POV: Descal

Well, out of one fight and straight into another fight. That’s my luck. If this was an RPG game, my luck stat would probably be zero. I quickly counted the number of enemies, I could see: about 15. There are probably more, but I need to take care of these guys first. It didn’t look like these assassins were going to say anything so I did the first move.

First, I pulled Cecilia behind me, whipped out my pistol, and shot the nearest guy to my left. That was when the assassins began to make a move at me. A guy to my right charged at me with his sword, but I blocked it with my gauntlets before gutting him with my blade. I then proceeded to do a combo move straight into the guy behind him and carved open a nice bloody line across his neck. After that, I kicked the dying asshole straight into the guy behind him, and I lunged at the assassin to my left who was aiming a throwing knife at Cecilia and plunged my blade straight into his heart. One of the assassins tried to take advantage of my situation by immediately going for Cecilia and was about to swing his sword down on Cecilia, but I quickly came up behind him, grabbed him, and slit his throat. Sadly, Cecilia got drenched in blood all over again, but I can check up on any emotional trauma after this is all over.

Before I could move on to my next target, the assassins immediately backed away and began to watch me closely. Eight left… Wait… I only killed five. Damn it. Two of them must have run off to call for backup. I need to finish this quickly, but I can’t be reckless or Cecilia might end up getting killed. I am not confident enough to use my magic in a fight yet. I only have one loaded pistol, three grenades, and my blades as my weapons. I only have some food, utensils, my chemistry kit, gunpowder, a half-finished gun, a tree trunk, and etc. in my inventory, but none that I could use to get me out of this fix.

So my only way of taking out these people as fast as possible is to utilize my grenades, but if I do that, there is a chance that there might be a cave-in, and Cecilia might get killed by a random frag. Wait… My tree trunk. I could use my tree trunk as something to take cover behind after throwing my grenades. I can’t do much if there was a cave-in, but I don’t have much choice right now since it looks like things might get real ugly real soon.

I quickly whip out my log, dragged Cecilia behind it, lit my three grenades, and threw it. The assassins just looked at the three balls, wondering what to do with it until they got blasted to the walls with body parts and blood splattering everywhere. I took advantage of the confusion and ran straight for the exit and into the open sky.

Now that I was outside, I immediately used one of the orbs, mounted the horse with Cecilia seated in front of me and took off as fast as possible to the East. I kept going and going until the sun began to peek out from the horizon. When the sun came out, I went into the deeper parts of the forest and stopped by a small stream.

I just got off my skeletal horse and collapsed into the stream and just let it wash off the blood and sweat. Cecilia wordlessly began to do the same thing. And the two of us just laid in the stream listening to the sounds of birds chirping trying to calm our frayed nerves.

“So now what?” (Cecilia)

“… Keep moving. I am going to be upfront with you right now. The fact that the Bloody Strings have your blood makes my job a lot harder. We need to keep moving to keep the damn assassins on their toes. Also, we can’t be predictable with our movements. So we may need to zigzag around as well. But the problem is that time is not on our side. I need to get you to the Uwile as fast as possible. The more time we waste the more likely it is that your uncle will consolidate his power, and the more danger that will come to you and me. In addition, your life is now in constant danger. The Bloody Strings do have a reputation to uphold so they will be very persistent with their attempts.” (Descal)

“Don’t you know of any methods to break that spell they have on me? Surely, you must know of some methods!” (Cecilia)

“I do. But I can’t do any of it because I lack the materials, and I can’t use magic very well at the moment.” (Descal)

“Can’t use magic very well! Don’t be absurd! That storage magic of yours must be a very difficult spell to cast!” (Cecilia)

“Sorry. The storage magic doesn’t consume a lot of magic, and I can’t utilize it to its full potential because of the limits on my magic right now. Here let me rephrase. I am incapable of casting spells that require a lot of mana.” (Descal)

“Fine. So I will have to live the rest of my life with the threat of assassination over me. That is what you are telling me.” (Cecilia)

I was going to retort something back, but then I noticed that tears were starting to flow from Cecilia’s eyes. As I looked into her teary brown eyes, as I looked at the pitiful state of her face and body, as I looked at the expression of her face and the frustration and fear she was displaying, the frustration at how powerless she was and the fear of how everything was out of control, I began to feel something well up inside of me. Before it could go out of control, it was forcefully put down, but I still felt it. I was planning on simply abandoning Cecilia as soon as I took her to the destination, but now I don’t know if I can do it. Can I simply leave her?

I took a deep breath.

“Princess. As soon as I got to Uwile, I was planning on simply dropping you off, collect my reward, and simply leave. I wasn’t planning on getting myself involved anymore. However, it seems I have had a change of heart. When we reach the fortress, I am going to the Annapurna Mountain Range to regain control over my magic. Once I accomplish that, I am available for hire once more. You can hire me to remove the curse and to keep you safe until you resume the throne. Will you hire me when the time comes?” (Descal)

Cecilia wordlessly hugs me and began to cry into my shoulder and choked out thank you multiple times. I simply began to awkwardly pat her on the back and said to her to “let it all out”. As I began to do this, only one thought ran through my mind. I am going to regret this, aren’t I?