Chapter 359 257: Rescuing Lady Onaya (Part 2)

Watching the woman flee, Ororen grew frustrated. He was supposedly here to help her, but it looked more like they were here to kill her.

But he also knew that talk was cheap. She would never believe him on words alone, so he decided to just capture her first and sort things out later.

The more Onaya ran, the more she despaired. She was drenched in sweat and gasping for breath.

She didn't know what exactly had happened at White Castle, but these mercenaries were clearly far less trustworthy than Penny's group. After all, Penny and her followers would at least be constrained by their connection to her family and wouldn't harm her, but with these mercenaries, all bets were off.

Just then, the sound of footsteps suddenly echoed from the passage ahead. The next moment, a handsome young man appeared at the end of the corridor.

Pursuing mercenaries, a beautiful lady, and a knight who looked like he'd stepped right out of the Holy Hall—it was a scene straight out of a power-fantasy plot in a knightly novel.

Inside the corridor, the two groups stared at each other. About 0.01 seconds later, the urgent look on the Lord's face morphed into an unsuppressible grin. He waved his hand dramatically. "Unhand that girl! Let me..."

The words had barely left his mouth when he realized that, in his excitement, he had blurted out a line from *Knight Ah Bin*. Without missing a beat, he corrected himself. "Lady Onaya, you should know me. I'm the knight whom Miss Liya made her vassal. I am here to save you."

Onaya sized up the impossibly handsome knight, then rushed to his side.

They had met once before at a banquet, and each had left a deep impression on the other.

Onaya had never seen such a handsome knight and couldn't help but stare. After all, with Liya's father having died young, she had been alone for a long time.

Besides, he was the knight her own daughter had taken as a vassal; there was no way she could forget that face.

Levi, for his part, felt a deep sense of sympathy for Lady Onaya—after all, just buttoning her top every morning must be an exhausting ordeal.

"Levi, where are your soldiers?"

Seeing that help had arrived, Onaya asked urgently.

Onaya wasn't particularly surprised to see the knight here.

After all, today was the day of the trial by combat, so everyone from the Northern Territory who was heading south would be entering White Castle. He must have heard the commotion and rushed to provide support.

However, she had instinctively assumed he would have brought guards with him.

"My lady, I wish I could say something to put you at ease, but the truth is, it's just me." The Lord drew his Holy Sword, eyeing the mercenaries flooding the far end of the corridor.

Gus was too large for fighting inside the castle, so Levi had stationed him outside. Orak and Hog were assigned to protect Liya.

Because the castle was so large, Zat, Mier, Count Andao, and their men had split into three parties to search it more efficiently.

Fulina had originally just sent them to scout out what was happening in White Castle, but after learning the full story from a mercenary, they sent only a single soldier back to report.

An internal revolt had broken out in White Castle, and stray blades have no eyes. It was impossible to predict what might happen.

Thus, they all independently decided to press deeper, intending to first rescue Lady Onaya—the sister of the Duke of the North—before doing anything else.

Who would have thought that he, Lord Li, would be the one to stumble upon such a monumental opportunity for glory? In his heart, he offered another silent prayer of thanks to the Holy Light Goddess.

"I know you're the reigning champion of the arena and that your swordsmanship is superb, but there are hundreds of them! We should run!"

Seeing the Lord stand there so confidently, preparing to face the enemy, Onaya had to stop herself from blurting out that he was no match for them.

He had been made a vassal in the first place because he had caused such a stir in the arena, attracting the attention of the Old Duke.

He might be incredibly powerful, but there was no way he could handle this many people.

As for Oli?

She had known perfectly well that Oli was no match for them earlier, but she sent him to delay them anyway. She had done it on purpose, having no fondness for such a turncoat.

But this knight... she'd heard he was the one who had braved great danger to rescue her daughter from Kolon and escort her to the Northern Territory. She couldn't let him die here.

There was still some distance between them and their pursuers. She couldn't run anymore, but if the knight carried her, they could surely escape the main keep and hold out until reinforcements arrived.

"Three hundred?"

The Lord grinned. "That's not so many. If I kill five with each swing, sixty swings at most will solve the problem. In fact, it'll probably take even fewer."

He remembered that time in the Wilderness, facing three hundred Berserk Minotaurs. He had single-handedly butchered them so badly they began to question their very bovine existence; a rare few were even scared out of their rage. And now he was facing these pathetic mercenaries, who weren't even a match for the Southern Territory's regular army.

He had been a mercenary himself and run in these circles. No one knew what this lot was made of better than he did.

In one-on-one fights, they might be more vicious than regular soldiers and have a better chance of winning. But in a large-scale battle, their morale would shatter the moment they took ten or twenty percent casualties.

'Wait, is that how you do math?'

Onaya's chest heaved with anger. Despairing, she silently cursed this overconfident, stubborn mule of a man.

Faced with yet another person suddenly blocking his path, Ororen, the Red Poison Snake, had long since lost his patience. He couldn't be bothered with questions and simply waved a hand, intending to kill this pretty boy first and ask questions never.

"Levi. Lord of High Cliff Castle and Lion Hunter Knight." Levi gave his sword a stylish flourish. Having missed his previous chance to make a grand impression, he had decided to act like a proper knight and announce his name before a duel.

"Die." Unfortunately, his opponent clearly had no interest in fame. He brandished his longspear and charged, the scar on his face twisting, making him look all the more ferocious.

"That's the first I've heard that request, but I'm happy to oblige." The Lord raised an eyebrow as his opponent closed in. The Secret Silver Longsword in his hand blurred from stillness into motion. A flash of silver light tore through the air, too fast for the naked eye to follow.

As befitting a man who had built a five-thousand-strong mercenary company on the back of his own martial prowess, Ororen was no slouch. Though he couldn't see the blade's trajectory, years of life-or-death battles made him instinctively raise his spear to defend himself.

It was the right choice. His Combat Qi and experience had blessed him with extremely fast reflexes.

But competing with the Lord in speed? He might as well have given up from the start.

In Levi's eyes, the mercenary's movements were a beat too slow. By the time his Secret Silver Longsword swept across the man's neck, his opponent had only just managed to raise his spear. There was a faint, crisp sound. A line of blood appeared on Ororen's neck before his head slid clean off. His body collapsed instantly, and the severed artery gushed like an open faucet, spraying the mercenary behind him with blood.

The mercenaries froze, stunned. They never imagined their invincible leader would be cut down like a common grunt, as easily as dicing a melon. Before they had time to process it, a certain someone charged into their ranks, and they quickly began to follow their boss into the afterlife.

Onaya sighed and turned her head away, unable to bear watching the bloody scene. She could only hear the WHOOSH and SWISH of a sword cutting through the air. 'It must be just like a butcher chopping pork,' she thought. What a waste of such a handsome knight. She figured that in the future, she wouldn't be able to recall his handsome face to ease her loneliness; it would only remind her of his gruesome fate.

She could only hope that these mercenaries merely wanted to ransom her for some coin, or perhaps use her as a bargaining chip. She prayed they wouldn't do anything... more.

"Lady Onaya, problem solved. Shall we go?"

"Alas, he really is dead. I told him he shouldn't have... Wait, 'problem solved?' How is that possible! Huh? It's really solved! This is wonderful!!!"

Staring at the floor littered with corpses, it felt like a dream, but the sight before her and the thick stench of blood in the air yanked Onaya back to reality.

Even though she was no stranger to shocking sights, she couldn't help but let out a cheer.

'Now I'm starting to understand this knight's true caliber,' she thought. 'No wonder he was able to rescue Liya from Kolon. He must have carved a path out with his own unparalleled strength!'