"But I couldn't have guessed that fate would save me from that effort. That day did become memorable, but not in the way I had hoped.
I once again saw the face I didn't want to see even in my nightmares."
Loreana clenched her fists, revealing a never-before-seen expression of hatred on her always-gentle face.
"We were on our way to the village when we were abruptly stopped by a commotion in front of us." Some of our village's residents were running in our direction. The majority of them were injured and covered in blood as they ran towards us.
Other men dressed as bandits were chasing them down at a leisurely pace. They clearly had the strength to kill the villagers in an instant, but they appear to find a twisted sense of comfort in torturing the helpless villagers.
Both groups were taken aback by our appearance. When the villagers saw Lady Faustina, they were overjoyed. They were aware that they had been saved.
The bandits' faces were also surprised, as if they hadn't expected to see us there. But that quickly gave way to vulgarity as they let the villagers go and surrounded us both.
Unfortunately, they chose the wrong target. Lady Faustina was already worried because she knew that after meeting Uncle Benny, no ordinary bandit group would be able to escape alive.
With that in mind, she dealt with them quickly and easily. That was the first time I witnessed her true strength. The bandits were diced like vegetables with a wave of her hand. She dispatched them quickly before running to the village. I followed her, with the same anxiety burning in my heart.
When we finally arrived in the village, we were greeted by a disheartening scene.
But my mind quickly ignored everything else as my gaze was drawn to the man with the calmest expression of anyone present.
I could never forget that face. It was the same man who had purchased me at the slave auction three years ago.
He was playing with a ball-like thing in a relaxed manner, enjoying the sight of his men killing the villagers who were unable to flee in time.
Uncle Benny was also fighting a group of men in the center. They bore no resemblance to the bandits and were far more powerful.
Normally, even that would not have been enough for them to face Uncle Benny, as he could take care of them without even breaking a sweat.
However, he was already critically injured as he fought. One of his hands hung motionless. His body was covered in visible scorched marks from an explosion.
He saw our arrival and warned Lady Faustina to flee with me.
When she saw her husband in such a battered and bloodied state, I could feel her struggle.
But, in the end, she took his advice and quickly returned to pull me over her shoulders and run towards the forest. For some reason, that man from the auction followed us with his gaze but did not pursue us.
I yelled at her, begging her to stop. I knew she had the ability to flee with her husband at the very least. But I knew why she made the decision she did—it was because of me.
My hateful gaze had already revealed the man's identity to her. But she clearly didn't want to give up on me.
The tears of sadness I thought had left me for good, came streaming down once again, as I begged her to save Uncle Benny. I told her she should just give up on me. But she ignored everything.
She kept running until we could only hear the wind rushing past our faces.
I wanted to ask her why she did that… Why didn't she try to save him?
But she had already responded when she noticed that I had stopped crying. She stated: "Don't be concerned. If there's one thing your Uncle Benny is good at, it's taking a beating. How else do you think I survived my enemies' relentless pursuit in the past?"
I could only hope she was right and not just trying to comfort me.
It was then...
As we ran forward to reach a safe distance, Lady Faustina suddenly shot away from the path she was following.
Before I could even gather my senses due to the sudden deviation in our momentum, a loud explosion blasted through our ears along with a cloud of heat and rubble that covered our visions.
Lady Faustina had already embraced me while facing the remnants of the blast herself. It was her quick thinking that allowed us to escape almost unscathed from what could have been a fatal explosion.
As we regained our footing, we noticed a shadowy figure appear in the previous path we were on.
It was a masked man with all but his eyes covered in black. The only thing that made his outfit stand out was the white symbol drawn across his chest.
He looked at us as if we were the prey he'd come to hunt.
He had clearly used that explosive, and we realized that something similar had been used to catch Uncle Benny off guard and injure him as a result.
The man in front of us was stronger than the previous group. In fact, he appeared to be more powerful than the man who wanted to enslave me.
Still, he was no match for Lady Faustina. He was, however, as cunning as a fox and as agile as a weasel. He never confronted her, instead retreating and using the terrain of the forest to reach his intended target—me.
We were all in agreement that I was the weak link in what should have been the strongest team.
Soon, the worst came to happen as he finally found a chance to reach me. Lady Faustina had no choice but to face the attack head on.
Maybe that man had already predicted her reaction, which is why he put in extra effort in each of his attacks aimed at me.
What he couldn't make up for with strength, he made up for with cunning, taking advantage of every factor.
I watched as the ever-victorious Lady Faustina's figure became more and more bloodied. I even considered giving up my life to save her from this misery that she should not have been a part of in the first place.
But her bright eyes stopped me from doing anything that would let her down. She hadn't given up hope; she was just waiting for a chance to change things.
And the opportunity presented itself soon. Taking advantage of the guy's focus on the terrain, she led him down the wrong path, causing him to arrive at the location she had intended.
But that guy was also not to be underestimated.
When he saw the unavoidable strike coming his way, he acted with a scary decisiveness.
He gave up on retreating and shook his palm slightly, causing something to fall down his sleeve and onto his palm.
It was a small black ball-like thing, and it was visibly a smaller version of the ball the man from the auction was playing with.
It was clearly the same explosive he had used earlier, only smaller.
Taking advantage of the close proximity, he threw the black ball at Lady Faustina's face.
Another short blast overwhelmed my senses.
As things became clearer, I saw the man standing with difficulty as his hand that faced Lady Faustina's strike was crippled. His other hand, the one he used to throw the small bomb, was also not in a great condition either. He was no longer in any condition to fight.
Lady Faustina's condition was not much better. Her body was scorched black on one side, and her ears were bleeding. Her eye on that side appeared to be injured as well, as she kept it closed.
Her sense of equilibrium had become disoriented. She would have been in a worse situation than the guy in front of her if she hadn't channeled her energy at the last moment to absorb the majority of the impact.
She then ignored her own pain and stepped forward to deliver the decisive blow.
The man, even as badly injured as he was, tried to struggle. But his courage couldn't save him anymore as he finally crumpled with her final attack.
Not even stopping to recover, Lady Faustina took me over her shoulder once again and began running. I wanted to stop her, as it pained me to see her state, but I decided to stay quiet as I didn't want to make it harder for her than it already was.
Her speed was obviously slower than before, but she wasn't moving aimlessly.
She appeared to be on a predefined route. As we walked out of the woods, I noticed an open area in front of us. I could hear the sound of torrents of water surging and falling.
We had arrived at the brink of a waterfall. I couldn't even see the bottom because of the height and the presence of dense vapor. But I was sure that escaping through the waterfall would be enough to throw the enemies off track.
She must have planned this escape route ahead of time in case any of her former enemies decided to greet them. I was ultimately responsible for her using it ahead of time.
Our enemies caught up with us just as Lady Faustina was trying to find the best spot to jump without hurting me.
It was our last chance to challenge our inevitable fate."