The knife sunk deeper than she could have hoped into the man’s neck, piercing straight through his throat. It was sharp, ready to work, so terribly effective… the Captain gasped for air almost immediately, nervously trying to reach for the wound before Lucrece pushed and stabbed again. And again. And once more.

I don’t know what came to me back then… I guess it was fear, or anger, or both.

Still trembling from the pain, crying and screaming, Lucrece continued stabbing over and over again, until hitting the bone… the man couldn’t move anymore, his eyes staring into space with no more light to their iris, his arms resting cold and lifeless on the sides…. The girl sat back, letting go of the knife and then simply hugging herself, looking for the comfort anywhere she could find it.

“What in the blazes happened here, now…?”

A voice called from the tent entrance. Lucrece turned around to see a new group of people… raiders, probably?

No. Mercenaries… it’s marginally better, really.

The woman leading them was a tall, sunscorched figure covered in steel armor and a fur cape. An amazonian figure of black hairs, staring at Lucrece with a sly smile.

“Seems like we got here too late, someone already took our mark!”

The men behind her laughed, as the woman walked over to check on the little girl.

“Are you okay? Did he manage to…?”

“N-No.” Luci immediately answered, not even wanting to entertain the idea. “He tried… but…”

“Good. The pig certainly deserved it… does it bother you if I take the head?” The Mercenary Captain was never that polite, and would never be again. “We came all the way here for it.”

“I-It’s yours…”

“That’s a good girl, willing to share!” With a smile, the captain reached over to hug Lucrece closer, rubbing her back. “There… you are safe now, girl. Breathe… let it all out.”

She didn’t want to… but she couldn’t help it. Not anymore. Luci thought she had already cried her fill but she wasn’t even close to enough. So clinging to this complete stranger, trembling and feeling everything breaking inside, Lucrece cried like she never did before.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

And that’s how the lancer met her Captain.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“After that.” Lucrece continued, taking another bite of her last giant claw. “They offered to take me back home. But I didn’t feel like going back, I still don’t. With Father and Pietro gone, and those bastards still alive…There’s nothing tying me there anymore.”

“But then, what happened with the mercenaries, then? Did you stay with them?” Gabrielle had stopped eating a while ago, listening intently to the story with both hands close to the fire.

“For several years. I wouldn’t be here without them.” The lancer smiled and felt the nostalgia wash over her. Clearly, those had been some good years.

“And then what happened? Why are you on your own now?”

“Now that’s a story for another day, Gabi. You owe me another story for making me talk so much!” Luci naggingly shook a finger at the girl. “For now, it’s time to sleep… is it alright if you take the first guarding turn? I am pooped.”

“I can do that.”

“Good girl, yeah… be thinking of what you’ll tell me next, okay? I expect something exciting!”

Lucrece smiled widely for a moment there, all the pain and agony of the tale had mostly numbed, and taking it less seriously certainly did wonders to keep Luci from feeling the full hit of its emotions. She simply turned around, covering herself with a long wooly mantle and closing her eye. The lancer was incredibly relieved to finally have her things back.

Meanwhile, Gabrielle simply stared into space for a while, keeping a stoic guard of their fireplace with her blade forever close to her hands… but soon it was obvious that the night wouldn’t bring any dangers that time. When Lucrece started snoring, Gabi knew that she was really, completely alone.

Her mind began to wonder on its own, the whispers of her thoughts felt conflicted with so much that had happened before.

“How many people are suffering now…?”

Pain. It was something Gabrielle lived with every day, practically permeating her every step. Her scars hurt, her body as a whole hurt, her life always found new things to hurt, to the point where she had grown used to it. It was background noise, something to be ignored while existence passed by.

But apparently it wasn’t like that for everyone else? People cried, people suffered, and they had gone through way more things than what Gabi could imagine. For all she had suffered, Gabrielle had never felt the pain of losing an eye, or watching a parental figure die in front of her eyes.

There was Samantha though…

Her death still vexed Gabrielle, pushed and squeezed her heart in ways she couldn’t comprehend. Why had the girl stood up for Gabi? What did she expect to win?

A voice smacked Gabrielle over the head. What did she have to complain and meditate about? Lucrece had clearly gone through so much more than her! Things had been easy for Gabi after finding her way out of the chapel.

Another voice complained, refusing to accept it. It wasn’t a competition, anyways! She wasn’t complaining about her life anyways, right? It hurt terribly, but she could just live through it without any trouble, right?

There was silence in Gabi’s mind for a moment there.

“Everyone has their own battles to fight. Yours was really tough too, Gabi.”

The swordmaiden sighed in relief, closing her eyes for a moment when hearing, deep down in her mind, Baraqiel’s voice. The child always chimed in when she needed them the most.

“You should let others help you more often though. But this is a good start, talking about it.”

She couldn’t see them, but she could feel their presence sitting right behind her, holding a hand on her back and pushing her on through everything.

“You will be fine, right?”

Gabrielle swallowed. She was never sure of what to say when Baraqiel asked, could she really promise that she would? Or even keep the promise she already had made? Life was unpredictable like that, always finding ways to somehow get worse… but Gabi simply sighed all those details away.

For the first time in a very long time, the girl felt confident enough to answer.

“I will. Don’t worry.”