Then Ekaterina noticed something shining in the forest and turned her attention to it.
“A horse…”
“A horse?”
Oleg, who returned his sword to its scabbard, looked back with a grim face. The knights’ horses, as well as the eight horses pulling the carriage, were tied up in the centre of the settlement, leisurely eating the grass cut for them by the knights and the Forest People.
“I noticed a large, black creature that looked like a horse. Its mane glowed silver…didn’t Mina notice?”
“I didn’t see it.”
Mina looked puzzled, though her face remained expressionless.
Forli’s expression turned stern.
“Perhaps, did Miss witness [The Maiden of Death]?”
***
The [Maiden of Death] was a legendary being passed down by the Forest People.
Her appearance was said to be that of a beautiful young girl. However, she wears a blood-stained corpse coat and holds a scythe that was unbecoming of her slender body. She was also said to appear riding a huge jet-black horse with a silver mane and tail.
She was not a living person. She was a girl who died a horrible death a long time ago and wandered around without sleeping peacefully.
Everything that her hand touched died. She was a cursed maiden, seeking vengeance even after death.
It must have happened about 2,000 years ago, when the ancient Astra Empire did not yet have this land as its territory.
She was born as the youngest child of a prestigious and powerful family whose territory included a portion of what used to be the northern capital of the country. She grew up to be a healthy, kind-hearted girl with a faithful father, a loving mother, and a close brother and sister.
She was beautiful, but her older sister was even more beautiful. She was famous in the neighborhood for her beauty, and there was no end to the number of marriage proposals offered to her.
Her sister won the hand of the heir to another powerful family that was growing in power in the area at the time. He was not only a handsome young man but also an ambitious one, and he skillfully captured the elder sister’s heart and made her fall madly in love with him. The father of the young woman, who was aware of the greed of the young man’s family, was reluctant, but the sister’s eagerness won him over, and he agreed to let his daughter marry him.
The night of the wedding.
The bridegroom’s clan killed all the bride’s clan and took their territory.
To celebrate the occasion of the wedding, the bride’s clan gathered in their fine clothes. They drank many cups at the feast and talked a great deal with the bridegroom’s clan, and by the time night fell, they had fallen asleep. At midnight, the bridegroom’s family took out their hidden weapons and attacked the sleeping men. There was not a moment to lose.
Even the beautiful bride was slaughtered only after a single night of marriage, as if they had no use for her once they had their lands.
The maiden died along with her family. But she was too grief-stricken to die. She rejected the god of death, who wanted to take her to the underworld, and wished for vengeance to avenge the death of her entire family.
The god of death told her, If she refused to go down to the underworld, she would belong to this world. If she accepted, then she could fulfill her wish.
The maiden nodded her head in agreement. And she became the [Maiden of Death], and everyone she touches dies.
“…With the scythe in her hand, she reaped the lives of all her enemies’ families and exacted her revenge. But even after that, the Forest People narrated that she was still trapped in death and wandered forever as the living dead.”
“A sad tale.”
Ekaterina sighed.
