’t it getting any farther away?’
My legs felt like they weighed a thousand pounds. I’d assumed the prince’s body would have decent stamina, but after being tied up for days and suddenly walking this much, it seemed there were limits after all.
My mouth was bone-dry. Swallowing did nothing but scrape my throat. A single sip of water felt like an impossible luxury.
‘Haa… fuck.’
‘Just how much farther do I have to walk?’
My steps grew heavier and heavier. The only sound was the endless rustle of grass beneath my feet.
And yet, even then, thoughts of Era kept forcing their way in.
‘...She must be awake by now.’
She had said she woke up before sunrise. She would have noticed the empty spot beside her, the cut rope, the hollow jar.
‘...I wonder what kind of face she’s making.’
Era’s face floated into my mind. The way she used to smile brightly. The peaceful expression she wore while sleeping on my lap. The way her cheeks flushed red when she played around with that cup.
‘...Stop it.’
I shook my head. Thinking about it was pointless. I had already decided to leave.
‘...As long as Era is safe, that’s enough.’
I bit my dry lips and dragged my feet forward again, forcibly suppressing the urge to look back.
At the same time.
Esh village, inside a rundown house.
Era sat blankly in the empty room.
The spot where the prince had been. The blackened, severed rope. The jar that now stood empty after the wildflowers had vanished.
“......”
At first, she couldn’t understand.
‘...Why did he leave?’
Era slowly scanned the room, as if searching for any kind of clue. Maybe a note. Maybe even a single short sentence left behind somewhere.
“...”
There was nothing. Not a single word of farewell. As if those few days they had spent together had been meaningless, he had vanished without a trace.
Era slowly closed her eyes. Her thoughts kept spiraling in the worst possible direction.
‘...He took the wildflowers with him.’
The ones I had picked from the yard and given to him. The ones I had placed in that jar because we didn’t have a proper vase. The ones that had already withered.
‘...He took the clothes too.’
The ragged outfit I had sewn for him, pricking my fingers the whole time, with mismatched sleeves.
But why.
‘...Why didn’t he take me?’
He took the flowers. He took the clothes. But me—
“......”
An answer began forming inside Era’s head.
‘...He must have hated me.’
‘...Of course he did. Someone like me.’
Era recalled the memories of the past few days one by one. How she had tied the prince up at first. How she had offered him tree-bark porridge as a special treat. How she had told someone who lived in the imperial palace, “I’ll take care of you and feed you!”
‘...How ridiculous it must have seemed.’
A commoner with no status. Someone who pretended to know nothing, who couldn’t even write properly. Saying she liked him. Saying she wanted to live with him forever.
‘...He must have gotten tired of my terrible cooking too.’
‘Kidnapping him on top of that. Of course he hated me. That makes sense.’
Era let out a small, self-mocking laugh.
‘...The fact that he endured it for a few days is already impressive for His Highness.’
‘In the end, he left.’
‘...Just like everyone else.’
Era slowly lifted the corners of her mouth. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t smile. The more she forced it, the more twisted her expression became.
‘...I was kind to him.’
‘...I gave him everything I possibly could.’
‘I shared my bread. I offered my lap. I made him clothes.’
Her hands began to tremble violently.
‘...I even gave him my whole heart.’
Era knew. She knew that someone as lowly as her could never be worthy of the prince. No matter how hard she tried, no matter how much effort she poured in, even if she offered her life, it would never be enough for him.
But even though she possessed the power to bend the hearts of everyone in the world to her will, she had never once touched the prince’s heart.
If she had just nudged it a little, he would have stayed by her side on his own. He would have loved her on his own. He wouldn’t have even thought of running away.
But Era hadn’t done that. Because she wanted the real thing. She wanted the prince who chose to stay by her side with his own two feet, not some manipulated puppet.
‘...I did my best. I—’
Era slowly rose from her seat.
“...”
The jar caught her eye. The one she had filled with wildflowers just days ago, saying it would look pretty in the prince’s room. The one that now stood completely empty.
After staring at it for a long time, Era suddenly snatched it up and—
Crash—!
She hurled it against the wall. The jar shattered into countless pieces. Shards of clay flew in every direction. The sound of it breaking echoed loudly through the small room.
“......Ha.”
Era breathed harshly. The moment the jar broke, it felt like something trapped inside her had burst open as well.
“Ha… hahaha…”
Era began picking up objects around the room and throwing them one by one.
“Why!”
Crash. An old bowl shattered.
“Why!!!”
Crash. She hurled a pile of laundry.
“What more was I supposed to do—!”
The girl who had smiled her whole life was now screaming at the top of her lungs for the first time.
Haa… haa…
After panting wildly and looking around, she saw the room had become a complete disaster. Shattered jar fragments, scattered laundry, overturned bowls, crumpled scraps of cloth. And in the middle of it all stood Era.
Her black hair was disheveled. Her shoulders heaved. A chilling madness flickered in her eyes.
As she caught her breath, her gaze suddenly stopped on one particular spot.
The cup they had drunk from together.
“......”
Era slowly walked over, stepping on the broken shards, and picked it up.
The small, worn wooden cup that fit perfectly in her palm.
‘...With this cup.’
The memory came back vividly.
‘...I pretended like it was nothing.’
‘...But behind the screen, I was stomping my feet in excitement. I was so happy.’
Era’s hand trembled as she gripped the cup tightly.
‘...I wanted to drink from it with him again.’
Tears welled up in her eyes.
‘...It was all just me.’
‘I was the only one who liked him.’
Era clutched the cup so hard her knuckles turned white. She couldn’t bring herself to throw it.
She stood like that in the middle of the room for a long time.
“Haa… haa…”
Her ragged breathing slowly calmed. In its place, what remained wasn’t warmth, but cold hatred.
“......”
Era slowly closed her eyes, then opened them again. The madness from before had now frozen into something icy.
‘...It’s fine.’
‘...I just have to catch him again. My prince.’
Era slowly opened her mouth. In the empty room where no one else was, as if the prince who had left might somehow hear her.
Her voice was ice-cold.
Era stepped on the broken pieces of the cup as she walked past. The sound of porcelain crunching beneath her feet rang out.
Era walked toward the door. What had started as a small suspicion grew more and more twisted with every step she took.
‘...Now that I think about it.’
‘Didn’t the prince actually like it more when I was rough with him?’
‘When I held the club, he couldn’t do anything.’
‘...It was only after I tied him up that he stopped thinking about running away.’
‘Maybe he stayed by my side because I was forceful with him?’
Era took another step.
‘Then I gradually became softer.’
‘...Because I was kind to him.’
‘He saw me as an easy mark.’
‘...So that’s why he left, isn’t it?’
“Ha… haha…”
Era laughed slowly.
“That’s right.”
“...Leon wanted it too, didn’t he? For me to treat him forcefully.”
It was completely twisted logic. Nothing about it made sense. But Era was sincere. Only by believing that could she endure the fact that the prince had left her.
Era grabbed the doorknob.
She opened the door.
Outside, a strange morning greeted her with the sun high in the sky. It was somehow different from the mornings she had watched with the prince these past few days. A cold, frozen morning.
Era stepped into that light.
The moment she stepped outside, Era suddenly stopped.
“...?”
The village was strangely quiet. No, not quiet. Something was coming from far away.
Clop. Clop. Clop.
It was the sound of hooves. And not just one or two horses. Many of them. Heavy, orderly, synchronized hoofbeats. It was unheard of for so many horses to enter this small border village at once. Even merchant wagons only came once in a blue moon.
‘...Who could it be?’
Era briefly turned her gaze in that direction. Toward the village entrance. Dust was rising into the air. Something was clearly entering the village.
But to the current Era, it didn’t matter.
The only thought consuming her was that she had to catch the prince again. That she had to make sure he could never run away a second time. That single obsession swallowed everything else.
‘...It doesn’t matter.’
“...”
Era began walking again. In the direction the prince had disappeared. Toward the north, where the plains stretched endlessly.