The Amorous Mate

Chapter 7: Attacks of Bandits

“Bandits? There are bandits here?”

Hearing Vennett’s suggested reason on why their carriage stopped—and perhaps on why the sudden death of one of the royal guards—Chelsea was particularly terrified. She has the greatest amount of disbelief as she heard about the ambush of bandits in the area. If her thoughts were correct, bandits are savage hunters of treasures and valuable items. They collect it through a well-planned ambush that even guards from the Royal Kingdom would find hard to deal with. They are greedy robbers of this plane. They are the savage equivalent of Pirates in the sea.

“Do not be frightened, your Grace. The Royal Guards are here to ensure your protection.” Vennett tried to calm the raging panic terrorizing the Princess. Though she too was trying her best to compose herself as she assures their safety, still, she was tremulous as it was made shown by the lingering panic on her voice.

“But, could the Royal guards handle all of them?” Princess Demeter asked.

She was afraid of what might happen to the guards when those said bandits would start commencing their full attacks. Sure, Chelsea only knew how to resolve every conflicts by means of clashing fists. She was not afraid from its chaos nor in blowing damages from that fights. Wounds or injuries, it does not matter to her. But if it was about a fight towards glaring death, Chelsea always steps back. She was afraid of it. She treasures the life of others more than how she treasures her own life.

“They can handle them very well, your Grace, I assure you,” answered Venida, trying to calm the Princess.

From outside, Chelsea and the V-maids could hear the muffled sound of men’s cries. Terrified as she may be, but Chelsea has to accept the fact that those cries were made by numbers of men. Hundreds, perhaps. She knew that their cries resembles battle cry—but this battle cry is not normal, because it includes greedy laugh, a somehow joyous scream, and even sounds of as if a crying cowboys while enjoying the thrill of their ceaseless horses.

“What is that?” Chelsea asked, panicking. She frantically tried to inspect the carriage’s surroundings.

“Surely, those are the sound of the bandits’ attacks. They were trying to taunt the royal guards by pretending that they’re not afraid from them, instead, they pretend it was even thrilling,” Venida answered.

“But I think those cries were not just mere pretensions!” Chelsea exclaimed.

“It is, your Grace, worry not.”

However, Princess Demeter was gravely panicking. Her breath was raising from her lungs while she watches something dire outside, from the covers of the transparent window.

“Compared to how many the bandits are attacking, surely, they are confident and not afraid to our outnumbered guards,” she worriedly reasoned.

“What are you meaning, your Grace?”

“The bandits. There are too many of them. And s**t we only have ten guards minus the first dead one.”

Her eyes were full of worries as she looked at the passing images on the carriage’s window. Terrified from the scene she was watching, her jaw clenched.

Suddenly, the door of the Royal carriage blasted open. For a moment, Princess Demeter and the V-maids were terrified. But then, they realized that it was only one of the Royal guards who have opened the door. On his face is the look of worry and fear.

“Ladies, your Grace, please be known that this is a very dangerous time. I plead you to stay inside the carriage no matter what happens. Lock the doors and keep yourself secured. We will try our best to—Ahhh!”

The moment the Royal guard shrilled, is also the exact moment when an arrow harshly speared through his head. It pierced, burrowing from the back of his head, then horrendously passing through his forehead. He was not able to finish his words. Instead, he only fell on the ground with his widely opened, helpless, shocked eyes. One would say that before his body touched the ground, he was already lifeless.

Seeing what happened, Chelsea and the V-maids squealed in fear. They were shivering as they stared to the dead Royal guard’s bloody face. His eyes were still open; a sign that he was not expecting his death yet.

“Wh—What shall we do?” Vennett asked.

Among them, Vennett was the most calm. Yet, now that she saw the grim death of another royal guard, she could not contain her growing fear and panic anymore. Instead, her body shivers more than Venida and even of the Princess.

“Ah, what a lovely treasure have this mere bandit found!”

Suddenly, a hideous-looking man barged on the carriage’s opened door. He stepped on the dead royal guard as if he pretended that a dead body was not lying on the ground.

The man noticeably had chipped, rotten set of teeth, long beard and nose hairs, and numerous scar scratches on his face. He was holding a short sword that has a waiving pattern. Surely, Chelsea instantly knew that the man belongs to the ambushing group of the bandits.

“What do you want?” Chelsea courageously asked. She was hugging the frightened V-maids, both shivering from the traumatic incident.

“Of course, young and beautiful maidens such as you! The bandits would be so happy to know that there is a precious jade hiding in the carriage! Come!” the bandit exclaimed. He boisterously entered the carriage. He attempted to reach the Princess by grabbing on her hand.

“Well, sorry to burst your bubble, ugly w***e. But I am not going to be your precious f*****g jade!”

Chelsea was determined to escape from the hideous man. Using her feet, with high stilettos equipped, he kicked the bandit’s own precious jade—or balls.

The bandit did not expect what the Princess did. And so, he had no time to shield his precious balls from her raging feet. He grunted weakly when her feet shortly crashed to its supposed destination. Slowly, he sulked in the corner as he cried from the pain throbbing on his precious jade. He lied on the floor, whimpering, as he attempt to suppress the aggravating pain.

“D-Damn it, my balls,” he complained. His voice was tiny and suppressed.

Knowing that the door was finally available, Chelsea pulled the V-maids from their frightened state.

“Hurry up!” she exclaimed.

“Wh-Where are we going?!” Vennett asked.

“We’re going outside! To escape!”

“But the Royal guard clearly instructed us to—”

“Are you freak, Vennett? More Bandits will come to us later, and we will be more in danger if we f*****g stayed in that f*****g stupid room!” Chelsea aggravatingly grabbed Vennet’s arm and pulled her outside of the carriage.

When they got outside, they have found a clear conclusion on their current situation: it was near hopeless.

There were only about ten guards that was defending their carriage. Compared to the number of bandits—two hundred at most—they were surely in a complete disadvantage.

“Let’s hide in the woods,” Chelsea suggested. She tried to sound strong and unbothered only for the sake of Venida and Vennett’s despaired state.

They ran fast as they could, while the guards and the bandits were busy engaging on a one-sided, hopeless fight.

“We can escape, Venida, Vennett. Let’s use the time the guards are taking to occupy the bandits. We can go back to Saxton even if it would take painful time. What matters is that we are alive. And we are going to—Ah!”

Chelsea, and even the V-maids, were shocked, when from the heights of tall trees, something fell off in their front. Those were bandits. Two of them.

“Where do you think you might be going, ladies?” one of the Bandits asked, showing a disgusting smirk in front of them.

“Do you think you can—ulk!”

The next bandit was not able to finish his sentence because Princess Demeter’s violent fist has already landed on his face. From the blowing impact, the man instantly fell unconscious. The other bandit was shocked from the snap of the happening. He tried to give revenge for his friend, but things has happened too fast for him as well. His hands were all but twisted and writhing in pain.

“Ah! Goodness gracious!” the bandit exclaimed.

Chelsea was panting when she finished dislocating the joints of the man’s arm. She looked at the once boisterous man, both helplessly lying on the ground, unconscious.

“Let’s go!” Chelsea said.

She grabbed the hands of the V-maids, and quickly, they ran to the thick covers of woods.

“How did you do it?” while running, Vennett asked.

“Huh?” Chelsea intoned back as they all furiously ran towards the entrance of the forest.

“I mean that astonishing killer moves! Seeing you doing it to the bandits, your Grace, you’re … you’re unbelievably divine!”

Chelsea secretly smirked after hearing the compliment from her servant.

“I … take that as a compliment. Let’s just say that I was able to do it, because I secretly trained for self defense.”

“That was definitely impressive, your Grace,” Venida also complimented.

Suddenly, they stopped running when they saw another group of bandits in their front, waiting for them. All of those men were smiling wickedly as they cling to their weapons. Intently, those bandits are staring at them—as if they were predators that was closely watching their preys.

“W-Well,” Chelsea nervously said, “I think my self defense lessons would not help us from that big numbers of men.” She laughed nervously.