Chapter 16.2

To Understand Each: Other Cermiane’s Point of View (2)

I spoke a little about my mother, but I could not speak about my father. Ralphine seemed to be distrustful of my stubborn refusal to mention my father, but she was very clear about how to deal with such situations and did not force me into it if I did not want to talk about it. At the time I thought I was ‘saved’, but in hindsight it would have been easier later on if I had been pursued and forced to talk.

Half of the ten days were spent encamped and half in lodges. Ralphine looked as if she would have been fine with the whole encampment, but I couldn’t bring her back to the Marquise’s residence in a state of disarray. The repeated encampments saved the budget, so when it came time to stay at the inn, we got a slightly better accommodation.

Ralphine loved the forest and hunting, so she was very excited when we entered an unfamiliar forest. In such cases, I would tell her “You can go out for a bit” and send her off to hunt alone. It was a little worrying to leave my fiancée alone, but I trusted that she would be okay. Besides, I would just slow her down.

She was also aware of this and returned after hunting for just about an hour. However, she always caught something, so I got to eat different kinds of meat every day.

On the morning of the fifth day, we got our horses out of the stable looking refreshed since we had stayed in an inn the previous night. Suddenly, I felt like we were being watched by someone. I got on my horse with a straight face, and we left town on the main road. The feeling of being watched didn’t go away… Could it be that…?

I looked at Ralphine and she looked unhappy. Ah, it seems she has noticed after all. It’s quintessential.

I continued on with an innocent look on my face, and entered the forest again. Even while climbing the gentle mountain road, I could still feel the pursuers following closely behind. However, I didn’t sense any signs of an attack.

“I wanted to go hunting,” muttered Ralphine with a frown. Yes, it was impossible to send Ralphine alone for hunting with pursuers still on our trail.

“What about people?” I asked, meaning if we could hunt people.

“Of course,” Ralphine replied, baring her teeth with a smirk.

We continued down the forest path until evening, then went a little off the main road to set up camp. We had brought not only portable food, but also meat from a prey we had caught a few days ago, coated generously with salt to preserve it, so even if we didn’t catch any prey today, it wouldn’t be a problem. It would only worsen Ralphine’s mood.

After eating, we wrapped ourselves in blankets and lay down by the campfire.

A quiet time passed for a while. The fire soon went out and it began to get a little chilly. Then, five men who had masked their presence appeared, quietly sneaking up on us. They were skilled, not making a sound as they passed the bushes. One of them came towards me, while the others headed towards Ralphine

The men had a large bag with them. Oh, it must be kidnapping. I had learned a bit about bandits when I did my mission to hunt for them. Kidnapping traveling women and children and selling them off was an important source of income for bandits. Ralphine, with her beauty, must have caught their attention when she cleaned herself up at the inn.

Apparently, they were only planning to abduct Ralphine and flee, without attacking me. A wise decision, if Ralphine had been a helpless girl. But…

The men opened the bag and gently put it over Ralphine’s head. They would restrain her and carry her away, with the intention of making a quick escape. If I woke up, one of them would try to hold me off while the others escaped. It was a well-practiced kidnapping method, but they had picked the wrong opponent today.

The moment the bag covered her, Ralphine jumped out at an incredible speed and hit one of the bandits with her elbow. Then, she kneed the next bandit and struck the neck of the one next to him with her hand. She moved so quickly that it was almost impossible to follow with my eyes.

I couldn’t be beaten either. I kicked the bandit who was coming towards me by kicking the ground and hit him with an uppercut. He was a big man, but he floated in the air and lost consciousness when he fell because I didn’t hold back.

The last bandit avoided Ralphine.’s kick and drew a sword from his waist.

“Tch!”

The thief clicked his tongue and swung his sword to intimidate us, backing away slowly. He planned to abandon his companions and run away, which was a wise decision. If Ralphine hadn’t been angry about the disturbance in our hunt, we might have let him escape.

Ralphine advanced carelessly. As soon as she was within range, the bandit thrust his sword at her. Ralphine barely dodged the sword and changed its trajectory by sweeping the blade with the palm of her hand, then stepped in and delivered a tremendous punch to the bandit’s chin.

Although he was a big man and seemed to be the boss of the bandits, he staggered back and fell to his knees due to the blow. Ralphine grabbed the bandit’s collar and executed a beautiful back throw, smashing his head into the ground with a vertical drop.

In just a few minutes, all the bandits had lost consciousness. Ralphine had taken down four while I had only taken down one. My wife was amazing.

“Should we stop? What do we do?”

I asked, my expression unchanged. According to Ralphine “animals and humans have the same life value, so we don’t discriminate.”

“No, let’s stop them. We’ll tie them up here and leave them. Tomorrow, we’ll report it to the next village.”

“If we leave them like that, they might be eaten by bears, you know?”

“Well, that’s fine. These bandits are going to be hanged anyway.”

Ralphine searched for some vines and grass in the forest and skillfully tied up all the bandits with them. As a knight, I also helped by tying their hands behind their backs and their feet together, and putting gags in their mouths so they couldn’t speak.

After we had securely captured them, we moved a little further and set up a tent, and then went to sleep for real.

The next day, as we were travelling along the road, we came across a patrolling knight, so I reported the whereabouts of the bandits. One case closed. By the way, I received a reward for this incident, but it was actually mostly Ralphine.’s achievement.

Through this trip, we deepened our mutual understanding. I was willing to accept whatever was going on with Ralphine, so I let her do her thing during our journey. Apparently Ralphine liked it. Her hesitation gradually disappeared, and her attitude became natural.

That’s how we finally arrived at the imperial capital.