The Survival Strategy of the Contract Duchess - Chapter 103

The two women left the Duke’s residence together. Rose watched them from behind with a worried expression.

Upon hearing that she would be going out with Elina, Rose seemed to have an immediate bad feeling. She grabbed Sasha’s arm urgently, her hand gripping tightly.

“I’m going to the Uhalin Forest. Don’t worry. I’m not in danger even if I go there. I’ll be back before Kyle returns.”

Rose knew that Sasha’s words were a difficult promise to keep, but at least her words that she wouldn’t be in danger seemed sincere. Seeing her unwavering eyes, Rose relented.

Thus, Sasha set out with Elina. They rode in the carriage Elina had arrived in, but Ignote’s carriage followed behind. It was Rose’s last insistence.

“Instead, when the Duke returns, I will tell him. That the Young Lady of Ivern came here and took Sasha to the Uhalin Forest.”

Rose said firmly to Sasha, who was looking back at her in front of the carriage. And those words were directed not only at Sasha but also at Elina, who was standing next to her.

Elina turned her head sharply and glared at her, but Rose, the experienced head maid, was not someone who would be intimidated by the eyes of a naive young lady.

Her gaze was solely directed at Sasha.

“Even just one knight.”

“Unless it’s Kyle, everyone else will just be in danger. It’s okay.”

“You keep saying that, do you think I’m going to find a place to die?”

As they continued to talk about scary things with such nonchalant faces, Elina’s heart grew increasingly uneasy. She shouted, but no one was swayed by it.

Tsk, this isn’t it Elina sulked and got into the carriage first.

Sasha left behind a look that said not to worry and clenched and unclenched her fists. She shook off the tension and climbed into the carriage Elina was in.

The carriage made a moderate amount of noise and shaking, occasionally reminding Sasha, who kept getting lost in thought, that she was riding in a carriage.

Sasha didn’t want to bother with feeling awkward, so she simply looked out the window and got lost in her own thoughts. She didn’t even pay attention to the child sitting in front of her, who didn’t know what to do with her discomfort.

Nevertheless, the reason she had followed this child was because of Ivern.

It was a period that Sasha couldn’t remember at all now, but she was still curious. I wasn’t there in the first place, so the person who would have been my dad originally couldn’t give me love and ended up like this, but the Sasha who originally lived here was different. Even though her dad was right downstairs she had to live a life as lonely as her own.

Feeling someone’s presence while being holed up alone, or disappearing without a sound and being left alone, which is more difficult? The fact that I’m even comparing such things is a sad thing, though.

I was just curious about the reason. How could he do that, was there a reason why he had to?

On the way to get that answer.

It felt like the road to the Uhalin Forest had become so long. Since the destination was clear, there was no need to deliberately go around in circles.

“Are we going to the Uhalin Forest?”

“Y-yes! I’m going on my own. We’ll arrive soon.”

Elina was suddenly asked a question so casually that she was startled and shouted back without calmly answering. The longer the time Elina spent riding in the carriage, the more confused she felt.

The carriage stopped in front of a different entrance instead of the large entrance where Kyle and she always stopped. With the escort of the coachman, the two young ladies got out of the carriage and quickly looked around.

And when they looked around at the shape of the forest and the surrounding environment, they thought that it would be a dangerous place to enter.

“Yeah! Uhalin is Uhalin.”

Sasha, who got out of the carriage, narrowed her eyes as she scanned the surroundings and murmured quietly.

And Elina, who had gotten out before her and felt a strange energy after seeing the surroundings, trembled her eyes anxiously and got angry at her words.

“Then what is this if it’s not the Uhalin Forest!”

You could tell just by her reaction of shouting. The entrance to the forest, where an unpleasant tension flowed, was extremely gloomy. She was on edge like that because she was pressed down by that energy.

“Well, shall we talk? Are you going to be with me until something appears here, or do you need to let someone know that I’ve arrived here? Or is the father who thinks I’m his going to appear here?”

She couldn’t answer any of them, and she couldn’t come to a conclusion after seeing it in advance, but in the end, the important thing was to meet Ivern.

Nothing would be accomplished by just looking like this.

“Guide me quickly. As you heard earlier, I need to finish this business quickly and return to the Duke’s residence.”

Sasha was unchanged even in this atmosphere and gloom. If anything, it was just the shorts?

“W-wait. Dad is inside, but he said that I’m not needed in talking to you.”

Sasha’s eyes narrowed as she saw her panicking and hastily making excuses.

“It seems like the role of the guide ends here.”

“Yes, I’m only here. You can go into that forest.”

Elina moved closer to the entrance of the forest and listened, then startled and stepped back at the sound like a cry that echoed and disappeared from the inside.

“Okay. You can stay here or go, do whatever you want.”

Sasha was taking one step at a time calmly. It felt like a completely different place from the Uhalin she always went to, with the damp air and the damp smell entering her lungs.

Sasha slowly went inside. Once she decided to go in, she didn’t look back. She wasn’t curious about what Elina’s expression would be as she stood at the entrance and looked at her.

It was really dark inside. Whether it was because it was a dense forest, or because the leaves were so full in the sky that the inside was getting dark.

The sound of footsteps walking softly also began to disappear as the path deepened a little more. Her moist feet were avoiding the steps, and there was moss. It was like that among the dense trees and the leaves covering the sky.

“Marquis Ivern?”

Sasha walked a little further, stopped, and called him in a loud voice.

Sasha couldn’t refuse the fact that Sasha Ivern’s biological father would tell her the reason why he had treated his daughter with anger.

She wanted to know. What kind of man was he? What did he look like?

What was the reason why he put his daughter in the attic and didn’t even think about looking at her? With my common sense, I was just repeatedly thinking about it without any sign of it ending.

But no one appeared even when she called. The gloomy forest path continued, and Sasha walked along that path.

She didn’t need to think that there would be a reason or a clumsy answer that it was originally like that. What she wanted was not understanding. Of course, it would be less upsetting if she could understand.

But even if it was something unavoidable, for example, if there was pressure from someone it didn’t seem like it would be easily accepted.

No matter how much pressure there was from someone, Elina, who had come this far, was sent back as she was. Already, the difference between me and Elina was clearly divided there. In the first place, she wasn’t the same daughter to him.

“Where are you? If you called someone, shouldn’t you honestly come out and say what you have to say and listen to what you have to hear?”

Not to mention Marquis Ivern, there was no trace of anyone. The only sound she could hear was the sound of her stepping on the soft moss.

The gloomy and heavy air that didn’t even seem to hear the sound of birds was stagnant without flowing.

Is he coming to explain?

When I thought about it, I had doubts about whether there was really a reason for him to explain it to me now. The fact that he called me while taking such a risk is it because there’s something he can get from me, like communication with demons?

It’s Ivern. What did the Marquis really come here to tell his daughter?

But he still couldn’t reveal his appearance.

“Haa? Was I tricked?”

There was a strange discrepancy in the elegant tone and word choice, but it wasn’t so annoying. She sighed and walked in a little further.

A little more time passed. In that place where it felt like a long time had passed, Sasha thought of Kyle. He must be very worried, and her heart ached because she could imagine that image.

It was then. Rustle. There was a sound of stepping on grass.

She was so focused on the sound that was heard too close that when she listened carefully, the sound disappeared in an instant.

What is it? What is it? She was concentrating. Even if that sign of movement approached in an instant, would everyone exclaim when they blinked and opened their eyes!

At that time, the moment her eyes closed and opened, it was already in her sight. The thing that resembled a dark gray dry branch was really approaching in an instant.

Sasha stopped breathing. A demon appeared at a distance where three steps, his three steps, would be enough to collide.

“After all, you weren’t someone who would do anything for me. Not even material things and you’re not even trying to talk to me properly.”

Sasha held her head up straight and looked at the demon. In that tense moment, Sasha was sparkling like that.

Support