27 A trap?

*trigger warning: Murder & Death*

He was a tall man with a well-built body and an eye patch on his left eye. Ashley saw how Olga reacted when she saw the man. She knew by then that he was one of the mercenaries.

Olga stepped back and whispered, "When I say run, run on the opposite side."

Ashley scowled but still nodded.

The man asked as he patted his garments, "Olga, right? What are you doing here?"

"Yes, I am. We are going to do some errands." Olga answered him. "You seem to be earlier than the decided time."

"Yeah, according to your letter." Then the man smirked. "But according to the Madame's letter, I should be here now."

He took a step forward as Ashley and Olga did backward.

"She even wrote..." he grabbed Olga's neck."To kill you both."

"Olga!" Ashley trembled as she called out her name.

"R-run..." Despite being choked, Olga managed to utter those words.

Ashley shook her head. "No."

While she attempted to assist her, she struck his arms. "Let her go!"

While it seemed ineffective, it made him upset. "It appears like this young woman is eager to die."

He grabbed Ashley's neck, forcing both of them against a wall.

Ashley attempted to escape his grip by bending one of his fingers as hard as she could. Then she kicked him in the crotch and his face.

"Ugh!" he groaned as he touched his groin.

Ashley's attempt was successful because he let go of both their necks to crouch.

When they freed themselves, Ashley and Olga started coughing at once.

Ashley asked as she pants, "Are you alright?"

Olga only gave her a nod. Ashley made an effort to assist her in standing.

"Let's leave."

Ashley screamed as the man abruptly grabbed her hair.

"Ah!"

Olga assisted Ashley by throwing dirt on his face. While he struggled to clear his vision, the man let go of Ashley's hair.

"Argh!"

Then he made another attempt at grabbing Olga's right foot. Olga groaned as the grip got harder, breaking her bones.

Ashley stomped the man's arms on Olga's foot until he released his grip as she yelled, "Leave her alone!"

Olga and Ashley made another attempt to rise and flee from the knocked-out man, but Olga's foot made it difficult for her to move.

Olga turned to face Ashley and said, "Leave now, Milady." in a hoarse voice.

"No!" Ashley exclaimed as she shook her head. "We're leaving here together."

To help and support her, Ashley placed Olga's hand over her shoulders. Their steps were sluggish, yet eventually, they arrived at the pathless green field.

As they walked through the tall grass, they heard several voices. They turned around and saw sudden movements in the grass fields, quite close to their position.

"Come on! I'm confident they haven't gone that far." one of them yelled.

They both know whose voice it belongs. Ashley and Olga began to increase their speed and walked faster. But Olga was barely keeping up and stumbled numerous times.

"You should leave me here, Milady." Olga sat still as she tried catching her breath.

"What? No! I won't leave you." Ashley tried to reach her arms again.

She responded, shaking her head, "I can't walk longer, and I'll simply burden you."

"I can-"

"Milady." Olga looked straight into her eyes. "You have to leave now."

"But-" Tears started to form in Ashley's eyes.

"I'll buy more time for you to flee," she wiped her eyes. "I'll divert their attention here while you go."

"You don't have to do that. We can flee together. Why do you want to put your life on the line? "

Olga smiled. "Please take this as my atonement for what I did to you from the past until now."

"I already forgave you, so don't have to sacrifice yourself anymore," Ashley said while hugging her.

"You are so kind, Milady." Olga brushed her hair for a moment. Then slipped out of Ashley's embrace and turned at the shifting grass field, "But you have to leave now."

"No!" Ashley insisted.

"You should go to Port Town. Mia is currently staying there in Lowe Inn. She can help you."

"I said no."

"Just follow the stars. They will guide you the right way."

"No…" Ashley shook her head as more tears fell from her eyes.

"Milady…" Olga sighed and then smiled. "Please listen to me. We don't have much time left. You have to go now."

Ashley continued to sob, "Then how about you?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll try to reason out with money." She then took a pouch from her pocket and gave half of its content to Ashley. "Here. Take this and use it once you escape here."

"But-"

"No buts. Go."

Ashley was eager to bring Olga along, but she insisted on staying there.

"They're coming now." She attempted to warn her again while coughing. "Hurry, Milady."

Ashley looked at her as she stood up while Olga smiled to reassure her. "I'll be ok, so don't worry."

Ashley wiped her tears as she nodded and ran away as she could.

'Please let her Milady be safe.' Olga prayed in silence.

Olga attempted to stand up with her limp feet but failed. So she crawled away slowly from her location as the mercenaries' movements and shouts came closer.

One man emerged from the grass and noticed her, a bit further away from where she and Ashley had parted.

"I found one!" he yelled before he bounded her hands and feet so she couldn't escape.

Soon later, a crowd of guys gathered around her. The man with an eye patch was the last one to arrive.

"Where's the other one?" he inquired the man who captured her.

"She was alone, crawling on the dirt."

He then turned to Olga, "Where is the young lady?"

Olga looked at the man and said, "Please let the young lady go. If you want money, I'll pay you."

The man took the pouch on the ground and poured the money into his hands. "This is enough to spare you. But not the lady." Then he returned them to the pouch.

Olga's eyes widened as she shouted, "No! Don't spare me! Just kill me if you want and take the money. Just spare her."

The man smirked, "Are you sure? Then let me kill you now."

He unsheathed a sword from one of his companion's waists and pointed it at Olga's neck. Olga trembled as the tip of the blade touched her neck.

"But I'm sorry to break it to you." He smirked and looked at Olga's teary eyes. "I can't do that. The contract says that I have to kill her no matter what. So where is she?"

Olga gritted her teeth before answering. " I won't tell you."

The man laughed, "Don't you know I'm not giving you a choice here? So tell me, where is she?"

Silence.

The impatient man swung his sword across her neck, splattering blood on the field.

After a few seconds, Olga fell to the ground.

He turned to his men and instructed, "Two people should get rid of the corpse and dump it elsewhere. The rest of the group will come with me and search for the lady."

"Yes, Boss!"

Then they split into two groups.

On the other hand, Ashley ran away in tears after seeing Olga's final moments. She attempted to flee as far as she could. But she couldn't leave Olga, so she returned to where she had left Olga, only to watch her horrifying end.

'I'm sorry, Olga,' she thought to herself.

Tears continued to pour as she ran so fast across the fields that her eyesight blurred, and she tripped.

She silently sobbed while lying on the ground. Suddenly she remembered the old lady's words from Wels town.

'You will just bring them nothing but trouble.'

Ashley felt something painful in her chest.

'Danger and suffering will always come at you.'

'Happiness will be impossible. You are already on death's door the day you were born.'

The words of the old lady resonated in her head repeatedly. She tried to block her ears but could still hear her voice.

She then noticed Mary's wristlet, which Olga gave her, on the ground. It seemed to have fallen when she tripped.

She picked it up and remembered Mary, Olga, and her Mother's face.

That calmed her a bit.

The old lady's voice slowly vanished. And Ashley could hear her surroundings again.

She heard shouts and the sound of the moving grass again.

"That's right. I have to get out of here." She stood up and looked up at the night sky as she recalled what Olga had told her.

"Follow the stars."

She looked up at the stars and noticed four brilliant stars forming a cross with two dim stars inside it. Her eyes widened as she recalled a memory from her childhood.

"Where the anchor falls is your home."

She looked at the wristlet again and gripped it tightly before resuming her run toward the place the stars were guiding her: Home.