Lucas saw a woman running towards him, shouting, “Please help!”

Lucas stopped his horse and waited for the woman to come to him. The woman wore clothing that looked much more expensive than what a commoner would wear.

A merchant’s daughter or noble’s daughter, Lucas thought.

“What is it?” asked Lucas to the distressed woman.

“My sister, she… she was hurt. Please help her.”

Lucas had suspicions about the woman, why would she run to a random person asking him to help her. He wondered if her accomplices, if any, were near.

Lucas moved his hand to his sword, ready to pull it out, if someone jumped on him. He put his guard up and scanned his surroundings. The woman seemed to notice that Lucas was suspicious

“Please, sir. I-i’m not with anyone, I do need your help,” said the woman, pleading with him.

“How can I trust you, a stranger I just met on this road?”

“Ah… here.” The woman gave Lucas the ring she wore on her finger. “This ring is made from a diamond, if you sell it you will get a lot of money. Take this as the payment. Do you trust me now?”

A trade? Lucas thought. Lucas saw desperation in her eyes and decided to listen to what she needed from him.

Lucas received the ring. “Alright, what do you need?”

“Just, get my sister and me to the nearest town and doctor, please.”

“Is she sick?”

“She was hurt… she was protecting me from attackers and she was hurt.”

“Where is she?”

“She is near. It will be only a short walk from here!”

“Alright, lead the way,” said Lucas. He dismounted his horse and walked with her to the location where her sister was hurt. He took his horse’s rein and brought the horse together with him.

After a short walk, Lucas could see bodies on the ground. He counted there were 6 bodies. Each of them wore clothing of those of bandits or vagrants, they carried swords, daggers and bows and arrows. One body had a slit wound on the neck, two bodies had stab wounds on the chest, one had a blunt wound on his head and a stab wound on the chest and the last two had multiple wounds over their bodies. Whoever killed them was an expert in sword fighting.

Lucas put up his guard by putting his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to pull it out.

“Over there!” shouted the woman. She was pointing at a tree near them.

Lucas could see a woman, sitting down with her back on the tree. Beside her was a sword, red with blood, presumably from the dead bodies near her.

“Sis, I brought someone to help us!” said the woman.

With a soft voice, her sister said, “Just leave me alone, Tasya. Go to a city and seek protection there.”

No! I can’t leave you here.” Tasya turned her head to Lucas. “Sir, please help her. Let’s bring her to the city… doctor!”

Lucas looked at Tasya’s sister. She had wounds on her arms and legs, as well as a slit on her stomach. Her hand was holding her stomach, to reduce the amount of blood gushing out, and there were bandages from clothes around her arms and legs. Her face started to turn white, possibly because of the loss of blood she suffered.

"Wait here, I’ll take something from my bag,” said Lucas. He walked back to his horse and took out from his bag, saddled on his horse, a syringe. Inside the syringe were nanobots, a healing mechanism employed by the Galactic Imperium for its soldiers.

The nanobot-filled syringe was given by Bianca to Lucas to be used for Lucas if he needed it for himself. Lucas felt the nanobots in his body had depleted enough to the point his wound was not healing faster and he could feel the pain for a longer time. The girl, Tasya, had paid him to help her sister and for him, who had been taught to always fulfil his end of the bargain, making sure the sister survived was his utmost priority.

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It would take at least 2 days for them to arrive at Petersburg, even if he tried his best to bandage her wound, there is a little chance she would survive the journey. She lost too much blood and needed a rest for her to recover the lost blood. By injecting the nanobots inside her body, it would speed up the production of blood inside her body and at the same time patch her wound.

Lucas was not professionally trained in herbs gathering as he had no interest in the subject, and the person Lucas knew about herbs and medicinal plants was not with him. He could call her, but he did not want to disturb her if she was busy. He wished he had listened closely to the teacher when he was at the Imperial Guard Academy when they taught medicinal plants class.

Lucas came back to the pair of women near the tree, he crouched down and inspected the wounded woman closely. “Let’s go! We have horses with us, help me get her to her horse!” said Tasya.

“I will treat her first. Help me.” Lucas took off the bandage that had been applied before.

Lucas, with the help of Tasya, took off her clothes, she now only had her undergarments. He then cleaned the wound with water he had. He pulled the syringe from the box and carefully injected the nanobots into her body. Lucas could see the pain on her face. After he had done injecting the nanobots, he bandaged all the wounds on her body; on the arms, the legs and the stomach. He then gave her water to drink and let her rest there for a while.

“We should stay here until tomorrow,” said Lucas to Tasya.

“But, shouldn’t we get to the doctor as soon as possible?” said Tasya with a tired and worried look.

“We need her to take a rest. I have applied medicine on her and by tomorrow she should be able to at least ride the horse together with us.” Lucas knew that by tomorrow the wounds would be completely healed, but he did not tell her.

“You healed her?”

“Well, not completely, but she should be fine enough, tomorrow.”

“Th-thank you,” said Tasya with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Get her dressed, I’m going to take care of the bodies.”

Lucas walked away from the sisters to let Tasya dress her sister and let them have their own moment. Lucas then went into the bodies of what he presumed was the attacker of the sisters. Upon closer look, the weapons of the dead bodies looked much more refined than what bandits usually had. The swords were well taken care of, the arrows were well made and some of the bodies wore well-maintained armour. It was a different sight than what he found when he went to raid a bandit’s hideout a week before.

Lucas, using magic, dug a hole and buried the bodies in the hole, after he had done looting the bodies. He found a large sum of money carried by the bandits, which made him suspicious as to why the bandits had a large sum of money on them. Then his suspicions about the truth of the bandits were answered, he found a paper with words on it, a letter of some kind, which he believed was an order given by someone to this group of people.

The letter was an order for this group to capture 2 women, Tasya Rurigard and Tanya Rurigard. The name Rurigard was not the name of a noble house in the Romanovia Kingdom. Could it be a House from a foreign country? Lucas thought.

Lucas sighed. He was more confused after learning the truth about the 2 women from the letter. The letter proved that, for some reason, the 2 women were being chased by someone. It had no sender name written inside it, but there was an initial, which Lucas believed was the sender, the initial was J.R.

“J.R… J-something Rurigard? A family member chased them, but why?” muttered Lucas.

Lucas folded the letter and kept it on him. After he finished burying the bodies he returned back to the sisters. He saw them sleeping, peacefully. It seemed they were exhausted from being chased by the pursuers. The sun was almost setting down and Lucas was feeling a little hungry.

He left both of them with his horse and belongings and went to hunt or gather something to eat. He did not need to walk far away to find his prey. A deer-looking creature was seen eating the grass, it had brown furs covering its body, and a horn on its head. It was a common creature found on this planet. It had a massive population in the wilderness and usually was hunted by the population as a food source. The meat of the creature had a delicious taste.

Although it had a different anatomy to the deer on Earth, the population on this planet called the creature ‘Deer’. The creature was docile and would only attack someone if they were cornered; If they were attacked or under threat, they would run away instead of retaliating using its horn.

Lucas saw the deer calmly grazing the grass, unaware of his presence. Lucas did not have a bow and arrows on him to hunt the deer. However, he had learnt to use magic to hunt. Lucas pointed at the deer with his finger and from the tip of his finger, an ice arrow materialised and then in an instant, the ice arrow struck the deer and the deer dropped dead. It was rather easy hunting with magic compared to using a bow and arrow for Lucas.

Lucas went ahead and picked up the deer and brought it back to the camp–where the women slept. He skinned the deer and cut the meat, and then he took firewood he had gathered to make a fire. He seasoned the meats with salt and pepper he brought from 111th Lilium Army Base and then he grilled the meat.

As he waited for the meat to be cooked, he looked at the pair of women who were sleeping soundly for several hours. Tasya, the woman who asked to help him, had a similar facial features as her sister. Lucas thought, without a doubt, they are twins. Lucas unconsciously looked at them intensely–he was observing them.

Both had long dark brown hair and delicate faces. Both of them were beautiful and Lucas could understand that many men would ask for their hand in marriage. Lucas had thought that the reason they left their home was because of an arranged marriage which the women–or one of them–did not agree to.

It reminded him of Lucy’s arranged marriage and her opposition to the marriage. On that day, Lucas knew that Lucy was not a weak woman who needed his help to overcome any obstacles. He felt relieved that his twin sister was someone who could take care of herself.

“Is there something in our face?!” said a woman's voice.

Lucas was startled, he then realised that Tanya had opened her eyes and he could see an irritated look on her face.

“I apologise, I didn't mean to look at you like that, I was just lost in thought.”