The wagons ran down the dark green hill. The hill where Gualtiero was located was actually nothing more than a low peak, but even though the road down it wasn’t very long, it felt like an endless eternity pulling on Lil.
In time, they left the hill and entered the paved city streets. The sound of the horses’ hooves altered and rang on the stones. Meanwhile, Alain grabbed his chest and waved his hand in the air, making strange sounds.
“Hiya! Ho!”
“Shut up.”
Lil warned, but the men inside the luggage compartment were also becoming noisy. Finally, Alain lifted the screen behind the coach seat and shouted to the sailors in the cargo hold.
“We’re out! We escaped that damned vineyard!”
Chants that were as strange as Alain’s came out sporadically. Although Lil scolded them several times in order to keep them quiet, she herself eventually burst out laughing. However, when the excited sailors began pounding in the hold, causing the horses to cry out in distress, Lil slapped Alain’s back as he was putting his upper body further into the compartment.
“Calm down now! Calm down, all of you!”
“…Captain!.. Captain!..”
As Alain crawled back onto the coachman’s seat, the shouts of Marenzio, who was driving the second wagon, spread everywhere. His voice echoed into every corner of the alley and reverberated, giving Lil no choice but to jump up from her seat and shout towards the back.
“Can’t you shut up?”
But just as she was about to sit down again, Marenzio shouted again. Unfortunately, his message wasn’t a pleasant one.
“Something is catching up behind us!”
“…What?!”
Holding the reins in one hand, Lil twisted her torso and looked behind her. Four figures were approaching fiercely from the end of the street. Lil drew her eyebrows together, thereby squinting her eyes. Because the figures were backlit, the seal of those horse riders couldn’t be seen properly. The only thing she was certain of was that there were no badges on the horses’ saddle nor markings on their cloaks.
Lil muttered as she turned the wagon to the right, following their designated path.
“…It’s not the uniform of the guards…”
Still sitting next to her, Alain looked at her in shock. Similarly, Lil also faced Alain.
Both of them shouted simultaneously.
“…Then who?..”
“…Then who are they?..”
“How should I know? I just got out of jail!”
“Shit!”
After handing the reins to Alain, Lil pushed herself off her seat and landed flat on the roof of the wagon. Instead of falling onto the middle of the roof, as she was going for, she fell more to the side. But luckily for Lil, the rear was visible from this position too.
‘Four armed men on horseback…’
An obvious fact came to mind.
‘In the first place, there’s no way the guards are wearing masks… Are they spies from the Duke of Mireille? No… I’m not sure…’
Lil took her gun out of her pocket and placed the barrel on the frame of the luggage compartment as support. However, she quickly became conflicted due to the possibility that they could be the prison’s guards.
‘What if this only brings us more trouble? Moreover, if I use my gun now, the gunshot will ring aloud, and if someone hears it…’
While she was caught up in deep thought, Alain hit Lil’s leg which was hanging above the coach seat.
“Where?! Where to next?!”
“What?!”
“Which direction should I go?!”
“Left! Left after to the white five-storey building!”
“Damn it! It’s a bit too late for that now! Hold on!”
Because the carriage turned belatedly and was violently swept to the right, the two horses neighed noisily due to the sudden pressure. Several empty wooden boxes fell from the luggage compartment, and the cries of the sailors were heard through the tent. Lil frantically grabbed the tent of the roof but found it nearly impossible to grasp the taut fabric. Struggling to get a hold, Lil lost her grip on her gun.
The gun slipped over the roof of the carriage and fell down.
“No!”
Lil, hanging on for dear life, screamed helplessly while seeing the hooves of the horses pulling Marenzio’s wagon hit the gun that had landed on the road. In the end, she had no chance to retrieve it or could afford to turn back.
Chewing her lip, Lil retracted her outstretched hand.
When their wagon was finally back on a steady course, Alain shouted again.
“We’re good!”
As soon as the tilting motion disappeared, Lil went back to the coach seat and pulled the screen behind the backrest. Her crew, crammed in like chickens in their coop, looked up at her, their faces covered in sweat.
“…What happened?..”
“…Who are those guys?..”
“…The Navy?..”
Their frightened eyes twinkled in the light, but Lil only brought her finger to her lips and cooed in a whisper.
“No, so be quiet!”
“..!”
“Sword, does anyone have a sword?”
“Something like this?”
Lil accepted the bent kitchen knife one of the sailors held out. Unfortunately, throwing bent knives wasn’t a skill that Lil had mastered yet.
“Don’t you have something that I can throw like a dagger? A straight knife will do. Something straight!”
Half of the men shook their heads immediately, while the other half attempted to rummage around. However, there was no more time to waste. The distance between them and the horsemen was closing rapidly. After all, their wagon’s two horses were pulling the weight of multiple men, whereas their opponents’ horses were carrying the men individually. Their opponents’ speed was impossible to compare, to begin with.
With her gaze fixed on them, Lil pondered.
‘No guns, no daggers. It means that I cannot fight them over long distances. Even if we’re lucky and they won’t close in on us, I can’t afford to let them tail us all the way to the port. In this case, the only option is to engage them in close range.’
Lil lowered the screen again and sat down in the coachman’s seat. She rummaged through her arms, took out an envelope, and stuffed it into Alain’s pants.
“Give this to Anunchio.”
“No way. Why are you giving me this?”
“Listen carefully. Keep going straight and when you see the port, turn right. If you follow the dock, you will eventually see a sign for Old Port Dock no. 2. The fourteenth ship from there is the Bell Rock. It has been changed a bit because of the repairs, so you need to be alert and carefully identify it, alright? Ed is with the rest of the crew, so join them.”
“Ed? You mean the doctor?”
“Yes. There’s no time to explain.”
“What about you, Captain?”
“…”
Lil didn’t respond and tried to jump off the wagon. But the moment she tried to leap to her feet, Alain grabbed her by the collar.
“Answer me, Captain!”
Lil’s upper body swayed violently and she was dragged back into the coach’s seat. As she was caught midair, her neck almost broke from the force.
Lil yelled loudly.
“You crazy old man!”
“What about the Captain?!”
Lil managed to regain her balance by grabbing Alain’s shoulder.
“Come to your senses! Think about what you were imprisoned for. If even one person is caught here, the whole of the South will be executed!”
“What do you mean…”
Lil shouted while pounding the back of the coach seat with her fist.
“Damn it, think!”
Alain’s face, which had been blank for a moment, soon became coloured with realisation. Lil asked him to confirm it.
“You know what I mean, right?”
“I understand… I understand now.”
With Alain frantically nodding his head, Lil pulled her upper body out of the coach seat, looked behind her and shouted.
“Marenzio! Move aside!”
Marenzio, driving the second wagon closely behind them, opened some space to the right. Lil was about to jump out of the wagon but remembered something important. Turning to face Alain again, her heart sank as she wondered how she had forgotten such a crucial point.
“One more thing. Ed must watch the course of the Bell Rock until it sets sail and completely leaves Mondovi. We can never know what might happen. You understand that, right? The waters around here are all full of warships, so he must remain in the port until the end…”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t tell him about those guys?”
Alain pointed with his chin at the men pursuing them. He looked at her uneasily, as if he had sensed her intention. But Lil lied to him to receive his cooperation.
“There’s no need to tell him anything. I’ve bribed the nearby guards, so they’ll come to help me as soon as I give the signal. Until then, all I must do is buy you time.”
“…Guards? How?”
“Shut up and say you understand! There’s no time to explain!”
“Okay, I understand!”
“Remember, once you manage to get out of here, everything will be resolved. And don’t worry about what might happen after you escape.”
The last thing she saw before turning away from Alain was his mouth opening to say something. But simultaneously, one of the horsemen already caught up to them and had stuck himself right next to her. A spur-of-the-moment reflex made Lil unsheathe and swing her sword fiercely.
“Crazy!”
“Agh!”
The arm that was reaching towards Lil backed off. It was an accidental wound, but it appeared to have been more fatal than she thought, seeing how the guy struggled to continue. He eventually fell from the horse despite his efforts to hold on. However, his horse paid no heed to the ordeal and kept running alongside the carriage.
With no time to argue any further, Lil jumped towards the empty saddle…
“Shit!”
The wagons ran down the dark green hill. The hill where Gualtiero was located was actually nothing more than a low peak, but even though the road down it wasn’t very long, it felt like an endless eternity pulling on Lil.
In time, they left the hill and entered the paved city streets. The sound of the horses’ hooves altered and rang on the stones. Meanwhile, Alain grabbed his chest and waved his hand in the air, making strange sounds.
“Hiya! Ho!”
“Shut up.”
Lil warned, but the men inside the luggage compartment were also becoming noisy. Finally, Alain lifted the screen behind the coach seat and shouted to the sailors in the cargo hold.
“We’re out! We escaped that damned vineyard!”
Chants that were as strange as Alain’s came out sporadically. Although Lil scolded them several times in order to keep them quiet, she herself eventually burst out laughing. However, when the excited sailors began pounding in the hold, causing the horses to cry out in distress, Lil slapped Alain’s back as he was putting his upper body further into the compartment.
“Calm down now! Calm down, all of you!”
“…Captain!.. Captain!..”
As Alain crawled back onto the coachman’s seat, the shouts of Marenzio, who was driving the second wagon, spread everywhere. His voice echoed into every corner of the alley and reverberated, giving Lil no choice but to jump up from her seat and shout towards the back.
“Can’t you shut up?”
But just as she was about to sit down again, Marenzio shouted again. Unfortunately, his message wasn’t a pleasant one.
“Something is catching up behind us!”
“…What?!”
Holding the reins in one hand, Lil twisted her torso and looked behind her. Four figures were approaching fiercely from the end of the street. Lil drew her eyebrows together, thereby squinting her eyes. Because the figures were backlit, the seal of those horse riders couldn’t be seen properly. The only thing she was certain of was that there were no badges on the horses’ saddle nor markings on their cloaks.
Lil muttered as she turned the wagon to the right, following their designated path.
“…It’s not the uniform of the guards…”
Still sitting next to her, Alain looked at her in shock. Similarly, Lil also faced Alain.
Both of them shouted simultaneously.
“…Then who?..”
“…Then who are they?..”
“How should I know? I just got out of jail!”
“Shit!”
After handing the reins to Alain, Lil pushed herself off her seat and landed flat on the roof of the wagon. Instead of falling onto the middle of the roof, as she was going for, she fell more to the side. But luckily for Lil, the rear was visible from this position too.
‘Four armed men on horseback…’
An obvious fact came to mind.
‘In the first place, there’s no way the guards are wearing masks… Are they spies from the Duke of Mireille? No… I’m not sure…’
Lil took her gun out of her pocket and placed the barrel on the frame of the luggage compartment as support. However, she quickly became conflicted due to the possibility that they could be the prison’s guards.
‘What if this only brings us more trouble? Moreover, if I use my gun now, the gunshot will ring aloud, and if someone hears it…’
While she was caught up in deep thought, Alain hit Lil’s leg which was hanging above the coach seat.
“Where?! Where to next?!”
“What?!”
“Which direction should I go?!”
“Left! Left after to the white five-storey building!”
“Damn it! It’s a bit too late for that now! Hold on!”
Because the carriage turned belatedly and was violently swept to the right, the two horses neighed noisily due to the sudden pressure. Several empty wooden boxes fell from the luggage compartment, and the cries of the sailors were heard through the tent. Lil frantically grabbed the tent of the roof but found it nearly impossible to grasp the taut fabric. Struggling to get a hold, Lil lost her grip on her gun.
The gun slipped over the roof of the carriage and fell down.
“No!”
Lil, hanging on for dear life, screamed helplessly while seeing the hooves of the horses pulling Marenzio’s wagon hit the gun that had landed on the road. In the end, she had no chance to retrieve it or could afford to turn back.
Chewing her lip, Lil retracted her outstretched hand.
When their wagon was finally back on a steady course, Alain shouted again.
“We’re good!”
As soon as the tilting motion disappeared, Lil went back to the coach seat and pulled the screen behind the backrest. Her crew, crammed in like chickens in their coop, looked up at her, their faces covered in sweat.
“…What happened?..”
“…Who are those guys?..”
“…The Navy?..”
Their frightened eyes twinkled in the light, but Lil only brought her finger to her lips and cooed in a whisper.
“No, so be quiet!”
“..!”
“Sword, does anyone have a sword?”
“Something like this?”
Lil accepted the bent kitchen knife one of the sailors held out. Unfortunately, throwing bent knives wasn’t a skill that Lil had mastered yet.
“Don’t you have something that I can throw like a dagger? A straight knife will do. Something straight!”
Half of the men shook their heads immediately, while the other half attempted to rummage around. However, there was no more time to waste. The distance between them and the horsemen was closing rapidly. After all, their wagon’s two horses were pulling the weight of multiple men, whereas their opponents’ horses were carrying the men individually. Their opponents’ speed was impossible to compare, to begin with.
With her gaze fixed on them, Lil pondered.
‘No guns, no daggers. It means that I cannot fight them over long distances. Even if we’re lucky and they won’t close in on us, I can’t afford to let them tail us all the way to the port. In this case, the only option is to engage them in close range.’
Lil lowered the screen again and sat down in the coachman’s seat. She rummaged through her arms, took out an envelope, and stuffed it into Alain’s pants.
“Give this to Anunchio.”
“No way. Why are you giving me this?”
“Listen carefully. Keep going straight and when you see the port, turn right. If you follow the dock, you will eventually see a sign for Old Port Dock no. 2. The fourteenth ship from there is the Bell Rock. It has been changed a bit because of the repairs, so you need to be alert and carefully identify it, alright? Ed is with the rest of the crew, so join them.”
“Ed? You mean the doctor?”
“Yes. There’s no time to explain.”
“What about you, Captain?”
“…”
Lil didn’t respond and tried to jump off the wagon. But the moment she tried to leap to her feet, Alain grabbed her by the collar.
“Answer me, Captain!”
Lil’s upper body swayed violently and she was dragged back into the coach’s seat. As she was caught midair, her neck almost broke from the force.
Lil yelled loudly.
“You crazy old man!”
“What about the Captain?!”
Lil managed to regain her balance by grabbing Alain’s shoulder.
“Come to your senses! Think about what you were imprisoned for. If even one person is caught here, the whole of the South will be executed!”
“What do you mean…”
Lil shouted while pounding the back of the coach seat with her fist.
“Damn it, think!”
Alain’s face, which had been blank for a moment, soon became coloured with realisation. Lil asked him to confirm it.
“You know what I mean, right?”
“I understand… I understand now.”
With Alain frantically nodding his head, Lil pulled her upper body out of the coach seat, looked behind her and shouted.
“Marenzio! Move aside!”
Marenzio, driving the second wagon closely behind them, opened some space to the right. Lil was about to jump out of the wagon but remembered something important. Turning to face Alain again, her heart sank as she wondered how she had forgotten such a crucial point.
“One more thing. Ed must watch the course of the Bell Rock until it sets sail and completely leaves Mondovi. We can never know what might happen. You understand that, right? The waters around here are all full of warships, so he must remain in the port until the end…”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t tell him about those guys?”
Alain pointed with his chin at the men pursuing them. He looked at her uneasily, as if he had sensed her intention. But Lil lied to him to receive his cooperation.
“There’s no need to tell him anything. I’ve bribed the nearby guards, so they’ll come to help me as soon as I give the signal. Until then, all I must do is buy you time.”
“…Guards? How?”
“Shut up and say you understand! There’s no time to explain!”
“Okay, I understand!”
“Remember, once you manage to get out of here, everything will be resolved. And don’t worry about what might happen after you escape.”
The last thing she saw before turning away from Alain was his mouth opening to say something. But simultaneously, one of the horsemen already caught up to them and had stuck himself right next to her. A spur-of-the-moment reflex made Lil unsheathe and swing her sword fiercely.
“Crazy!”
“Agh!”
The arm that was reaching towards Lil backed off. It was an accidental wound, but it appeared to have been more fatal than she thought, seeing how the guy struggled to continue. He eventually fell from the horse despite his efforts to hold on. However, his horse paid no heed to the ordeal and kept running alongside the carriage.
With no time to argue any further, Lil jumped towards the empty saddle…
“Shit!”
