Not Knowing The Betrayal Of That Day

Translator and Editor: Effe and Yonnee

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────Chapter 2 – Traitor

“Ack!”

The man gripped Tessa’s skinny forearm and dragged her into an empty room in his wrath, and threw her haphazardly onto the floor. Tessa was helpless and fell ferociously on the floor.

Her head rang. It was even more so because she hadn’t eaten anything all day. Her knees grazed against the rough wooden planks, her palms tingling.

Tessa struggled to hold back the tears as she watched her rough hand oozing blood. She couldn’t help but cry. She didn’t deserve to cry.

But she couldn’t hold her body upright because of the man who appeared before her.

It was none other than Hert.

‘I thought he was dead…’

Tessa strained her eyes to hold back the tears from flowing again. Her vision had been clouded with tears ever since. Even though she knew she shouldn’t show such weakness, she kept crying.

How could Hert be alive?

And how…

“Tell me.”

The man suddenly asked in a barely suppressed voice. His tone was certain.

Although what he asked was vague, Tessa knew what he was asking about. No one but her. She was the one who pushed him to hell.

But her throat closed up and she couldn’t speak.

‘I…’

What… what… what should I say?

Stupid, stupid fool… Ridiculously naive to have fallen for it…

How did that happen?

Would she be in a position to make excuses for herself in the first place?

Tessa couldn’t help but lift her head and look at Hert. She was terrified and afraid of how he saw her. The Hert in front of her was no longer in a nightmare, but in reality. There was nowhere to run, no place to turn away.

It crushed Tessa’s entire body to the bone.

Before long, a sense of self-hatred and self-doubt came over her. It was a feeling she had pondered countless times for a long time, but it was the first time she felt so suffocated as she did now. Was it because he was alive and appeared before her? Her stomach churned.

Even though Tessa had nothing to eat, she wanted to empty out everything in her body. She was more inclined to faint.

“Was it good?”

The cold, piercing voice fell in front of her.

“Was it good that you sold me as a slave and got a place?”

“…”

“How does it feel to live as a noble lady in a place like this?”

—It must have been nice, right?

Her throat stung at the sharp words of the man that followed wordlessly. Tessa couldn’t say anything. It felt like a well-forged blade ripping through her heart.

She actually wanted to tell him the truth. She also wanted to defend herself.

‘It wasn’t good. No, it was too hard. I don’t want to be in a place like this…’

But this time, Tessa did not speak. She bowed her head further. The wretchedness was pulling her down from below. With a shaky gaze, Tessa looked down at her red hands.

There was sparse blood and everything was a mess.

Tessa bit her teeth and swallowed her cries, not knowing how many times it had been.

She could never cry. Her tears will look like crocodile tears to Hert, and they would only be abominable to him. She also couldn’t ask for forgiveness as he looked down on her. That was why Tessa couldn’t say anything.

‘I will never be forgiven.’

Seven years ago, Hert was sold as a gladiator slave because of Tessa’s ignorance and naivety. However, Hert, who had been dragged along by whatever the cause and process, as a result, stood right in front of her.

It was obvious without even asking that what he had gone through was hell. That’s why Tessa couldn’t ask for forgiveness, even more so from Hert.

Just who was she to ask for sympathy and mercy?

Forgiveness didn’t even make sense.

“Tell me.”

When there was no answer, Hert narrowed his brow. This time, he muttered out words.

“It’s been seven years. I survived that hellish life without dying.”

“…”

“Do you know why?”

The man looked down at Tessa slowly. A woman with her head bowed and her body curled up like a mouse was shaking.

“I was madly curious.”

“…”

“I was so curious about why you betrayed me, so I lived and survived it all.”

Betrayal. Tessa’s heart pounded and sank down. She had always thought that she had betrayed him and sent him to hell, but when she heard it directly from his mouth, it felt like her fingertips were freezing blue. She froze like a statue.

Tessa was so disgusted with herself that she wanted to tear her mind to shreds.

Hert was right.

Tessa was a traitor.

A traitor who sold him to the slave trader who promised her a good future. She prioritized herself.

This gave her an old lord husband, and, though only a second wife, she had become a lady. It was a fact that could never be denied or excused.

Tessa looked at the man’s feet with dazed eyes.

“So tell me.”

Suddenly, Hert pulled a chair in front of Tessa and sat down. He clenched his fists and seemed to try to control his anger as much as he could.

“Why did you do that?”

“…”

“Why did you betray me?”

“…”

Tessa still couldn’t answer Hert’s question.

Betrayal, that single word has been strangling her neck ever since.

“Aren’t you going to talk?”

“…”

“Yeah, that’s how it will be.”

Until the very end, you make a fool of yourself. After waiting for an answer that didn’t come, Hert eventually got up and approached Tessa. Without hesitation, he grabbed her by the hair roughly

It happened in an instant.

“Ack!”

Tessa’s head tilted behind at the force of the strong grip that made her scalp numb, revealing the slender white neck. There was no mercy in Hert’s hands. Tessa’s thin neck was in danger of breaking if he gave it a little more force. Because of this, Tessa gasped for breath and trembled.

Hert was looking at Tessa.

“Do you think I’m joking?”

“…Heuk.”

“Say something with that mouth, I’m giving you a chance to make excuses. But what if you keep your mouth shut? It’s like you’re testing my patience.”

Hert’s face was crumpled so badly as if he was going to strangle her neck with the other hand at any moment, Tessa couldn’t resist and held her breath as much as possible while holding on to him. Even in the midst of this, tears continued to fill because of the physical pain she felt.

She actually thought she had grown accustomed to violence as she continued her life, which was worse than dying. But perhaps she hadn’t. Tessa was terrified of a man twice her size, and she was unable to do anything.

She reflexively curled up and her heart pounded out of control. She felt like she was being eaten by an invisible horror.

Even though the man was Hert.

Tessa was very unfamiliar with this situation. In her memory, Hert had always been a kind boy. He’s got a firm build for his age, but he’s never really used his strength against Tessa. However, the present Hert did not hesitate to use his strength to subdue her.

No, in the first place, was the man in front of her ‘Hert’?

She could tell from her wet eyes. The boy who once looked at Tessa and smiled shyly was not here.

When she met Hert again, many things grew different after they separated.

His body was bigger than in the past, and his elegant features were drawn with a clear line. His tanned skin and exposed hands and face were full of wounds and scars, making him look rough even without touching. In addition, the blonde hair, which was brighter than sunlight and made the children of the orphanage envious, was a little darker.

Above all else, only hatred remained in the blue eyes that were shining brightly.

The moment Tessa met Hert’s eyes, she closed her eyes tightly involuntarily. Tears were flowing down. The man in front of her was hardly the Hert she knew.

He was in the form of a savage slayer that his husband’s entourage had so raved about.

“When I found out you sold me into slavery, I didn’t believe it. I denied it as much as possible. It was a misunderstanding. You couldn’t have done that.”

Suddenly, Hert’s grip on Tessa’s hair grew stronger. Would it be like this if the skin of her head was torn off? Her whole head was burning.

“It doesn’t make sense. You sold me, but we had a relationship? We only had each other.”

“…”

“But it turned out that I trusted you too much. I was naive. When I found out that you became a noblewoman in return for selling me…”

Hert patted Tessa’s neck with the other hand. All of Tessa’s slender neck was gripped into his large palm.

“I wanted to kill you. And I wanted to die too.”

Hert’s hand gradually gained strength. It was then that Tessa realized clearly that she had killed the boy, ‘Hert’, with her own hands.

Just as she became helpless in this abyss, he also changed. It was also a fact that she wanted to ignore until the very end, if possible.

Tessa felt the tip of her nose wrinkle. It was terrible that all of this was her own fault, and she couldn’t erase that fact either. That she has to accept this reality in the future.

If she had only ruined her own life, it wouldn’t have been this much. But it wasn’t just her life that Tessa had wronged. It was also Hert’s life.

How much longer did she have to sink to the bottom for this life to end? How much more must she suffer to atone for this sin? Would she really be able to pay the entire price for her sins while she was alive? During that time, she wanted to die countless times. But she never wanted to die as much as she did now.

Tessa barely managed to get the voice out of her throat.

“……me…”

“…What?”

“…Ki, kill me. I, I… be, betrayed… Si, Sir knight, so…”

Her tight neck burned. Whether it was because of the physical force on her factor or an effect of a psychological kind, even her voice was lost. Nevertheless, Tessa gathered her strength and continued the rambling remarks. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad to die at Hert’s hands like this.

“Just… Ki, kill me. You, you came, all the way, he, here to take, re, revenge, anyway… So… as you please—”

“Don’t talk nonsense!”

At that moment, Hert cut off her words and spoke harshly.

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