“Leona, what are you doing?”

“Sorry, Runfar, there is simply no time; I need to save the Second Princess before anything happens to her!”

She sounded so dutiful…maybe too much.

“Yeah, but…What does that have to do with me?”

She practically kidnapped him on the spot, and now they were at least a hundred meters up in the air, flying at the speed that would put even mightiest of eagles to shame.

“Oh, my bad…I did not think this through. Anyways, just hold on. Finding a safe place for you would take too much time, and when her highness’s life is at stake…”

‘You are a complete idiot’ Runfar resisted the urge to say this out loud. So the real reason he ended up in this mess was because the famed Knight of Light acted on impulse without a second thought.

Runfar even doubted that she even considered how out of place he would be in such a situation.

‘It appears the books were right. The heroes truly are blockheads.’

Giving up, he sighed. At least the situation couldn’t get any worse.

“Since when can you fly?”

“For a while, actually. I couldn’t access this power after my blessing was damaged, but I regained the use of this power last week”

“Is that so? Good for you”

“Yeah, slowly but surely, my powers are coming back to me”

“I am happy for you”

“To be honest with you, Runfar, I only have about three fourth of my original power back, which is better than nothing, but still…”

She sighed, trying her best not to think of the Dark Lord, the man who crippled her, without realizing he was right next to her.

“The point is I don’t know if I will be able to protect you. So as soon as we get there, I want you to hide and wait for me to rescue the princess. Understood?”

“In that case….Couldn’t you have just left me in the pub?”

Runfar heard an audible gasp from the person carrying him in the air.

“Ehm…Ha-ha-ha. Now that you mentioned it, it does sound rather silly….”

‘Are we going to be ok?’ Dark Lord was no longer sure that this joyride would end well. At all.

“Anyways, how do you know where to head towards?”

“The members of royal family have unique mana signatures. With my blessing, I can track down its general location. But I never suspected it would be this far…They must have used teleportation magic to take her away.”

“So, can you track down anyone with your blessing?”

“Not exactly, some people have distinct mana signatures, and by fine tuning to them, I can find them. But if someone’s mana signature is common or bland, it might be a little harder.”

“What about, say, mine?”

“Not sure. Your mana signature is very weak…Not that I am saying that you are weak, mind you. It is just…if you are away, I don’t think I would be able to pick you out from the crowd”

“Oh, that is understandable”

‘Phew, at least she cannot stalk me’

After flying for the next ten minutes, Leona proceeded to land.

“She is here. I can sense her mana”

The place she landed in looked like slums from the outside, many old and ghastly buildings, scent of blood coated the air, and the place itself looked like it came straight out of someone’s dark fantasy.

As soon as Runfar and Leona entered, strange people dressed in dark garbs started to come out, each with a weapon in hand.

There were at least fifty of them; each one looked tall, muscular, and menacing.

It was obvious they were not here to greet their guests.

“Bandits! Runfar, hide!”

“You don’t have to tell me twice”

Pulling out her sword from her magical pocket space, Leona, still wearing a dress, was now up against the bandits.

“Come at me, you bastards!”

Majority of them headed in her direction due to thinking she was an ordinary woman.

If they only knew how wrong they were.

As for Runfar, he tried his best to blend in, only for the remaining bandits to chase after him.

Just as he thought the bandits would kill him, Runfar felt the ground break away underneath his feet, making him fall to what he assumed was his doom.

Only it turned out that he fell into a secret underground door.

Due to losing his balance, Runfar ended up falling down the stairs, hitting many of them in the process.

When he finally reached the bottom, he looked pretty much beaten up.

‘I must be the most pathetic Dark Lord in history’

Without even trying, he reached the entrance of a secret room.

“Intruder!” a bandit guarding the entrance of the room brandished his sword.

“Look, this is an enormous misunderstanding. Ask the crazy lady outside, she can vouch for me!”

“You shall perish!”

“Oh, c’mon! Why is it always like this?”

Runfar tried his best to run, only for the other bandits to show up and back him into corner.

“Say goodbye, fool”

The sword slashed through Runfar’s neck, beheading him in the process.

‘Oh well, at least when I loop back, this entire mess would never have happened’

“What is going on?! I clearly killed him!”

“The head, the head just flew back and reattached to his body!”

“Don’t panic, I can kill him again!”

‘Wait, what? Didn’t I already die? Then how come I can still hear the voices of the bandits? No way…’

As Runfar opened his eye, he saw a tall bandit wielding a bladed spear.

With a single swing, the bandit cut off Runfar’s left arm.

The severed appendage ended up falling on the floor with a dull thud.

But then, within couple of seconds, a very strange phenomenon occurred.

Almost like someone rewinded the flow of time within Runfar’s vicinity, the arm came back and reattached itself to Runfar’s body.

“What is he?!”

“Just die!” the bandits were freaking out, but the one who was most alarmed was Runfar himself.

‘I should have looped back as soon as I got killed….What is going on?!’