Just a little more...

As Nicholas and Athanasia still talking. Athanasia's been trying to cut the rope ever since she woke up. She has a sharp hairpin that luckily dangled on her hair after she was kidnapped. She just needs time for this thick rope to cut.

"You're getting brave now princess, huh?" Nicholas baffled. "Are you really the princess?"

"I've suffered a lot because of the loop, nothing will scare me now," Athanasia said through gritted teeth.

"Really?" Nicholas raised a brow in amusement. "So if I do something to this weak body, it won't be scared?" He questioned, pointing at Ijekiel's chest, a magic circle slowly appearing at the tip of his pointer finger.

Athanasia tried to pull out from the rope as she thought that the rope is slowly loosening, but failed. She smirked to hide her disappointment. "As if you really want that. If you kill Ijekiel, you don't have a vassal anymore, and without a vassal, you are nothing."

Nicholas paused and grinned. "Clever. I thought you could let me see the despair in your face but you seemed persistent."

"I am not my parent's daughter for nothing!" Athanasia suddenly stood up, finally cutting the rope from her hands, and threw the pin across Nicholas's cheek. The latter staggered backward, surprised at the sudden attack.

"H-How?!"

Athanasia didn't hesitate to jump through the window without knowing how high they were. She ignored the pain in her arms as the glass shards from the window she broke sliced her pale skin.

She used her mana to slow down time to gently land herself on the ground. She turned everything back to where it was and ran away with Nicholas yelling at her name.

Athanasia took off her heels as she ran, pushing people out of her way. She already covered her face so that the people won't panic when they see their princess running barefoot with bruises all over her body.

"Hey!!"

Athanasia jumped, almost tripped herself when she heard Nicholas's voice behind. She turned to see Nicholas running after her, still in Ijekiel's body.

There are whispers around when they saw Ijekiel running with a cut on his cheek where Athanasia had hurt him. Nicholas was too focused on capturing Athanasia that he forgot to conceal himself.

Athanasia's breathing hitched, seeing him getting closer. She immediately turned as soon as she saw a horse getting out from its reigns and used a spell to let her jump higher and ride on the horse's back.

"Hey- what are you-?!"

"I'm gonna borrow this horse for a while!" Athanasia said and ran off with the horse.

Nicholas stopped and saw Athanasia riding a horse. He hissed, cracking his knuckles. "You're not getting away!!" He yelled as he used a spell to let himself fly and go full-speed.

Athanasia saw 3 Obelian soldiers lining up in front of her. Someone must have told the soldiers about the ruckus in this street.

She clenched her teeth. If I stop, I'll get caught!

She didn't stop and charged instead. She held her hand up to make a sword out of mana and readied herself to the soldiers. "Let's test how good you are at sword fighting," She said with a smirk.

She glanced back to see if Nicholas is still following her, but she didn't see Ijekiel's body anywhere in the crowd. She clicked her tongue.

"Let's just get this over with."

She decided to lengthen her sword and turn it into a spear. It's better to use the spear because she has short arms to reach the soldiers while riding a horse.

Athanasia held her spear up and spin it around to distract the soldiers. She then immediately swung it on the ground and caught one of the soldier's swords, sending it flying on the roof.

She swung her spear to the other side while her horse suddenly charged to the 2nd one, stomping them with its hooves.

"Whoa!" Athanasia almost fell from the horse's back, but thankfully she has a strong grip.

As soon as the horse stood straight, Athanasia stabbed her spear on the ground and swung herself around the handle, sending her to the other soldier.

She landed on the soldier's shoulders with her thighs wrapped around his neck and swung her upper body down to send the soldier's head to the ground.

"Sorry," Athanasia panted, wiping off the sweat.

She went back to get her spear, then she noticed that there's still one soldier left. It was the one that Athanasia threw their sword to the roof.

"Do you still want to-" Her voice got cut off as an arrow flew across her face from behind. Her eyes widened and turned to face who shot the arrow, but she was met with Ijekiel's grinning face with his hand holding mana, ready to attack.

I won't make it in time!

A huge explosion occurred in the street near the orphanage.

Athanasia thought that she would lose her consciousness or die if she get hit by Nicholas's magic but his hand didn't even hit her face.

"Ah, right after I told you to stay in your bottle. You never really listen to me huh?"

Athanasia's eyes opened. This voice! She looked up to see a long black-haired man in front of her, holding Nicholas's fist with a magic circle.

"L-Lucas!" She called.

Lucas glanced at her and smiled. "Hey. I see you got your memories back."

Athanasia gaped at the older, tears suddenly rolled off from her eyes. She feel so relieved, ever since she got out of Nicholas's grasps, she was scared, scared that Nicholas might catch her and won't let her see her loved ones again. She was scared.

But seeing Lucas standing in front of her now with a reassuring smile, the fear was soon faded into thin air.

She smiled and nodded. "Mhm... I-I remember..."

Lucas's eyes softened, seeing her crying in relief. He held out his other hand and patted her head. "You did well, Athanasia."

Then he turned back to Nicholas who is struggling to get out from his magic circle, his eyes immediately darkened when had faced him.

"You made the princess cry and captured her precious friend. Don't think that you're going to get away from it."

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8 more chapters left T~T