Chapter 187 - The Runaway Orphan (1)

"I choose none of the options, let go," I tried to shake his grip off.

"Rika," Luke tightened his grip on me as if he was warning me.

"Why can't I go? I can go alone, and you can go back to wherever you want!" I shouted.

It was frustrating how everyone turned on me when it went against Luke's wishes. I heaved from not being able to escape from Luke's grasp and gave up struggling to catch my breath. His expression turned into cold ice blocks and I knew I was testing his patience. Luke didn't say another word like he was pressuring me to give up and walk into the hover car with him.

I didn't want to give into him since it felt like I was losing. I was about to flop down onto the ground in my current spot before I noticed someone coming towards us. His oddly angled arm and blood-stained clothes showed that he was the same boy who was unconscious a few minutes ago. I wondered if the children were allowed to readily go out of the orphanage on their own.

I guessed they weren't when Luke's eyes narrowed in suspicion. When the boy noticed we were the same spectators who watched his fight, his eyes widened before he rushed in to place a sharp knife against my neck. My wrist became free from Luke loosening his grip from shock as he wobbled backwards in disbelief.

In turn, the boy was able to gain a dominant position where he had his uninjured arm surrounding my entire neck. I stood still like an icicle, knowing one step would mean one slit to my neck. Maybe I was used to these situations since I felt calm compared to the boy trembling tremendously. I was starting to compare if the gun in the second district was scarier or the knife that would take longer to kill a person.

"If you report me, then this girl won't live," the boy threatened us.

Nobody dared to move as the atmosphere increasingly became more tense. I coughed as the boy gained more confidence to press the knife directly against my skin. I wondered if I could use teleportation to escape, but since he was a person of the first district, he could notice me chanting the spell. It was possible to use mana without chanting or trying to visualize the result, but it took tons of practice. Unfortunately, I wasn't at that level yet.

"I won't report you," I decided to go along with him.

"Promise me your word on your family crest!" He spat out.

Family crest? I was sure Luke had one of those, but I came from an ordinary family. There was nothing I had to lose. I guessed promising on one's family crest was an insured version of keeping one's word from common etiquette.

"I promise as Rika Shanes that I won't report you," I left out the Roselia family name.

The Roselia family name wasn't entirely mine. I didn't want people to know I was engaged to Luke if they didn't have to know. From my experiences, it was only a pain once they figured out. Since his family was well-known, people started to drastically treat me differently when I just wanted to be treated like a normal person.

"You're not an elite?" The boy appeared fl.u.s.tered as he stepped back a bit.

This was the reaction I was expecting. I hoped he would let me go, knowing I wasn't one of them. It was obvious someone who came from a powerful family would have a higher value as a hostage rather than a normal person.

"Are you surprised?" I shrugged.

"Don't you mess with me. Only elites are allowed to sponsor children from this place and have the teacher guide you around!" He pushed harder against my neck enough to bleed trickles down my throat.

What else did I not know? I tried to keep my line of sight above my neck to keep myself from seeing my own blood. I clenched my fists to help me absorb the pain as Luke showed a pang of nervousness from the thin string of my life.

"I give you my word on the Roselia family name that I won't report you for this one attempt of your escape," Luke quickly said as the knife dug deeper.

"I knew it," the boy mumbled as he let me go.

"You had to come from an elite family," he looked at me as if he was accusing me of lying.

I wobbled towards Luke as my legs became suddenly weak. Luke pulled me inside his chest as he studied my wound. When he took a bottle of erigent from his marble, I pushed myself away from him. There was no way I was going through a round of intense pain from this little scratch. I still remembered the stinging pain that lasted for at least half an hour from that liquid when I was recovering in the fall.

"I don't need erigent," I refused.

"I can use heal instead," I ran to the boy to prove heal was better.

Maybe it was from the guilt I had from watching the boy get beat up, I chanted heal to mend his broken arm. A bright yellow light surrounded his arm as traces of pooling blood was starting to disappear while his skin started to stitch itself back up. My head throbbed as I concentrated on which part of his anatomy to focus on to use heal more efficiently. When the toll of using too much mana was starting to strain my body, the light vanished.