I Ran Away and Got Married - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

She opened her lips to speak once more.

At that moment, something was boiling within her—it was like raging fire had flooded her veins, threatening to burn her internal organs.

Unable to keep down the burning sensation at her throat, she eventually coughed. It was definitely a side effect of using this power since this young body wasn’t supposed to be using it yet.

That meant that the words she uttered earlier that bound the two men’s arms and legs were about to be released any time now.

“N-no, t-that can’t happen—”

Raphia’s pupils shook as her voice trembled.

Her heart was about to burst from the heat flowing upward to her mouth. If she lost consciousness here, then she’d surely be brought back to Yuri, and this second life of hers would end up as nothing but a reenactment of her prior sufferings. She wouldn’t have another chance to run away.

‘Please. Please just one more time.’

She was nearing her limit. She could feel her body slowly shutting down. Her eyelids, which had become so heavy, kept falling. She couldn’t concentrate.

Desperately, she held onto her senses and forced her eyes open.

Then, she looked squarely into the men’s eyes again, one after another, and opened her quivering lips.

[ Lose consciousness . . . fall down. ]

“Huh . . . ?”

“Why, all of a sudden . . .”

Just a moment ago, they had been glaring at Raphia so fiercely that it was like they were about to rip her to shreds and kill her, but then their eyes slowly drooped and lost strength.

Their eyes lost focus, and their bodies collapsed to the dirty floor of the alleyway.

‘I-it worked!’

Raphia, who had been holding her breath all this time due to the tension, silently drew closer to the men.

“. . . Ugh.”

As soon as she took a step, the world around her blurred. She felt dizzy for a moment because she had expanded too much strength.

‘I can’t faint here.’

To keep herself awake, she bit her lip hard until she drew blood.

She then walked towards the men and tapped them on the head and shoulder with her feet.

“They both lost consciousness. Thank goodness,” she sighed in relief, sinking to the ground. “I’m glad it worked. Now I can really run away.”

As she stumbled away so she could finally leave, she heard someone else’s voice.

“Wow.”

Raphia’s shoulders stiffened as she heard someone’s voice in the dark.

‘Who is it . . . Is he nearby?’

Was there someone else chasing after her?

She held her breath again.

“That was amazing.”

Footsteps came near.

‘Run away. I need to run away right now . . . !’

Raphia tried to shake off her panic, preparing herself to run as fast as she could.

The first thing that she thought of was that Yuri must have come after her himself.

‘I can’t get caught!’

That’s what she screamed internally, but her body couldn’t keep up. She ran all the way here and used her ability. She was already at her limit.

Her exhausted legs wouldn’t budge.

Thump!

Despite having no obstacles in front of her, Raphia ended up tripping over her own feet.

‘I’m screwed.’

She hastened to gather what’s left of her power, but the door to her ability had already shut.

So then, she tried to raise herself from the ground, but her body felt so heavy, she just couldn’t get up.

‘Is this really the end?’

Her thin arm was grabbed from behind, apparently trying to lift her up.

“Hey, are you alright?”

It was a boy’s voice, one that evidently hadn’t gone through puberty yet.

—I’ll take this kid with me right away.

But at that moment, the boy’s voice overlapped with Yuri’s.

“D-Don’t touch me.”

Her entire body stiffened with fear at the thought of getting caught by Yuri.

As her teeth clenched together and her head shook from side to side, her silver hair clung to the cold sweat on her forehead, which further restricted her line of sight.

‘I really can’t get caught like this!’

She didn’t want to live that life again.

In Raphia’s panic, she screamed at the top of her lungs, “N-no! Let me go!”

Without stopping to see who it was that caught her, she twisted her body so she could be free from his grip.

“P-please! Let me go, please . . . !”

“Hey, look here. Calm down a bit,” the flustered boy responded, raising his voice as well.

However, Raphia continued to struggle, so the boy spoke up again.

“I’m here to help you.”

“Help . . . ?”

Raphia stopped resisting after hearing such an unexpected statement. Then, she slowly directed her gaze to the person behind her.

As if trying to gain her trust, the boy repeated, “Yes, help. I’m trying to help you.”

The boy took off the hood that covered his face.

This immediately made Raphia regain her senses.

‘It’s not the First Yuri. It’s someone else.’

The alley was dark and there was very little light coming in, so even if the boy removed his hood, his features were still indistinct.

Even so, Raphia was relieved to see that he didn’t hesitate to show his face.

‘Yuri . . . No, it’s not him.’

Raphia relaxed her defensive stance.

This time, she grabbed onto the boy’s sleeve roughly, as if she were hanging by a life line. Then, she asked him in a desperate voice, on the verge of tears.

“Really? Can you really help me?”

The strong desperation in Raphia’s eyes surprised the boy.

A moment passed as he studied her face, but after a while, he nodded.

“. . . That’s right.”

She couldn’t trust him completely yet, but his quiet voice gave her a strange sense of relief.

Oddly enough, her heart started to pound like crazy. It might be due to the anticipation of getting out of this situation successfully.

“Then please, I have a request. Please don’t ever take me to that person.”

“Who are you talking about?”

But Raphia couldn’t give him an answer.

“U-urk . . .”

The urge to throw up overcame her. Then, dark red blood poured out of her mouth.

This was what happened whenever she exerted herself by using too many commands. As her body gradually became heavy, her eyes slowly closed due to fatigue.

‘I can’t lose consciousness yet . . .’

Desperate to keep her senses, she opened her trembling lips with a frantic urgency.

“Please, please promise me.”

Tears flooded down her cheeks. Since she had no strength left to wipe them away, they flowed down freely.

“W-why are you crying?” the boy asked, agitated by the sudden onslaught of tears.

She didn’t respond. After sighing once, he soon consoled her.

“Okay, I understand. Just calm down for now. I don’t know who you’re talking about, but I won’t send you away to that person.”

Raphia’s sobbing quieted down at his reassurance.

As she wept quietly, the boy asked again.

“You want to get out of here, right?”

She nodded.

“Then what? After you leave, do you have a place to go to?”

Raphia hesitated. The first thing that came to mind was just one name.

“Soleia . . .”

Was this the right decision?

She wasn’t thinking rationally right now and just uttered the first name that popped up in her head.

“. . . What?” the boy said, his mood visibly darkening.

Raphia took his change in demeanor as a sign of rejection.

But the anxiety that was eating at her made her impatient, and so fresh tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes again as she clutched his sleeve more desperately.

She could feel her consciousness slipping away, but right now she needed to beg with all her heart.

“Please. Please take me to Soleia.”

“Wait a minute, just calm down for a second—”

“Ah—!”

Black spots suddenly entered her vision.

As she looked up, the boy’s already blurry features slowly disappeared in the dark haze.

‘N-no . . .”

Raphia shook her head several times so that she wouldn’t succumb to the overwhelming need to close her eyes. Fortunately, she managed to keep herself away, but her eyes were too bleary.

No matter how hard she tried, the weight that was pressing down on her was just too heavy.

She still wasn’t in the right physical condition to use her power, but due the danger she was in just now, she had to use all of her strength.

Fatigue beyond her limit slowly swallowed her up.

‘I’m about to collapse.’

She could feel herself slipping away, so she had no choice but to beg more earnestly before that happened.

“I ask of you. Please.”

Clutching the boy’s sleeve even tighter, Raphia pleaded.

“Please . . . to Sole . . . ia . . .”

But as her consciousness relented, she never managed to finish what she wanted to say.

* * *

—Raphia.

As if he were calling the name of a person dear to him, the First Yuri whispered in a sweet voice.

—Raphia, my exceptional child.

Raphia realized that she was in a dream, one wherein she was thirteen years old in her previous life.