Using the system cheat for so long made her reliant on it for situations like this. She was now alone and almost powerless. Thankfully, she transmigrated back to a body of a deadly assassin. If she didn’t, she would not have escaped those knights in the palace even if she were to use her past knowledge. The mind and the body had to cooperate to work well.
Keira was now thinking about where to spend the rest of the night. She was still extremely tired. A normal person would have longed passed out. She couldn’t get back to that specific alleyway because it had been already found out.
Keira couldn’t help but think. ‘Maybe it would be better for me to just hand over myself to Adage at this point and wait for System 999 in the palace. And perhaps, I could even find out more if Leal and the male leads have a relationship with each other.’
Though, Adage and Leal only shared bits of similarity, if she were really to think about it. Is it just those two she had met had any connection with Leal? Or maybe she just noticed those connections due to the fact they had blackened. But even if Leal and the male leads had a connection, why would it only appear when they had blackened and not when they were normal? Ezekiel was the closest, but that’s about it.
‘Ahh! But I also don’t know what the male lead is planning to do this time. Maybe Adage is crazier than the last two, I really have no way of knowing unless I meet him in person. Or maybe… he would actually be better and treat me like he always does in this world.’
The looming 100% blackened bar passed her mind again. Hence, all those nonsensical thoughts washed away.
‘Escaping the male lead would cost a lot of experience points when System 999 comes back. So it would be much better for me to just avoid the male lead for the time being, unless deem necessary, and wait for System 999, so I could directly find my ticket to the next world without any worry of losing too many experience points.’
As Keira continued mindlessly walking down the corner of the street, a knight suddenly called out to her from behind.
“You with the hooded robe! Stop right there!”
Keira stopped in her tracks and pulled the hood hiding her face lower.
The knight blurted out, “Take off your hood!”
Hearing the knights coming closer, she began to hurriedly walk away from the knight, who was calling her attention. Wanting to escape the situation again by turning to a different street, Keira hurried her pace. However, the knight was faster this time, managing to catch up to her and grabbed her by the arm.
Keira winced from the abrupt movement. Her hand subconsciously went to shield her most vulnerable spot, her stomach, where the wound was worst. She tried to struggle to free her arm but the knight had a good grip on her and wasn’t letting her escape.
Keira took her hand from her stomach and reach out to her hair where there were only two needles left. Without hesitation, Keira acted, grabbing one of the last two remaining needles and inserting it directly into the hand that was grabbing her.
The knight hadn’t expected Keira to suddenly attack her, loosening his grip. Keira took that chance and removed her hand. She quickly turned her body which made her flinch again but still ran full speed ahead.
“That’s the assassin that managed to escape! Catch her!”
Keira could hear the knight who was slowly slumping to the ground call out for his comrades nearby. Keira ran, pushing aside the people blocking her way. The other passersby must have caught on that the knights were chasing the woman with the one million bounty so also tried what they can do to block Keira’s way.
Seeing the other people begin to join in made Keira furrow her brows. It got harder and harder to avoid the people blocking her as more tried joining in. Some had begun to join the chase. The chaos only brought more attention to her figure. Now, it was near impossible to actually lose this mass of crowds that had piled up behind her.
When Keira made a turn, she bumped into someone. She wanted to continue running but that person held her tight.
The man who got her kept saying out loud, “I got her! I’m the one who managed to grab her first, so I earn the one million bounty!”
Before the others could catch up, Keira quickly moved. She grabbed the last needle out of her orange hair and punctured the man who was grabbing her directly to his neck. The man went limp, still trying to grasp Keira with his last remaining strength.
The current street that Keira turned to was empty. Only abandoned buildings were present in the area, so no civilians or passersby were in the area. Using the small breathing room that Keira managed to create herself from running incessantly, Keira removed her robe and draped it across the unconscious man. Looking from afar, it would look like Keira who was wearing the robe fell down.
This would buy her more time to actually escape her countless pursuers. Keira hid in the nearby abandoned building. The knights who were ahead of the following civilians went to surround the unconscious figure.
Keria didn’t waste time actually staying and observing, as this would be counterintuitive to her plan. She hastily but carefully removed herself from the abandoned building and ran away from the crowded areas.
She was actually back in the alleys again. This was the last place people would go to. Not only is it a dangerous place to wander around, but it is also dirty and dark. But for Keira, this was her haven for the time being.
She tried catching her breath. She leaned on the wall, slowly sliding her body downwards. She hugged her knees and rested her head. Her waves of curly hair came sliding down. The bun didn’t manage to hold on from all the action.
Tap tap.
Slow but steady footsteps approached her. Keira slowly raised her head. When she heard the footsteps, she didn’t try running away anymore. She couldn’t, even if she wanted to. She was tired and in pain.
What appeared in front of the dark alleyway was a man who wore a black robe that was inlaid with beautiful golden patterns. His black hair contrasted well with the evening sky that was filled with twinkling stars.
The man strode forward until he was facing Keira from above. Keira could feel his dominating but calm aura. It was like the gentle breeze of the night, cool but comforting. He kneeled down till he was facing Keira eye to eye. Keira raised her head to look at the figure in front of her.
Two pairs of eyes stared at each other. Both had unique colors and different emotions buried inside them.
Keira was captivated by his purple irises that seemed to stare directly past her physical body to her soul. The man—Adage, showed a small smile as he tucked in the fallen hair, behind Keira’s ear.
He softly enunciated, “Keira, let’s go home.”
His deep voice carried a soft tone. His eyes showed worried yet relief, but also a hint of something Keira could not grasp made her heart weak.
Just those words alone made Keira self-aware of the pain she was going through; how much her body was hurting so much, and how tired she was from running. How mentally drained she was from thinking all about the system, the male leads, and Leal. And even the small cuts she made along the way, seemed to ache.
It was the same feeling she had when somebody tell her ‘are you alright’ on a bad day. Everything just seems to crumble at that one statement.
Perhaps, the man in front of her could see the pain in her eyes. He brought her into his warm embrace and simply hugged her, caressing her hair calmly. Keira closed her eyes and accepted Adage’s comfort, slowly falling into a deep slumber in his arms.
…
