Chapter 17. I Just Didn’t Know Doing the Right Thing Would Feel Like This

Chapter 17: 17. I Just Didn’t Know Doing the Right Thing Would Feel Like This

I turned around and found her standing by the wrecked cage, wrapped in the cloth-seller’s shawl, staring at me with those beautiful huge eyes that instantly made me hooked into it.

Just by looking at those, I managed to calm down for a second as if I forgot what I just did. And what makes it relieving is that... she didn’t look angry or afraid.

She looked like a person waiting for the next bad thing to happen, which was somehow worse. And I had to fix her somehow... I don’t want her to be stuck in a traumatic experience every day.

She deserves happiness. Everyone DESERVES happiness.

Elsbeth knelt in front of her and took her wrist as gently as she could. The metal band was still faintly glowing, and the runes flickered when she touched it.

Then she set her teeth, braced her feet, and brought the pommel of her sword down on the clasp with a sharp, ringing crack.

CRAACCKKK!

The band broke in half and fell to the ground.

Millie stared at her bare wrist for a long time, like she didn’t understand what she was looking at. Then she looked up at me, and she didn’t move.

I put my sword down on the cobblestones and knelt in front of her, the way you would do with a frightened animal, so I wasn’t towering over her just in case I didn’t scare her all of a sudden.

I noticed that my arm was still bleeding, and I was probably covered in many things, but fuck that... I didn’t want to think about it other than her, but I tried to smile anyway just to calm her down.

A smile always worked in this kind of situation.

"You’re Millie... right?"

She nodded slowly.

"It’s alright now... You’re free to go," I said. "Nobody here owns you anything anymore."

She didn’t move. Her ears twitched, but... just slightly, and her fingers curled at the edge of the shawl.

"But..." she whispered, "where... would I go?"

Oh shit...

I had been hit by a lot of things since I’d come to this world, a lot of them are heavy ones at that...

Like a monster’s paw... a fucking blizzard, and... a three-hundred-pound boulder that had landed on my foot.

None of them had hurt as much as that question. And I’m being a dumbass to not think about that because where WOULD she go after this?

There’s no way I just abandon her... she’s going to get caught again or even worse... killed.

I opened my mouth, but then I closed it again when I couldn’t say anything related to her question... She was free, and I had thought that would be enough.

But freedom wasn’t a place... especially if you’re a beastwoman that was hunted by almost every greedy asshole in this world.

And I know that she didn’t have a home to go back to... or a family waiting for her, or a single person in the world who would be worried if she didn’t come back tonight.

All she’d had was a cage... and I’d just taken it away.

Think... think! I can’t seem to find the right way, fuck...!

"I... don’t know yet," I said honestly.

I held out my hand with my palm up and didn’t push it any closer. "But... you don’t have to decide everything today."

"For now... just come with us and think about what you’re going to do next." I give her one big gentle smile. "Or maybe we’ll figure out the rest later... together."

She looked at my hand for a long time, and I heard that the bell kept ringing... knowing that, it wasn’t good news because those fucking shitholes’ shouts were getting closer.

Then, slowly... as if she was afraid it might burn her, she took it.

Her fingers were small... I can feel it cold and shaking too. What made it sad for me is that... she held on so tightly that it almost hurt.

She stood up on unsteady legs, and she started to cry, but it was quiet and sounded helpless, not because she was hurt, but because nobody was telling her what to do after this.

She stepped out of the cage on her own, without any orders. She breathed the open air without asking, and I realized the change of reaction from... it was a face, but I knew that it was a relief coming from her.

What happens next shocked me... she literally threw her arms around my neck.

I froze instantly. Didn’t expect that to happen so soon.

But who am I to refuse this kind of thing? So, I hugged her back, but carefully so that I didn’t accidentally hurt her or anything... but I can tell, like... she might break.

She was trembling all over, and her ears were folded down against her white hair. My heart starts beating fast when I can feel her crying into my shoulder.

I don’t know why, but... feeling this kind of thing made my rage inside me slowly boil up again like... these fucking shitholes didn’t get punished enough for putting her through all of this.

"Thank you," she whispered.

But again... that word actually managed to calm me down instantly. I am always also thankful for that.

"No... thank you, and what matters now is that... you’re safe, Millie."

She shook her head against my coat. "No... I mean, thank you for treating me like a human..."

...what.

I couldn’t answer that... I really couldn’t.

So I stayed silent and just held on... but then over her shoulder I saw Elsbeth turn her face away and stare very hard at a lamppost.

I saw her fists clenched really hard until blood started dripping out from them and her tail swishing in a way that told me she was furious... while also feeling heartbroken and not wanting me to notice either.

...

We made it out of the market just before the guards arrived, and I’d like to say it was a clean, heroic escape. Proud of it.

In reality, it was three people and a very shaky rabbit running through back alleys while I swore and tried not to bleed on anything.

Elsbeth took the lead, and she moved through the maze of streets like she’d been born there. Millie stayed close to her, one hand clutching the shawl and the other clinging to my sleeve.

We ended up in an abandoned granary at the edge of town, a crooked old building with a collapsed corner and a roof full of holes.

It smelled like mildew and old grain... yuck, this shit is worse than I thought. But... it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen, so it’s balanced.

Elsbeth blocked the door with a barrel while also checking the windows to make sure that there were no guards nearby and finally slumped against a wall with a long, tired breath.

"Hahhhhh..." she said. "That went poorly."

"What...? That’s not bad at all, and you know it," I said.

"Don’t you realize what you just did...?"

"You killed a slaver in the middle of a public market, in front of at least fifty witnesses and a dozen guards!" She rubbed her eyes. "If he had any ties to a larger trading company... we are doomed... and going to have a great many people looking for us everywhere!"

I sat down on an overturned crate and let my head fall back against the wall.

Now that the adrenaline was draining out of me, my arm was starting to throb, and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. "Yeah... I figured, but I probably find a way to be free from all of this bullshit."

"You... do not regret it?" Elsbeth raised her eyebrow. "Killing your own kind...?"

I thought about it for a long time before I answered.

What does she mean regret...? Did I ever regret a lot of the fucked-up things I did in my previous life...?

No... and it is also valid for this situation as well.

I didn’t regret my first kill.

"No," I said. "I don’t think I do..."

"But still... I hate that I did it, and I think I’m going to hate it for a while, but... I don’t regret saving her." I looked over at Millie, who had curled up in the corner with the shawl pulled up to her chin.

"I just didn’t know that doing the right thing would feel like this."

"It rarely feels like what you expect."

I snorted. "Ugh... That’s a really depressing thing to say."

"I have been told that I am good at it."

Elsbeth walked over and sat down on the crate next to mine. For a while, neither of us spoke.

Outside, the bells were still ringing, but they sounded far away now... muffled by the old walls.

"And here I thought you were weak in all aspects," she said eventually, staring at the dusty floor. "When we met... I thought you were a foolish man who had been given a great gift by luck, and that... it would make you arrogant and careless."

"Eh. That’s fair... I can confirm that I was a little arrogant."

"A little...?"

"Alright, alright... I was a LOT arrogant! I jumped over a log, and I made you watch."

"You did."

She almost smiled. "But today... I saw a man who was willing to risk his life, his freedom, and everything he had just gained... for a beastwoman he had known for a few minutes."

"That is rarer than strength, Leon... I wanted you to know that I noticed that one the most."