Chapter 07
“I might have seen it wrong… I should just confirm if it’s really him!”
With that thought, Lucy wandered around looking for Edwin for quite some time, when suddenly the loud sound of a horn echoed from somewhere.
“Waaah!”
Cheers from people followed shortly after, coming from a distance.
“Has the tournament already started?”
Lucy hurriedly moved toward the direction where the crowd was gathering. That’s when she spotted Edwin far off, riding a horse.
“Th-That’s really Edwin!”
Even after rubbing her eyes and looking again, it was undoubtedly the fiancé Edwin she remembered.
As Edwin mounted the horse, the woman who had called him “Prince” earlier ran up and tied a handkerchief to his sword hilt.
Then Edwin slightly bowed from atop his horse and kissed her on the forehead.
“So it’s true that Lady Becky, the Marquess’s daughter, is engaged to the Fourth Prince.”
Startled by the conversation she overheard nearby, Lucy turned her head. Many people had gathered to cheer on the tournament participants.
“Why would the Beckys be so eager to take the Fourth Prince as a son-in-law? I just don’t get it.”
Listening to the nearby people’s chatter, Lucy quickly retraced the plot of the novel in her mind. What she had only vaguely suspected was now becoming clear.
Victory’s Becky was the title of the novel, named after the heroine’s family.
It told the story of Joanna, the eldest daughter of the Marquess of Becky—a spirited and ambitious woman—who struggled and eventually became the Empress of the Empire. She proposed a contract marriage to the male lead, a man ostracized for being the Emperor’s illegitimate son, and eventually turned him into the Emperor. They lived happily ever after.
“So… does that make me the villainess caught between them…?”
Muttering in disbelief, Lucy turned around. Only then did the events she had experienced start fitting together like pieces of a puzzle.
Baron D’Rolo had sent Lucy to social gatherings repeatedly, effectively displaying her in the marriage market.
Eventually, the novel’s male lead, Edwin, would fall in love with Lucy, and the baron would reluctantly agree to their marriage for the right dowry.
But on the day of the wedding, Edwin would fail to show up, leaving Lucy heartbroken and ill.
And I just happened to end up in that body?
After awakening in Lucy’s body, the baron continued sending her to social events with the plan of selling her off again at a high price.
“And she’s actually about to be sold to that old duke…”
Lucy let out a hollow laugh, walking in a daze.
“Lucy, you really have a cursed fate. But now… that Lucy is me? Ha ha…”
She kept muttering to herself, both in disbelief and frustration at the absurdity of her situation.
If things continued this way, she would, according to the original story, inevitably become the duke’s concubine.
“Maybe I should just run away.”
Muttering to herself and trying to organize her thoughts, Lucy concluded that fleeing was her best option.
There’s no guard around anyway… isn’t now the perfect time?
With that thought, she wandered aimlessly, only to suddenly stop at a scene filled with thick vegetation.
“Huh… where am I?”
All around her were dense shrubs and towering trees, the canopy casting dark shadows across the forest.
Lucy turned to head back the way she came—but she couldn’t even tell which direction that was.
She had gotten lost in the forest.
In the novel, whenever someone got lost during the hunting tournament, some incident always occurred…
For a moment, Lucy feared that as a trivial villainess extra, she might end up wandering into danger and becoming a target.
“I can’t just struggle and die in some place like this!”
She headed downhill.
At that moment, the sound of hooves approached from a distance. She hesitated, unsure whether to move toward the sound or run in the opposite direction.
The dress I’m wearing today is light-colored… it won’t make them mistake me for a beast, right?
Making a quick decision, Lucy ran toward the sound, planning to call for help.
But then she saw someone approaching on a white horse and immediately ran the other way, hiding among the shrubs.
The person on the horse was Edwin—him again.
“Why does it have to be him!”
There was nothing good that could come from meeting him now. Edwin had abandoned her, and being involved with the novel’s male lead meant she would, as the original story dictated, be treated as a villainess and probably face death.
As she crouched, waiting for the sound of hooves to fade, more hooves echoed from afar.
Lucy cautiously peeked through the shrubs, thinking Edwin might have passed. Far away, he was drawing a bow atop his horse.
But someone was riding toward them from the direction he had aimed at.
“Uh… isn’t this dangerous?”
Even though she could clearly see someone charging from the opposite direction, Edwin didn’t seem to plan on lowering his bow. The man approaching also noticed Edwin and pulled his reins, stopping his horse.
At that instant, Edwin released the bowstring. The other man’s horse reared in response.
Neigh!
Lucy shut her eyes tightly and ducked further into the shrubs, her heart pounding at the loud cries of the horse.
Did that man just get hit by the arrow?
As she calmed herself, she heard hooves again, and then everything fell silent.
Peeking through the shrubs, Lucy scanned her surroundings. Edwin was nowhere to be seen.
The man she assumed had been hit by the arrow was also gone. Only a riderless horse remained, pacing aimlessly.
Feeling a bad premonition, Lucy carefully approached the horse.
“Hey… where’s your master?”
Though no answer would come, she whispered to herself to steady her nerves as she got closer. The horse was standing near a steep slope.
“No… his master didn’t fall down there, did he?”
Peering down the slope with a trembling voice, Lucy saw a silhouette lying below.
“It’s a real person! Hey… a-are you okay?”
Without a moment to think, Lucy grabbed some small branches and slid down to him.
A small stream trickled along the ditch below the fallen man.
Ignoring the wet, dirty hem of her dress, Lucy rushed to him.
“Hey! Are… you okay?”
The man, presumably struck by an arrow in the shoulder and having tumbled down, was unconscious. Blood continuously flowed from his shoulder, coloring the stream red.
“Wake up!”
Shaking him produced no response. Lucy glanced at her injured right hand and bit her lip.
“Sorry… I can’t use both hands right now.”
She grabbed the man’s jacket collar with her left hand and, gritting her teeth, dragged him with all her strength to the water’s edge.
Laying him down on the grassy bank beside the stream, Lucy hesitated. Should she pull out the arrow lodged in his shoulder?
If I leave it like this, it won’t stop bleeding…
The sun was already setting in the forest. Lucy needed to make a decision before darkness fell.
“It’s going to hurt a little!”
Speaking softly to him, Lucy grabbed the bow and yanked the arrow out in an instant.
“Ugh!”
“Hah! Are… you conscious?”
Perhaps she had been too forceful. The man writhed in pain, groaning.
“Hah… hah… how… did this happen…?”
He murmured, seeming to try to recall what had happened.
“Ugh…”
Lucy helped him sit up.
“I’m so glad you’re conscious. I pulled out the arrow from your shoulder. You need to stop the bleeding immediately…”
When Lucy looked closely at the man’s face, she froze in shock.
