CG Chapter 51: Five Hearts, Three Blades, Two Destinies 

 

"Benedict, we need to hurry. Once we've killed her, we must grab the horses and escape. We also need to silence her maid and ensure we don't leave any evidence to avoid being pursued by the family. We can't be too sure if the bandits will kill her or let her go, so," he paused before whispering, "we can't be too careful."

 

Gareth spoke with a hurried tone. He cared little for Violet's or the maid's feelings. He might have felt a hint of guilt for the innocent maid, but that wouldn't stop him from doing his best to get himself and his brother out of this death trap. He had already lost too many brothers today."

 

"What are you talking about Gareth? The maid is innocent." Benedict hesitated; he didn't know whether to follow his brother's lead or…

 

The maid and Violet looked at the two without daring to speak. The shock of today's events was enough to make even the spoiled Violet face a bit of reality.

 

Tom, watching from afar, decided to see what decision they would make before finishing them off. They didn't realize that if he didn't want to use them to sharpen himself, then they would have already lain on the ground alongside their big brother.

 

It's either us or her. If we can't escape, we will die, and I can't-- I can't let that happen. I don't want to die, I don't want to die, Benedict." The sight of tears and snot streaming down the face of the muscular Gareth would shock anyone witnessing it.

 

"But…" Benedict looked at the innocent face of the maid before saying, "Fuck it, I will not ask you to forgive me, but I hope that you know that I don't have much of a choice."

 

Seeing their determination, the maid screamed, "Please don't. I won't speak; you can take me with you if you don't believe me."

 

"Sorry, but you will only slow us down." Gareth waved his sword, granting the maid a peaceful death.

 

Benedict couldn't look at the sight any longer. He could only prepare the horses in a hurry. He wasn't in the mood to even watch the death of Violet.

 

Gareth, on the other side, also knew that time wasn't on their side. They thought that the bandit group was approaching them quickly, unaware that behind all of this was only Tom, who was much closer than they would like to believe.

 

"I would love to torture you for a couple of weeks, but I don't have time, so consider yourself lucky," Gareth declared, looking at Violet.

 

"You really are going to kill me? Do you really not fear what will happen to you if I die?" Overwhelmed by a mix of emotions, Violet screamed at Gareth. She didn't expect that they would actually dare to kill her.

 

She still had a strong belief that a mere knight wouldn't dare to let her die, let alone try to kill her, so she did the only thing she could think of – she screamed with all of her strength, a scream for her life trying to scare Gareth away.

 

"You demon, what did I do to deserve this?"

 

Ignoring her bleeding, Gareth unleashed the hatred that had built within him for years with a merciless strike, opposite to the one he had used to end the maid's life.

 

His target was her eyes before he swiftly moved to cut her tongue and then both of her hands. Being a middle apprentice knight, he was able to execute his actions quickly; he knew that this would cause Violet the most painful death he could unleash. Even the legendary physicians of the imperial family will not have the ability to save her.

 

He severed her tongue to silence any potential revelations. He removed her hands to eliminate the slightest possibility of her trying to write what they did here. He did all he could to ensure her demise was as agonizing as possible.

 

The moment Gareth killed Violet, he heard Benedict calling out to him to come quickly because he had released the horses. Unfortunately for him, just when he turned his head toward Benedict, their hope of escape was suddenly shattered…

 

'Whoosh'

 

Double arrows swiftly and accurately flew toward the horses. Upon witnessing the scene before them, the duo realized they were done for. Alone against an unknown enemy, they weren't even given a chance to escape.

 

The sanity they had tried so hard to preserve shattered in an instant. They could hear the footsteps of death approaching, indifferent to their plight. They knew they would soon join Violet and the maid. At least the maid had died peacefully, a fate they couldn't imagine the bandits granting them.

 

What they didn't expect was to see that the grand bandit group they feared so much was actually just a single man wearing a cloak and covering his face.

 

Witnessing this, Gareth began to laugh. "Haha, do you see this, Cedric? The one who killed you is but a single person. We were scared of a single fucking man," Gareth continued to chuckle; madness took hold of his mind, and his nose began to bleed from the stress. Not even in his wildest dreams would he expect that the man in front of him could defeat the three of them alone.

 

The only people who could take them single-handedly were formal knights, and what formal knight would act as a bandit? So, in that fragile mental state, he gave up on everything.

 

He held his sword with his right hand and began to rush toward his mortal enemy. When you push a man into a corner, you must be ready for him to turn into a wild beast; he will fight you desperately for his survival.

 

However, Tom didn't care since that was exactly what he wanted.

 

"Not so fast," Tom spoke.

 

He changed his voice and donned the cloak to conceal his identity, even though he didn't plan to let them live. Pointing toward Benedict, he asked, "Aren't you going to join your friend? Are you going to let him fight me alone?"

 

Tom wanted to face both of them together. To achieve this, he provoked Benedict to join Gareth in a two-on-one fight against him for the sake of progress. 

 

He was not about to hinder his own advancement; due to his experience, any fear he had had long ago died. Confidently, he raised his sword.