Chapter 30

“Sir, I find this unfair. I was only trying to help His Majesty.” Freya’s voice squeaked when she spoke because it was an absurd accusation, and she struggled to find the words to respond. She then gently shook Lucius’s shoulder. “Your Majesty, get up and tell him it’s not what it seems.” But this time, Lucius just fell to the side. Oh my god! As she watched his limp body falling on the ground, an image flashed in Freya’s mind of being decapitated for harming a royal.

The knight put a finger in front of Lucius’s nose to see if he was breathing and then shouted at the top of his lungs, “Bring a stretcher, quickly!” The knight looked distraught. “Take His Majesty to the doctor and wizard, and take this person too.”

“What? Why?” Freya’s desperate scream echoed in the valley. She tried to resist, but her arms were bound, so it was futile. “This is a misunderstanding!” She protested, but the knight was unwilling to hear her out.

Freya, it will be okay. She tried to calm herself down while being dragged up the grassy hill, but her white face couldn’t hide the fear. And when they reached the barracks, Freya was locked up in a dark tent.

“Make sure to guard the entrance,” the knight ordered and then left in a hurry.

After being shoved into the tent by a soldier, he tied Freya’s arms and legs to a metal chair. Freya shivered from the cold steel against her skin. It felt like the heavyweight of chains were pulling Freya’s body into the ground, and her eyes were wide open as she looked around fearfully.

Freya then glanced at the ground and saw something that looked like someone’s hair and blood. She turned her head away quickly as she began to quiver and looked at the walls of the tent. But the inside of the tent gave her no comfort. Because the walls on the inside showcased frightening weapons, and Freya’s fear intensified as she broke into a cold sweat.

The clean clothing she’d put on earlier that morning had blood all over them. And with bruises on her body and bloodstains on her face, Freya looked awful. She bit her lips without realizing it as her body trembled noticeably. And just before she fainted from the shock of the situation, Freya smelt an odd, fishy odor around her cute button nose.

Still tied to the chair, Freya’s body slumped over, and her semi-conscious mind replayed an old memory. She recalled getting a beating from Sophia and how the evil woman would chuck a bucket of cold water over her aching body to add to the misery. And Sophia’s harsh-sounding voice rang in her ears, “You think I’ll be satisfied with this!”

Sophia didn’t get along with any orphans but especially disliked Freya. She scolded each one of Freya’s actions and generally picked on her for no reason.

Freya would cry to herself and wished to ask Sophia a thousand times why she wouldn’t leave her alone. However, that question would only reach up to her neck, but the words never left her mouth, for she’d been terrified of being punished even more harshly. Freya was sick of how submissive she had to be at the orphanage and was distraught that she had to live like that.

Freya often daydreamed about what her parents had been like when she was little. And how different her life could’ve been if they’d chosen to keep her instead. But now, Freya held a deep resentment towards them for leaving her in a cruel place like that. And she would never understand how her mother could give birth to her and then abandon such a tiny baby, leaving it to fend for itself.

Freya slowly blinked her eyes after letting out a groan filled with pain as she wondered how long she’d been sitting in the cold chair. Finally, a knight strolled into the tent wearing full armor that made a clinking sound as he walked. At the knight’s appearance, Freya put all her strength into lifting her head, “I’m wronged,” Freya pleaded innocently, but the man was only focused on taking off the helmet and wiping it down with a cloth he’d picked up from the table.

The man had sweat on his brow, which he brushed back into his dark-brown hair, and Freya immediately noticed his large dark eyes. As he stood in front of Freya, he bluntly said, “You have to tell the truth here.”

“Yes, sir,” Freya said through gritted teeth.

“I don’t forgive lies.” The knight’s black eyes looked like they could burn a hole into Freya.

“But it’s true. I was taking the ashes outside. And then I coincidentally ended up there.”

“So to reiterate, you met His Majesty coincidentally, and you know him?” There was disbelief in the knight’s voice.

Freya raised her voice as she found his words unfair, “I wasn’t hugging him. He collapsed into my arms.”

The knight still looked at Freya suspiciously, “You should pray that His Majesty wakes up soon.”

“But, sir.” There was nothing more she could say. Freya stopped shaking her legs and looked up at the roof of the tent. It wasn’t the first time such a misunderstanding had happened, and she sighed heavily, feeling helpless.

The day I was given bread was similar to today. She had told Aunt Sophia it had been an innocent situation, but yet she’d almost been beaten to death by her. Her entire body slumped as she remembered her past. Soon, the whip, club, or skewer on the wall, will be used on me. Freya thought she’d forgotten about such things since meeting Archer, but her body vividly remembered the fear and agony that a beating gave. If you cry, you get hit more.

As she was trying to hold back her tears, Ruth’s voice suddenly echoed in her mind, “Freya, don’t do this again. Promise!” She could picture Ruth’s face looking at her while she bled on the chair. And during this trying time, Freya was able to draw strength from her friend’s words, and she smiled slightly. It’s okay if I have one more scar, Ruth.

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