chapter 2

“Kyaaaa!!!”

A loud familiar shriek was carried by the wind as it reached duke Adrian’s ears.

“What was that?”

If he remembered correct, that was the direction that Lotte had gone to. But she was accompanied by one of her guards, so nothing dangerous should have happened, right?

(Still….something feels off.)

“Walter, go check up on Lotte.”

Walter, a knight that served as Adrian’s right hand then left after a single nod.

There were still 8 knights along with the driver, so Walter did not need to worry to leave him behind. Even if something were to gone wrong, the duke was more than capable of handling himself as he also served the country as a general in the front lines.

Back at the camping site, Adrian truly hoped that that daughter of his was just startled by a bug and nothing else.

What a hopeless daughter, he thought.

Walter arrived at the place he had last heard the young lady’s scream, but found nothing and no one there. He looked around and found that truly nothing was out of place.

“Sigh” still, since his master had asked him to check up on the young Lady, he had to make sure that she was okay nonetheless. It was at that time that he noticed something amidst the pile of rocks.

That was charlotte’s hair, there was no doubt about it as apart from the Ionesse household, no one else had hair as black as theirs. And from the looks of it, it didn’t seem as though it had simply fallen, but with the end neatly cut off, it was likely that…

“Oh no!”

The moment he realized something terrible could have happened, he heard yet another scream. Without dawdling around, he sped off to that direction as fast as he could. What he saw made him completely speechless.

(Damn this guy! How long is he going to keep slashing at me!?)

In the middle of the forest, charlotte had been dodging each strike as her life depended on it.  Movements which the original was incapable of doing, she jumped around, flipped around, twirled around, rolled around; it was as if she was doing acrobatics.

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The knight that was attacking her finally couldn’t take it anymore. He jumped back to make some distance between them and started chanting a spell.

(What the heck?)

It was only then that Walter came out of his daze.

“[**** *** **** {Flame arrow}]!”

This time it was her turn to be in a daze as she stared in front of her while that huge ball of flame approached her.

“Tsk” by the time he realized, the knight had already finished his incantation. Before that flame could reach Charlotte, Walter quickly got in front of her as he cut down the flame into two and dissipating it.

“My lady, are you alright?”

Protected by that familiar figure standing in front of her and finally feeling a sense of safety, Charlotte helplessly nodded.

“That is good to hear. I do apologize for arriving so late. Now then…” without saying another word, Walter dashed forward with his sword held high.

-Clang~

The sound of swords clashing reverberated in the air, itching her ears.

Although that knight was pretty skilled, against Walter who had far more battle experience, he was no match.

By the time she could move again, the knight had already been ‘dealt’ with. Walter sheathed his sword back into its sheath and walked over to Charlotte who was sitting on the ground and held out his hand.

“Thank you…”

When she grabbed his hand as he pulled her up, she twitched her brows at the pain in her shoulder.

By now, the blood had covered the upper part of her white dress.

“My lady, please don’t move!” he finally noticed that she had been wounded. Alarmed, he quickly tried to see the wound, but stopped midway.

She looked up at that man who always had a composed expression now turn stiff. Then looked at the cut on her shoulder. “Do not worry. It is just a small scratch. We can treat it when we get back.”

 “Wait! If you move around like that, the wound might get infected and you could lose even more blood than you already have.”

She thought for a while, then nodded “Alright. Then for now, could you take a look.”

“Um…” he was still a bit hesitant.

“Do not worry. It is not like I am naked underneath my clothes.” She really felt like rolling her eyes right now.

(For crying out loud, this is the body of a 9 year old child! Are you a pedo or something!?)

Since the cut was a little at the back, she turned around and sat down. With no way to refuse, Walter reluctantly knelled down. He tore off a piece of his sleeve and tightly wrapped it around her shoulder.

Finally, she could take a short breather.

(Let’s see…if I really am where I think I am, how the heck did I end up where I think I am? Well, more importantly, if I really did get stuck here, what now?)

In that brief life and death situation, it would be idiotic to say that this was a dream. This was a nightmare.

(Hmm…let’s see…in the game, this is where Charlotte Ionesse, daughter of the main antagonist’s daughter is supposed to get assassinated, right? who the heck came up with this idea of creating a villain!?)

After the death of his daughter, Duke Adrian then strays from the right path to the path of vengeance against those who plotted against his daughter. But now that she had miraculously managed to survive, does that mean that she changed the story?

(No wait. That wasn’t how the story went.)

Kana tried to remember the details of the game’s contents. Luckily, being a staff had its perks as the game had just been released to the public, but she already read the full story-line of the game that she got from her boss.

(After Charlotte went for a stroll, the knight guarding her successfully killed her without her even realizing. It was a painless and instant death. On the other side however, Duke Adrian and his trusted knight, Walter, still not aware of her death were in the middle of defending themselves from an ambush of the assassins who had disguised themselves as their guards.

Because he wasn’t alone, Duke Adrian managed to survive and only found out later that his daughter had been killed. ….hold on, what?)

“Father….”

“My Lady?” charlotte had only spoken in a whisper, so Walter was unable to hear what she had said.

“We have to get back! Now!”