Dirty Heart - Chapter 36

Even though she had confidently declared that she would definitely escape together with Liam, reality was not that simple.

First of all, getting out of this cart itself was a challenge. Whether it had been made for transporting prisoners or not, the bars were extremely sturdy, and even the door was tightly bound with chains.

The only small relief was that the knights were riding ahead, so they weren’t watching this side at all. They still had no idea that the hostages had already cut through their ropes.

“Mm….”

She busily scanned the scenery beyond the bars, but all she saw was a barren field and dried-up trees. Even if they managed to escape, there was nowhere to hide, so getting caught again would be inevitable.

“Sister….”

While she was deep in thought, Liam tugged at Courtney’s sleeve with a trembling voice.

“Look over there.”

“Hm?”

When she turned her head in the direction he pointed, she saw thick black smoke rising high into the sky in the distance.

“Is something on fire?”

“That’s… the orphanage.”

“What?”

Liam, who had been acting even more composed than Courtney until now, spoke again, his voice filled with tears.

“The other kids… are they okay?”

“Don’t worry, Liam. They must have all been rescued.”

She hurriedly tried to reassure him, but Courtney herself couldn’t shake off the unease. Why, of all times, had such a massive fire broken out at the orphanage? It sent a chill down her spine.

At that moment, with a loud noise, the cart suddenly changed direction. Judging by the increasingly strong smell of burning, they seemed to be getting closer to the orphanage.

“Sister. I know this road well.”

Pressing himself close to the bars, Liam whispered quietly. His voice carried certainty, as if he recognized the path.

“That bridge. It’s not that high. There’s a stream right below.”

Just as Liam said, a bridge soon came into view not too far away. On both sides of the old wooden bridge stretched cliffs mixed with dirt and rocks, and below, a stream flowed calmly.

The height from the bridge to the stream was about two to three times a person’s height. It looked somewhat dangerous, but it wasn’t high enough to kill them if they jumped.

“But how do we get out of here?”

The moment she asked with a helpless expression, Liam’s gaze fixed on one spot. It was the back of the horse pulling the cart.

“We’re thinking the same thing right now, right?”

“Yeah, sister!”

The two of them quickly crouched down and began feeling around the floor for something they could throw. Fortunately, they found a few stones of various sizes.

There was no need to hesitate after that. Stretching their arms through the bars, they threw the stones at the horse with all their strength.

“Neigh!”

The stone Courtney threw grazed the horse’s side, and Liam’s stone struck its hindquarters directly. Startled, the horse snorted and staggered.

“Whoa, calm down. What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

The knight, unaware of what was happening, tried to calm the horse, but Courtney clenched her teeth and immediately threw a second stone.

Whizz!

Absurdly, the stone flew between the horse’s legs and hit its long penis directly. The stallion, overwhelmed by unbearable pain, began to thrash wildly, and the surrounding horses became agitated as well, turning the scene into chaos in an instant.

“Liam, we need to tilt the cart toward the cliff!”

The moment Courtney shouted, the two of them threw their bodies at the same time. They shifted their full weight to one side of the cart, forcing its balance to tilt.

“No!”

At that moment, a sharp scream rang out along with a harsh metallic screech. The iron link connecting the horse and the cart snapped clean under the impact.

“The hostages are escaping!”

“Catch them right now!”

Only then did the knights notice the cart tumbling down the cliff and shout in urgency, but the situation had already spiraled beyond control.

Crash, crash, crash!

Each time it slammed into the jagged rocks, the cart shattered into pieces. Wooden fragments scattered in all directions, while metal parts and wheels flew through the air.

Courtney held Liam tightly in her arms as they rolled over and over. Every impact felt like her bones would shatter, and sharp splinters tore across her body, but she never let go of the child for even a moment.

‘Please, please….’

With that final prayer to be saved, her consciousness gradually faded.

Splash!

With a massive impact, their bodies were swallowed into the stream below the cliff.

***

The moment he confirmed the flames rising from the orphanage, Lionel turned his horse around.

Originally, the plan was to pretend to search for Courtney and then encounter the knights he had arranged in advance. The orphanage itself was their rendezvous point.

To rescue Courtney at the right moment while she trembled in fear without understanding anything, and in doing so, secure her absolute trust. That was the entirety of this childish plan. In other words, what happened the night before, when he pretended to love her and let her go, had been nothing more than a carefully scripted act from the beginning.

But now that a fire had broken out at the rendezvous point, unease stirred within him. A bad premonition crept in that something might have gone wrong, and his grip on the reins tightened.

“My goodness, Young Duke! The orphanage situation is unfortunate, but shouldn’t finding Miss Courtney be our priority?”

Unaware of Lionel’s true intentions, Alex urged his horse forward in frustration. Of course, the fire was tragic, but there was no reason for Lionel himself to step in.

Moreover, under normal circumstances, he wasn’t the type to even bat an eye at something like this.

‘What on earth is going on?’

Yet Lionel’s face was filled with visible anxiety. It was as if there was a reason he absolutely had to go to the orphanage.

As Alex rode on with an uneasy feeling, it wasn’t long before masked knights appeared before them.

“Who goes there!”

Alex instinctively reached for his sword, but upon recognizing the emblem engraved on their armor, he let out a sigh of relief. It was the secret knight unit operated by the Erhardt ducal house.

“Young Duke.”

One knight, who appeared to be the leader, stepped forward and immediately knelt before Lionel.

“What happened?”

“Punish me. The cart overturned, and both the woman and the child are missing.”

“Missing? You mean you don’t even know whether they’re alive or dead?”

“We confirmed they fell off the cliff, but everything happened so quickly, and they were swept away by the current….”

Listening to their conversation from the side, Alex’s face gradually turned pale.

‘The woman and the child…? Don’t tell me they mean Miss Courtney and Liam?’

Everything felt suspicious. He couldn’t understand at all why Courtney was being mentioned by the Duke’s secret knights. Lionel’s reaction, as if he already knew everything, was just as unsettling.

“Search the surrounding area thoroughly. Find them no matter what, you must.”

After giving the cold order, Lionel slowly turned his head.

“Alex, listen carefully.”

Lionel looked straight at him. Now that the plan had gone wrong, he needed Alex’s absolute cooperation.

“On my upcoming birthday, I’ll receive Courtney’s heart.”

“…What? What kind of unfunny joke is that?”

Alex let out a hollow laugh as if it were absurd. But Lionel’s expression as he looked at him remained serious from beginning to end.

“No… you’re serious…?”

At some point, the atmosphere around them sank heavily. Realizing the gravity of the situation, Alex’s face also stiffened.

“Th-then… Miss Courtney….”

“She’ll die.”

Unlike Alex’s trembling voice, Lionel answered calmly.

In that instant, the conversation Alex had shared with Courtney flashed through his mind.

“Then whose heart will the Young Duke receive? Do you… perhaps know?”

“Well, maybe there’s a willing donor?”

“Ha! Willing? Who would willingly give up their own heart? Without it, they’d die for certain…!”

A willing donor.

That was Courtney Balkan.

“…This is insane.”

A curse finally slipped out of Alex’s mouth.

“Then all this time, you pretended to love Miss Courtney and kept her by your side? Just to take her heart?”

Even as he tried to understand Lionel somehow, he couldn’t when he thought of Courtney. Above all, she was the first woman who had ever captured his heart. Even if it was a feeling he had to bury for life.

Leaving Alex frozen in shock, Lionel changed the subject.

“Hurry. We have to find Courtney no matter what.”