I immediately rushed back to the old man and Pandres "Old man, call for help!" I grab Pandres and head for the horse.

"What happened?!"

"I believe she got kidnapped." I help her up on the horse, then get on and grab the reins.

"Wait, what do you mean kidnapped?!" and with a bit of force, I got the horse to start going at an incredible speed.

"She left with a man, who was dragging her away." I feel her arms tense up around my waist.

'Shit, I don't even know where they could've gone… a little of my mana has replenished…'

'The girl is probably in danger right now! Not the time to hesitate.'

I acknowledge the mana in the air 'lead me to the child.' And thus the wind lead me to an alleyway about a block away from the cemetery.

There we found a crying Angel "Angel!" Pandres quickly jumped off and ran to her.

"Dear, tell me what happened?!" Angel immediately jumped into her arms and cried into her.

"It's not s-safe, go back to father!" Pandres carried her in her arms and came back to the horse.

"They s-said…"

"It's fine now, you're safe." They got on the horse, with Angel in front of me and Pandres behind.

"Not me! It's father!"

"Wait… first of all, how did you get lured away?"

"A-an old lady told me she knew my mother…"

"Shit… we need to go back now."

As we arrived back at the cemetery, we left the horse at the gate, I told Pandres to be on the lookout and to lag behind me with Angel.

When I arrived at the grave, I found that what I had feared was true.

"Pandres! Stay back, don't let her see!" But it had already been too late, Angel saw her decapitated father's body.

She was in shock and Pandes immediately covered her eyes.

The old man's body was laid on top of his wife's grave with his head missing.

"It's them!" I look up from the body to find a group of knights standing with that old lady behind them.

"It's you… what in god's name did you do?" The knights were the same as those from the tavern.

Then I realized what was happening, we were tricked.

"Put down your sword and surrender yourselves." What looked like the leader of the knights stepped up while holding his sword.

"It's not what you think."

"I saw them, they killed him!" The old lady yelled from behind the knights.

I back away slowly to Pandres and Angel, "Pandres, we need to leave." She understood and readied herself.

"And I think we should leave Angel here." She looked at the unmoving Angel.

"No. She's coming with us." There was no need to waste my breath, I also didn't want to leave her.

There was some distance between us and the knights, but Pandres was not only exhausted but was also carrying Angel.

"Pandres, I know this'll be difficult for you, but leave Angel with me and go get the horse."

"But!"

"Just trust me." She bit her lip and begrudgingly put down Angel a few feet behind me and leaves.

"Stop her!" I point my sword at the knights that tried to move past me.

"Look, we didn't do this." The head knight takes another step forward.

"Hand over the girl, don't make your punishment worse." I glance back at Angel and her expression has yet to change, her eyes were vacant.

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"I can't." As he steps forward, I step back closer to Angel and crouch down.

"Don't do anything rash." He warned me, but he was too late. The galloping was getting closer and closer.

I grabbed some snow off the ground and threw it at him.

I then grabbed Angel and then managed to jump on the horse just as it passed us.

The knights tried to stop the horse, but it was too late. The horse had broken through their formation.

I hung on for dear life and we managed to leave the cemetery and escaped from the couple of knights that tried to follow after us.

She turned every corner until we were in the clear.

"Sebastian, what do we do now?" I remember that I left my bag at the inn.

"Go back to the inn, they're not on our tracks anymore and we need to rest for a bit." This might be a foolish decision, but I could tell Pandres was hanging on to her consciousness by a thread.

"News of what happened to the old man probably hasn't reached this area so we should be fine for now."

And so we returned the horse and went to the inn, Angel had fallen asleep in my arms and so I left her on the bed and put anything that could be of use from the room in my bag.

"Sebastian, what are we going to do?" Pandres, who was evidently tired, asked while looking at Angel.

"Doesn't she have any family, like grandparents?"

"They're dead and her only other family member would be Duke Michael, but honestly, I have a feeling that he's behind all of this." I agreed with her, even from my limited knowledge of the political situation of the kingdom, I could tell that the old man and his brother weren't in the same faction.

"What about Ms. Zecilia's family?" She looked down at Angel with eyes that said it all.

"They don't want anything to do with Angel."

"So we're out of options?" She nods.

"Wait… there might be a slight chance Ms. Zecilia's younger sister would take in Angel…" I tell her to continue.

"But she lives in a faraway town." She had a very depressed look to her.

"Get some rest Pandres, I'll figure it out." She tries to tell me that she is fine, but her eyes said otherwise.

"No one followed us here, rest easy." I wear my cloak and unlock the door.

"I won't go far, I'll be back soon." I enter the hallway and ready myself for any possibility.

'Don't leave her side.' It should be fine if it's just for a little bit, right?

I'm honestly lost, I don't know what to do.

'Nothing has been going according to how I planned."

I go down the stairs and see the desk lady wearing a worried expression.

"Something happened?"

"Duke Ozyman had been assassinated and his daughter was kidnapped," I ask her how she got this information.

"A knight came and asked me if I saw any suspicious individuals with a child." She then started to put two and two together and a terrified expression slowly grew on her face.

"If you know what's best for you then stay silent." Even if she went to the knights, she'd get arrested with us.

"Give me any food you can." I flash my sword and she immediately rushed and got me a bag filled with dried meat.

"H-Here!" I take it and give her five coppers. I know it's not even close to the price, but that's all I got and I can't just go and give out golds like they're candy.

"Thank you, we'll get out of your hair soon. A day is all I ask." She nervously nods and with that sorted, I go upstairs.

"I'm back." I open the door to find Pandres asleep with only her upper body on the bed.

I put the bag on the table and carry her to the bed.

'She's breathing… so nothing bad happened while I was gone." As I lay her on the bed.

I noticed that Angel had awoken.

"Father?" She called out, but her father was no longer there to answer her.

"Where's my father?" She turned to me with a worried look, I couldn't bear to look her in the eyes.

"He's dead."

"What?"

"He died."

"How?" Seems that she doesn't remember his body.

I have to choose my words very carefully here.

"He put your safety above his." She's just a kid, I couldn't possibly tell her his head was cut off.

"Oh… so I have no mother or father now?"

"My mother abandoned me and father died…"

"They'll always be looking after you from above."

"But I want them here with me…" tears started to flow down her face.

"I want to see them!" I didn't know what to do, so I just let her cry.

'What do I say? What can I say?'

"Your mother didn't abandon you, Angel."

She looked at me with her tear-filled eyes "What?"

"Your mother didn't abandon you."

"How do you know?"

"I just know what I heard. It may be presumptuous of me to say this, but I'm sure your mother loved you very much."

"But she chose that boy over me!" I patted her head.

"She didn't choose anyone over you." She slapped my hand away.

"She could've stayed! She could've stayed by my side! She could've run away, but didn't!"

"I just want to forget about her!" A direct contradiction of what she said a moment ago. Honestly, I don't understand children.

"Angel, I'll be frank with you, I'm not good at this, I'll probably just make you feel worse, so just go back to sleep." I truly hate myself for being unable to find the right words to say to comfort her.

Then there was silence until…

"Mr. Sebastian?" I lift my head off my hands and look at her.

"I want to take revenge." Those words shocked me, this little girl, who couldn't be older than seven was talking about revenge.

"Angel-"

"I want you to teach me how to fight, you're strong! You hit that man and sent him flying!"

"Angel-"

"I want to kill the people who killed my father!"

"Don't speak so lightly about killing people."

"But-"

"If you want to take revenge on them then continue to be the person your father loved. Continue to live a good life, do not stain your hands with blood." What am I saying?

"But they killed him! I can't possibly do nothing!"

"Then I'll kill them. I'll kill them for you, but please don't dirty your hands with blood…" Who am I to be saying this stuff?

"Mr. Sebastian?" A tear rolled down my face.

"I'm sorry, Angel-"

"Can I rely on you?"

It wasn't time for me to hesitate, I have to show her that she still has people to turn to "Yes, you can rely on both Pandres and me."

"Okay, thank you." She then hugged me.

Then I heard something hit the ground outside the door.

'No way, that lady couldn't have possibly ratted us out. There's no way she's that idiotic.' Pandres was still fast asleep so I couldn't ask her for advice.

"Angel, stay right there. don't make any noise." I whispered and grabbed my sword and put my ear to the door.

"Shit, this hangover is killing me!"

"Nobody told you to drink that much."

"Anyways, it's already too late, right?"

"Yeah…" the voices were muffled, but I still recognized one of the voices.

I readied my sword and opened the door slowly.

I was right, it was that blonde asshole from the tavern.

There were two people and they had their backs turned to me.

That was when an idea popped into my head.

I already knew that the blonde asshole was weak, but the other man was an unknown part of the situation so I had to get the upper hand.

"Don't move." I grabbed the shorter man from behind and put my blade to his throat.

"Klaus!" But it was too late.

"Don't move or else I'll paint this hallway with his blood."

The redhead was surprisingly calm and didn't move.

"If you want to make us out to be kidnappers, we'll act like kidnappers."

"What are you on about?!"

"Don't act as if you don't know what you did." The blonde asshole didn't even have his sword on him.

"Shit, you escaped?" So he did know, but came without a sword?

"Listen, I had nothing to do with that stuff!" He may be telling the truth, I mean I didn't see him there.

"Ugh I do not care, I won't hurt the two of ya as long as you do as I say." The blonde nods.

"We'll do anything."

"Okay, so this is what's going to happen, the gates have probably been closed already and the royal knights are probably after us."

"And you're a son of the Wolfgang house right?" He nods.

"Great, then we'll use you as hostages. If you cooperate then I won't harm you." One second I'm talking, the next I find myself on the ground and my gut feels like a hammer was swung at it.

'Shit, what happened!?' I jump to my feet and put some distance between us.

"I didn't know you could do that, Klaus!" The blonde bastard cheered like a girl that was enamored and the Klaus guy gets into a stance that I didn't recognize.

"You know, being a knight isn't all fun and games. I was trained to handle this type of stuff." I try to get into my stance my knees buckled for some reason.

He didn't miss a beat and jumped for the finishing blow, he kicked at my head but barely missed because I leaned back. But now I was in an awkward position.

'Need to go on the offensive, but my legs aren't listening to me!' I sweep at his legs with my sword, but he performs a perfect parry with his leg and punches me in the throat and then knees my solar plexus and knocks the wind out of me.

Now I was on the ground holding my throat and gasping for air.

"What do we do with him, Elliot?"

"I don't know, the knights are probably looking for him right now…"

My vision starts to get blurry.

'Shit… I fucked up, Pandres…"