The misfortune 1

 Chapter 1

***

Delnia was awakened by a second gunshot.

At first, she thought it was just an extension of her nightmares. But the heavy footsteps that followed stole her remaining sleepiness.

"What's going on?”

Delnia scrambled out of bed and threw a blue shawl over her shoulders that had been folded neatly on the nightstand. Her platinum hair spilled over the top of it, bouncing back and forth in her nervous stride.

Hurrying to the window, she drew back the curtains and peered out.

At the front gate, a group of Belfort Castle's occupants were facing off against a line of soldiers.

Delnia furrowed her brow and surveyed the night intruders. It was hard to tell from this distance, but from the looks of them, they seemed to be wearing military uniforms.

"Why would soldiers.................?"

A shiver of foreboding ran down her spine. Suddenly, she heard urgent footsteps outside the room.

Delnia stiffened and turned toward the doorway. The knuckles on the back of her shawl-clutching hand turned white, and the door burst open.

"Miss!"

"Sophie?"

The familiar voice she heard every day made her shoulders curve and fall. Delnia let out the breath she'd been holding.

But Sophie was on her heels as if to throw cold water on Delnia's relief, tugging at her arm with a quick, insistent grip. The grip was unbelievably strong for a hand that had always been so gentle.

"You must go!"

"Go where?"

"Come on!"

Sophie didn't answer Delnia's questions. In fact, she didn't even seem to hear her.

Delnia looked down at herself for a moment, still in her nightgown; she hadn't left her room like this since she'd grown up.

But instead of resisting further, Delnia followed Sophie obediently. The nanny who had devoted her life to Eperne would never do anything to harm her.

Delnia's feet moved quickly, following Sophie's lead. The chilly air of the hallway cut through her thin nightgown.

Breathless, she reached the fire escape on the right side of the hallway. From the direction of the main entrance came a loud crash, like something huge falling backward.

Startled, Delnia glanced back, and the sound of footsteps rushing up and down the center staircase echoed through the empty hallway.

"Quickly, Miss!"

Sophie urged as Delnia's pace slowed. By the time she snapped her head back to the front, she was already running down the stairs, led by Sophie's hand.

Her breathing quickened and heat rose in her cheeks. She couldn't even feel the cold air stinging her skin anymore.

As Sophie made her way down the unlit hallway, she groped a few times against a blank wall, and soon the wall slanted at an angle. Sophie pushed Delnia haphazardly through the gap.

"This is................"

The musty odor of an enclosed space that hadn't been ventilated in a long time assaulted her nostrils.

It was pitch black, not even enough moonlight to seep in, but Delnia knew this place.

The only underground passage that would allow her to escape the castle if her life depended on it.

Delnia's expression quickly hardened, then her vision brightened sharply, and she reflexively squinted.

"We have to go, we have to go."

Sophie, who had already lit a lamp in the emergency passage, tugged at her again.

"What the hell is going on?"

Even as she was being dragged by Sophie, Delnia repeated the question she hadn't gotten an answer to earlier. There was no way she was going to get out of the castle without knowing what was going on.

"What's going on!"

She yelled out in frustration, but still no answer came.

But Delnia noticed, just beyond the corner of her eye, that the corners of Sophie's wrinkled mouth were twitching slightly. As if she were holding something back.

It wasn't that she hadn't answered her question because she'd been preoccupied with getting here. She was deliberately hiding it from her.

Delnia stopped dead in her tracks, and Sophie, who had been dragging her along, also stopped her steps at the sudden weight behind her.

Sophie looked back at Delnia with a puzzled expression on her face.

"Miss, come on..............."

"Tell me, Sophie."

Delnia commanded in a stern voice. She wasn't going to move from this spot until she got an explanation.

Sophie, who had watched Delnia since she was born, knew that when she made that face, nothing could break her stubbornness.

Finally, Sophie spoke up in a tone of half resignation.

"Well, the Count................"

Delnia's face quickly stiffened at the unexpected words.

Delnia's father, Count Eperne, was the second son of a noble family, and a son in law in another.

As such, some of the more closed-minded natives of Belfort looked to the Countess, not the Count, as the true master of Eperne. Sophie was one of them.

But no matter how she felt about it, she was the true Lord of Eperne. No one, even Sophie, dared to be disrespectful by not addressing her with respect.

But to hear those words come out of Sophie's mouth.....................

"Well, uh, he’s been found to be in cahoots with the pirates......."

"..................what?"

"That's why the navy came in here in the middle of the night to take all the people of Eperne!"

Delnia closed her eyes tightly without realizing it. Her vision became dizzy as if she had been hit by Sophie’s uncontrollable vomit.

Her father was working with pirates. How on earth? Why?

She felt dizzy with the unacceptable proposition. She felt sick to her stomach. But it was times like these that she had to keep her wits about her. Delnia wiped her forehead, which was hurting, and opened her mouth.

"And my mother?"

"Marianne says she sees no reason why you shouldn't behave yourself as Countess of Eperne..................."

Sophie bit her lip, unable to finish the sentence. As those who hold back the tears that threaten to burst do.

Delnia wasn't stupid not knowing what it all meant.

She turned away resolutely, as if she didn't need to hear any more.

"I'm going back."

"Lady!"

"I'm the only bloodline responsible for Eperne, and I can't run away like this."

"No. Marian told me to get you out of here safely, please, my lady."

Sophie begged, clinging to Delnia as she tried to turn back the way she came. But her little master, as usual, never reversed a decision once made.

And so the scuffle continued. On the other side of the aisle, at the edge of the darkness where the lamp's light couldn't reach, a tiny light flickered like a firefly.

At first, she thought she was mistaken, but the light didn't fade away, but grew in size and clarity.

"Oh, who is it....................."

Sophie's guard was up, and she pulled Delnia into a hug. Sophie's trepidation was palpable on their skin.

This was a secret passage known only to the closest members of the Eperne family, so it was far more likely that whoever it was was a Belfort like them.

Still, the unprecedented situation must have paralyzed Sophie's reason.

Delnia straightened her back, her hand on the back of Sophie's trembling hand. She never took her eyes off the approaching light. As her mother had taught her, the more afraid you are, the more determined you must be.

All the while, the footsteps grew steadily closer. A steady pace, neither urgent nor leisurely. As if they were coming to retrieve an animal already caught in a trap.

Hot breath escaped her mouth like a deer with a sprained ankle.

"Are you thinking of running away?"

The harsh deep voice pierced her eardrums like an arrow. Delnia's eyes widened involuntarily.

No way. No way.

Her pupils, which had been so steadfast, began to flutter helplessly like a candle in the wind. Delnia blinked and blinked, erasing and redrawing the man approaching her.

A uniform of pristine white covered in the color of fire. An insignia on his breastplate. A sword crossed by an anchor, with a bay leaf wrapped around it.

And hair blacker than the night beneath it, and eyes bluer than the lake.

"Roan..................."

Delnia recognized him at a glance. She hadn't seen him in ten years, but there was no way she wouldn't recognize him.

"What? If it's Roan..................."

Sophie's head snapped up, recognizing the panic in Delnia's voice.

Her face, which had been tinged with fear, flashed with joy and delight. It was as if she had found a saving hand extended from the edge of a precipice.

"Oh my God, Roan, it's really you!"

Sophie called out to him, as friendly as a neighbor's child. She wasn't wrong.

Roan had once lived at Belfort Castle, as Delnia's favorite servant.

But Delnia couldn't greet him as Sophie had. She couldn't assume that Roan had come to their rescue, as she had hoped.

Because he was.............

"You’ve grown so much."

While Delnia stared at Roan in confusion, Sophie couldn't contain her excitement and reached out to touch him.

And at that moment, Roan drew his sword.

***

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