Chapter 73

The Life to Take (II)

“Never trust the hands of gold, and even less the hands of dirt.”

Proverbs

“Hey, could any of you help me out?” Myrell cried out aloud as she heard the voice coming from behind her, drawing the attention of everyone to her. Right then, that attention was swept away by the awkwardly-lying man, stuck inside the half-broken carriage, hanging almost entirely upside down. Myrell panicked as she rushed over, helping her Master up. She had been worried sick over where he was for almost ten minutes, yet… he was here the whole time?

“A-are you alright, Master?” she asked as a couple of soldiers came over and helped her pull him out. “Are you hurt? Should I go and seek a Physician?”

“No, no, I’m fine; just a bit rattled,” Noah smiled faintly, sitting down. “Thank you all.”

“Why didn’t you call me out sooner?” she asked.

“I just woke up…” he shrugged, knowing well-enough that his story was full of cracks, but he didn’t expect anyone to truly question it. At least not out loud.

“Should I get you anything?” she asked.

“Some water would be nice,” he added. “What happened?”

“Ah!! She’s back!!” somebody cried out from the front, causing all eyes to shift toward the forest’s entrance whereupon a figure stepped out, appearing somewhat haggard. Noah smiled secretly; she truly knew how to make an entrance.

“Go fetch some water and bring Sash,” he said, ‘straining’ to pull himself to his feet, Myrell helping him in the end.

“Yes, Master.” She nodded, still appearing worried but walking away in search of Sash and the water nonetheless.

Noah, on the other hand, ‘limped’ toward the front where he already saw Asandra slowly being cornered. Though she maintained her usual, expressionless face, he could read annoyance and anger in her eyes. Being the center of attention didn’t sit well with her.

Just then, Olivia also stepped out from the crowd, accompanied by Siyor who still had a dispirited and self-loathing look on his face. The man naturally blamed himself, for nearly letting the one he was sworn to guard die all-so-effortlessly. He shot a glance at the woman in front of him as envy surged in his eyes. She did what he was supposed to… but failed.

“Are you alright, Your Highness?” Asandra recited the script Noah prepared for her, using every inch of her willpower not to burn out at them.

“Yes, thank you,” Olivia bowed lightly. “Both for asking… and for saving my life.”

"You are our Light," she said, forcing on a smile; from the corner of her eyes, she saw Noah, standing right behind the crowd, blocking his lips with his hand while his shoulders danced up and down… the bastard is laughing! She would have to get back at him somehow, though the question on how still remained. “We naturally need to protect you with everything that we have. Is everyone else alright?”

“Yes, it seems that the Light was on our side and nobody got injured when the carriage flipped over,” Yeah, ‘cause a guy flipped it over on purpose and saved everyone else… Asandra was still feeling frustrated. She may have rescued Olivia, but it was mostly because Noah let her. At the same time, he saved everyone else – Sash, Myrell, Lo’kret, and Ludwig. Four people… in the span of two seconds, at most. Because she was preoccupied with Olivia and tracing the location of the attack she was unable to witness exactly how he saved them… and, thus, he remains as enigmatic as ever before. “About… about the assass—assailants.” Olivia added somewhat fearfully.

“… they managed to run away,” Asandra spoke through the gritted teeth, and while that was what Noah instructed her to do, her feelings were genuine. Not because they ran away, but because she had to lie about catching them and beating them easily. “We need to be more cautious from now on, Your Highness.”

“Did you identify anything about them?” Siyor asked with a frown as Olivia pulled back, clutching her dress and trying to maintain a dignified appearance. In part, she was exaggerating; Noah had already warned her that there would be attempts at her life, but that she would survive them all easily. All the same, however, the true fear still existed; she could have died just a few moments ago and been entirely unaware of it even happening.

“… not much,” Asandra shook his head, meeting his eyes squarely. “They were both hooded and cloaked. The most I got was that they didn’t use their own Light, but instead used long-charged Chyi.” Though she could have lied and said that they were both capable of using the Light, and saved herself some ‘face’, Noah instructed she don’t; while it is important to keep them on their toes, he said, it is also important that they don’t completely surrender over to the fear and anxiety.

“… thank you,” Siyor said, bowing in gratefulness as well. “We’ll recoup here for a couple of hours and then set on the road again. Let me know if you need anything.”

“I’ll be fine,” Asandra said, finally feeling freed as she began walking away.

Noah watched it all unfold in great anticipation, wishing he had popcorn with himself to accompany him. Seeing that the show was over, he stretched and yawned lazily, withdrawing back toward the scene of carnage, crouching and inspecting the blown part of the carriage. His lumps of Dark reacted to something, the lingering trace, causing him to frown. It was… different, he felt. Different. He glanced back and looked at Olivia; his lumps reacted again… but differently. Hm?

An interesting idea popped into his head as he put his finger on the burning edge. The wooden frame, where it was blown, was like the embers in the fireplace, but slowly dying out. His finger sizzled momentarily as he felt pain kick him back, but he consciously overrode it and pressed harder. Then, he felt it – an array, almost like a worm, was pulled out of the embers and tricked into his fingers. Right after, all the lumps of Dark in him rushed toward his hand and surrounded the array, trapping it in there.

Noah pulled his hand back and closed his eyes, focusing; it was a difficult feeling to describe, one that was almost intuitive. He’d never sensed Light quite like this; it was not that it was unique in some way, or stronger or weaker, but merely a different product. So… they have signatures of sorts, I guess? He mused, guiding the lumps to continue trapping the array while he got up and looked at his reddened hand. There’ll be a lot of cleanup once we return, it seems…

“What’s up?” Asandra’s angry voice dragged him back to reality as he turned around and saw a trio of her, Sash and Myrell staring at him strangely.

“Up? The sky, I think.” He replied with a smile, causing Asandra to groan and roll her eyes. “Good performance by the way.”

“… don’t… don’t remind me.” She said, her eyebrows twitching.

“You ought to be proud," he chuckled. "Not many could have pulled it off that well on such short notice. You looked ready to join one of those wandering theaters and become the renowned actress of the Kingdom."

“… you are begging for a beating, right?” she said, stretching her lips into a forced smile.

“Alright, alright, I’ll stop,” he raised his hands as though surrendering, accepting the flagon of water from Myrell and chucking a few mouthfuls. “You should get some rest.”

“… we’re still in the open,” Asandra frowned. “Should we really be relaxing this much?”

“No,” Noah shook his head. “But it’s fine.”

“They won’t attack?”

“They might,” he shrugged. “We’ll just have to beat them back again.”

“You’re acting fairly lax,” she said. “More so than everyone else, I think.”

“… truth be told, I kind of wish they would attack again," Noah said with a chuckle. "Right now, I still can't glean much about who's behind the assassins. But… depending on what they do next, I’ll start filling up the picture. Are they impatient? Do they need Olivia dead, or are they just trying to strike preemptively? A lot can be understood about the people given just a few extra pieces of information.”

“… should I stick close to her?” Asandra asked after a momentary silence.

“It’s fine, for now,” Noah shook his head. “Her guards have been woken up. Look at them,” he chuckled as Asandra glanced back to the swarm of guards surrounding Claire. "One scare and none of them will probably get a wick of sleep for the next three to four days. I doubt even the Lightbringer herself would be able to approach her unnoticed now…"

“… she wouldn’t need to,” Asandra said. “Sneaking around and plotting are your strengths. Blowing shit up… that’s hers.”

“… are you implying I can’t blow shit up?” he asked with an arched brow.

“I wish you could,” Asandra shrugged. “It would inspire some confidence.”

“I can blow shit up.”

“Go ahead.”

“… now?”

“When else?” she grinned.

“Fine, I can’t blow shit up on the spot,” he relented, sighing. “But… blowing shit up seems so boring, you know? What is more fun… just approaching someone and killing them… or wringing them so hard they choose to end their own life?”

“… fuckin’ hell, sometimes I wonder what the hell your brain is made out of… don’t you two?” she said, glancing at Sash and Myrell who stood awkwardly.

“…”

“Don’t be scared,” she said with a faint smile. “While I’m here, he can’t hurt you.”

“…” Noah smiled faintly and shook his head, sighing. “My brain is made out of ideas and not much else, I’m afraid. I’m nowhere near demented you make me out to be.”

“… I highly doubt that,” Asandra shrugged, stretching. “I’ll take a nap now. Don’t wake me up unless the Princess is dying.”

“… what are you going to do if she is? Heal her?”

“… run away with you.” She grinned as she spun around and left, leaving Noah confounded for a moment.

"… is… is she the type of woman you prefer, Master?" Myrell asked after a few moments of silence, pulling Noah's attention toward her.

“What makes you say that?” he quizzed.

“Uh… you’ve… you’ve been spending quite a lot of time with her…”

“And that certainly isn’t because she is a woman,” he chuckled. “You two, go and rest as well. I imagine we’ll get fewer and fewer rests as this journey continues. It will get quite tiring toward the end…”