"Sir Finn, is she still alive?" Deon worriedly asked.
He looked at the woman's pitiful figure.
She had lost an arm and the stump continued to bleed her dry. Her face, contorted in an expression of suffering, was pallid. Beads of cold sweat formed at her temples, making her short black hair stick to her clammy skin. Her leather armor and clothes were tattered, revealing too much of her white, bruised skin. She was bleeding from numerous cuts, leaving Deon to wonder just how much pain she was in.
Finn lifted her by her underarms and propped her against the tunnel walls in a sitting position.
"Hey." Finn gently shook her body, trying to wake her up,
But when the woman did not show any response, Finn slapped her cheek. HARD.
"Hey wake up!"
"Wha-What are you doing, Sir Finn?!" Deon was shocked at Finn's ungentlemanly behavior, "How could you slap a lady?!"
Deon was taught to always treat women delicately. As a Prince, as nobility, and as a man, he thought that he should always treat women with care and respect so Finn's behavior came to him as a huge shock.
Finn sighed.
"Sir Deon." Finn's voice suddenly turned cold, "Just because she's a woman doesn't mean that she's a lady. if she's here, then she's a warrior... A warrior who needs to wake up and save herself."
He could never understand why people of the East clung to the idea that women are weak and inferior. From where he came from, they always treated women as equals.
Finn turned his attention back to the woman who was finally coming around.
"Ughh…" the woman slowly opened her eyes.
Her dark eyes slowly blinked, unfocused. She looked dazed like she was under anesthesia.
Finn waved his hand in front of her, "Hello? Can you see me?"
The woman gazed at Finn's face, "Am I…dead?"
"Huh?" Finn and Deon looked at each other in confusion.
"Ahh… Sir Angel… Did you come to take my soul away?" the woman asked, apparently convinced that she had died.
'Hah! You wish! death doesn't work that way. There're only hyena-like skeletons in the underworld.' Mikael scoffed from beside Deon.
Instead of answering, Finn grimaced.
He had grown used to people instantly falling for his bewitching appearance that it has already become quite tiring, 'Haah… Really… being beautiful is a sin.'
"Lady, you're alive but if you don't treat those quickly…" Deon cut into the conversation.
The woman glared at Deon, suddenly coming to her senses, "Sir. I prefer to be called 'Dame* Nora' rather than 'Lady'"
At Nora's harsh words, Deon embarrassedly pursed his lips and remained quiet at the side.
Nora eyed her stump disdainfully.
Deon knew what that look meant as he had also felt that way two nights ago.
It was a look of self-hate and an overwhelming frustration for one's weakness and the sense of helplessness that accompanied it.
But unlike him, Dame Nora did not cry.
With a stern look, she ripped a part of her pants and tightly tied her stump with just one arm and her teeth.
She did not ask Finn nor Deon to help her tend to her wounds.
She did it all—by herself.
Deon found her amazing.
"So, what are you going to do now?" Finn asked Dame Nora, "For your information, we can't help you escape because we still have to sweep this place clean."
"That's okay. I have no intention of asking you for help anyway." Nora replied, "But… did I hear that correctly? You plan on killing all monsters here? Just the two of you? Or are there some other scouting group aside from yours?" she frowned, not believing that these two people wanted to go against thousands of monsters in an ant colony.
She thought the two could only be one or the other—either they were delusional fools or courageous warriors.
"No. it's just Sir Deon and me, Finn." he proudly declared as if his statement made any sense from a normal person's viewpoint, "So now that you're awake, we'll excuse ourselves. We still have lots of monsters to slay."
Finn stood up and fetched his torch, walking ahead with so much confidence.
"WAIT!" Nora jogged to catch up to their group.
Finn and Deon turned around to face her.
"Let me come with you," Nora said.
Finn looked at the dame from head to toe, scrutinizing her as if deciding whether she would be useful or not.
"Can you fight? I don't think you have a weapon with you."
"I can." Nora decisively answered, "I'm left-handed so my injury will not hinder my fighting abilities and if you could just provide me a sword…" she trailed off, realizing that a spearman and a combat Almagi wouldn't have an extra sword that they could lend her.
"Uhmm… I do have a sword but… can you turn around for a second?" Deon reluctantly asked.
Nora's and Finn's eyebrows shot up. Anywhere they looked, Deon didn't have anywhere to hide a long sword.
Of course, this is because it didn't occur to them that Deon might be a gold-spoon who carried around a national treasure.
Nevertheless, they turned their backs on Deon who, in turn, fished out a small mana crystal to activate his space ring.
Iridescent smoke rose and swirled into a space warp. Deon rummaged inside until he felt the cold sheathe of a sword.
He pulled it out.
The sheathe was made of black wood with gilded highlights. The hilt was basic, with merely a firm grip of black leather. There were no needless engravings on the one-meter blade. With its sleek design, the sword was beautiful, elegant, and practical.
"Isn't that the sword beside your spear? Why did you bring it here?" Mikael asked, remembering Deon's hesitation in choosing his weapon.
"Umm… I just thought it wouldn't hurt to have an extra weapon, Sir Mikael." Deon quietly responded.
'Does he want to be a swordsman?' Mikael suspiciously thought.
He had known Deon to have a weak personality and he wondered whether Deon was just forced to become a spearman. Like a student choosing his college major based on his parent's decision, 'Well, it's not like it's the right time to ask him. We should focus on the task at hand.'
Deon handed Dame Nora the sword with an expression of regret.
"Whoaa… it's so beautiful…" Dame Nora admired the blade under the torchlight and beamed at Deon, "Are you really sure that I can borrow this?"
Seeing Deon nod, Dame Nora expressed her heartfelt gratitude, "Thank you, Sir Deon! I will use it well."
Actually, Nora was worried that she'd burden Finn and Deon with her selfish desire. She had wanted to exact revenge on these monsters for killing her younger brother and taking her right arm.
She wanted to tear them apart. LIMB. BY. LIMB. and scatter their flesh and blood on the ground.
She had been caught while protecting her injured brother against five soldier ants.
It was a five-against-two battle but with her brother incapacitated, she was ultimately left to fend them off, killing three of the five on her own
However, while she was surrounded by the three ants, two others slaughtered her little brother right in front of her eyes. In her wrath, she lost all sense of reason and wreaked havoc.
But it was too late.
Her brother was dead, and she was too exhausted to fight. She eventually passed out, unable to recall how she arrived in the ant colony.
--Chapter end--
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*Dame is the same as the rank Knight but exclusive for women.