Beggar Siblings – Pursuit
Leo, running frantically, was startled by a sudden message and looked back.
In the distance, at the entrance of the leather street, blood spurted like a fountain, and Irene, even in death, was trying to shake off the headless woman's body clinging to her.
‘Cassia?’
His mind went blank for a moment.
The woman he resented for making his sister a prostitute. Leo couldn't accept that she had sacrificed herself for him.
He had clearly pushed Cassia away. And he had completely forgotten about her. Then why?
Leo, stunned as if hit in the head with a blunt weapon, stopped in his tracks for a moment, but he had no time to mourn her or offer his condolences.
Irene kicked Cassia's body away and charged towards him again.
Leo ran again.
His breath caught in his throat, his tongue felt heavy, but he forgot about his exhaustion and thought of Cassia's death.
Why did she do it? Just for an achievement?
Leo had never seen anyone react so strongly to the 'slight favor' achievement. Only Cassia's reaction was different.
He couldn't understand why Cassia would do such a thing.
Common sense dictated that she should resent, hate, and slander the man who had so cruelly dumped her.
Why did Cassia...?
Just then, he saw the soldiers.
The Rauno family mansion was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers in double and triple lines, and the alleys were littered with the bodies of thugs.
Only then could Leo forget about Cassia, who was shaking his emotions, and think of another woman.
Lena!
The Marquis must have attacked the Rauno family at the same time he summoned him to his mansion.
Leo hid behind a pile of garbage in an alley, feeling lost.
He wanted to rush at the soldiers, kill them all, and rescue Lena.
But that was impossible. He had no weapon in his hand, and Irene was close behind.
The moment he went out there and caught the soldiers' attention, he would be dead.
Leo trembled and gritted his teeth. His molars cracked and broke in his mouth.
Lena! My sister!
He remembered his sister waving to him this morning, but there was no more time to hesitate. He forced his bloodshot eyes away from the mansion and ran again.
‘There’s an escape route in the basement of the mansion. Lena must have escaped somehow. Please.’
He knew about the existence of the escape route as an executive of the Rauno family. He had never been inside himself, but he recalled hearing that it was quite thoroughly prepared, and turned away.
Lena will be fine. She has to be.
In fact, Leo was in more danger than Lena. He had to escape with his bare life, without any safety measures like an escape route.
Praying for his sister's safety, Leo ran west. The first thing he had to do was to shake off the knight chasing him.
However, everything he had built up in this scenario had vanished with a flick of the Marquis' wrist. Now he had almost nothing left.
There was only one person left who could help him. Leo ran west to use the last card he had.
Katrina.
She was a knight of the Bellita Kingdom. If he went to Katrina and explained the situation, he thought he could at least avoid being killed on the spot.
Once he had some breathing room, he could look for Lena.
Leo ran towards Roselin Avenue. She had told him that she lived in a blue-roofed house on the second alley of Roselin Avenue.
‘But what if Katrina isn't there?’
It was broad daylight now. If she had gone to work at the Knights Order and wasn't home, his plan would be for naught.
He headed there, clinging to a thin thread of hope.
Fortunately, as Leo arrived in front of her house, Katrina was walking home. She must have been grocery shopping, as the basket in her hand was filled with various fruits and meat.
Katrina saw Leo and waved with a big smile.
“Oh, Noel! Long time no see. What's up? Why are you running?”
Leo had lied to her that his name was Noel.
He spoke urgently.
“Katrina! There, I...”
“Oh, call me Noona.”
“No, that's not the problem right now... Yes, Noona. I'm being chased.”
Pressured by her forceful gaze, Leo changed his form of address and pointed to Irene, who was chasing him.
Katrina looked up and saw the knight running towards them from afar. Clicking her tongue, she began to lecture him.
“Hey, didn't I tell you not to live like this? And of all things, another knight. Oh my… This is going tobe a headache. Get behind me.”
She hid Leo behind her and quickly intercepted Irene.
“Hold it right there. I don't know what this kid did wrong...”
But Katrina's words were cut short. The knight, having rushed over, attacked her without warning.
Irene swung her sword at the red-haired woman who blocked her way, thinking.
‘You filthy bastard!’
What in the world had this sleek-looking bastard done to have people, all women at that, rushing to his aid?
This woman in front of her must be the same kind as that other one.
Irene, enraged, showed no mercy in her attacks, and Katrina, startled, parried the blows and shouted.
“Whoa! What do you think you're doing?! Do you want to die?”
She tried to reason with Irene, but as the attacks continued despite her words, she started to lose her temper.
“You crazy bitch! You're dead meat!”
Katrina finally snapped and drew her sword.
But after exchanging a few blows, she realized this woman was no ordinary knight.
Even if she were in top condition, it would have been a close match.
‘Oh, damn it. I've messed up big time. What the hell did this kid do to be chased by a knight like this?’
Though she had stepped in boldly, she was now utterly terrified.
The truth was, Katrina was no longer a knight.
Just yesterday, she had quit the Knights Order.
Her lover, Ellen, had been urging her to quit recently, and the swordsmanship she mainly used put a great strain on her body, which was difficult with the shoulder injury she had sustained from Noel's brother.
So she couldn't subdue this crazy knight with her swordsmanship, nor could she intimidate her by mentioning the Royal Knights.
Although, seeing her current state, it probably wouldn't matter even if she did mention the Royal Knights...
- Clank! Clank!
Katrina hid her anxiety and continued to fight Irene, but the situation gradually turned against her.
Her shoulder screamed in pain as she was slowly pushed back.
However, she was the type to follow her temper rather than rational thought.
“Damn it! Fine, let's both die! Hey! Noel! Take this!”
Katrina threw her knight's badge, proof of her retired status, at Leo and shouted.
“Take it and run! You damn kid! If it weren't for your brother… What are you standing there for? Get out of here!”
[ Achievement: Sparing Katrina - Katrina remembers your mercy. ]
She still owed a debt to ‘that soldier’. But the soldier who had saved her was far away in the Astin Kingdom, and she would never see him again.
She felt that she could only find peace of mind if she repaid her debt to this younger brother she met as if by fate.
Leo, receiving the badge, hesitated.
Katrina's face turned red with anger as she yelled.
“Why aren't you running? Do you want to die? Your brother is in the Astin Kingdom, so go find him and tell him you repaid the favor!”
[ Achievement ‘Saved Katrina’ has disappeared. ]
And with that, she began to use her true swordsmanship.
Her shoulder felt like it was being ripped apart, but all she could think about was teaching this crazy bitch a lesson.
Leo hesitated for a moment before running again. He felt sorry for Katrina, but he had to survive and find Lena.
He headed straight for the west gate of Orville.
Perhaps because of the Marquis' orders, the gate was more heavily guarded than usual, but the soldiers bowed their heads and opened the way when they saw the badge Leo presented.
Just then, another message popped up.
[ Achievement: The Man Katrina Protected with Her Life - Gained significant favorability with Katrina ]
[ Quest: Katrina’s Life – Free Katrina from her predicament. ]
Katrina was dead.
In truth, Katrina hadn't intended to give her life for Leo. She had only planned to buy him some time to escape.
But Irene had no intention of forgiving her for letting Leo get away, and Katrina, enraged by the unreasonable madwoman, continued to fight.
And she died by Irene's sword.
Leo learned of Katrina's death through the message and punched himself in the gut with guilt. He felt a lump in his throat, making it hard to breathe.
‘First Cassia, and now Katrina... I'm pathetic…’
He took short, shallow breaths, blaming himself, before remembering Lena and pulling himself together.
I have to find my sister.
First, Leo headed to the Rauno family's lodging on the outskirts of the city. He planned to get a weapon and order the thugs to gather information.
But the family's lodging on the outskirts of Orville was in flames.
The sight was too much for Leo to bear. There was nowhere left to go. He stood there blankly, unable to decide where to go, in front of the burning lodging.
Just last night, no, just this morning, it had been an ordinary, peaceful day. He had breakfast with his sister and exchanged greetings with a few friendly thugs.
But that everyday life had been shattered to pieces by the monstrous Marquis Tatian with a single flick of his wrist.
The sense of security he had felt with his {Swordsmanship.2v} and the Rauno family tattoo on his neck was as thin as ice.
It was then that Leo witnessed the true face of Marquis Tatian. He was a monster in human skin. Neither Leo nor Minseo had ever imagined that a single human could possess such tremendous power.
Leo realized that he had underestimated the Marquis.
No, he had never underestimated him. He had thought the Marquis was a formidable man. It was just that he had drastically misjudged the extent of his power.
He had thought that a mutually beneficial deal would be enough to satisfy the Marquis.
Of course, he was dead wrong. He had walked into the Marquis's mouth with his meager abilities, and the Marquis, after savoring the taste, had swallowed him whole.
No, in this case, it would be more accurate to say he had been spat out.
After standing in front of the burning lodging for a long time, Leo dragged his trembling body and started walking.
He had to get away. The danger was not over yet.
If the Marquis was as terrifying as he seemed, there would surely be a pursuit party after him. It was only by a stroke of luck that he had managed to shake off Irene and escape.
His escape was not over yet.
‘But where in the world is Lena…?’
To make matters worse, this damn game had thrown him another curveball.
There was no easy way to find the heroine, Lena. Just like there was no convenient interface with a quit button for him.
The only thing that gave him a glimmer of hope that Lena was still alive was the fact that the ending had not yet come.
‘At least Lena wouldn't still be in Orville…’
There was no way the Marquis would forget about Lena. She would be pursued in some way, and she would be desperately trying to escape.
There was no way to find someone who was being pursued while being pursued himself. He had to hide first, wait for things to die down, and then look for Lena. Praying that she was safe.
He headed north to throw off any pursuers. The task of finding his sister, alone, on a vast continent, lay before him.
Leo became a small dot in the vast plain stretching north of Orville, disappearing from sight.
To make matters worse, winter was coming.
I hope after this scenario ends he focuses on gaining as much as strength as possible and kill that knight.
ReplyDeletei agree... the fact that the knight killed cassia immediately tells me that she's not doing this for justice. that's just her excuse to herself. she's killing innocents in her path for revenge
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