Chereads / The Knight of Roses / Chapter 9 - escape - 2

Chapter 9 - escape - 2

Hector and the three girls appear next to the cave mouth he destroyed earlier. It has been caved in by the impact of the various battles that have occurred in the past hour.

"FUCK!!! No, no, no, no, no!!!" Hector curses. "Just when I'd managed to get him to calm down!!"

"Uh..." One of the girls starts. "Where are we, sir?"

"Eh?" Hector asks. "I mean...this is the White Woods. It's off the fork of Carnegie and Nuwait."

"I've heard of this place..." the other one says. "Isn't it meant to be crawling with monsters?"

"We took care of that problem earlier..." Hector smiles nervously, very obviously worried about the safety of his friend.

Hector picks up his wristband. "Hey, Arryn! Arryn! Are you there?!"

There is no response.

"Is your friend going to be fine?" the third girl, the one who was holding Arryn's shirt earlier, asks.

Hector pauses. Then he lets out an even more nervous laugh. "What am I doing? This is a rescue mission. You're meant to feel at ease with me. Let's go, my friend will be fine. He'll definitely catch up to us."

He walks to her. "Can you stand?"

She shakes her head. "I broke my ankles in the hostage room."

Hector looks confused. "How'd that happen?"

She looks at the two girls behind her. Then she turns to Hector.

"I was just clumsy." She laughs.

Hector frowns and takes her hand. He takes a look at her memories of the past day. He sees the hostage girls ganging up on her after a cultist tells them about the reason why they're being killed. The two girls behind him are also guilty of this, as they joined the others in beating her up.

"I see how it is." Hector laughs.

"You do?" She asks.

"Yes. Indeed, it seems there's only enough space on the horses for one additional person."

"Huh?" The three girls echo.

Hector picks her up and puts her on his back.

"Try and keep up. I can't keep coming back for you two." He says and takes off running.

The other two look at each other and give chase, though they can barely keep up.

Hector, while increasing his speed, notices she is worrying. "Don't look back."

She turns away from the girls behind them as the distance grows bigger.

"The world isn't meant to be nice. When you are idealistic and nice all the time, everyone will take advantage of you. But you can still be nice. You can still be good, but when you have to make a decision, do it, and never, ever look back." Hector says.

She nods.

"Attagirl." Hector replies to the nod and increases his speed even further.