The man who entered Lavi’s field of vision was dressed in black clothes with his face covered, holding a sword and radiating deadly force. The carriage door opened so smoothly and the silent man stared into the carriage without saying a single word, making it all the more eerie. She thought that perhaps what made him stare like so was the fact it was the Duchess and herself inside, not the Duke and Duchess. 

The few seconds of silence felt like hours.

As if the sound of Lavi’s swallow was a signal, the man stepped into the carriage. She could think of no way to avoid him in the narrow space the carriage offered.

“Miss!!”

The sound of swords clashing rang loudly, and Allen called out as if checking to see if Lavi was still alive. Seeing that Allen had only shouted for her instead of coming straight to her side, Lavi realized that the situation outside the carriage wasn’t looking any better than inside. Maybe it would be more dangerous for her to stay put and just wait for him.

Perhaps thinking the same thing, Fedora took a deep breath, quickly released Lavi, and rushed towards the man who had opened the carriage door.

“Mother…!” ¹

The masked man laughed and swung his sword at Fedora. Fedora lowered her body to avoid the sword and tripped the man’s leg. The man fell from the carriage, but rolled once and quickly got to his feet.

“This bitch …!”

“Bitch?”

Lavi watched in a daze as Fedora struck down the man holding a sword with her bare hands. It was a scene she hadn’t expected at all. It seemed that Fedora would soon overpower the man, but the result was not so. The fact that she was unarmed and wearing a dress was a hindrance.

The man’s sword narrowly missed Fedora, slicing the hem of the dress, and cutting a lock of pale pink hair that scattered in the air.

‘No.’

What to do? Was there really nothing she could do?

Lavi moved her trembling body closer to the opened door. If she jumped off well enough from here, she might be able to land on the man’s back.

But, what if that only put the duchess in more danger?

For her, who was helpless, perhaps the most helpful thing would be to stay put.

Even at that very moment, groans could be heard outside the carriage, presumably coming from the family’s knights. She should have heard unfamiliar voices screaming, but the voices making agonized noises were familiar.

Since it was an attack the Duke’s carriage, those with high skills must have been sent.

‘If it’s a dangerous situation either way…’

She wanted to be ready to jump out at any time.

Lavi removed the jewelry pin from her hair and untied the ribbon strings attached to the sleeves of her dress. She wrapped the ribbon around the hand that was holding the jewelry pin and pulled it with her teeth to tie it.

Wouldn’t it be a shame to lose the pin in her rush?

Then, she saw a figure approaching Fedora.

“Mother, behind you!!”

Lavi screamed with all her might and threw herself onto the back of the man Fedora was fighting. Hanging onto the man’s neck, Lavi clenched her teeth and stuck the pin into the man’s neck.

Ordinarily, a simple stab with all of her force wouldn’t have been enough to be called an attack at all, but it was possible now because it contained the force from her jump off of the carriage.

“Kkgh, damn it…” ²

The man grabbed the back of his neck with one hand and roughly grabbed Lavi’s hair with the other. Hanging in the air with her head held in the man’s hand, Lavi strained against his hand, trying to push the pin deeper until the end.

With a loud groan, he threw her to the ground and grabbed his neck.

“Oooh how scary, little girl.” ³

Lavi, who had rolled around on the ground, barely got up and approached the man.

“Phew… shut up.”

Lavi recalled the method she’d heard from Allen before and threw a fist with all of her might between the man’s legs. She wanted to kick him, but the height difference between her and the man was too big.

“You, you crazy!”

Lavi looked at Fedora, eyes wide, leaving the man clutching between his legs. Fedora, now surrounded by a growing group of men, was busy avoiding the incoming attacks as she called out to Lavi.

When she turned her gaze a little further to the side, she saw Allen dealing with the assassins with a slashed back.

If she estimated the number of fallen assassins, it seemed like it was around thirty. There were probably about ten men alive. The problem was that the number of knights from the two families still standing was even less than that.

The number of escort knights who followed as guards had only been fifteen to begin with. With so many assassins charging them, the situation had become like this.

Lavi opened her mouth to speak when she saw an assassin charging at Allen from behind.

“Allen…! Be careful….!”

Her voice was so small that she didn’t think Allen could hear it, but Allen glanced her way and she saw him frown.

While the remaining knights were fighting almost one-on-one or back-to-back, Allen was taking on five of the assailants alone.

Allen began to swing his sword more desperately. He even took an injury to narrow the distance between him and Lavi’s direction.

“Ah!”

Another assassin, who saw Lavi as she cried out for Allen, approached her and grabbed her throat.

“It’s a shame you’re not the Duke. We were told to kill everyone in the carriage.”

 “Gasp ….”

Lavi felt that it was getting harder and harder to breathe and fought desperately to keep from blacking out. Tears flowed down her cheeks.

Fedora knocked a man down and snatched his sword. She bit her lip as she looked at Lavi. She was thinking of rescuing Lavi first, but there were so many people surrounding her that I couldn’t get closer. She was able to hold on by taking up a sword, but it had been a long time since she had wielded one, so she was nearly overwhelmed.

 “Hngh….”

The strangling grip on Lavi’s throat strengthened.

Lavi struggled mightily to resist, scratching the man’s arm with her fingernails, but her strength, which was already weak due to her being strangled, was unable to leave even a small scratch on the man.

“Miss!”

Allen shouted, thrusting his bloodied sword into the man strangling Lavi.

Lavi lifted her head, clutching her neck and gagging. Her vision was blurred by her tears, but she saw Allen the Duchess’s dress both soaked in blood. Lavi picked up a dagger with the thought that she had to do something, but there was no way she could change the situation even if she took up a weapon.

What she had done to the man who strangled her earlier had been nothing but luck.

However, she couldn’t make herself run away. ⁴

“Ugh …!”

Before Lavi could make a decision, the man who had fallen grabbed her ankle. He struggled to get up, spat out a curse, and swung his sword at Lavi. Her legs gave out and she fell, the blade missing her neck and instead leaving a long gash on her shoulder.

Lavi cried out, blood leaking out, and squeezed her eyes tightly shut as the tip of the blade came flying back.

“Miss…!”

Allen blocked the man’s sword, thrusting Lavi behind him. His opponent threw a fist into Allen’s side, seeming to have noticed the  wound there. The sound of metal clashing rang out in succession along with Allen’s groan.

He’d been paid to kill a specific person, so maybe it was natural,  but to attack the wound in such a cruel way…

Lavi saw that Allen was losing ground and urgently called for her knight.

“… Allen!”

Lavi wiped away the tears from her eyes and threw the dagger she was holding between the legs of the man who was crossing swords with Allen.

Actually, she’d tried to stab him, but the dagger was too heavy and flew away. Since it was unlikely to do any damage if she tried to stab somewhere else anyway, it seemed like a good choice. The problem was that her wrist was broken and she had no feeling in her injured shoulder.

While the man was reeling, Allen slashed his sword and the man’s body crumpled to the ground.

Seeing Allen frown as he examined her, Lavi burst into tears. The sight of blood stains around Allen’s mouth and the wounds all over his body was frightening.

“Sob … Allen.”

“I’m late, I’m sorry I’m late, miss.”

Lavi, who pushed away Allen’s hand as he tried to pick her up, opened her mouth. He was in no condition to pick her up, and the fight wasn’t over yet.

“Allen… are you okay?”

Lavi was more scared of Allen and the duchess dying than she was of dying herself.

Allen looked back and forth between Fedora and Lavi. A selfish part of him wanted to take the girl and get out of there right away. With the wounds she just received, the life of the young lady he served was in danger.

However, there was no need for him to be the one to take the young lady out of harm’s way.

He finished the judgment call quickly.

“Wait a moment … just stay like this. You mustn’t do anything crazy.” ⁵

Allen hesitated and strode towards where Fedora was. Single-handedly, he blocked the three swordsmen and pushed the Duchess back to where Lavi was.

“You have to run away.”

“Sir, there are three left now.”

What Fedora said meant they should just fight together, but Allen shook his head.

“The lady is hurt. If you don’t hurry …!”

Fedora seemed to hesitate, but upon seeing Lavi’s wounds, apologized and moved towards her as if she had made a decision.

Lavi didn’t even see Fedora approaching and called out her friend’s name in a daze.

 “Gasp… Ah… kkad.”

If something goes wrong for his mother like this, wouldn’t she feel so sorry for Akkad? If this was going to happen anyway, like in the original, maybe it was a good thing. If she were to die in place of his father, Akkad wouldn’t be left so alone.

Compared to other people around her, she only had a single wound on her shoulder, but it felt like she was going to die.

She could already feel that she’d lost a lot of blood, and it was difficult to breathe.

She’d thought she might die someday, but not so soon. She hadn’t thought about the reality. ⁶

She felt faint and her body went limp.

The moment her eyes closed, she thought she caught a glimpse of pink hair.

She thought she heard the sound of fast approaching horses’ hooves and a voice calling out to her.

She couldn’t open her eyes.

Lavi’s world went dark. ⁷

* * *

The priest who visited Duke Enoch’s residence bowed his head and hesitated before speaking.

“Because her body is so weak, she cannot properly receive divine power.”

“It doesn’t matter if the recovery speed is slow, as long as she is okay.”

The priest swallowed dryly at Duke Enoch’s deadly aura. He may have already understood, but the words contained an unspoken pressure to save her no matter what.

“Tonight is a critical period. If we use divine power any more than now, she could end up in even more danger.”

There was silence in the room at the priest’s words. The duke pondered for a moment whether he should call another priest, then shook his head. The priest who’d already been called was a high-ranking priest with the strongest divine power among all the priests currently in the capital.

“Father.”

Akkad balled his fists and looked meaningfully at his father. The Duke sighed and dismissed the priest, leaving only three of them in the bedroom.

Akkad frowned at the bed.

Lavi’s face was pale, her barely-there breathing faint.

He couldn’t remain still any longer in a situation where it wouldn’t be surprising if, at any moment, she stopped breathing altogether.

“Are you sure about this? You know that once you make the decision, you can never change it again.”

“I have already used my abilities on Lavi, for a long time now.”

“I had a feeling, but tsk.”

The Duke shook his head and sighed again. He turned Akkad’s shoulder and met his gaze, as if telling him to listen carefully. 

“She doesn’t accept divine power well, so it must be controlled well.”

“I know.”

“Then, hurry.”

---

---

T/N: It bugs me sometimes when the heroines of these stories somehow turn into action heroes, but I also am really not a fan of the damsel in distress trope. I feel like this was a well-done compromise. Lavi’s not going to win any fights, but she isn’t going to go down without doing her best!

1.  어머님 reminder – this translates to ‘mother’ but does not refer to one’s own mother (at least not while they are still alive) 어머님 is usually only used when addressing or referring to one’s mother-in-law, one’s mother who has passed away, or to address the  mother of someone about your own age (kind of like ‘auntie’) This blog has a good explanation if you’re interested. I’ll note here as well that I’ve kept it as ‘mother’ in dialogue, but in the narration have switched it to ‘the duchess’. ↩︎
2. 이런 씨: An informal expression used to convey surprise, frustration, or disappointment. Comes from ‘이런 씨끄러워’ ↩︎
3. Not sure on this one “쪼끄만 게 겁이… 큭.” ↩︎
4. This could also possibly mean ‘she couldn’t bear to run away’ which makes her rather valiant or ‘she couldn’t find her footing to run away’ which may make her seem slightly less valiant, but not being a burden to those fighting is a good decision imo. Went for somewhere in the middle. ↩︎
5. Allen tells Lavi 절대로 정신을 놓으시면 안 됩니다 and I’m not sure of the correct meaning. 정신을  can mean consciousness or mind/spirit/soul, so it could be ‘you must stay awake” or something more like ‘don’t lose focus / don’t let your guard down’.  Literally, it could mean ‘You must not lose your mind’ which ordinarily I would dismiss, but given it’s Allen and Lavi, I think ‘don’t do anything else crazy’ is viable. I do actually think, based on the last sentence of the section, that ‘you must not lose consciousness’ is probably the accurate choice but whatever ↩︎
6. Not sure on this 그것도 현실이 될지는 몰랐다. ↩︎
7. 올리비아는 그대로 정신을 잃었다. Literally, Lavi lost her mind/spirit or Lavi lost consciousness (see prior note). I went for something that could similarly be ambiguous as to ‘did she die or just pass out’ (I mean. We’re only in volume 1 so pretty sure ya’ll can guess but hey) ↩︎

---