Chapter 3
The Boy, the Assassin, and the Regicide
Fire? It's close by, too. Roasted meat as well. Soft fingers curled up against my lips to pry my mouth open. What followed was the taste of beans cooked in boiling water. The water was still boiling as the spoonful serving slid down my throat. Ouch.
"Ouch!!" I jumped out of my slumber.
In that moment, I felt a slight sting pressed against my throat. The stinger felt slightly cold as well.
"Hello?" I greeted the woman holding a blade to my neck.
It was the same woman who almost made me shit myself earlier simply by stepping on a twig. I may have slightly overreacted earlier but this time I had proper cause to throw a fit. She had a knife against me.
"Do you not speak English?" I asked.
I had no basis for this, ok, maybe a few dozen anime, but it was customary to assume that whenever one did get sent to another world, they should assume the natives there do not speak English. It was on that basis that made me assumed that she couldn't speak English.
"Most people call it FAL, but I do speak it." She answered.
Her gaze lingered on me for a bit, studying me for any dangers, I guessed.
"I'm not a threat, you know?"
I mean, come on, a limb short, half vision, and a few million broken bones? You'd have to be a coward or a special kind of paranoid to be afraid of me.
"I suppose not." She agreed, pulling the blade away from my neck.
"Thank you for not killing me. Who are you anyway?"
A glare. That was her answer to my question. A glare that cut right through my soul.
"Oh, I'm Eden. Eden Connor." The name flowed right out of me. I didn't even have time to think about it.
"I know." She retorted.
You know?
I didn't remember meeting her. She wasn't from any of my memories or his.
"I'm sorry, have we met somewhere before?"
She reached into her breasts to pull out a worn-out piece of paper. She placed it near me, the glint in her eye told me that if she inched any closer…she'd puke. She snubbed at the paper, prompting me to look at it.
"A gift?" I snickered.
"No," she said a bit too bluntly. "A wanted poster."
"Wanted poster?" I echoed.
After unrolling the paper, I caught a glimpse of a surprisingly detailed drawing. A drawing that was hauntingly familiar to the image I saw in the mirror.
"No....way."
A wanted poster with the name Eden Connor written in bold. The drawing was surprisingly detailed, too; it was the spitting image of me.
"What is this?" I intoned.
I asked instinctively, though I already knew the answer. It was a wanted poster just like the mysterious woman said. The ultimate question was why "Eden Connor" wanted. Murder looked like. For the murder of King Wilfred Wiess, at least according to the subtext written on the bottom of the page.
"Did you come to collect it?" I snarled.
"Pardon."
"I asked you a question, did you come to collect on the bounty or no- "
My heart!
If the paralyzing pain wasn't enough, then the constricting heart would make it plenty. My chest churned in a blazing heat around my heart; it was almost like someone was crushing it in their palm. The pressure from my chest cut all the way to the base of my neck, and a lump of vomit built from it.
Regicide? REGICIDE of all things!?
The title of King had a lot of implications to it. For one, the world where I found myself had a medieval vibe behind it; similarly, the punishments for the crimes would vibe the same way. Meaning that a crime like regicide would have a hefty punishment, and death would be the most merciful outcome.
Two hours into this horror show, and I was already staring death in the face.
"Listen to me, calm down! Please!"
Whoever she was, she was trying to get me to calm down. My heart kept clutching tighter and tighter as it got harder to breathe. I could faintly see anything beyond the wetness of my eyes; the wetness most likely came from my tears, and what lay beyond that was the fog that came from my own mouth.
"Eden, listen to me. You have to calm down! Concentrate on the sound of my voice."
She sounded almost desperate. Loud too. My senses converged onto her, the scent of wood fresh from her fingers, her sparkling purple eyes, the tattoo around her neck- how it coiled around her like a serpent. My heart slowed with each breath.
"That's better." She gasped.
"W…what happened to me?"
"You don't k-..." she cut her sentence short. "No, never mind. We'll figure it out tomorrow. You need to rest, and I'm exhausted."
"Sure."
Though I didn't notice it at the time, my nameless saviour pulled her hair to cover her neck. At first, I thought it was because she was cold; little did I know she was hiding something that would tie us together till either one of us died.