Chapter 120 "He still wanted me to give birth..."
His words brought me back to reality.
I was assigned to clean the latrines and was also put to sleep in the maids' quarters. Every day, besides smelling the stench, I also had to listen to the howls of zombies coming from not far away. The antidote—the yellow herb—wasn't in much supply, and the zombies hadn't all had time to turn into humans yet, but the guards already had a plan. They lured them to a fixed spot, surrounded it with a circle of fire, and the zombies only dared to howl inside the circle.
To my relief, the guard I "turned" into a zombie that day has returned to normal and patrols the latrine every day.
On the second night after I started cleaning, the girl with dark green hair sneaked up to my spot next to my bunk. All the maids were asleep, and she whispered in my ear, "Can I follow you? I'll do anything for you."
I replied in a shocked whisper, "I don't have any money for you."
"I don't want money, I just want to choose a good owner."
After thinking it over, I said, "If you can help me escape from the secret realm, then yes."
She didn't respond. I fell asleep while waiting.
On the third day, before dawn, I got up to clean the house; it was my turn to clean. Luo An came to me, "I'm sorry, sister, I've been forbidden from getting close to you. The restrictions were only lifted yesterday."
"It's okay," I said as I folded the large quilt on the shared bed.
"Sister, I've always felt sorry for you, that I haven't been able to help you in any way. I'm doing alright here all because of you."
"No, it's your own ability." I know it's not easy to make a living anywhere.
Then Luo An told me some information: Di Yaruo and her group escaped during the zombie outbreak. No one knows how they escaped, but the dungeon doors were wide open during the outbreak, and they escaped by blending into the crowd.
“Princess Marcy was bitten and turned into a zombie in the chaos,” Luo An said as he helped me clean the house, sweeping back and forth with a broom. “She later returned to normal, but her vital energy was severely damaged, and she is now bedridden.”
"Who did this?" I asked, folding the blankets. "I mean, who orchestrated the zombie outbreak?"
"It hasn't been found out yet, but it's suspected that some nobles are dissatisfied with the king's rule and are secretly colluding with people from the main continent, attempting to create chaos in the royal palace and profit from it."
Why "profit" rather than overthrow? And "what profit is there?"
"I don't know." After cleaning the house, Luo An gave me a small bag of hot food before leaving, which included my favorite buttered bread and blueberry jam.
From that day on, Luo An secretly brought me food almost every day. I actually ate very little, and I told him to stop bringing me food, but he insisted, "Sister, how can I eat the food here?"
I haven't eaten anything since I came here.
My appetite wasn't very good to begin with, but it got even worse after I came here; I couldn't eat anything at all.
Three days later, I didn't even want to eat the food Luo An gave me. For two days in a row, I didn't eat anything and drank very little water. I don't know how I managed to keep going. Anyway, I still went about my work. I didn't collapse. Maybe I have a pretty good constitution.
On the third day of my "hunger strike," before I was even awake, I was suddenly lifted off the communal bed and carried away. I awoke with a start, kicked my leg with all my might, and heard a muffled groan. I was horrified; it was the Elf King.
"Why are you hugging me?" I yelled.
Before dawn, there was only a faint light in the maid's room, and it was clear that there were no maids inside. Usually at this time, the maids would be busy getting dressed, folding blankets, and getting up.
"I'll take you back to your room to sleep," the Elf King said with a faint smile. "The bed here is too hard."
"Put me down!"
He completely ignored me, carried me out of the maid's quarters, put me in the golden carriage outside, and took me back to his palace.
From that day on, we "made up," or rather, he thought we made up; to me, it wasn't.
I ignored him, and he seemed perfectly content.
Three days passed just like that.
Late on the fourth night, all was quiet. It was the middle of the month, the royal day for sleeping with the Queen. The Queen would be in the King's palace, and I had been temporarily moved to another palace. I got up quietly and pushed open the door silently. The maids and guards outside had all been captivated.
The sleeping powder was secretly given to me by Luo An at my request. I took off the maid's outer skirt, draped it over myself, and ran barefoot out of the corridor.
The defenses of the other palace were noticeably weaker. As soon as I rushed out of the corridor, the dark green-haired girl who had been waiting nearby grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards Princess Marcy's palace.
The girl with dark green hair was familiar with the terrain and managed to avoid several patrols before successfully arriving at Princess Marcy's palace.
We released a sleeping potion, and Princess Marcy's maids and guards collapsed within minutes. We stormed into Princess Marcy's bedroom.
The thin Princess Marcy was clearly not asleep. Hearing the noise, she turned her head, saw us, and looked shocked. "W-how did you get in?"
"You bitch, I didn't do anything to you this time, what are you doing here looking for me?"
I held up a cloth bag in my hand. "It contains green grass that can turn people into zombies. Now, if you don't tell me the secret passage out of the Elf Realm, I'll turn you into a zombie right now. Although your brother has a way to restore you, you'll fall seriously ill again. How many more times can your body withstand this?"
Marcy stared in horror at the cloth bag in my hand; she must have heard of this green grass before.
I slowly opened the cloth bag, and the green grass inside spontaneously stretched out, revealing a few blades of grass. Marcy exclaimed, "You—you dare?!"
"Why don't you dare? Why don't you give it a try?"
Marcy took several deep breaths. "It's better if you leave. It'll save you from gossiping about me to my brother later. I heard he's obsessed with you now."
“That’s right,” I said. “He still wanted me to give birth to his first son.”
Marcy's expression was as cold as ice. "I know that."
"Get out!" she said coldly again. "Don't say I didn't warn you, swords have no eyes. There's a mountain of knives in the southwest, the rocks on the mountain are as sharp as knives, whoever walks on it will die, but no one knows that sometimes a dead end is a way out."
"The mountain is full of knives, where is the way out?" I asked anxiously.
The girl with dark green hair grabbed me and ran away without asking any more questions. She whispered to me, "There's no time. She'll probably try to bargain with us before she tells us. But we have to leave the secret realm before dawn, or we'll never escape."
Yes, if I fail this time, the Elf King will not let me find any loopholes again.
We hurriedly fled to the west garden of the palace, where Aifu met up with us. We secretly contacted each other using a coded message. Aifu had two invisibility cloaks, given to her by a former wealthy patron. The dark green-haired girl carried me on her back, sharing one cloak, while Aifu wore the other.
Eve was far more familiar with the layout of the palace than the girl with the dark green hair; she had been in the secret realm for two years. Led by her, we crawled out through a small dog hole hidden by vines not far from the west gate.
“There are black wolves in front of each palace, and their sense of smell is extremely keen,” Eve told us. “Even if we wear invisibility cloaks, they will still detect us, bite through our cloaks, and we will never be able to get out.”
I deeply appreciate the importance of companions; it's really difficult to overcome challenges by relying on one's own strength alone.
We crawled out of the dog hole, brushed past the large patrol of guards, and successfully left the palace.
Just as I mounted the horse that Ai had paid for beforehand, the invisibility cloak wore off, and we could see each other clearly. Then we rode off. Ai hadn't known about the green-haired girl beforehand and had only prepared two horses; the green-haired girl and I shared one. Before mounting, Ai quietly asked me, "Is she reliable?" I nodded.
After riding for a long time, we finally saw the Knife Mountain to the southwest. The Knife Mountain was very distinctive, covered with rocks that looked like knife points.
"How do we get up there?!" Aifu asked me.
I whispered the incantation that Daio had taught me to summon the rainbow-colored long-tailed birds, and soon three rainbow-colored long-tailed birds appeared in the sky, getting closer and closer to us.
“Birds are easily noticed,” the dark green-haired girl said worriedly, “even though they can help us cross the mountain.”
“So we have to be fast, extremely fast,” I said quickly, and then rushed toward the long-tailed bird that had just flown over.
Three colorful long-tailed birds quickly flew us up the mountain of knives, but after circling it three times, from the bottom to the middle to the top, we still couldn't find a way out.
A commotion arose faintly from the bottom of the mountain; it turned out to be a large contingent of guards pursuing them.
Aifu panicked, her face turning pale and beads of sweat rolling down her cheeks. "What do we do? Are we doomed?!"
The girl with dark green hair kept telling her, "Shut up, shut up, now is not the time to talk about discouraging things."
I breathed out the cold morning air, feeling scared and panicked, not knowing what to do.
The guards, clad in specially made high boots and wielding swords, had already rushed up the mountain of sharp blades. Suddenly, several long arrows shot out, and the colorful long-tailed bird beneath us cried out in agony and fell to the ground. We screamed as we plummeted down the mountainside. If it weren't for the bird's carcass blocking our way, our bodies would have been pierced through by the sharp rocks.
Struggling to my feet, the girl with the dark green hair, Aifu, and I supported each other as we ran up the mountain. The guards were in hot pursuit, getting closer and closer to us. In the distance, a flock of colorful long-tailed birds appeared, with guards riding on their backs—the Elf King's avian army.
Seeing that the guards of the mountain of knives were only a few steps away from us, I threw the cloth bag in my hand at them. Several green grasses fell out of the bag and landed right on the feet of one of the guards. They quickly wrapped around his body, and he turned into a zombie in a few seconds. He quickly bit a guard who was next to him, and that guard also turned into a zombie. The two zombies attacked the other guards together, and chaos ensued.
We continued our escape, but the path was strewn with sharp rocks. We were moving slowly and helpless. Suddenly, a sharp rock cut my calf, and blood gushed out. I groaned in pain. The flock of birds had already stopped above us. One of the guards shouted, "Lady Lanna, surrender! Don't hurt yourself! The King says he won't harm you if you return."
I didn't respond; my gaze was drawn to the blood that had just spilled onto the ground.
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Author's Note: I made a mistake today. This chapter was originally scheduled for tomorrow, but I accidentally pressed the wrong button~~~ 55555~~~
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