Only with Your Heart

When she looked away from Exia’s face in astonishment, Chizuru saw several knights standing behind Exia guarding her.

Could she call them “knights?” Judging from their disheveled clothing and the weapons in their hands, these men looked more like a group of ruffians. No matter how she looked at them, she couldn’t see a trace of sincerity in them for men of chivalry. 

“So what are you going to do with us?” 

Chizuru asked a question she didn’t even want to know the answer to with a trembling voice. 

“Well, what should I do?”

Exia replied, her expression suddenly glowing with a winning smile.

However, Exia didn’t look as if she was in any doubt.

“Hmmm, I could just kill you here and give him your corpse. But that wouldn’t be very entertaining, would it? I still want him to see you die in front of his eyes. And preferably while suffering.”

Her expression was a mixture of innocence and ecstasy, like a child savoring an afternoon candy.

Exia must have lost her mind after all…. There were plenty of reasons for that to be the case.

Then a man, who was clothed all in black and had a very sharp look in his eyes, stepped forward from behind Exia.

It might have been the man who attacked Chizuru and Baru back at the castle. He looked vaguely familiar. 

‘If that’s the case, he’s a very skilled fighter,’ Chizuru thought to herself.

The man in black faintly whispered something to Exia.

Exia’s eyes sparkled, and she nodded her head twice.

“That’s a good idea.”

The noble lady’s blue eyes, clouded with cruelty and ruthlessness, were fixed on Chizuru.  

A smile adorned her thin lips as she imagined something, and it seemed as though she was deeply satisfied with her imagination.

“That’s a good idea.”

Exia repeated. A sudden chill ran down Chizuru’s spine as if there was a block of ice sliding down her spine.

“You choose! Will you save Duke Lukrov’s life or your own?”

Exia approached slowly and quietly and hissed her cruel plan in Chizuru’s ear so that Baru could not hear it.

Drowned in her own thoughts, her answer was clear as day, yet her mind went off remembering him…

When I close my eyes and listen carefully, I feel that I can hear your voice even though I am in this distant and lonely prison.

The happiness we shared together.

The hardships we endured together.

The future we promised each other from the bottom of our hearts.

I can clearly feel your strong arms around me.

I vividly remember every moment I spend with you, no matter how trivial it might have been…

The answer was clear.

There was no hesitation in Chizuru’s mind.

However, when she thought of the suffering it would bring him, her heart ached as though it were being torn apart.