"Are you okay Mel?" I asked, the girls in my arms.
She just stared at the corpses of her knights in silence, and I hugged her tighter as she began to shake.
"How did they…" She couldn't finish and burst into tears.
"Don't hold back, let it all out." I told her, and she began to cry even harder.
After a few minutes, she sniffled and looked at me.
"This…"-
"Your sister? Yes, most likely." I finished for her.
"But why?"
"Mel, you are the crown princess, and you are younger than her, it was because of jealousy, and because of the connection with us." I answered her, stroking her back.
"But, she is my sister." She answered quietly.
"She doesn't care about that!" She doesn't feel that you either. You're just a nuisance to her." I told her the harsh truth.
"Mel..." Filo said, and hugged the girl too.
"Thank you, Ganyu, Filo." She said smiling.
I walked up to the corpses of the knights and found what I was looking for.
A crystal ball.
"It most likely recorded all the deaths, so we'll be the criminals who killed the knights and kidnapped the princess." I said as I squeezed the ball, and it shattered into tiny pieces.
"But I..."
"Mel, even if you try to justify us, I still killed the knights, and they might think that you're under our control." I told her as the girl clenched her fists and bit her lip.
I sighed and walked towards her.
"Do you mind staying with us until this whole mess is over?" she simply nodded.
I looked at the shield hero who stood there and looked into the distance.
"Ganyu, what are the chances that everyone in the kingdom will think that…"
"100%, and I'm serious, that slut would do something like that to ruin our, the hero's reputation, although I don't really give a shit about it. But for you…" I said, falling silent.
He nodded at me and continued to look into the distance.
"Raphtalia, get the carriage ready, we're leaving." I said to my sister.
"Yes sister."
For the next few days, we hid around the kingdom, news of what we "supposedly" did spread quickly, and there were even wanted posters.
We set up camp in some ruins now, waiting for Naofumi to return.
Mel, it was a little better with my presence and Philo's endless support.
We heard a rustling in the bushes, where the shield hero came out from.
"What did you find out?" she asked us.
"Well, to all the people, I show the fake recording. I said in a sarcastic voice
"Mel, we are going to leave the country. You..." I did not finish, she just shook her head.
"I will go back to the capital, talk to my father..."
"Mel, don't do this!" I said firmly.
"Why?" she asked me.
"You will most likely be killed before you even get to the castle." I said
"But what should I do then?" she asked on the verge of tears.
"Come with us, we will protect you." I said hugging the girl.
The next day, we left the cart, collected the necessary things and set out on our own. With the cart we would have attracted a lot of attention, but without it it would be easier.
Although it was a pity to leave it, this cart became something like a house on wheels for us.
Of course, we hid it as best we could and will definitely come back for it, and this news immediately made Filo smile.
By evening, we climbed a mountain where there was a small cave, in which we decided to wait out the night.
Of course, I immediately climbed into the bags and took out the necessary ingredients for cooking dinner.
Today we had fish with vegetables and spices.
While I was making preparations, Raphtalia lit a fire, which I used almost immediately, and in thirty minutes dinner was ready.
Me too, a little bit, but...
"Sister, here you go," Raphtalia told me, handing me the mug.
"Raphtalia, have I ever told you that you are the best sister in the world?" I exclaimed, taking the mug of wine from her. And of course, my compliment made her blush deeply.
Adorable…
After dinner, we all sat down to rest, I Mel, sat next to me leaning against me, taking out a pendant with her mother and father drawn on it.
"Ganyu, what happened between my father and you?" Mel asked me, breaking the silence.
I sighed and answered her.
"Mel… I'm sorry, but I can't stand him. I just can't understand his stupidity, I've shown many times that I won't obey anyone, and he still thinks that he can do something." I told her, showing obvious contempt for her father.
"I see." she answered and fell silent.
"They found us!" she said, jumping up from her seat, as she felt people approaching us.
"We need to leave." Naofumi said, to which I nodded, although I had a desire to simply kill them all.
We went down the mountain, and walked along a thin ledge, which was quite dangerous…
"Careful!" I said pleasantly to Mel, to myself, when she almost fell into the abyss.
"Are you okay? Are you okay?" I asked the girl in my arms, she nodded to me and we continued on our way, only this time Mel did not let go of my hand, afraid of falling again.
"Looks like they noticed us!" I shouted, as I saw many knights running towards us.
"Let's run, to that rock!" Naofumi shouted, pointing to the rock in the distance.
We quickly headed after him.
"Well, it's a dead end, maybe I should…" - I wanted to suggest moving on to more drastic measures, but Melty interrupted me
"No! Ganyu please don't kill them!" - Mel exclaimed, tears in her eyes.
Damn, that's not fair! I can't stand the sight of a crying girl, it's my weakness…
"Okay…" - I answered her
"You have nowhere else to go! Lay down your weapons and let the princess go." - we heard a voice behind us, which belonged to the hero of the sword, that is, the emo goth.
"Interesting, but Mel, with us of his own free will." - I said, holding back my intention to kill them all, for Mel's sake.
"Don't lie, dirty demon…" - the pedophile couldn't answer, as I shot an arrow that flew past his face, scratching his cheek, if the arrow was aimed a little to the right, he would be dead.
"Hmm, you're pretty brave for a punching bag! Do you need to be reminded what it's like to be a punching bag?"
"They're not holding me captive, I decided to go with them myself!" Melty interjected.
"Wait, didn't those two kidnap you?" the sword hero asked.
"No! It was a plot against me!" she exclaimed.
"I wouldn't be here if Ganyu hadn't saved my life, so I'm with them, they're protecting me."
"But…"
"And why would they take me hostage anyway? Ganyu is one of my close friends, along with Filo! Why would they do that to me?" Melty asked, while I was flattered that she thought that of me.
"Don't believe her! "That demon, clouded her head!" - the whore intervened and pointed at me, I had an urge to fire a barrage of arrows into her stupid head and make a colander out of her.
"Tell me, are you all that stupid?" - I asked in a cold tone, which made everyone tense up.
"Have you forgotten how strong I am? So what makes you, who are just useless trash in my eyes, believe that you have a chance against me?" - I asked them with contempt in my voice, letting out, which made most of the knights tremble, so clearly they remembered what I was capable of.
"And you..." - I said looking at the whore.
"You are even worse than trash! You are only meant to be a hole, for anyone..." - I said activating my cryo energy, to which all our opponents froze to the ground and were unable to get out.
I created a bridge behind us that would take us to the other side of the cliff. Since I promised Mel not to kill anyone, I will keep my promise.
"Let's go." I said and gently took Mel's hand.
As soon as we crossed the bridge, I destroyed it, and Naofumi took out the cross of the Church of the Three Heroes, and simply threw it to the other side.
"Fuck your church!" he shouted in a despicable voice and turned to leave.
I smiled and saluted them.
"Arrivederci!"
A little deeper into the forest...
"Stop Raphtalia." I said to my sister as she was about to draw her sword, as an unknown woman appeared in front of us.
"She's with us! She's one of the "shadows", the spies that only obey the queen." Melty said.
"That is, your mother," I added, to which she nodded.
"This is probably the first time you've seen me in a mask…" she said and fell silent.
"Yes, but you're the one who gave us the cross of the Church of the Three Heroes!" I said, recognizing her right away.
"I'd like to get straight to the point, I dare say." she said, then added.
"I'd like to ask you to follow me to Her Majesty, I dare say."
"I take it Melty's mother wants to see us?" I asked the shadow.
"The roots of the problem are deep, I dare say." she replied.
"If possible, help us, I dare say."
"And this fake kidnapping was staged by those who fear the power of the heroine of the bow," the shadow said.
"Okay! We'll drop by the queen, you can tell her that," she nodded and quickly disappeared.
"Something's wrong!" I exclaimed, feeling the tension in the air.
"Yes, I smell smoke!" Raphtalia added.
That whore...