“If I were to have you killed here, dealing with the aftermath would be quite the arduous affair. Hence why you will be running away from here in fear of your crime being investigated, wander into the Forbidden Forest, and go into hiding. At least, that is how the narrative shall be set. But, come now. If you have an appropriate amount of mana, you won’t go missing. Even if you just end up returning to Volland, that will suffice.”
Her eyes widened upon hearing the words “Forbidden Forest.” She had been told that she got lost there once as a child and Claudio helped rescue her, so navigating out of the forest would have been nigh impossible.
“Aah, that reminds me. Prince Claudio’s inquiry will be tomorrow. I know this no longer concerns you, but why don’t you say a little prayer for your husband’s safety?”
Before she could even attempt to struggle her way to her feet, the lid was closed on her. Darkness and the mellow aroma of wine encircled her, and the feeling of entrapment overcame her and took her breath away.
The barrel rattled and shook during transport, only stopping after an unspecific amount of time had passed with her locked in the cask.
Unable to keep track of time in the darkness, Rosemarie focused intently on any sounds from outside the barrel.
Her cries for help went unquestioned by anybody, possibly because of the gag in her mouth restricting her from being heard from the outside, resulting in nothing more than a sore throat.
(That prison was on the outskirts of the castle, so it should be close to the Forbidden Forest...)
That was most likely how he was easily able to transport a wine barrel unnoticed.
“Hitch the horse to the carriage and let it loose.”
Rosemarie pricked her ears and listened closely. The sentence she heard sent shivers down her spine.
(Huh? Let it loose? Carriage?)
Clueless as to what they were trying to do, she pressed her ears closer to the wood in hopes of hearing something more. Then, suddenly, the barrel flipped around. Her body slammed against the sides. A feeling like vertigo made her feel almost physically ill.
Despite that, there was no stop to the oscillations; rather, they started to get more intense. It was almost as if she were riding on a runaway carriage.
(Have they really hitched the horse to the carriage and let it loose into the Forbidden Forest?)
If that were indeed the case, then this would continue until either the horse itself stopped or the barrel fell from the carriage.
The clacking of the horse’s hooves echoed steadily as the wheels rolled over the uneven ground, occasionally springing up when they ran over divots or stones in their path.
She curled herself up in the fetal position in order to protect her head. As she did, the barrel tilted on a remarkably huge angle.
Ka-thunk. The barrel apparently fell to the ground.
Around and around the barrel spun, eventually hitting something and coming to a stop.
(Am I saved...? Oh, it’s open!)
When she slowly opened her tightly shut eyes, a thin ray of light shone into her once completely dark field of view.
With her hands still tied behind her back, she squirmed around like a caterpillar to pry open the lid. At the same time she rid herself of the gag, which had loosened with the movements of her jaw.
(I’m glad I was able to get that off easily, but I feel that might’ve been tied rather loosely... It could be that the knight was taking pity on me.)
The reluctant expression on the knight’s face she saw just before the cask’s lid closed popped into her mind. The ropes binding her hands weren’t tied very tightly either, and felt removable with a little effort.
Rosemarie looked around her with a sigh of relief, then gulped, dumbfounded.
She was in a forest cast in the sullen shroud of night. Now she realized the light that shone through the barrel lid was the moonlight peering through the cracks of the evergreen branches.
Maybe it was a result of being locked up in the pitch darkness up until a few seconds ago, but she was able to survey the area well enough even with the shaky moonlight. Just as she had expected, the transport carriage and the damaged barrel were lying on the ground nearby. There were marks from where the horse had been hitched, but it was nowhere to be seen, possibly having run off.
Looking at it, she shuddered at the thought of how if the collision was any stronger, she might have hit somewhere vital and died.
“I have to get back.”
It was unlikely that Claudio had calculated her being dumped off somewhere like this.
Unless she got herself back to the castle, she would be convicted of poisoning Claudio for certain, and she didn’t want the blame to befall her homeland—or, more importantly, her family.
The vestiges of Claudio in his youth ran across her mind.
Claudio may have rescued her back then, but he wasn’t coming this time. Reason being that, tomorrow, he was to attend an inquiry accusing him of the presence or absence of his mana. Even if he wasn’t, right now, Claudio didn’t have any mana to begin with, so he couldn’t come into the forest.
Help wasn’t coming, which meant...
“I’ll get back on my own. I’ll get back and shock everyone,” Rosemarie said as if trying to convince herself. She then started to slowly press her way forward, following the wheel tracks that she managed to make out in the grass.