I Became a Barbarian's Bride - Chapter 6
Nisha, with her pale face, sat up on the bed like a doll, her expression vacant.
“… A promise.”
As if nothing had happened, she rose and prepared for her outing with practiced familiarity. In the stillness of the early dawn, accompanied only by the sounds of insects, she quietly left the eerie palace.
Knock-knock, knock, knock-knock-.
She tapped five times in rhythm on a small side door hidden in a corner of the imperial palace. This was the secret signal between Nisha and the servants who helped her.
Soon, the door opened.
“Mary.”
“Princess, you’re here? Mesh and Rad have taken the supplies to the place.”
“Yes, let’s go.”
Once the two figures, cloaked in their robes, vanished, the guards appeared as if nothing had happened and resumed their posts.
It was a quiet night escape.
***
“Has she gone?”
“Yes.”
The guards at the side door glanced at the two receding figures and whispered softly.
“It’s been ten years since I first saw the young princess here… She’s grown up so steadfastly despite the difficult circumstances.”
“Indeed. Did you hear about the diplomatic marriage between the princess and the lord of Xieman?”
“They call it a diplomatic marriage, but it’s no different from being a hostage, is it?”
The grumbling voices were filled with dissatisfaction.
“Poor thing.”
Shaking their heads and muttering in a sigh, they quickly fell silent, fearing someone might hear.
Most of the soldiers of the Roshan Empire had families. They lived in the capital, in the countryside, and everywhere in between within the Roshan Empire.
But all those families were struggling. With taxes rising daily and public sentiment growing increasingly hostile, bandits and thieves were on the rise.
The powerless were constantly exploited, robbed, and killed.
Those working in the imperial palace and their families were only slightly better off than those starving outside.
Just this year, even their meager wages had been further reduced by new taxes.
Banquets are held almost daily in the imperial palace, food prepared without purpose and discarded, rotting food used as fodder for cows and horses.
The nation’s decay from its roots wasn’t a recent development.
They endured the sight of dying citizens and the ever-thickening bellies of the nobles.
The middle-aged soldier still remembered the ten-year-old girl sneaking out late at night, carrying a small bundle of food she was allotted.
And that this had been happening regularly for the past ten years, up to this very day.
“I hope she gets far away.”
The soldier, now unable to see any trace of her, murmured softly.
“Hey, it’s almost the Red Night. Let’s lock up and head inside.”
“Ah, right.”
The middle-aged soldier pretended to lock the door but left it unlocked, worried that the princess might return.
Shortly after they retreated to their quarters, a red moon rose in the sky.
This was the so-called Red Night.
In Roshan, uniquely, once a month instead of a new moon, a blood-red moon appeared, as if soaked in blood.
With rumors of demons descending, it was considered the most ominous day in Roshan, and no one ventured outside under the red moon.
An old legend deeply rooted in the empire claimed that being touched by the red moonlight would bring misfortune, loss of wealth and honor, and even death.
So, up until a few decades ago, on the day of the red moon, every citizen of the empire would lock their doors, draw their curtains, and let no light in.
But now, with the struggle to survive and avoid starvation, only the nobles and royalty regarded it as a day of caution.
In recent years, the Red Night had become a day eagerly awaited for by the starving people in the capital.
This was because of a certain noble who only appeared on Red Nights.
Distributing food and money, even performing miracles by curing illnesses and bestowing blessings—
The Saint of the Red Moon.
And the middle-aged soldier knew.
He knew that this saint was the last remaining conscience and beacon of hope for this nation, yet within the imperial palace, she was scorned as the sewer-rat princess, the most wretched of all.
