I tear through the forest, sharp branches whipping at my face, catching my clothes, leaving tiny pieces of cloth and blood stuck on the vegetation.

“So please, take care of her, at least until the rebellion is over. You’re the only one I can trust with this.”

I repeatedly tap my scabbard, over and over and over again.

“Let’s move to the capital for a while, bring Oribu with us.”

Despite the rain washing away the footprints, the trail marks were very fresh, allowing me to follow closely behind.

“Yessy must be lonely all by herself…”

I draw my sword.

“Please… At least until I fall asleep… It’s too dark.”

I slice downwards, straight through a man’s back. The rain was still too loud and disorienting for the group of men to realize what was going on.

I keep my eyes wide open, as I turn to the next target. I blitz her down before she has a chance to react, my sword making a squelching sound through her stomach as the small group of people finally realize that someone followed them.

“What the?! Behind us!” A man with long hair falling over his eyes points at me.

“RAGHHHHHHH!” I holler as loud as humanly possible, pure rage, boiling within my stomach as I pounce forward, slashing wildly without reservation.

“Oh, simmer down.” One of the women approaches me, expertly weaving through my strokes to smash her shoulder straight into my chest, knocking me down off my balance.

She unsheathes her sword with terrifying dexterity and holds the sharp edge against my throat, as I try to lean back off the ground. She digs her feet into my knees, pinning my lower half down.

Unfortunately, I could only be considered an average swordsman.

“Wait! Don’t kill him!” One of the men runs up to her.

“I know. I recognize him.” She says. “Even if we didn’t get the right cart this is almost as good.”

“What?! Who are you?!” I sputter.

“Are you serious?” The woman exclaims. “You must have had a real nice vacation if you didn’t know what was going on around the country, pig.”

Pig? Me? “I… But why would you do this?” Are these people…

“Maybe your friend would be more willing to accept some of our terms if we had his daughter with us, but his childhood buddy should be convincing enough.”

They’re the rebels. “I thought Mallefard dealt with you guys! Why are you still here?!” I cry out. “I thought… But why?!”

“Why what? Nothing’s going to stop us except his death or our deaths, no matter how little of us there are left.”

“Why do you do this!? King Mallefard was raised just like you! He was trying to make things better!”

“Yes and we expected conditions to improve when he became king, but as time went on, not only did they not improve, things got even worse. You traitors got the taste of luxury and left us out for the wolves.”

“Haley, enough. We don’t have the time to waste on this conversation. Tie him up and let's go.”

“No, no, no! This is all wrong! It’s all completely wrong!” I scream and writhe around as they shove me over, forcing my hands behind my back. “This doesn’t explain why they had to die! Why Why Why Couldn’t you have spared them?!”

The woman freezes for a second before she realizes what I was talking about. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She hangs her head down. “We didn’t realize who was in the cart until the last moment, and then they came out and then…”

“Quit moping about it. Children die in battle all the time, and this time it was at least the daughter of a pig instead of one of ours.” A man walks up and rests his hand on Haley’s shoulder which was quickly swatted away.

”Can you have at least a little empathy? He just saw the bodies of his wife and daughter, and I just think that’s kinda sad.” Haley bickers.

“Oh well excuse me if I don’t find their deaths sad. People from my family have died as well! And none of these scumbags stopped to mourn for them!” He snaps back.

“It’s not true… We’re not…” I mumble.

The man leans down and grabs my neck, bringing us eye to eye. “Haeeeer?! The hell you’re not! You pigs never even spared a thought when—“ An arrow flies through his head.

“I told you to saddle up the horses before I got back, why are only three of them done!?”

”Sorry… I’ve only seen how it’s done, I’ve never done it by myself before.” Mallefard mumbles at the red-in-the-face noble.

”Oh great! We’re going to be late to the restaurant because of you!” The noble then turns around to his entourage with a quaint smile. “Excuse him, he’s a bit slow in the head.”

I grip my wood-woven basket of dirty linens tightly before squeezing my eyes shut.

This asshole… If Mallefard didn’t offer to sub in on his day off for Fern because he’s feeling sick you wouldn’t have anybody to saddle your horses.

“Get a move on! Quit being lazy or else… You know the saying: those who do not work, do not eat.” The man grabs the saddle from a crate and flings it towards Mallefard, the leather flying like a whip and smacking into Mallefard’s arm.

Oh my goodness I want to walk up and slap that man so badly, but…

I hurriedly look away and walk to the laundry room.

A couple hours later

I take out a shirt from the laundry basket to hang it out to dry, having recently scrubbed it an hour ago.

…

This was what that noble was wearing.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

…

Which means I’m doing his laundry right now.

…

I put down his clothes and run out to the courtyard, naturally already daydreamed of an idea to get petty payback.

I crouch down near an oak tree, and with a rag covering my hand, carefully pluck out an inconspicuous plant growing out from the stem of the tree.

I inspect it for a couple seconds, spinning it around slowly, making sure to not let the leaves brush against my skin.

Logically speaking, this is a very bad idea with no practical benefits. I wasn’t the one wronged, and Mallefard probably won’t even care. If I were a smarter person, I would put this down… Nay, I’d probably be hanging up wet clothes right now without this thought ever crossing my mind.

…

I run back to the drying racks with the leafy plant in hand.

“Damn! Why didn’t you tell him that you typically don’t saddle the horses?!” I crash down on my bed, next to Mallefard who was reading a book under the candlelight. His mother was surprisingly educated despite her work, so he learned how to read early.

“I was in the wrong after all. I should have been more prepared to cover Fern’s duties before I committed to anything.” He replies.

“Yea, but you’re trying to do a nice thing. He should be a bit more understanding.” I say.

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Just drop it and forget about it.” Mallefard looks up from his book.

“I feel like I should be the one saying that to you.” I say.

“Unless something further happens. He won’t remember my face tomorrow.” Mallefard smirks and waves me off.

One week later

Scritch-scratch, Scritch scratch. The noble rubs his chest, arms, and back furiously. I look up from my station as he walks through the courtyard with an irritated look on his face.

… I blink a couple times.

He looks around for a couple seconds with a heavily despondent attitude.

… The inside of my cheeks curl, the edge of my lips tense up. My breaths were coming in shakily.

He shuffles around aimlessly, before kicking the side of a door frame in frustration, marching off into another area.

…

.

.

.

“PWAHAHAHA.” I wheeze with laughter as soon as I was sure he was out of earshot. Finally, I was getting worried he wasn’t going to wear that shirt ever again.

“What’s so funny?” Pia asks me with a confused smile. She’s been working beside me for a while, we were acquaintances at best, not great friends.

“I got my revenge.” I keep my response vague on purpose.

“Ooooo… Kay? Revenge on what?” She continues prodding.

“I just got my sweet sweet revenge. That’s all you’re gonna get out of me.” I declare before looking back down to work.

Ha! You’re not going to get me with that. I’m taking my cake and running far far away so I can eat it as well. I ponder smugly.

“Oh my goodness!”

”What happened to him?”

“I heard he pissed off Sir Enue somehow?”

“Really? What did he do?”

“I don’t know, Shane told me when he was there that Enue kinda just exploded on him out of nowhere, there wasn’t a clear reason.”

My fingers contort, digging into my palms until blood seeped into my fingernails.

My vision goes hazy and unfocused, as if my mind didn’t want to confront the sight in front of me.

I didn’t want to rationalize it, I didn’t want to think about it, because if I thought about it even a little bit, I would come to realize the truth behind what happened.

”I’m. sorry. Mallefard. I’m sorry… I’m so… sorry.” I sniffle out the words. “I should have been the one… It was my fault.”

But I hid myself away. I made sure nobody would ever find what I did, so he took out all his anger on Mallefard instead of the rightful culprit, me.

“Heh, you really did it this time Crux.” Mallefard weakly rasps, bandages tinged with blood covering half his head. We were in the castle hospital.

He’d been furiously slammed and beaten out of nowhere, blood ran furiously down his hair and neck after being cracked repeatedly in the head until it split open.

Enue, the noble behind all of this all had been quickly tackled down and escorted out by guardsmen on the scene, but the damage had already been done, and there was almost zero chance that he’d get anything more but a stern warning for this.

”So? How’d you do it?” Mallefard asks.

”Huh?” I look up confused.

“What’d you do to him? Come on, it’ll make me feel a bit better.” Mallefard smiles at me. “I can’t help but hate him a little bit ya know? Knowing what you did to him might make today a bit better. I am still human after all.”

”Don’t you… Aren’t you mad at me?” I exclaim.

“For trying to get payback for me? You could have done a lot worse if you wanted me to be mad at you.” Mallefard rests his head back down at the ceiling.

“But I…” Oh, he’s still calm after all that, I should be prostrating to him, but he’s trying to comfort me instead. It’s absolutely unreal how a person like this can exist on this planet.

”I ripped up some poison ivy and rubbed it inside his shirt after washing it.” I state flatly.

Pwuh. Mallefard exhales sharply before bursting out in laughter. “Hahaha! I can see why he was so—“ His sentence cuts off as he breaks out in fits of coughing.

“Easy! Easy!” I lean down close and gently lie him back onto the bed.

“Haaaaa… After hearing that I can’t even blame him for doing what he did. Wow, that’s just amazing.” Mallefard says in a light but weary tone.

…

“You should blame him, he did something unforgivable.” I say.

”Crux. I have a confession to make. I was upset at Enue for a bit after the horse thing, as much as I didn’t want to be.” Mallefard looks down. “It’s hard sometimes to stay in control of myself. I bottle a lot of things up and never speak of them, trying to get my ‘angel’ to win over my ‘devil’ metaphorically.”

… Mallefard looks away, taking a second to collect his thoughts.

“But… I’m strong, stronger than most. Which is why I won’t hold anything against him.” He states boldly. “There are too many unfair things in this world, and this is how I beat it.”

“This… Isn’t strength. It’s just letting people walk over you.” I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying.

“That’s fine. I don’t mind if they walk over me if they find closure or satisfaction from doing so, and then, once it’s all said and done, I will get back up and dust myself off, in the same state as I started, that’s what makes me strong… Of course, if I’m murdered or something, then I won’t get back up.” Mallefard jokes at the end.

…

I stay silent for a period of time before shaking my head. “Sorry. I just don’t understand.”

“I guess what I’m trying to say is to not hold grudges, or stuff like this will happen!” Mallefard switches tone. “Sorry about the holier than thou lecture. It wasn’t too condescending, was it?”

“No, no, you’re alright.”

~

I hold a borrowed tarp over my head as the rain pours down, staring at the corpses of the rebel fighters.

The one who was sympathetic to me, Haley, her face was buried in the mud, a single eye peeking out from the side, frozen open as they recorded her final moments.

“You alright?” A man leans down and hands me some hot coffee.

I stare down at the cup before shaking my head wordlessly.

”I understand, let me know if you need anything.” He sits back up and walks away, discussing things with the other guardsmen.

I couldn’t bring myself to think. I was like a vegetable, my mind completely blank. Thinking about things would only bring the pain closer and closer into reality, that’s why I can’t think ever again, or else they would truly be…

I wordlessly stand, looking back in the direction where the coach was still parked.

“Oi, you’re-“ One of them men moves over a bit trying to get me to stay, but another person quietly stops him.

I look down at my feet, unable to bring my head up towards the wreckage, slogging every foot one across the other as I walk slowly.

”…” I open the door, gazing at Yesenia sleeping soundly.

I close my eyes.

The primary escort for Yesenia had doubled back after realizing that the other cart was nowhere to be found, saving me in the nick of time from the rebels.

But nobody else.

“Please… At least until I fall asleep… It’s too dark.”

I stagger backwards until I fell back out of the cart, falling into the muddy slog, afraid of what I might do. I… I can’t get angry at her. It wasn’t her fault.

If only I hadn’t suggested traveling with them

It’s not her fault

If only they chose a different day

It’s not her fault

If only we’d decided to stop for the night when it began storming

It’s not her fault

If only I’d decided to have breakfast before we left, delaying travel by just a couple minutes

It’s not her…

It’s…