I Thought It Was a Common Transmigration - Chapter 114

“You don’t love me, you just admire my looks. What do you know about me that makes you think you love me?”

“I’m sure Cliff falls for your looks anyway, so why are you in denial?”

“Cliff’s different! He knows who I am, he knows my weakest, ugliest self and he loves me for it.”

Shane shrugged and laughed at Lizé. “It doesn’t matter what, you’re going to be mine today, and Cliff will have no choice but to give you up.”

He stood up and walked over to Lizé.

“D- don’t come!”

“I’m in a bit of a hurry to make you mine, and I apologize if the place doesn’t suit you. Please bear with me for today.”

It was at that moment that Lizé went white as she saw his hand reaching out toward her.

-knock knock.

Someone knocked on the door.

Shane, who was about to grab Lizé’s forearm, frowned and turned toward the door.

“Who is it!”

Someone outside said urgently, “W- we’ve got a bit of a problem. I think you’ll need to come out for a minute.”

Shane clicked his tongue and turned away from Lizé, moving toward the door.

“What’s going on?”

And just as he opened the door, the person standing outside punched Shane hard in the face.

“Ack!”

As he spun around, the man outside quickly entered the room, locked the door, and punched Shane in the head as he crawled on the floor, knocking him out cold.

“C- Cliff……?”

Lizé looked up from where she was cowering in the corner, shaking.

“I’m sorry I’m late, Lizé!”

Cliff pulled down the hood that covered his face and rushed to Lizé, wrapping his arms around her slender body.

“Cliff! Cliff!”

Lizé burst into tears and clung to him, her body shaking.

Cliff stroked Lizé’s back, blaming Count Riegelhoff, Shane, and himself.

“Are you hurt?”

“N- no, but the Duchess……!”

“My mother will be fine, too.”

“And what about Edith?”

“I don’t know. I doubt if her safety was ever threatened.”

“What?”

Just then, there was a loud crash from outside and it suddenly became noisy.

“Right now, we need to get out of here first. Can you walk?”

“Yes!”

Lizé clung to Cliff’s arm and barely stood up. Her legs were weak from the strain, but she steadied herself as she walked.

Cliff ripped the knocked-out Shane’s cloak into pieces and tied his hands together.

“It must be terrible to be with this guy, but just hold on for a moment.”

He stood by the door, listening to the sounds outside, then burst open the door and ran out.

Outside the closed door was a noisy jumble of clashing metal, desperate screams, the dull thud of something hitting the floor, and shouting.

When it died down, the door opened again.

“I’m sorry, you were scared, weren’t you?”

It was Cliff, still sweet.

But the smell of blood wafted around him.

Cliff gestured toward Shane on the floor as a man like a knight of the Ludwig family entered behind him, and the knight immediately pulled Shane to his feet.

“Let’s go, Lizé.”

“Yes!”

Lizé did as she was told, closing her eyes tightly and clinging to him.

With Lizé in his arms, Cliff led the way outside, through the corridors strewn with bodies.

The soldiers who had finished their work were dragging the bodies outside, and on the other side, a knight carrying the Duchess was approaching, guarded by other soldiers.

“What about the rest?”

“Perhaps because they were mercenaries, they ran away as soon as they realized the situation was unfavorable. I captured one woman, but I don’t know what she’s doing.”

Cliff glanced in the direction of the captured woman and frowned. He remembered that she was the same maid Edith had taken.

“Don’t let your guard down. She seems to be Count Riegelhoff’s favorite maid.”

Once outside, Cliff dropped Lizé off at a safe distance and suddenly walked toward Sophia.

He glared at her fiercely and asked, “Where did you take Edith Riegelhoff?”

Sophia smiled wickedly. “I don’t know.”

“Did you even bring her here?”

“Pfft, do you think my lady belongs in a place like this?”

“Wherever you took her, I’ll find her and kill her. Along with her brother.”

“You, you filthy bastard! Let go of my master! Master, master!”

“That’s a lot of loyalty. Or love.”

Cliff broke his attention away from Sophia, who was cursing again.

“I assume you’ve set aside the others for interrogation?”

“Yes! I thought it was odd that they scattered so quickly, so I tackled one of them, and he said something strange.”

“What did he say?”

“He said some two guys got away before we even arrived. He also saw that they were talking among themselves about whether they should leave despite not yet being paid.”

“Only the shrewd ones escaped with their lives.”

Cliff smirked, then saw the Duchess coming to her senses and hurried to her side.

“Mother! Mother, are you awake?”

“C- Cliff……?”

“Yes, it’s me. You may rest assured now.”

“Oh, Cliff!”

The Duchess hugged Cliff with tears in her eyes.

“We’re going to go back to the mansion now, are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?”

“I’m fine, but how are Lizé and Edith?”

“Lizé was rescued safely.”

“And Edith……?”

The Duchess looked back at Cliff, her face full of concern.

But Cliff sighed lowly at her, then said, “I think that woman was…… a spy.”

“No way!”

“She wasn’t even locked up in the first place, like they did to you and Lizé. They must have taken her somewhere else while they were on their way here.”

“No, no, that can’t be!”

The Duchess vividly remembered Edith screaming for her during the attack.

But then Lizé beside her added in a melancholy voice, “Now that I think about it, when I woke up in the place where I was first captured, it was just me and the Duchess.”

The Duchess covered her mouth with her hand in shock.

“Let’s go back to the mansion first and talk, it’s cold. You might have some injuries.”

Cliff helped the Duchess, who was speechless with shock, to her feet and ordered his knights:

“We will return! See to it that the captives do not escape!”

And with that, Shane’s kidnapping spree came to a swift end.

***

‘Ugh, it’s cold……’

It was bone-chillingly cold.

I slowly opened my eyes to the intense cold and the eerie feeling.

It was pitch black, and for a moment I thought I was blind.

But I was relieved to see a glimmer of light seeping through the crack in the door.

‘The lights must have gone out.’

If it’s been that long, it must have been at least five or six hours, but why am I still here?

‘Why is it so quiet?’

I held my breath and listened to my surroundings, but there wasn’t the slightest hint of activity.

“Ack!”

I wiggled my stiff, long-neglected body, making all sorts of grunting noises.

My shoulder was so sore I wondered if I’d dislocated it, as were my wrists, which were bound, and my back and neck, which had been bent for so long.

Of course, the places where Sophia had beaten me, like my face, forearms, and thighs, throbbed, sending intermittent sharp pains with every movement I made.

I gritted my teeth through it all, trying to pull my hands free of the rope that bound my wrists.

The mercenary who’d tied me here had loosened it up quite a bit, and I was able to pull my hands free without getting any serious abrasions.

‘I’m dying, really. Well, I guess I better get out of here first, right?’

I managed to pull myself up, shakily clutching onto a chair.

But even taking a single step was excruciatingly painful.

Apparently, Sophia hadn’t been at full strength when she hit me in the mansion.

I limped up to the door and listened for signs of activity outside again, and only when I was sure no one was around did I slowly open it.

Thank goodness Sophia hadn’t bothered to lock the door.

The villa is a two-story building when viewed from the entrance, but when viewed from the other side, it is three or two and a half stories.

Thanks to this, even in the basement, there is a window in the upper part of the wall that lets in bright sunlight.

When I was brought here, it was just after dawn, so five or six hours must have passed.

‘Then why am I still here?!’

I limped up the stairs to the upper floor, one by one.

As I almost reached the first floor, the smell of blood rushed into my nose.

For a moment, I felt myself stiffen, but I gritted my teeth and continued upward.

The situation on the first floor was dire.

‘Looks like…… this was Cliff’s doing……’

The floor was littered with bloodstains as if bodies had been dragged out, and the walls were splattered with blood from the fight.

I checked my surroundings, stepping carefully through the bloodstains on the floor, and slowly made my way outside.

The dirt in front of the villa was littered with horse hoof prints, and bodies lay in a heap to the right of the villa.

It looked like everything had been done and cleaned up.

“No way……”

I muttered, looking around in disbelief.

“Was I…… abandoned?”

Even as I said it out loud, it didn’t feel very real.

‘No, then…… how does the story go?’

In the original story, Edith is with Shane’s group when they storm the mansion and are captured by Cliff, who comes to rescue Lizé. Along with Shane and Sophia, of course.

But this time, I’m the only one left behind, or rather, abandoned.