The storm was over at last, but Lydia had disappeared. Nevertheless, there was something more important than chasing after the woman.
“Let’s raise the drawbridge to prevent Logan from retreating,” Elena said determinedly, rising from the hall floor.
* * *
Logan gazed at the sight before him with vacant eyes, rooted to the ground. The man he was watching was not a human being. Standing in front of his 11 men, bloodstained from head to toe, Gareth was more than terrifying to Logan and his remaining knights.
Logan thought about what had happened earlier in the day. Gareth had not shown up on the battlefield despite it being the fifth battle of the day. No matter how much Logan provoked Gareth with insults, the mercenary had not shown himself, and Gareth’s men looked as if they were hiding something. To Logan, it looked as if they were pretending to be brave, and such a sight had fooled Logan.
‘Gareth must be terribly injured from the arrow that I shot a few days ago. It didn’t just brush against him; it hit him!’ Logan had thought, deciding to launch a total attack on his opponents.
“We must retreat to the castle, my lord,” one of his knights had said nervously. However, Logan could not hear anything. He thought the rest of Gareth’s men were nothing without Gareth and that the cowardly men owed their reputation to their captain.
Logan had chased after the mercenaries who kept running away without fighting back. He pursued them in hopes of avenging all that he had suffered because of them. Once Logan had almost caught up with them, the seemingly spineless mercenaries suddenly turned around, and Gareth appeared from behind Logan.
“Lord Logan!” one of the knights shouted, bringing Logan back to the nightmare he was in.
‘My 140 valiant knights… Where are they all? Is this all I have left?’ Logan looked around at his knights who were screaming desperately. ‘Ten? Twelve…? Where did they all go…?’
At that moment, as if they could not stand him stalling anymore, someone pulled on the reins to his horse. Logan reflexively leaned forward, and the warhorse began to run toward the castle. Finally, Logan came to his senses, and he realized how far he had strayed away from the castle.
“Retreat! Retreat to the castle!” Logan led his remaining knights to escape from the trap they were in, frantically kicking the sides of his horse. In response, the knights surrounded him to escort him.
Gareth leaned over every time he saw a spear stuck to the floor, snatching the weapon up to throw it toward the fleeing Logan and his knights. He threw as many spears as he could, and every time he swung his arm, the knights surrounding Logan fell to the ground one by one, crying out in pain.
Logan continued to run away frightened, not even taking the time to look around his surroundings. ‘He’s the devil. He’s clearly the devil himself. Now I know why Halbert and Lydia wanted him so much. Nothing will stop him. That man is not human. I want to live. I don’t want to die at his hands. I want to live!’
Logan ran straight to the castle without looking back. He was not aware that many of his knights had died, but it didn’t matter to him since the only thing that mattered was that he was still living. Logan decided that it was too late to blame himself for falling for Lydia’s devilish scheme that encouraged him to attack the Townsend estate. Still, he vowed to behead Lydia once he arrived at the castle.
‘I’ll kill you and throw you to Gareth,’ he thought determinedly.
Once he could finally see the silhouette of the castle walls, Logan let out a sigh of relief. As his horse galloped desperately along the ramparts and to the drawbridge, he was already thinking about raising the drawbridge once he was safely back in his impregnable castle.
Just then, he felt there was someone behind him.
Wham!
Goosebumps prickled his skin, and it felt as if he were weightless. Logan couldn’t wrap his head around what was happening.
Wham!
Logan inhaled sharply, then he screamed out of his own accord. It felt as if his whole body was breaking into pieces. He could also hear a gurgling sound from somewhere, but he continued to do his best to run away.
Wham!
‘Agh! My arm is weird… It feels as if it disappeared. I still have to… run away. What’s wrong with me? Why isn’t my body moving…?’