While abandoned, the well hadn’t run dry. Lydia washed out the bucket that was buried in weeds before drawing water. She’d found a chipped cup and a dented iron pot in a corner of a dirt-floored room that she figured had once been the kitchen.
The dilapidated abandoned home was buffeted by the wind and the wooden door screeched in protest at being opened. The house was a little distant from the road and was hidden by the forest. Once the sun set, even if Huskley and the others were to try following after them, most likely they wouldn’t even notice that the building were even there.
“Hey Lydia, shouldn’t you hurry and escape?” Nico appeared on the rock wall of the well.
“Where were you? I thought you got left behind.”
“I’ve been with you the whole time. I just kept myself hidden is all.”
“No doubt. After all, you always disappear as soon as things get dangerous.”
“So you say, but what do you expect me to do in that sort of fight? It was all I could do to keep up with you. Rather than that, shouldn’t you be doing something other than drawing water?”
Lydia sighed as she sat next to Nico.
Perhaps he was right. If she were to escape, now was her chance.
While Edgar might be watching her from inside the abandoned house, he was injured. So, right now, she might be able to get away.
How far did they come since an injured Edgar had forced her into the carriage? After a while, he had the driver stop the carriage, then paying the driver handsomely both for the ride and to remain silent, he had the driver continue on to the next town. They then walked along the road going between the fields. Most likely, he figured Huskley and the others would follow after the carriage. Then just as the sun was setting, they found this abandoned house and decided to wait for dawn there.
Despite not being bound, Lydia ended
up following as Edgar directed. Lydia couldn’t help feeling it decidedly unjust that a thief’s presence gave her some comfort against loneliness on this pitch dark country road without any street lights or signs of other people’s homes.
That’s right, he’s a thief.
“That guy, he’s the thief that’s currently being sought after.”
“……So it seems.”
Edgar used the name ‘Gotham’ when referring to the man who’d called himself Huskley. The name Gotham had been mentioned in the newspaper; it was the name of the thief’s victim who’d nearly been killed.
Huskley was Gotham’s son. And he’d missed Edgar and ended up shooting his own father when Edgar robbed Gotham’s mansion.
Lydia had managed to figure out that much.
“But he referred to the monies he’d taken as compensation. Not to mention it sounded like Gotham and his family were also up to no good.”
“Lydia, if villains end up having a falling out, fighting among themselves and end up killing one another, that’s up to them. But that’s no reason to getting us caught up in their issues. Even without seeing the tattoo on that guy’s tongue, that guy’s no regular thief. They called him Sir John, right? The one who was supposed to have been executed in America……”
“I know that, Nico. But…”
Lydia stared at the light cut on the palm of her hand. She’d gotten it when she’d struggled against Huskley.
“He protected me.”
“You know, that’s because without you he won’t be able to find the Lord Blue Knight’s great sword.”
“True, but it’d be pointless if he got himself killed while protecting me.”
“Yeah, but he’s not dead, and it’s not like he’s going to die from his injury either.
(No Ratings Yet)