Chapter 20. Messing With Me Is Going to Put You Through a Really HARD Time

Chapter 20: 20. Messing With Me Is Going to Put You Through a Really HARD Time

I took the key ring from the guard’s belt, and the three of us slipped inside.

The cells were... worse up close.

The stone floor was damp plus cold, and a thin layer of dirty straw covered it in patches. A lantern hung from a hook at the end of the corridor, and in its dim light... I could see a dozen women huddled behind iron bars.

They stared at us, and nobody said a word, which was a relief because they could snitch on us at any moment.

A woman with fox ears pulled a younger girl behind her... watching my face with open suspicion. A tall woman with cat ears and a badly bruised cheek pressed herself against the bars to get a better look.

I felt the guilt come back like a kick to the balls.

"Sshhh... stay calm. We’re here to get you out," I whispered. "Can you walk?"

Nobody answered.

Fuck... It seems like they didn’t believe me, and eh... who am I to blame them after they’re treated like this for who knows how long?

Millie stepped past me. She took the key ring out of my hand without asking, which I decided to let slide, and knelt at the first cell door.

Her fingers shook so badly that she fumbled the first key... then the second, but the third turned with a heavy click.

The door swung open. And the fox woman stared at her.

"Don’t worry... We’re going to leave now," Millie said softly. "But you have to walk slowly, okay...? I’ll help you."

Nobody moved. Millie held out her hand with her palm up, exactly the way I’d held mine out to her that afternoon.

Wow... I am already feeling nostalgic seeing it.

I watched something crack in the fox woman’s face. She didn’t take Millie’s hand, but she stood up, and she took the girl with her, and she walked out of the cell on her own two feet.

Millie looked at the open door, and then at her own hand... and I saw something change in her expression.

For the first time in her life, she wasn’t the person waiting for somebody to open the cage... She was the one holding the key.

It was a hell of a thing to watch, and I’m not ashamed to say that I had to look away for a second and pretend something had gotten into my eye.

Yes... it was tears of sadness, not joy.

...

We got about eight of them out before the plan... went to shit.

I’d like to blame bad luck, but honestly... it was mostly a combination of my reckless nature and gravity. Millie was helping a young cat-eared woman who could hardly stand, and she had her shoulder braced under the woman’s arm, half carrying her down the corridor.

Both of them were moving as quickly as they could. They were nearly at the door when a voice rang out behind them.

"HEEYYY! What the FUCK are you doing in there!?"

A guard stood at the end of the corridor, a big man with a club in his fist and a lantern in the other.

He’d obviously come to check on his missing coworkers that we take down. And so... He took one look at the open cells, and his whole face changed.

"AH SHIT! THEY’RE BREAKING OUT!!!"

Millie froze.

I saw it happen from twenty feet away. Her whole body locked up, and her eyes went wide and glassy, and I could see her shrinking back into the version of herself that lived in cages, the one who flinched at every sharp voice.

That PTSD probably kicked in at the wrong time and place.

Her ears went flat. Her mouth opened, and I knew what she was about to say, because I’d heard it a hundred times that day.

’I’m sorry.’

Then the woman leaning on her sagged, and her knees started to buckle. Millie looked at her and then back at the guard.

"Please...! Don’t come any closer," she said.

Her voice was tiny, but it didn’t tremble, and what surprised me the most is that... she didn’t apologize.

The guard snarled and raised his club. Millie yanked the cat woman backward and slid sideways, and the club smashed into the stone floor where her head had been a heartbeat earlier.

Chips of rock flew into the air. The guard swung again, and again... she wasn’t there because of how fast she moved.

It didn’t look like dodging to me, but it looked like he’d swung at a reflection, and the reflection had simply shifted when he blinked.

How is this rabbit?! And that’s no surprise either, knowing a rabbit is really fast!

She grabbed the ring of keys off his belt as he stumbled past, and with a strength I would never have guessed she had... she literally fucking hauled the nearest cell door shut on his shoulder.

He yelped and lost his balance, and before he could recover... a long shadow dropped behind him, and the point of a curved sword touched the back of his neck.

"Do not move," Elsbeth said, in a voice that made the temperature of the corridor drop.

The guard didn’t. He didn’t even try to breathe or say anything.

"Well done," Elsbeth added, glancing at Millie. "I can see that you have some skills in you."

Millie looked startled, as if she’d been caught stealing. "I-I only..."

"You helped someone while you were afraid... and so... do not undervalue that."

Millie stared at her trembling hands. A strange look crossed her face, something between disbelief and wonder, as if she’d just found a coin in a coat she’d worn for years.

Of course... I hadn’t taught her any of that, and neither had Elsbeth. It had been inside her all along, and the world had spent years burying it.

Then the first bell started ringing outside, and the moment shattered.

RINGGGG! RINNGGGG! RINGGGG!

"We’re exposed right now," Elsbeth said. "Move! Now...!"

We burst out the back door and into a yard full of shouting.

"SOMEONE’S SETTING FREE THE SLAVES! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"

"AH FUCK! IT BETTER NOT BE THE GUY WHO JUST STEAL THE BUNNYKIN! "

Torches flared along the walls as the compound came alive, and men poured out of the barracks with swords and spears and even crossbows, but... half of them are still pulling on their boots.

Somewhere above us, a horn blew a long, ugly note.

HONNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKK!

I counted maybe thirty guards... before I stopped trying because fuck it. This is such a waste of time anyway.

"Okay," I muttered. "Phew... this is fine, I guess."

"This is a totally normal and manageable amount of people! And I’m sure that we’re all going to survive this!"

"Leon!" Elsbeth snapped.

"Yeah! I know, I know! I’m moving! I’m moving!"

Arrows started coming from the tower almost immediately, whistling past us in the dark. Elsbeth cut two of them out of the air with her sword and yanked a prisoner out of the path of a third.

I got behind the group and shoved the slower ones forward, yelling things like ’go, go, go’ and ’please for the love of God! Keep running,’ and a lot of other words I won’t repeat here.

Apex Physique was indeed a miracle, and I thought this was the best thing I’ve got since I arrived here, but it’s not close to having sex for the first time.

I could feel it carrying me hard for real, making every step lighter and faster than I’d ever dreamed.

A guard swung a sword at my head, and I ducked under it and punched him in the stomach hard enough to fold him in half. Another one came at me with a spear, and I caught the shaft with my left hand and ripped it out of his grip.

"You see that? Better know that messing with me is going to put you through a really... HARD time!"

But still... I couldn’t be everywhere at once, and the prisoners couldn’t run like I could.

They were starving, half of them. Some were limping on old injuries, and a few could barely stand upright.

One woman fell and skinned both knees, and I scooped her up on my shoulder without breaking stride. "Hang on! I got you!"

Two others fell behind, gasping from exhaustion, so I turned and shouted at them to keep moving. One at them to keep moving, and one of them looked up at me with pure despair and said, "We... can’t...!"

I hated that I understood her. Gods know how long they have to get a proper meal or even clean water to make them stay hydrated.

...

By the time we reached the trail that wound down toward the forest, the guards had formed a line behind us, and I could hear them gaining.

They never gave up, and to make things worse, we really can’t escape this if they keep shouting at us just for another guard to appear and help.

Elsbeth was far ahead, helping the strongest prisoners through a rocky gully. I was bringing up the rear, which is where heroes go to die... and maybe I’m fine with that.

I looked back, and I saw Millie had stopped just to look at someone.

’M-Millie...?!’

But then I saw where she was looking at. A cat-eared woman had collapsed beside a boulder near the bottom of the slope, and she was trying to get up with a look of such stubborn misery that it hurt to watch.

Her legs wouldn’t hold her anymore. So that’s the reason why Millie was already running back to her.

"Millie!" I screamed.

She didn’t look at me. She dropped to her knees at the woman’s side and whispered something I couldn’t hear.

"N-no... don’t sacrifice yourself... just leave me now," the woman rasped. "Just go! Save yourself, please!"

"No! That’s not what I want!"