Dumped After My Engagement: Becoming a Military Noblewoman

Chapter 92

A forest where the trees stood tall, letting in only faint light.

Vines tangled around the legs, and vegetation blocked the view.

Normally, such a quiet place rich in nature, where not even birds sang, would be comforting and peaceful, but now everything about it felt eerie and terrifying.

"Ninety, ninety-one..."

Caught by a tree root, the body stumbled and tumbled each time.

Fortunately, the damp earth was soft, so without any serious injury, Finn quickly got up and placed a hand on the tree trunk.

"......There it is. Then, from here, two hundred to the right."

Letting go of the tree trunk marked with a dagger, Finn began running again while counting.

Finn had been taught by his father that when entering a forest this deep, one should assume getting lost and act accordingly. So while following Silvio and the others, Finn had marked tree trunks with a dagger to avoid getting lost and memorized the number of steps between marked trees.

"It's okay, I'm not wrong... It's okay."

Advancing relying solely on memory, Finn repeated those words over and over to cast off the growing anxiety. At the same time, he recalled Celestia's astonished expression when she saw how he remembered the path and relaxed his tightly drawn lips.

'If there were only a few marked trees, or if you wrote down the features and step counts on paper, I could understand. But memorizing all of it? How...?'

Saying that with wide eyes, Celestia moved by touch so as not to get in Finn's way, looking more like a girl her age than the usually composed version of herself.

Since his father, a soldier, had done it without trouble, Finn thought this was normal. And in truth, it wasn't that difficult—each tree had unique traits and step-counting methods if you knew the knack.

'Amazing. This must be one of Finn's talents.'

Until a few months ago, Celestia had been hard for him to approach, someone he thought was fundamentally different.

But as they spent time together, he realized she was warm-hearted, hardworking, and extremely disciplined—a true soldier at heart. Once he saw that this beautiful noble girl was the same kind of person as her father, his discomfort vanished and instead was replaced with concern for her future.

"Alright, next is straight ahead, one hundred and eighty. A tree with a half-rotted base..."

Occasionally shifting his gaze side to side, Finn kept repeating the same actions while staying alert of his surroundings.

When following Silvio and the others, he had carefully moved aside grass and branches to avoid leaving traces, but now there was no need for that. He deliberately broke branches and trampled plants to make a visible path so he could quickly return to his comrades.

"......Hah, ha... ha, ha"

Wiping sweat from his cheek with his arm, he caught his breath while bowing his head in front of a large tree.

"I have to hurry."

Though he had been running frantically, he had probably only covered half the distance. Unlike the training ground where he usually ran, the forest drained his stamina and slowed his pace, causing only more frustration.

"With this tree at my back, straight ahead..."

Lifting his face, Finn mentally reviewed the route to the exit, but despair grew as the scenery refused to change.

Even if he made it out of the forest, the camp was still far away. And even if he brought the instructor back, would they be able to save Silvio and the others who were in danger now?

"Maybe I should've stayed behind too..."

Though Celestia had told him to leave, no matter how he thought about it, the help wouldn't arrive in time.

"And then, Sleiran..."

Information he had learned by eavesdropping.

There was no time to think about what or why—panic had taken over and he had just started running.

But what if the young man Silvio called brother had more allies?

"......"

He quickly turned around, then looked around several times, finally leaning against a tree and crouching down, letting out a slow breath.

There had been no sign of people either back there or on the way here, but would royalty really come into such a forest with only a few escort knights?

Shivering at the unpleasant thought, Finn turned his body toward where Celestia and the others were, but then bit his lip tightly, stood up, and began running again.

Even if he went back, there was nothing he could do. So instead, he had to go call for help as fast as possible...

"Three, four..."

Telling himself that Celestia and the others would prioritize escape over reckless fighting, and that help would definitely arrive in time, he was checking the mark on the trunk of a withered tree when—

—Rustle.

Reacting to a faint noise that could've been rustling leaves, he crouched low to hide behind the tree and held his breath, straining to listen.

There was no wind, and no sign of birds or animals nearby.

"......"

Just a few seconds—or maybe several minutes—he didn't know how long he had held his breath.

As his wildly beating heart returned to normal, he was about to exhale, thinking he'd overreacted—

"......Ugh, ngh...!?"

A hand reached from the left and covered his mouth. Before he could resist, he was forced face-down, his arms pinned, and a cold blade pressed to his neck. In just a few seconds, he was rendered helpless. If he tried anything, he'd be slashed.

But he couldn't just stay still and do nothing.

Bracing his stomach and legs, even prepared to be cut, a bright, out-of-place voice called down from above, "There he is!"

"Sorry. From a distance, I couldn't tell, so I restrained you just to be safe."

With a laugh, the restraint was released. As Finn pushed his upper body off the ground, a hand was extended toward him. Looking up fearfully, he saw the soldier from the gate station—the one Celestia had said she knew—Dan, standing there.