The Devil Who Breaks My Neck

Anna uttered the word winter without realising it. As the wooden embroidery frame fell on the table and made a dull sound, Herace shook her hand unconsciously. She was living like this by her own choice, but Anna was suffering next to her for what? When it occurred to her that she had blocked Anna’s way, Herace felt so sorry for her.

“……I’m sorry. I’m not good enough. You had to suffer by coming with me.”

Herace lowered her eyes and apologised to Anna. Only then did Anna realise that she had said something tactless, and she shook her head quickly. That’s not what I meant.…. It’s just that I feel stuffy thinking about winter. She said in a creeping voice as she looked at Herace.

“It’s not your fault. It’s because there are so many bad guys in the world. Forgive me. I made a slip of the tongue.”

But the weight of guilt was already climbing on Herace’s back. Herace smiled awkwardly at Anna and began to grope through the memories of the years.

‘It’s already winter. Serpence Castle must be frozen by now. He’s…’

Herace thought of the North, which would have been already frozen in winter. She thought of the man, who is Erzen’s father without realising it. She tried to forget him, but the man was like this cold season. Even when she saw the floating candle, he suddenly popped out and scattered her mind.

Herace, who stopped sewing for a while, closed her mouth tightly and sat down.

“……we have to do it quickly. Or Anna will have a hard time.”

***

Three years after fleeing Serpence Castle, the three of them who escaped from Ezekiel were living an unenviable life. It was funny considering Herace’s former status, but she couldn’t help it. The money they earned was not sufficient, and all they could do was embroidery. Herace and Anna were barely surviving on that.

As a lady, she could wonder why she didn’t take any precious jewellery when she ran away. But Herace left the castle and didn’t touch any jewellery or gems except from her maiden family. However, after her maiden family was destroyed, everything disappeared in contempt, so there was not much.

‘Take some. You probably don’t know how much we will need.’

Before leaving, Anna told Herace to pack a couple of things she had received. But Herace shook her head. Herace remembered that Ezekiel was not only strong, he also has an extraordinary memory. So even if she brought them, there were chances that they would be caught.

If she took something from the jewellery box and pawned it for money, they would have been found easily. And according to the original plan, she wouldn’t have lived without worries for years like this. However, Herace’s party had to move their residences much more often than expected, and due to frequent movements, the money was quickly exhausted like sand escaping through their fingers.

‘The child’s mother is very beautiful. If it weren’t for the child in her arms, I would have already snatched her away and married her.’

Herace had to settle down somewhere to save money, but it wasn’t easy. Herace’s appearance stood out wherever she went. Thanks to this, the village where they settled was small but rumours of a beautiful stranger appearing already flew everywhere.

It was the same when she lived away from the villages. After interacting with some neighbours, Herace became a celebrity. The attention given to a pretty-looking woman, she hoped it wasn’t something nasty… Unfortunately, this was not how the world goes.

‘My lord wants to bring you into the house. Oh, of course, he has a wife. But you will be kept separately and it won’t be a problem. So…’

‘Come here tomorrow night. You are aware what would happen if you don’t come, right?’

‘Leave the child behind and just come with your body. You can live in peace and luxury.’

Just as bugs fly around honey, many dirty people flocked around beautiful Herace. Two women and one small child. They were easy prey, so the dirty people always drooled around them.

Those who promised to give her everything, such as the village head, or the lords where they work and have a good reputation, and even priests of the temple, pretended to do favours, sometimes openly expressed their desire. Herace and her group, who initially mistook their desires for goodwill, realised that the world was not easy only after overcoming one crisis.

However, no one realised that Herace’s escape was successful thanks to this. As they moved to various places for a short period of time, the group had left no trace and had left far from Serpence Castle. After passing through the north and crossing several mountains in the east, they finally found a perfect resting place.

‘It looks peaceful, but……. I should be careful this time, too, right?’

The village located in the deep valley was small enough to have less than 30 households. In addition, in an old temple near the village, there were female priests who worshipped goddesses.

“May God bless you.”

Thanks to the historic temple that shared the history of the village, the villagers were generally religious. In the eyes of the capitalists, villagers with a narrow faith living in the corner of the mountain were only hillbillies in the book, but those who were simple and faithful to Herace were no less than angels.

‘It would be difficult for two women to raise children together. I’ll give you some free time, so take care of your child at home and work from there.’

Although it was possible to say that there were no foreigners, the villagers quickly accepted Herace’s party. The elderly chief took Harace’s hand, who said she had lost her husband, and comforted her by saying the Goddess’ protection would be with the child, giving her a day off. In addition, the priests of the temple also felt sorry for her, raising her child alone, and gave her various conveniences.

What they were doing now was also what she received from the temple. The priests looked at Herace’s elaborate embroidering skills and asked her to embroider on a small statue or a cloth surrounding the scriptures. Although Anna, who was helping Herace wasn’t as skillful as her, her embroidery wasn’t bad either. So the two of them made a living by doing embroidery.

“……Let’s leave when winter passes and Erzen is five years old.”

“What?”

Anna, who had been focusing on turning herself silent for a while after apologising, opened her eyes wide at the sudden words of Herace. It was hard to find such a nice village anywhere else. Surprised, she stopped her hand and looked at Herace, but Herace continued, still moving her hand, embroidering.

“You have to settle down now, too. You have to get married.…. You can’t stay with me forever.”

“…….”

“I’ve always felt sorry, Anna. If it wasn’t for me, you would have lived a better life. I feel apologetic towards the nanny whenever I see you.”

Anna, who was looking at Herace with a tearful face while biting her lip, changed her face. She spoke in a slightly angry voice.

“……You don’t have to be apologetic towards my mother.”

Herace tried to say something, but she stopped. Anna was strangely hostile to her mother. Anna’s mother, who was also Herace’s nanny, was clearly a mother who was on good terms with her daughter, Anna. However, Anna, who met her again after the fall of Devone, was always embarrassed whenever her mother was mentioned in conversations.

“My mother tried to kill the Lady. It’s an unforgivable sin.”

It was always like this when she talked to Anna about this.

Of course, it was true that the nanny gave Herace poison. However, it was a time when her life was in danger of treason, and Herace, a woman, was likely to fall into slavery and stain her body. From the perspective of a nanny who valued conservative values, it would have been natural for her to choose an honourable death rather than a defiled noble lady.

“Anna, that’s…….”

“With Devone’s fall, the name Sherbot is gone. I’m the only one left in the family and no one remembers the name Sherbot. If you hadn’t found me then, I would have died or been sold into slavery. So don’t say that again. I’ll be by your side.”

Herace, who felt sorry for Anna’s hatred of her mother, opened her mouth to defend her nanny. But Anna cut off Herace and declared with a determined face that she would not leave Herace. Then she lowered her gaze and began to focus on embroidering.

‘Next time, slowly…… Let’s talk when we have a lot of time.’

Herace eventually closed her mouth as if she had lost to Anna’s reasoning. She wanted to relieve Anna’s resentment toward her mother, but she had a lot of work to do right now. Herace moved quickly again with a needle in her white hand.

***

“Miguel! Miguel! Where are you?”

The door slammed open. The silver-haired child, who sat alone on a large bed and was fiddling with a doll, looked up at the door. The blonde woman was looking at the child with an unfair look on her face as if she was about to collapse. Miguel asked with a smile.

“Mother, were you looking for me?”

The sentence the child spouted was too clear. But for Charlotte and others in Serpence, it was already normal. Miguel communicated perfectly within a few months of speaking.

People praised Miguel as a genius. Charlotte also showed off in many ways, thanks to her excellent son. But for her, Miguel was a necessity for other reasons rather than showing off.

“Ah…… Miguel. My son.”

Charlotte stumbled toward Miguel, who was looking at her and collapsed in front of him. On top of the coveted blonde hair, golden and jewelled ornaments poured down with a sound. Miguel patted his mother’s head who was on her knees, asked gently in a tender voice.

“It’s been a while since you look like this. So what happened this time?”

“……your father took the ring away. He said it wasn’t mine.… He said he will give me a lot of gold. He said it but took it away!”

Charlotte’s voice was full of complaints. Whining like a child, she complained to her son about her injustice. The ring wasn’t even important to her. She had three rings on her ring finger. But she still couldn’t hide the emptiness in her heart.