Chapter 9: Want me to take it off for you?

TL: Liz PR: May

“!”

As soon as she heard the screams, Lavella ran out of the house in a flash. The same was true for Iska and Argen.

“What’s going on?”

Lavella quickly found the source of the scream. It was Luna who was not far from the house.

What happened was that the basket was lying on the ground, and the spilled contents were trampled on and burst.

Luna, who was covered in tears, was lying on the floor when she was supported by Lavella to her feet.

“Leah… They took Leah.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know who or what. I was covering my face….”

Luna gasped for breath as if she had stopped breathing.

“Luna!”

“Tora….we, Leah. Leah…”

Luna’s cry grew louder when she saw her husband running.

“If we tell Ki-Kirah…I will not leave Leah alone…”

Lavella, who seemed to know the criminals roughly, breathed out a small breath and exchanged glances with Argen.

“Tora, take Luna home and calm her down. We’ll get Leah.”

“…Yes, hiik, please.”

Tora, who managed to gain his focus back due to Lavella’s cold voice, hugged his wife tightly.

“Argen, you go that way. Iska, you go the other way. Send a signal as soon as you find her.”

“Yes, Captain.”

At the end of Lavella’s instructions, the three scattered in different directions.

*   *   *

“…Excuse me for a moment.”

Running around, Iska grabbed a horse from a visible stable. I’m sorry to ride without the owner’s permission, but I had no choice but to save time. I’ll have to return it later or pay for the horse.

Looking around, Iska glanced down at the road leading to the mountain, reaching the end of the village.

By this time, Lavella and Argen would have left for the village, but seeing that there was no signal, the kidnappers seemed to have already left the village. Iska entered the forest without hesitation.

‘She looked so angry.’

She may have seemed calm to the union merchant couple, but Iska could read the fire that rose in the eyes of Lavella.

He didn’t know whether it was anger at the bandits who kidnapped the child or because the moment had come for her to do her favorite thing, fight.

‘I’m confused if it’s a good thing or not.’

Iska, smiling, grabbed the horse’s rein more closely. Either way, the first thing to do was to rescue the child safely.

*   *   *

“Whoa, let’s stop here for now.”

The bandits, who ran nonstop from the village, were able to relax for a while until they reached the mountainside.

The men who removed the pieces of cloth covering their faces breathed hard.

“You must have fainted.”

One of the men said, putting a large leather bag on his shoulder onto the ground. She struggled for a long time but had no movement for a while now.

“She’s an important hostage, so she can’t die. She’ll be useful. Make her a breathing hole.”

“Okay, boss.”

The shaggy man loosened the leather strap which secured the opening to the bag.

“But Boss, what if the village guys tell Kirah right away?”

“That’s what we’re after. The daughter of the union leader is in our hands anyway. First, we’re going to rip them away from the union leader and use them as bait, and the most important thing is to get revenge on Kirah.”

The bandit boss of the mountain who remembered Kirah gritted his teeth.

It was a happy time. He wandered through the mountains like it was his own house and lived in abundance without any shortage. He couldn’t forgive the Kirah for ruining such happiness overnight.

As soon as they come to the mountain to get the union leader’s daughter back, I’m going to show them an example. It was after preparing for the event that full-blown preparations were completed.

“But why haven’t I seen them lately?”

A man murmured, feeling uncomfortable. Kirah’s Guild would always stop by the village on a fixed day to survey the mountains.

“Who cares. Anyway, we were able to carry out our operation like this because we didn’t see them.”

“No way….”

“Well, let’s get back on track. We have to cross the mountain before the sun sets completely.”

At the boss’s instruction, the men scrambled up their heavy hips.

It was then.

Screech.

The cry of a big bird filled the sky.

“What’s going on?”

“This is the first time I’ve heard of such a bird.”

At that moment the men looked up at the sky with their eyes wide.

“Ugh.”

A large black figure seemed to move quickly, and one of the men fell down to the floor screaming.

“!”

“Hey… what’s going on?”

The man who looked after his fallen colleague also soon fell on top of him.

“Surprise!”

The men in a state of confusion took out their weapons and scanned their surroundings.

But there was only one man with black hair in front of them. He was tall, but compared to them, the man looked slender. There was a sign of relief on their faces.

“Who are you?”

“Uh, um, the one passing by?”

Iska replied while scratching his head with the handle of the dagger.

“What are you doing? Take care of him!”

The men rushed towards Iska simultaneously at the boss’s order.

“Isn’t that too much? Let’s fight one by one.”

Iska, who was grumbling, spun around as if dancing lightly and hit the back of the men’s necks with the dagger handle one after another.

“Kill, kill him!”

The boss shouted loudly, but none of them could lift a finger at the man, and was helplessly beaten. The boss’s face grew darker and darker as he watched the turnaround.

“Damn it.”

The boss took a leather bag containing Leah and began to run deep into the mountains.

After Iska easily knocked down the rest of the men, he began to chase after the boss.

“…Leah?”

And soon Lavella began running by Iska’s side.

“How are you here so fast?”

“…Argen must be slow.”

“The others fainted, and he took the girl away.”

“Really? Good job. Then shall I go first?”

“Well, it’s urgent.”

Iska watched Lavella speeding up and also sped up.

“Uh, that’s a cliff.”

At the same time as Lavella mumbled, the bandit boss stopped moving.

“This is the end.”

Lavella then ran through the trees, somersaulted in the air, and blocked the front of the bandit leader.

“Pft.”

The bandit boss quickly rushed to the side, but the man who knocked his other men down just a moment ago was blocking the road.

“Get out of the way. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee this child’s life.”

Behind him was a cliff, and in front was the enemy. When every direction was blocked, the boss pushed the knife to the sack.

“How evil…. You want to threaten me with a kid like that? Huh? Have you no pride?”

Lavella quipped, twirling the dagger in her hand.

“I’ve got all your men alive. So why don’t you call it a day?”

Lavella was generous and gave him a chance.

“Shut up!”

But the boss only grew angrier.

“…No can do.”

Lavella, who sighed, swung her arm in a blink of an eye. A small stone flew quickly and hit the back of the boss’ hand holding the knife.

“Argh.”

The boss dropped the knife in pain and knelt to the floor seemingly having broken bones.

Leah had already been rescued by Iska before the boss could grab the knife again.

As Iska hurriedly untied the strap of the leather sack, Leah, who was muzzled in her mouth, appeared. Iska released the gag and brought his ears to Leah’s mouth. Iska breathed a small sigh of relief and looked at Lavella to signal she was fine.

Lavela, who saw it, looked down at the boss with cold eyes. He still clasped the back of his hand.

“…Why would you do something like this that wouldn’t work?”

“You’ve prevented us from making ends meet!”

The man shouted as Lavella clicked her tongue and scolded him.

“You should have done the right thing. The villagers also have to make a living.”

With a blank face, Lavella looked at her nails.

“I’ll feel better if I kill the Captain of Kirah, but fine. I’m gonna kill you guys!”

The bandit boss snatched the knife and rushed to Lavella.

“…I tried to save you.”

Lavella held the dagger as if she had no choice.

“…….”

Iska shielded Leah, who might have woken up.

Lavella’s body bent lightly to avoid the knife wielded by the man and bounced up. It was like a small bird flying up.

“Huh!”

The man raised his head in a hurry to find the location of Lavella. However, the top of the dagger Lavella held fell from the air exactly toward the man’s neck.

‘Blood, I have to avoid it…!’

While trying to roll his body in a hurry, the man’s foot missed the end of the cliff.

“What a shame!”

The heavy body disappeared in an instant, and a big scream echoed.

“…It took care of itself.”

When she stepped down on the ground, Lavella’s hair perfectly settled in its place.

Iska never realized that the action to take someone’s life could be so beautiful. It was such a dizzying scene it made him forget how to breathe.

“Iska, give me that sack.”

“…….”

“…Iska?”

“Oh…You mean this?”

When Iska managed to get his eyes off Lavella, who had her head tilted, he handed the sack that Leah was in over to Lavella.

Lavella wiped the dagger off on the leather bag. It was a meticulous action to see if it had gotten dirty.

“…Mom.”

Argen appeared late as Leah faintly murmured.

“Let’s go.”

Lavella scolded Argen and knelt down to Leah.

“Leah. Let’s go home.”

“…Lavella?”

“Yes, Leah.”

Her tone was blunt, but it was quite friendly enough to be considered Lavella’s. Slowly, Leah opened her eyes and burst into tears, hugging Lavella, who was relieved to see her.

“It’s okay, you can’t cry about this. Be strong, Leah.”

“What about him?”

“Down there.”

When asked by Argen, Lavella nodded her chin towards the cliff.

“Woah.”

Argen trembled with a look of horror. Lavella then handed Leah over to Argen and approached close to the cliff to confirm.

Leah’s eyes, which had been sniffing and looking at Lavella, soon froze. The hair ornament she and her mom gave Lavella was dangling on the end of Lavella’s hair and was fluttering as if it would fall soon.

‘Uh…….’

Eventually, the hair ornament fell.

Leah ran out of Argen’s arms and to Lavella.

“!”

“Leah!”

“Huh?”

Leah, who was solely focused on the hair ornament, didn’t notice there was a cliff up ahead.

Iska and Argen moved immediately, but they were a step too late.

“!”

Lavella threw herself quickly to catch Leah, who was about to fall, and threw her to Argen.

“Lavella!”

“Captain!”

Leah was safely caught by Argen, but due to the force from throwing Leah, Lavella was pushed back and fell down the cliff.

“Lavella!”

Iska hurried to look under the cliff.

“Lavella?”

“…Ah, I’m here.”

A calm voice came up in the echo.

Iska breathed a sigh of relief as he felt a cold sweat streaming down his back.

“Lavella, can you get back up?”

“…Well, I think it will be difficult.”

Iska noticed something wrong with Lavella’s voice.

“I’ll go down.”

Argen comforted Leah and nodded and helped Iska prepare to go down.

Iska tied the rope tightly and fixed it. Then began to climb down the cliff.

It was not until quite a ways down before Iska found Lavella sitting down on a cliff in a space where some people could barely lie down.

“Hey.”

“…I thought you were going to die.”

“I’m not destined to die so easily.”

“What, where did you get hurt?”

Iska frowned when he approached Lavella. Even in the dark, the sweat on Lavella’s forehead was clearly visible.

“A little on the side? I grabbed a tree when I fell and a branch ripped into it.”

Blood could be seen leaking through Lavella’s hands that were covering the wound.

What the hell…!

Iska pushed down his rising anger. He couldn’t blame Lavella for trying to save the child. He was just mad at himself for not doing anything to this point.

“Iska? How is it?”

“…….”

The voice of a worried Argen rang from above.

I didn’t know the extent of the wound when I just took a look at Lavella from up there.

It was quite high to go up for Lavella to endure. He couldn’t guarantee that the rope would hold the weight of the two.

“Argen, take Leah back to town first. And on the way back, get some clean cloth and rum. I need a strong rope and a tree.”

“Okay.”

Argen, aware of the situation at Iska’s words, quickly began to take Leah down the mountain. After hearing Argen step away, Iska turned to Lavella.

“…Take it off. Let me look at the wound.”

“…….”

Lavella looked somewhat unhappy.

“…Why? Or do you want me to take it off for you?”

Iska’s big hand reached out to Lavella.