The Unlucky Bride Is Loved by the Fortunate Desert King - Chapter 30 – The Great Escape

Leaving Al behind—

It was something I had already accepted as inevitable. And yet, the tears would not stop. No matter how hard I tried to hold them back, they overflowed, and before I knew it, I was sobbing like a child.

“Yuzu…”
Lantern Master turned his head over his shoulder, his expression filled with concern.

But then—
From beyond the silent stretch of desert, I suddenly felt something strange.

Was I… starting to see things now? I squinted, trying to make out what it was. Just then, the clouds parted, and the desert brightened under the moonlight.

Far beyond the horizon, a faint cloud of dust began to rise, thin as smoke.

“Lantern Master, I think someone’s coming this way. It looks like… maybe two people, riding horses.”

The silhouettes were still blurry, but I could tell that the shadows were on some kind of animals—and they were growing larger by the second. They were moving fast. They would reach us soon.

—Who could they be? A desert caravan? Traveling merchants?

Lantern Master sighed deeply, as if he already knew the answer to everything.
“Good grief… So much for leaving early to avoid this kind of trouble.”

“Master? What do you mean—”

Before I could finish, he suddenly spurred the camel forward. The cart jolted violently into motion.
The many Turkish lamps hanging inside the canopy clinked against each other, ringing out a chorus of glassy cries.

“Master!?” The cart lurched hard, and I nearly lost my balance.

“Hold on tight! We’ve been avoiding crowded roads to keep pursuers off our trail—but it seems they’ve come after us anyway!”

“Pursuers!? Master—are you being chased!?”

Had Lantern Master done something so terrible that people were after him?

My face went pale. But then I remembered—the kindness he’d shown me, the care in his every word and action.

—There’s no way Lantern Master could be a bad person.

That thought steadied my heart.

The wheels struck a large stone, and the cart bounced violently. The camel was running at full speed now.

“Master! What are we going to—”
“Yuzu! Stop talking or you’ll bite your tongue!”

The desert erupted into a storm of sand as our cart sped across it. The figures I’d seen earlier disappeared into the haze of dust trailing behind us.

With a loud crash, the cart hit another bump, and I clung desperately to the swaying frame, bouncing helplessly like I was on a wild, living trampoline.