Penelope stares at her bloody hand. Half of the hairpin she's holding is stained with blood. If she is a normal six-year-old child, Penelope will never dare to do what she did just now. By just thinking that you will stab a person until they bleed is a scary idea for a normal child.
But Penelope is not just a normal six-year-old child.
She is a girl who already experienced a lot of hardships in the past. She already saw a lot of things that a child like her should not see at a very young age. The sight of blood staining her hand is no longer a scary thing for her. What's scarier for Penelope is to repeat what happened in the past and become helpless in preventing her loved one's death.
"Y-You!"
The leader of those bulky men cannot believe it. That little girl just stabbed him. But what's more shocking to him is her expression. She doesn't even show any remorse or guilt on her face. Instead, that little girl is just casually looking at her hand which is now stained with his blood.
"What are you still waiting for?! Catch her!" The leader shouted.
His men finally come back to their senses. Maybe the kid stabbed their leader out of desperation. It is only a normal reaction when someone feels like they are in danger. A man with a scar on his lower lips moves his legs faster to get the child and throw the hairpin she's holding so she cannot use it against them anymore. But to his surprise, the little girl put her hand inside the pocket of her dress and throw something at his face.
"Argh!"
The man feels like his eyes are burning in pain. That little brat just threw sand on his face! When he tries to rub it, the stinging pain quickly spread to his eyes. He cannot even open his eyes properly without shedding a tear.
The powder that Penelope threw on his face is not sand but pearl powder. While her nanny was not paying attention to her in the plaza, Penelope secretly threw the pearl necklace on the floor and stepped on it several times. After that, she collected the cracked pearls inside her pocket. She pulverized it more by squeezing and rubbing the cracked pearls inside of her pocket. But the strength of a six-year-old child is still weak compared to others. Some of the pearls are easily pulverized while the others crack into smaller pieces making it similar to coarse sand.
The man can still feel a lot of powder in his eyes no matter how much he rubs it. His eyes are getting redder the more he tries to remove the pearl powder from his eyes. Seeing this opportunity, Penelope bravely approaches the man and stabs him on his thigh with her hairpin. It makes the man scream in pain before he falls flat on the ground while cradling his thigh.
When the leader accepted the job from the duchess, he thought this will be an easy job for them. She already paid a lot of money to them in advance just to make sure that they will do a clean job this time. Their group had already accepted a few jobs that includes killing other people in exchange for a huge sum of money. This time, they are thinking this job is not different from their previous tasks since eliminating an unwanted child is easier than killing an adult noble.
But seeing the little girl bravely stabbing them with her trinket without batting an eye, the leader finally realized that killing that child is no longer a simple task.
Amanda is also thinking the same. While she's holding her scared daughter, Amanda's eyes are watching what is happening outside of their carriage. Everything is not following her plans for today. When those men she paid earlier ambushed their carriage, she is expecting them to disappear as soon as they got Penelope and her nanny. Since their coachman is already dead, Amanda and Emilia will be the remaining witnesses and they can easily fabricate the details of Penelope's disappearance.
But after waiting for a few more minutes, Amanda can still hear their voices not too far from the carriage. Her eyebrows furrowed thinking that the barbarians she paid don't know how to follow a simple instruction. She wanted them to disappear as soon as possible in case someone will see them since they are still in the middle of the road. Amanda thought she picked the wrong group of barbarians to finish a simple task that was given to them.
But the exact moment she turned her head to see what is happening outside of their carriage, Amanda saw how Penelope viciously stabbed the barbarian's leader on his left abdomen. The little girl didn't show any hesitation when she did that. Even if the man threw her somewhere, she calmly stand up and looks at those huge men.
Another man tried to capture Penelope again. But that man miserably fails when the little girl threw something on his face that made his eyes red. Soon, Penelope approached that man and stabbed him too. This time, she targeted the man's thigh.
Amanda cannot believe it. Penelope is just a six-year-old little girl. She is a pampered little princess of Clementine who never experienced any hardship in life. She knows that Penelope grew up in a wealthy and peaceful environment. She is supposed to be ignorant and easily scared in this kind of situation!
But...
All of a sudden, Penelope turns her head and looks at Amanda without any expression on her face. The doll-like beauty of that little girl is mesmerizing to look at in a normal situation. But right now, Amanda can feel a sudden chill slowly running down her spine as Penelope slowly curves her lips upward to create a pretty smile. Soon, Penelope's lips slowly move to mouth the words she wants to tell her.
'You will never succeed in killing me, Amanda.'
Amanda's eyes widen in surprise to receive such words from a little girl like Penelope. She wants to believe that everything is just a part of her imagination. But the way Penelope looks at her mockingly and the trembling feeling of Emilia's body next to her is telling her that everything is real. Before Amanda can blink her eyes, Penelope is no longer looking at her. Instead, Amanda can see how that little girl adjusts the grip on the bloody hairpin she's holding in her hand. At that exact moment, Amanda finally realizes the gravity of this situation against her.
Penelope takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself. She only moved a little but her body is already feeling tired. Having a delicate body of a child who never experienced any heavy activities before is a very difficult task for Penelope. In her desperation and lack of preparation, she overestimated herself thinking that protecting themselves against these men will become easy. Penelope finally realized the harsh reality that she's a six-year-old child who has limited strength and capabilities.
But she cannot just give up here that easily. If Penelope will stop all of a sudden, then the things that happened in the past will repeat again. She can still hear her nanny's cries while trying her best to get away from their grip. To stop her from moving, Penelope sees that man slapping her nanny's face so hard that makes her lips bleed.
"Nanny!" Penelope cried in a panicked voice seeing her nanny being treated like that in front of her.
"Little miss, run!" Lisa said instead. "You should save yourself—Aahh!"
"Nanny!"
The man who is holding Lisa pulls her hair so hard. Penelope can see how her nanny's face distorts in pain because of it. Gripping the hairpin so tight in her hand, Penelope is determined to stab these men until they bleed so much after they hurt her nanny right in front of her eyes. Because she was distracted, Penelope didn't notice that the leader sneaks behind her back and strongly grabs her nape.
"You already made a lot of trouble for us today, brat!" The leader spat on Penelope's face as he mercilessly presses her small body on the dusty road.
"No! Let go of her! Little miss! Penelope! Please let her go!" Lisa desperately cried. She ignores the pain she's feeling right now seeing that her little miss is in that position. "I'm begging you! Please let the child go!"
Penelope tries to wiggle her body but the leader's grip on her nape is too tight. Soon, he pulls the hairpin she's holding and throw it somewhere away from them. Seeing that the little girl has nothing to use as a weapon now, the leader clicks his tongue and considers his options. Should he kill this brat now or they should follow the original plan?
"It's better to kill you now—Ahhh!"
The leader suddenly screams in pain when he feels something sliced on his back. But before he can register in his mind what happened, the leader received another slash on his back. With a final groan, his body slowly falls sideward next to the child he was pressing down earlier.
"I didn't really expect that I'll be seeing a bunch of boars in this forest."
When Penelope slowly turns her head around, she sees the same young man in the plaza standing next to her. Raising his brow, the young man kneels his one knee on the ground so he can have a good look at Penelope's calm expression in this situation.
"I didn't expect that you are such a clever little girl."