Chapter 15: Fainting

The vines clung quietly to the wall. The night wind brushed past, making the leaves tremble slightly as if silently reminding her: this was the exit, and also a trap.

Flora looked at it, and the tension and desire that had been suppressed for so long that they almost burst inside her chest surged up all at once.

She had to get out.

Now was the only chance.

She took a deep breath of the night wind. The air was cold and damp, yet it felt more real than anywhere else inside the castle.

When her fingers gripped the first vine, she even felt a slight pang of pain because she held on so tightly.

She didn’t loosen her grip.

She absolutely could not loosen her grip.

Otherwise, she would be left here, never able to return to where she came from.

She pulled herself up, stepped on a thicker knot in the vine, and climbed upward with the momentum.

The first step was steady.

The second step was shaky, but she managed to hold on.

Her heart pounded heavily, so fast that it didn’t feel like “excitement” so much as a primal sprint triggered by being forced toward the only exit.

‘I can do this… I’ve done harder things than this before,’ she whispered to herself in her mind.

She had once led her brothers over steeper slopes and avoided more dangerous terrain. The old her could do it, and the current her… must do it too.

The vines swayed gently in the night, leading her upward like a taut rope.

Her entire body was pressed against the wall, and she could feel the cold stones through her clothes, like a layer of chill crawling up her spine bit by bit.

Just as she climbed to about two-thirds of the height, a leaf lightly brushed against her calf.

It was as light as could be.

So light it barely felt like it touched her skin.

So light it made one think it was just the wind.

Flora didn’t even look down; she simply continued upward.

In that moment, she was completely unaware that her fate had already begun to quietly shift.

***

The Illusion of Success.

She finally stood on top of the wall.

When her feet stepped onto the narrow stone surface, her breath nearly stopped. For a moment, she thought she would slide right off because she was so agitated.

But she stood firm.

She stood at the very edge of this cage.

The night wind outside the wall rushed into her arms, stroking her face like a long-lost hand.

The northern forest looked like a boundless sea in the darkness, so deep the bottom was invisible.

But those thick shadows made her feel a sense of safety for the first time—the safety of being “hidden where no one could find her.”

She jumped down, her whole body jolting. The moment the soles of her feet hit the soil, she almost cried.

“I… I really made it out…”

For the first time, she felt a sense of relief so strong it was almost numbing.

But she didn’t stay. She quickly ducked into the forest, running, dodging, and passing through low-hanging branches and leaves. The grass brushed lightly against her skirt, making a faint rustling sound.

Every step felt like taking one more stride toward “freedom.”

She even began to imagine running a bit further, bypassing the patrols, finding the direction of the humans, and then… going home.

Her sister, her brothers… they were all still waiting for her.

She almost laughed; she was already halfway to success.

***

A Moment Later

Something was wrong.

It wasn’t until she had been running for a while that the strange sensation crept up on her without a sound.

At first, it was just her breathing becoming shallow.

It wasn’t fatigue, but rather… it felt as if something had been stuffed into her chest, gently yet firmly preventing air from getting in.

She frowned.

As she ran, she clearly realized—this was not normal.

‘Why… can’t I breathe all of a sudden?’

She tried to take a deep breath, but her chest felt as if it had been struck by thin ice, sending out a faint, stinging pain.

She was forced to stop for half a second.

‘No… don’t… I can’t stop.’

She continued to run forward, but her steps began to grow weak.

Then, the back of her neck began to go numb.

It was small and slight, yet persistent.

It felt as if a cold line was sliding into her skin from the back of her neck, then spreading toward her shoulders and sinking down toward her arms.

‘…Was I scratched by a vine just now?’

She realized for the first time that the slight touch hadn’t just been the wind.

Flora felt her calf; there was indeed a tiny mark there that was almost invisible.

Her fingertips paused.

It didn’t hurt and it wasn’t obvious, yet it was like a silent switch that made her suddenly understand something.

She was poisoned.

It wasn’t the kind of poison that immediately made a person lose control; it just made the blood heavy, made breathing difficult, and made physical strength slide down bit by bit.

It was like an invisible burden had been added to her body, pressing down pound by pound.

Her heart sank to the bottom, but she didn’t cry or panic.

She clenched her teeth and continued to walk forward.

‘It’s fine… I can still run… I can still walk… I can hold on.’

She didn’t want to be part of the demon race.

She didn’t want to be a princess.

She just wanted to go home.

She began to run while leaning against the trees.

The sound of the wind in the night forest was like a soft but heavy curtain around her ears, constantly muffling her hearing and making it impossible to distinguish movement in the distance.

The texture of the tree bark scraped against her palms, but that pain was the only thing keeping her conscious.

She moved forward step by step, her speed getting slower and slower.

She could feel her feet as if they were submerged in wet mud, too heavy to lift.

Her breathing was uneven.

Her chest felt bloated.

The edges of her vision gradually turned black.

‘…No… I can’t fall now… My sister is still… still there…’

Her voice was intermittent, sounding as if it had been shredded by the wind.

She struggled to hold onto her consciousness, telling herself: Just a few more steps.

Just a few more steps to get further away.

A little further, and Ilya wouldn’t be able to catch up to her here.

She wouldn’t find her.

She wouldn’t take her back in her arms.

But her body was increasingly refusing to follow her commands.

She began to stagger, her knees shaking violently and her arms going weak, unable to grip the trees.

Every step she took was like treading on empty air with no support.

It wasn’t a fall, but a slow, gradual dragging into the darkness.

‘I’m so tired, but just a bit further… just a bit more…’

She was almost begging her own body to support her.

But the rising dizziness grew stronger, like heavy seawater gradually rising to her eyes.

Finally, her ankle gave way.

Her whole body leaned forward, and she was unable to adjust her posture.

Her final action was reaching out to grab a nearby tree trunk.

But her fingers had no strength at all, only sliding through the air.

Her vision completely dissolved into blackness.

A second before being swallowed by the dark, countless fragments flashed through her mind: her sister crying as she held her hand, her brothers shouting loudly, the familiar town, the smell of grass, and Ilya’s silver eyes.

She didn’t know why she thought of those eyes at this moment, but they did surface, like a point of silver illuminated by light.

She wanted to grab onto something.

But she couldn’t grab anything at all.

Flora collapsed onto the soft, wet grass.

The world gradually faded from her ears, leaving only her heartbeat thumping faintly deep within her eardrums, growing lighter and slower.

Before falling completely into the darkness, she seemed to hear a blurred and urgent shout.

As if someone was rushing through the shadows of the trees toward her.

She couldn’t see who it was.

Her consciousness was completely pulled away.

The world fell into silence.