The Long Night of Flight
I had to walk through the night. “Please get in first, my lady. Hurry.” I carried the still-silent Lucian in one arm and practically shoved the sobbing Carla into the carriage. Fortunately, the bandits hadn’t touched the inside of the coach.
“Haa… haa……” The tension finally began to drain away. Carla collapsed onto the seat, breathing hard. The terror of nearly being violated, the slaughter of bandits being hacked apart by axes, the sudden kiss from her nanny followed by a declaration of elopement—everything had crashed down on her in less than ten minutes. No matter how tough a man might be, it would have broken him.
The only peaceful thing in this insane day was Lucian, sleeping soundly in my arms. ‘Of course he’ll wake up soon. That’s parenting for you.’
“Just what… exactly…” Carla moved her lips. Because she had been desperately holding back her sobs earlier for fear of waking Lucian, clear tooth marks were visible on them.
“Who… are you?”
“……”
“You’re not the Sena I know. How could you… how could you do something like this? How could you think of abandoning the Grand Duke’s household and commit such a cruel act……” Carla’s voice rose before she forced it down again. She didn’t want to cry while holding the quiet Lucian; she wanted to stay warm for him.
“And that kiss earlier… above all, running away with Lucian? What on earth are you thinking, Sena? Do you really believe you can withstand Rumikan’s fury…?”
The questions poured out without pause. I understood completely. The loyal mistress who had spent her entire life hiding in her husband’s shadow had suddenly transformed into a badass warrior woman, stolen her son, and even planted a kiss on her. But still—
“My lady.” I cut off her barrage with a cold, sunken voice. “It’s very late. And right outside this carriage are corpses with their heads smashed open.”
“……! But that was you, Sena—”
“I’ll answer your questions once the sun rises and we’re completely safe. Right now, getting away from here as fast as possible is our top priority.”
At my words, Carla pressed her lips together. Probably afraid I might kiss her again.
“What a shame.”
“Sena, you really……”
Finding her reaction adorable, I threw out a half-joking remark. Anyway, we didn’t have the luxury of playing truth or dare right now. ‘That damn Grand Duke could come after us at any moment.’
Rumikan was no fool. The moment he learned that both Sena and Lucian had vanished from the nursery right after Carla disappeared, he would immediately organize a massive pursuit party. He might even come riding himself.
I retrieved my modest bundle that I had hidden in the forest underbrush and climbed back into the carriage.
“Here. This belongs to the young master.” I pulled out Lucian’s favorite doll from the bundle and tossed it onto the seat beside Carla. It was a ragged thing, chewed and sucked on until it was falling apart.
Then I rummaged through the luggage compartment in the corner of the carriage, took out the soft camping blankets and bedding I had prepared, and arranged them cozily around the seat where Carla and Lucian sat.
“The carriage will jolt around, so cushion him as much as possible.”
“S-Sena. Just what are you……”
“Oh, right.” Just as I was about to close the carriage door and step outside, I whipped my head back and added a warning.
“You won’t be able to sleep deeply. Taking care of a baby is incredibly exhausting.”
“……What?”
“Young Master Lucian is sleeping now, but he’ll keep waking up. Babies normally wake frequently and cry because they’re hungry, so please don’t be startled. And since you need to conserve your strength too, my lady, make sure to catch some sleep whenever you can, even if it’s just a nap.”
I would handle the breastfeeding, but I planned to leave the roles of soothing and putting him back to sleep entirely to his biological mother, Carla. That way, the bond between them could form properly.
Carla, who had no attachment to Lucian yet and was experiencing childcare for the first time as the Grand Duchess, turned deathly pale at the warning. Still, because she loved Lucian, she was prepared to endure the hardships of parenting. However, the immediate, crushing despair of their situation came out first.
“What good is laying out blankets… the coachman who should drive the carriage and the horses pulling it are all dead. How are we supposed to leave this place……”
And above all—
“Besides, once Lucian… no, once Rumikan realizes you’ve disappeared, he’ll never sit still…… The moment the sun rises—no, knowing Rumikan, he’ll notice by dawn and a pursuit party will descend on us…… If we’re trapped inside the carriage, we’ll be……”
Carla’s fear was entirely reasonable. A carriage without horses was nothing more than a giant coffin abandoned in the forest.
But I simply nodded with a calm expression.
“Exactly. That’s why we need to move even faster.”
“Sena! Ah, sorry Lucian……” Carla immediately regretted raising her voice. Fortunately, Lucian didn’t wake.
“As I said before, I’ll put off the rest of the answers until later. Lock the door properly.”
Thud. Ignoring her protests, I firmly shut the carriage door.
“And one more thing.”
“……”
“I love you.”
“Sena, you really……”
Regretting that I couldn’t brush away the tooth marks on Carla’s lips, I turned toward the front of the carriage where the cold night wind blew.
I stood silently before the headless corpse of the old coachman sprawled in the mud and the bodies of two horses whose heads had been completely blown off.
“……”
No matter that I didn’t even know their names, the sight of innocent people dying unjustly weighed heavily on my heart. They were pitiful lives sacrificed to the Grand Duke’s petty revenge plot. Of course, the pouch of silver coins lying beside the coachman was a bit annoying.
I quietly brought my hands together in prayer and offered a brief moment of respect.
‘In your next life, please don’t work under such a crazy Grand Duke bastard.’
After the short silence, I rolled up my sleeves. I needed to clear away the horse corpses that were completely blocking the carriage’s path.
“Up we go!”
The physical strength of a Knight-Captain Level body shone through. I effortlessly lifted not only the coachman’s corpse but even the horse carcasses—ones that would have required three or four grown men to budge—and tossed them into the underbrush beside the forest path. I was careful when setting them down, though. I even returned the coachman’s severed head so the two could be together again, and gently closed his eyes.
I didn’t want them to know where we were headed.
There was nothing I could do about the blood pooling thickly on the ground, but at least the path ahead was clear. I roughly wiped my bloodstained hands on my clothes and approached the now-empty front of the carriage.
Where two sturdy horses should have been harnessed, there was only the leather… ‘What do you even call this thing? Ugh… I have no knowledge about this stuff.’
Anyway, I grabbed the harness-like straps, slung them over my shoulders, and lifted. It was like wearing an enormously heavy backpack.
Creak.
The leather straps pulled taut, and the immense weight of the carriage bore down on my shoulders.
‘Wow, fuck. This is seriously heavy.’
Even with Knight-Captain Level physique, dragging a massive traveling carriage loaded with several people and luggage by myself was backbreaking labor that might melt my muscles. Just walking through the night in this state—forget running—might leave my entire body’s muscles torn apart by morning.
Still, I had to move forward. I had to leave footprints. Even one more step along the path drawn by moonlight. Farther away from the Grand Duke.
I lowered my head and began talking to myself.
“Hey, Sena. You’re listening, right?”
A faint tremor ran through the body in response to my call.
“Let’s switch. The young master is definitely going to wake up again soon, and you know the way better than I do. I obviously don’t know the roads, and the lady… she’s probably not much different from the young master, right? She’s never gone outside alone.”
『……』
“What, you got a complaint? I don’t know the way and I can’t control the strength properly. You pulling is the fastest and safest option.”
The body remained silent. Well, silence was all it could manage right now. The only ways it could express itself were by moving the head… or slapping the cheek.
‘But if the young master cries for milk… slap my cheek as hard as you need to wake me up. I’ll get up and feed him then. Deal?’
Anyway, Lucian’s meals could only be given stably when my soul was awake. From Sena’s perspective, guaranteeing the baby’s feeding—even if it meant enduring physical labor herself—was far more beneficial than letting him go hungry.
The body seemed to ponder for a moment. Then my head nodded heavily twice.
“Good. I’m counting on you, Sena.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and let go of the thread of consciousness. The moment my soul sank into deep sleep—
Creak—creak—creeeak—!!
Sena’s body, having reclaimed control, took a rough step forward. The leather straps over her shoulders pulled tight, and the earth beneath her feet tore open.
Crack. Thud!
The enormous traveling carriage began to roll forward heavily, pulled by a force that seemed impossible for a human. It couldn’t match the speed of two horses, but it pressed onward endlessly through the night air. The bizarre yet reliable footsteps never stopped.
Inside the carriage, Carla stared through the narrow gap in the window at the unreal sight of Sena single-handedly pulling the massive coach. She couldn’t hide her shock.
“Just what……”
She had known Sena was strong, but not to this degree. The memories of slapping that same Sena out of spite came rushing back, and regret flooded her for what she had done.
Still, how could a human possibly pull such a heavy carriage through the darkness? It was clearly overexertion. It was clearly devotion.
Then why… why had Sena, who received overflowing love from both Rumikan and Lucian in her place, thrown all of that love away to come to her?
And… 『I love you.』 How could she joke about loving her?
She gave love by holding Lucian without answering a single question, and whispered love into her ear.
Sena had changed. She had definitely changed.
Then just who… ‘Who is the Sena standing before me now?’
Was it the Sena she knew? The Sena she had hated?
But those complicated thoughts didn’t last long. The accumulated mental exhaustion, combined with a strange sense of relief under Sena’s protection, melted the tension away. Exhaustion washed over Carla.
“I can’t… fall asleep… Lucian……”
Above all, it was warm. The body heat of her son, whom she was holding for the first time, was warmer than any season. It was cozy. The milky scent of the baby even reminded Carla of the breast milk she herself had once carried.
Carla held tightly to the warmth of Lucian sleeping in her arms. Using the rocking of the carriage as a lullaby, she began to nod off.
And soon she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep—the kind she hadn’t enjoyed in a very long time.
How long had they traveled like that?
It was the darkest hour of dawn when—
“Waaah—! Uwaaaaah—!”
Lucian’s powerful cry tore through the quiet inside the carriage. He had woken up hungry and was demanding milk.
The instant that cry cut through the night air and reached Sena’s ears outside the carriage—
SLAP—!!!!
“Guh!!”
The body lifted the right hand that had been pulling the carriage without the slightest error and mercilessly smacked… my cheek.
My soul, which had been dozing, snapped awake from the physical impact on my cheek.
“Not twice! My brain will fall out! Okay, okay! I’m awake, I’m awake!!”
Clutching my cheek, I frantically regained consciousness, dropped the leather straps that had been crushing my shoulders, and rushed to open the carriage door.
Bang!
“Uwaaaaah!! Mama!”
“M-My lady! Please give me the young master!”
As I burst into the carriage in a panic, Carla—who had been startled awake by the sound of the slap and the baby’s crying—stared at me with a bewildered face. Her eyes were red again.
Holding a sleeping Lucian had already stirred her maternal instincts, but more than anything, she wanted to soothe the crying child.
The faint red mark still visible on Lucian’s tiny hand weighed on her mind. The wound she had accidentally inflicted while trying to calm the bravely crying baby was still etched in her eyes.