-...

-...

Silence,after the woman left only the whistle of the wind and the brushing of the branches could be heard throughout this forest,scar was looking at one way and moving her eyes to the slightest bit nor saying anything just ignoring me as if I wasn't there,she wasn't really as angry as before to look at me like garbage,but she was still a bit put off it seemed which showed by her stubborn attitude that refused to talk to me.

I closed my eyes thinking about a few things before I spoke.

-I never had parents before,I grew up all alone isolated nursing my baby sister my whole life and studying only recently had I been able to go out into the world and meet other people I am ruthless and maybe even heartless,but thats just because I don't know better in my mind...

-Ugh...?!

Scar suddenly gasped,her back momentarily quivered as she tried to hold her eyes towards the entrance of the cave it didn't stop and continued on into a real shake until finally scar decided she had enough and stamped her foot onto the ground turning herself towards me decisively as she showed me a face of bitter hardness.

-You...why...why...did you...

Scar gritted her teeth speaking these words while mumbling she glared at me fiercely,I already knew what she was trying to ask me.

-Because I think you are my friend and I think that should know this if I really want to understand you properly

Scar was only getting even more enraged the more I was speaking,her face literally contouring the color red her ears almost producing steam because of that anger until at the very last moment...It damped down,her eyes now were extremely clear and lack luster she seemed to be thinking something intensely until she finally broke down speaking.

-A few years ago when I was 18 years old my family was promoted to a aristocratic family by a royal decree of the empire from the emperor himself,my father who had earned us this glory used to be a adventurer with many accomplishments under his belt ranging from all kinds of things such as monster subjugation and exploration of ancient ruins that gave the empire massive amounts of strength it all went well and happy for a few years up until my 20 birthday at the time my father had quit the life of an adventurer and instead became a loyal admiral of the empire leading the troops into war against other nations who tried to invade us.I was already at the age to marry and the emperor himself seemed to be quiet fond of my father over the years so he proposed to have me marry the current crown prince arbit who was 25 at the time so he could merge our bloodline together,I was opposed on the idea on the spot I didn't feel like marrying even if the opposite party was the crown prince himself I wasn't willing enough,my father also respected my wishes and told the emperor himself that he would like to decline the idea of marriage the emperor also understood so he didn't mind the rejections,but then...

A single tear flowed down scar's right eye the tear glittered in the sun light for a split second and flowed down her entire cheek until scar wiped it away with her hand looking the other way holding her hands together as if she was comforting herself.

-the crown prince was immediately enraged after hearing that I had rejected him,his title as a prince was very high,but my father wasn't scared by it as he was the highest military ranking officer in the entire army his title and position alone was equivalent of that of the emperor himself so even the prince never dared to do anything presumptuous against my father,but that was only temporary until one day my father was found guilty to be the biggest traitor of the empire he was accused of having to have had connection towards foreign nations and leak information to them for a huge amount of money of course this wasn't the case my father would have never done such a thing he was a loyal subject to the emperor and would even give his life for him,the emperor also understood that,but the undeniable evidence connecting my father to these absurd cases were still present the noble families long since had a enmity towards my family because we had earned our position as aristocrats fair and square as common births and not noble which enraged them,this in fact resulted in the palace to split into two different factions which were the nobles who wanted my father to be hung dead and the emperor who tried his best to help my father and see reason to the case most of the nobles are of high dragon birth with powerful backgrounds and strength even the emperor himself couldn't fully control all of them by himself what was worse was that the crown prince at the time was also against my father he alone was enough to shift the power of the palace temporarily and make the decision on himself as it was decided that my father would be sentenced with the death penalty

There was small pause in her sentence as she tried to take a deep breath in her lungs circulating the air to keep herself calm so she wouldn't break out crying before continue forth,my eyes were constantly on her body never leaving or blinking listening intently towards the story she had to say with a single question.

-After the sentenced was brought forth my father was immediately killed by the rope my family only ever consisted of my mother,me and my father with my father not there anymore our family had lost its backbone we were also immediately stripped out of our noble title and thrown out into the city to fend for ourselves,our house and the belongings we had were entirely confiscated to pay for the damage that was done to the empire the nobles at one point even pushed it as far to try to convince to let us be hung since we were associates with my father we could have been possibly spies,but the emperor luckily brought it to a stop as he issued to order every noble that they were not allowed to lay any hands on us if not followed that family would be laid to waste,the emperor was already very angered and depressed he had lost one of his closest friends and a big asset of his military force the empire was in chaos too with their most idolized admiral tarnished in all kinds of filth and hate and soon that admirals family was also going to follow obviously he didn't wish for this so he issued that sort of order to keep us save,but even then he knew that we weren't complete safe so what he did was send us the person who he at the moment trusted the most to keep us safe....the crown prince,his son it was

My immediately got wide for a second time as I didn't expect for something like this,the rest of the story started to play inside my head in hyper speed trying to predict the outcome,but I quickly tried to keep calm and continue listening instead...the heavy winds picking up in speed as the trees started rustle even louder as she spoke in tears.

-My mother and I at the time had to leave the capital our home city and go far away to a land no one could find us,luckily not many people actually knew who we were so we simply abandoned our last name and walked as normal common folk my mother and I weren't incompetent or normal people either my father trained me all his life to be a competent combatant which I eventually did become as strong to be able to fight on equal ground with one of the emperors royal guards my mother was also strong she was a light magician that used to work together with my father when they were adventurers which is how they met...anyways at one day when my mother and I came back to our inn to check back inside the house owner suddenly informed us that a few people in black uniforms came asking for us,my mother and I immediately recognized these men as the henchmen serving for the nobles we didn't waste time and immediately tried to escape with all our belongings we had scrapped together after living for ourselves we were very successful with our jobs mainly as adventurers since my mother still retained her high rank as an adventurer,we could taken on multiple hard missions and earn a lot of money through that,but we constantly moved since we feared of anyone finding us which was within the scope of reason,we had a very huge carriage with the same stormrunner viscur to pull it all and used it to escape the henchmen,but unfortunately we weren't fast enough...they caught up soon after and blew our carriage away on the spot my mother and I were blasted to the side with some minor injuries luckily,but it doesn't end here...

Scar swallowed very clear fear showing on her face as she spoke about the event that was itched onto her mind so terrifyingly.

-The crown prince he...he immediately showed himself standing before us with his cynical and cruel smile the henchmen standing behind him had a evenly look as the disgusting prince at that very moment when he showed himself he told me everything he did the cruel and vile acts that he had committed and that he was the person who had actually forged the evidence to get my father killed it seemed to be one of his long running plans that the crown prince needed to fulfill to become the next emperor himself it was only coincidence that I was also the person who had rejected him in marriage he seemed to have originally planned to seduce me and have me indirectly pour poison into my own father tea at one point,but his plan utterly failed when I simply rejected him...haha that narcissistic fuck really thought that he was so amazing that every single girl would fall for him arrogance isn't the only thing he is full of...

Scar cursed under her breath immediately catching herself as she got to the painful part of her story.

-After capturing us the crown prince didn't just immediately kill us no he couldn't do such a thing he needed to proof his father that he kept us safe so what he decided to do instead was take one of us my mother in fact and put her under a blood oath...its a special kind of contract which binds the user to make a contract that her or she has to fulfill if not fulfilled the contract kills the host immediately...that kind of contract was immediately forced onto my mother threatened that I would be killed if she didn't agree to the contract as she was sentenced to never tell the truth about what really happened to my father or about anything that could ruin the prince,the crown prince used my mother as both a hostage and a witness to the emperor lying about my death too which never happened in the first place using my own mother as proof and the reason he kept me alive was also to use me as a threat to bind my own mother so she wouldn't recklessly tell something the emperor,he also didn't kill both of us that day because it would have looked too suspicious on his side if it really happened and after doing all of this he left me with one last piece of hope that I am still blindly following up until today...

My mind already moved towards the conclusion as I guessed the answer to this question myself.

-He demanded large amounts of money in exchange of your mother...is that right ?

I asked,scar seemed momentarily stunned by my guess,but she quickly calmed down as she simply dropped her head down her face contouring pain,rage and desperation that she held onto for 5 years now collecting and seeking money in any way possible,but also trying to keep onto her root belief ingrained by her father incredibly conflicted with herself not being able to kill anyone making her life even harder as it was,I even doubt that,the crown prince himself was even half serious about the offer he had towards scar concerning the money,in my opinion what he only ever wished through this action was to torture scar with the thought of being able to save her mother through money and my next guess is that it was only because of the petty rejection and humiliation he felt about the marriage in the first place...

Her story was awful and sad which also brought me to a lot of questions myself like the crown prince arbit for example if he really was the successor of the emperor why wasn't he waiting out his turn to become the emperor instead and what was this all about the tournament for sera's hand in marriage to become the next emperor/empress how did really all this fit into the current course of events...there were clearly massive amounts of gaps and holes to be filled right now that also needed to some explaining,but still there was one thing I knew clearly right now.

Scar,she had was incredibly burdened right now the burden on her shoulders hung for a bitter 5 years without any second of relief I seemed to be one of the only people she who she ever told about this before someone she seemed to genuinely trust meaning that she really did consider me as a friend making me a bit more happier,but also angry towards the crown prince for having done such a thing...inside my heart I swore that,that prince would get what he deserves...

-Hey ! Friends

Someone shouted out,scar also heard the voice and quickly wiped away her tears to hide her unsightly look on her face her expression instantly changed into that of a cheery one showing her extremely ability to change character at any given moment...it almost seemed unhuman to have such as ability...but for a person like her it wasn't very surprising.

Turning around both of us looked at the cave entrance as the bandaged woman got in alone she also walked out alone and through probing my senses for a bit,I also realized that I was a bit too careless while listening to scar's story...currently we were already surrounded by 12 people where the additional 4 came from was a mystery to me something that I couldn't be bothered to pursue as I watched the bandaged woman come closer to us at moment with a smile plastered on her face,her intent was already very clear to me even though no one came with her I could boldly sense the people who were hiding inside the shadow of the cavern waiting to jump out and charge.

Scar still didn't realize anything at all even now she was still stubbornly believing that he bandaged woman was a simple victim,I couldn't let her continue to think like this as her friend I needed to show her what was right and was wrong what I would teach her would also change her maybe,but it was necessary and I was ready to help.

-Ahhh...it seems like the villagers of my town are still quite scared the still allowed you to enter though so if you follow me inside we could immediately start to know each other some more and my father could also reward you ! How about it

The woman said with a bright smile on her face,but even she couldn't conceal her killing intent entirely with that smile looking at scar she also seemed to have noticed that killing intent,but she didn't quite believe it just yet and instead tried to ignore it stepping forward to shake the womans hand,but just as she did that I immediately blocked her path.

My eyes shined with a golden luster my intent cold and dark as I stared into the eyes of this vile woman that had nothing good in mind my eyes were golden,but the still reflected the coldness I had towards her immediately making the woman slightly fearful as she stepped back for a slight moment,looking at me stunned.

-Its already over we're not going anywhere anymore I tolerated your behavior and obvious signs I will give you only a single warning if you don't run and take you bandit friends with you.I promise you will die a death so quick that you wouldn't even know who killed you in the first place see your head spinning in the air while watching your severed body falling to the ground gushing out a fountain of blood from its neck...

I growled intimidatingly using strong language to frighten the woman,but it only worked temporarily as the woman in front of quickly threw away her facade her smiling turning into a twisted grin her eyes feral and her aura emitting strong killing intent.

- You knew from the start ? I already had a suspicion you did,but your an idiot if so you should ran with your little lady and not have followed me you fool...now this is going to be your grave and the fountain of blood you speak of is most likely going to be your body instead !

The woman cried out crazily,scar who stood behind me was instantly shocked and nailed to the ground her eyes going extremely wide with disbelieve of the sudden swing of the situation her mouth stuttering trying to get words out,but nothing came out.

-Kill Them !

Someone shouted and at that very moment everything started going to north as dozens of men charged at us from all sides to kill us,the woman who stood in front of acted first as she pulled a serrated knife from her waist instantly moving towards me with a stabbing move.

(Stab)

In the very next split second the sound of stabbing could be heard with it came the sound of blood gushing out of the wound.

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