Meters away from where I made my promise, walking down the trees, there was a cave that seemed hidden by nature itself. At first, it seemed like a giant rock wall of seven meters tall, but if you followed the left side, the wall curved itself. In this odd formation, there was a small cave hidden by the terrain and the vegetation.
"So that's your hideout? You said that we just needed to follow the path… hm, I got it. From this perspective, it is easy to find." Sarah said, amazed by the cave. Following Alicia, we came directly to the entrance, without being misguided by the natural camouflage.
"It was a miracle from the goddess to find such a marvelous place." Alicia said in a smoother tone than before. After I accepted her request, Alicia looked calmer than before, and she was treating Sarah a bit better.
I was walking toward the entrance when Alicia shouted at me.
"Wait, Richard!" Her voice was completely fearful.
I stopped right where I stood. If I hadn't done this, I would be dead.
A knife cut the air, passing just a few millimeters from my head before getting stuck in a tree in its throwing direction. Only one single step more and it would have pierced through my skull.
A chill ran down my spine. Such a merciless technique would be the work of a class specialized in killing unaware or defenseless enemies, an Assassin. I instinctively hid my body from danger, carefully examining who I was dealing with.
"Who is there?" A female voice screamed in my direction.
If not for that last murder attempt, I would have been stunned by her beauty. The woman inside the cave had a body so well shaped that she could be a model in my former world. She was seated, but I could tell that she was taller than me, probably 1.75 m (5'9'').
She had a big chest, a slim waist, and a prominent rear. If I had to compare, her proportions were bigger than Sarah's. An impressive body overflowing with female beauty. She might have been an Assassin, but her skin was perfect, with the exception of the bloody wound on her torso.
She had a white bob cut. Her white strands hid each side of her head, but her right eye was covered by a bigger bang. It was just my guess, but I thought she cut her hair short because of the missions she took; long hair could get stuck between the trees or be grabbed by the enemy. Her left eye had a purple pupil. If Alicia's eyes were compared to emeralds, hers would be amethysts.
She looked like someone who would be pretty when smiling, but that was not the case. Her expression was furious. Her right hand was holding a knife aimed at me, while her left hand was pressing her wound. That was the person I was supposed to cure, but how was I supposed to do that without being killed in the process?
I heard hurried steps from where I came from, accompanied by a gentle girl's voice coming to my defense.
"What are you doing, Diane? He is trying to help." Alicia said to Diane, making herself visible to the Assassin.
"Stay back, Alicia." Diane's eyes took a glimpse of Sarah. "You don't know these people. You can't say for sure that they are not trying to catch us when we lower our guards." Diane snapped.
"They are not like that, they saved me." Alicia said to her with a sad voice.
Maybe it was a combination of her bodily state and mental pressure pushed to the limit. From my viewpoint, she looked like a cat that had been so hurt by humans that it reacted by hissing at any gesture of kindness.
Usually, I would use some information from the book to help me in a situation like this, but I had nothing about Diane.
In SCRL, Leo fought the leader of the bandits, but unlike Sarah, he didn't kill him. He was still fresh and didn't see much of the world's malice, so he let the trash run away. That mistake came with a big cost, because by a misfortune of destiny, he ran at the exact angle that we came to this cave. The surviving leader said later in the story that it was just luck that he found the hideout. Not for Diane, though. He killed her, leaving a decapitated corpse behind.
In other words, the woman before my eyes was a worse case than mine. She was less than an Extra, she didn't have a line in the story, even her face was never known to the world. Her only function was to bring Alicia safely to these woods, and for that, she did a good job. She deserves congratulations for that. But it seemed that death was near her.
"What a waste…" Those words came out of my mouth in a mumble. She saved Alicia, an important character later on in SCRL. She protected her against a group of bandits, which told me about her potential. And on top of that, such beauty. "Author, what is in your mind to discard such a character? Are you crazy? Maybe a mental illness?"
"Rick, are you all right?" Sarah asked me, worried to see me talking to myself, but I had other things to worry about.
Diane's hand was still holding the knife to defend herself against the unknown, but her hand was trembling, barely holding the sharp blade properly. Her breath was panting heavily, desperately looking for air, and the blood didn't stop running from her wound. She wouldn't last long.
There was no need to risk myself to save her. I knew that. I knew that, but I told Alicia that I would save her friend. More than that, I promised her. That was one reason, but there was another thing, a particular one. It wasn't cool to let a diligent girl die bleeding like a pig.
As this thought crossed my mind, my Valkyrie System responded with a blue screen before my eyes.
[ New mission!
Save the Silver Assassin: Alicia wants to save Diane, but her body won't hold until you get to the town. You have to save her, but she doesn't trust you one bit. You have to be bold and save her before it's too late. This mission will make you gain Affection points with both Alicia and Diane.
Objective: Treat her wounds.
Reward: 4 Status Points ]
'Be bold, huh?' I thought with a smile on my face.
"Hey, Rick!" Sarah warned me.
"Richard, wait! She might hurt you!" Alicia also tried to convince me to back down, but I ignored them.
I was right in front of Diane. The only thing between us was her knife.
"What are you trying to do?" she asked me, trying not to collapse.
"I could ask you the same thing. Are you trying to get yourself killed?" I asked her with a firm tone, trying to show no fear. "I'm a doctor, so I can treat your wounds." I stepped forward slowly.
"That wound of yours seems pretty bad. Well, nothing that I can't handle." I continued, speaking firmly.
"Please, Diane. Let him help you!" Alicia was still at the entrance. "It's an order!" she finally said, with despair in her voice.
"An order, huh?" Diane replied. Her eyes looked like a wild animal.
"That's right! This is an order!" Alicia said to her.
"And if these guys finish me and then harm you, Alicia. What would you do, Your Highness?" She asked her master.
"If the worst happens, I should pay with my own life," Alicia responded to her.
"Hmm, at least I would go alone to the underworld." Diane tossed the knife away, her eyes turning back to me. "But I don't think you can do much. I'm at my limit."
I lowered my body close to her, examining her wound. It was a clean sword cut; for Diane's state, I could say that it was a deep cut. It was partially closed thanks to Alicia's healing magic, but without proper treatment and without putting the patient to rest, the wound just opened again and again.
"You're lucky to still be alive," I said to her grimly, and then I sighed. "We don't have healing potions and we don't have the right materials to close and clean this. In town, we can find what we need, but I think you won't make it." I explained the situation to Diane and the other girls who came closer to us.
"So I think it's over for me," she concluded with a dry smile on her face.
"Not quite. There is one thing that I could do to save you," I said pensively. "Hmm, I wasn't thinking of using this skill in such a situation, but it's the only option left."
"And what is it?" she asked, with distrust in her tone.
I didn't respond to her question; I just held her by the chin, trying to pull her face close to mine.