12 Flaming Onobu, The rescue mission part 2

[Alex POV]

For years, a dream kept reappearing in my head. A dream about a man I used to know.

" The pain, it'll become your best friend…"

A man's painful twisted face shouted at me, his handsome face disfigured

until it lost the shape of a human's. Every time like that, I wake up, sweat drenching my shirt. I touched my face, nothing was there. Although I always hate this feminine face of mine, it was still better than the twisted and distorted face that was filled with scars. I didn't remember exactly what happened that night, but there are a few things I would never forget. My father, Dolan, left something for me, and it seemed to be the thing that took his life. I didn't know what that thing was but I guess it was my Teigu.

For 12 years I still had no idea how this thing worked. I accidentally used it a few times and the results of those were not laughable at all. Fear had grown in me for a long time, and I began to regret skipping the information about the abilities of this accursed Teigu.

Then it came to that day, the day I made a fatal mistake. Now I have to put my life on the line, rushing to a hellish battle. I didn't lie to William and the Night Owls that there was someone I absolutely had to save. That person was me, I have to get my life out of this hell on earth.

I carefully wriggled my way through the city walls and tried to find the roundabout way from the gunfires. I finally figured out the direction my target was headed in after a while, it seemed to be a secret area to get out of the city. My target wasn't moving, I could feel the person's heart pounding rapidly, anxiety, fear, worrisome, those emotions were entering my brain. In a moment of loss of composure, I slipped and fell back out of the alley. A 'Crack sound' was heard from my ankle.

' Shit! Shit! This gonna hurt real bad later.'

" What the fck.."

Suddenly a man's voice came out of nowhere made me startled. It took me 2 seconds to realize my situation. I was lying between two groups of people, one on my left armed with rudimentary weapons such as machetes, knives, wooden spears, and crossbows. One on the right was in a city guard outfit with armors, swords and guns.

" G-Good evening everyone…"

"…"

Silence enveloped both groups for a moment. I had no idea what my appearance was like in their eyes. I mean I'm wearing a pitch-black outfit that covers from top to bottom. Before a city soldier could point his gun at me, smoke came out of the muzzle of my gun and there was a hole in his forehead. A guy in an officer uniform was about to shout something so I blew his jaw up. I threw a grenade that Haruki gave me. The explosion took place but it was a bit too close so my ear went numb for a while, while the guards were stunned from the explosion, I ran towards the left group.

" Don't shoot! That's one of us! We have to cover the kid!"

The confrontation between the two groups of people began, arrows flying, and gunshots coming from everywhere. Although the equipment of the insurgent group was extremely sketchy, the city soldiers were still stunned by the explosion. The fierce fight erupted from two sides, if it wasn't for a man in the insurgent who for some reason rushed to protect me from the bullets, I would probably have become one of the corpses lying on the road.

" Little girl. Run… away, this's no place for you." - The nameless guy.

" I-I'm sorryy!"

I quickly ran, leaving the dying man on the ground. He was a good guy, I wouldn't let him die in vain. It took me a while to finally get out of the fight.

Just a little more I would finally reach my target. When I was wondering how I would approach that person. Footsteps came from my right, a group of 5 people led by a woman in a knight's uniform. I knew her, she was one of the FeatherSmith's personal bodyguards. What's this woman doing out there? I had no time to stick my nose in someone else's business. However, a groan caught in my ears. From the group of people there was a very large sack and inside of it was a familiar groan.

[3rd POV]

Before Latina could recover from the terrorism, another assault by the White Cross took place. Not only that, this time it was on an unprecedented scale. Almost the entire population of the outsiders participated in this assault.

' No! No! Why?'

Everything she and Alan sama did was in vain. Before she knew it, the situation had become out of hand. Latina couldn't help but cry, she was completely devastated during this event, during the whole week she barely ate or drank, if not for Cole's insistence her condition would have become even worse. Alan sama and her fiancée mobilized the army to evacuate people and fight the rebels.

As the battle progressed, Latina was alone in the large mansion, she could clearly see the flames flickering in the night, they gradually spread out everywhere, and became brighter and brighter. Onobu was on fire, her beautiful city was on fire and all she could do was sit here and cry helplessly.

Suddenly, a quarrel broke out at the gate of the mansion, but Latina wasn't in the mood to care about it until a man's pitiful screams resounded. Latina trembled as she looked down from the balcony, a group of people broke into the mansion, they slaughtered everyone who worked there. Latina's fear was quickly replaced by shock when a person's face appeared.

" Lady Latina, please follow me."

" Helena. W-What's the meaning of this?"

" We're here to get you out of here, it's an order from your father."

" My father? No… I don't understand… I won't follow you."

Her longtime squire, whom she considered her older sister Helena, let out a small sigh as her gaze was different from the friendliness ones Latina saw every day. Those eyes now held an indescribable coldness.

" Then please accept my apology."

A pain emanated from the nape of Latina and the consciousness left her body.

After an unknown amount of time, Latina woke up. she couldn't move her arms or legs because they were tied up and became numb, her surroundings were dark and something enveloped her whole body, she wanted to scream for help but couldn't because her mouth was covered with a cloth.

' Sister Helena, why…'

Latina wasn't that stupid, she understood Helena's betrayal, but her heart still couldn't accept it, she still tried to deny the fact that Helena and maybe even Her venerable father was also a traitor. Latina tried to bite the cloth that bound her mouth. Whatever the truth was, she couldn't be caught, she couldn't cause more trouble for Cole and Alan sama. After removing the bandage from her mouth, she screamed, but her screams only came out faintly and someone immediately covered her mouth.

" Hey, what the hell are you doing you fcking donkey!"

" S-Sorry."

When the sheet was removed from her body, she was surrounded by four strangers besides Helena, one of them immediately had her mouth covered while the other bound her mouth again, when the job was done they continued to wrap her in a large sack. Latina couldn't do anything but groan. Frightened, desperate, she had no choice but to cling to the faint hope that someone would find her.

Her bearer's movements suddenly came to a stop, then came the pain from the collision of her body with the ground. She didn't know what was going on, only a few groans sounded like Helena's group was fighting someone. However, after a while, all fell silent. Once again she was lifted by someone, through the dim slits of the sack she could see figures writhing on the ground, a small hand gripping her waist and she was being carried. It was a small petite figure. After a while, the sound of a sharp object tore through the sack and appeared before her eyes was a face she thought she would never be able to see again. The one who once saved her life.

" Alex kun."

[Alex POV]

I didn't know what was going on, but this was the perfect opportunity for me to reach my goal. The beautiful girl shivering in front of me was the daughter of the city lord. Let me explain how could a person like me know a celebrity like her.

2 months ago our circus went to Onobu to gather information, During these days I worked with an acquaintance of Sabatini, a doctor, and one of our special patients happened to be the daughter of the head of this city. I just happened to be there while the city lord brought Latina. She was in a coma for 3 days and no matter what treatments she took, her condition could only get worse. According to the city lord, Latina had always been very weak since birth. and she also had some kind of terminal illness but the reason she passed out at that time was not due to the illness. Someone poisoned her, I didn't know if that had anything to do with Alan Gurrag but I couldn't miss the chance to get a favor from the city lord. In short, I detoxified Latina and became an honorable guest of the FeatherSmith family for a month.

Latina was abnormal kindhearted, it was rare to see someone like her in this rotten place. We became friends and I begged Sabatini to perform for the orphanage.

Going back to the current situation, I tried to reassure Latina. She must be really scared of being kidnapped. I untied her, her trembling legs had turned white from being tied for so long, I helped her stand up to circulate the blood flow.

" Latina, it's fine. Now you're safe. I get rid of those people. Come. I will take you to your father."

" To my… father…"

I don't know why, instead of being happy and grateful, Latina looked at me with a questioning look, she pushed me away and shook her head.

" N-No, I don't want to go anywhere, I just want to go back to Cole kun."

" Cole?"

If I remember correctly, wasn't it Latina's fiance, Alan's son? Based on the relationship I know between the FeatherSmiths and Alans, wouldn't the Latina hate him?

" Latina, we don't have much time, no streets in Onobu are safe at the moment, please follow me!"

Latina shook her head, determined not to take my hand. While I was wondering if I should take drastic measures. The sound of cavalry approaching from behind.

" Cole-kun!"

" Latina!"

A bullet missed my shoulder. Sometimes I want to utter a curse about the rights of children in this world, I understood that my clothes are a bit suspicious but my appearance was still that of a child. I rushed over to Latina and hid behind her, pulling up my mask and putting the gun on her white neck.

" Stop. Do not shoot!"

" Stand still! If anyone dares to take a step forward…"

Cole gritted his teeth, ordering the group to stop. There were about 20 people in front of me and all were armed to the teeth. I retreated to a corner of a building, in the cloudy night I could see a few shadows climbing up the rooftops, and moving in different directions. I couldn't keep this 'threatening hostage' situation going for long.

Time seemed to slow down and I began to analyze the choices I had. If I didn't do anything, sooner or later I would be shot by Cole's gunners.

The first choice would be to have Latina convince Cole to let me escape, she still owed me, given Latina's personality I think she would definitely do the same even if I didn't say anything. However though I believed in Latina, I didn't trust Cole, I didn't know for sure what that would do. I knew that this guy is infatuated with Latina but he was Alan Gurrag's son, there was no guarantee he would keep his word. I don't want to bet my life on it.

The second choice was to injure Latina and use the temporary commotion to get out of here. However, I didn't have the confidence that I could outspeed those four-legged animals.

As for the third choice…

I kicked Latina down hard with my foot and threw a grenade near her. If I were to throw it directly at Cole I'm pretty sure he would have avoided or destroyed it before it explodes. What happened next was just as I expected, Cole jumped off his horse and rushed over to Latina. A huge explosion knocked down a building, and before Cole's group could act I threw the last grenade I had at them, but this last one was a little different.

The explosion was so big that it blew off a corner of the street, I didn't know how the insurgents can make stuff like this. I hope they hadn't gone into mass production yet or else the upcoming war was going to be very ugly.

Cole's group was almost eliminated, legs, arms, and organs, scattered on the pavement. Some guys in the distance didn't take much damage from the explosion but it would take them some time to regain their fighting ability. I checked my surroundings and was glad that Latina was still alive, I calculated the first explosion wouldn't reach her but after the last grenade, I was not too sure about my calculation.

" Latina let's —"

[ Bam!]

The shot went off and I could feel the cool liquid trickling down my shoulder. I immediately crouched down to avoid the next shot that seemed to be aimed at my head. I trembled with rage and astonishment as I recognized the identity of the gunman or in this case the gunwoman. Latina, in her hand, was a gun from Cole. She gritted her teeth, her eyes glaring at me as if I were a murderer who had just slaughtered her entire family. She kept shooting, luckily she was just a spoiled lady and this seemed to be her first time holding a gun, however, she still managed to hit my shoulder and blew off two of my toe. Lucky it didn't include the big one or I would have a hard time walking in the future. I ran like a dog to an alley. Once my sight was out of her vision, Latina stopped firing and tried to pull Cole out of the rubble.

Lurking in the stinking, dark alley, I could feel the painkiller begin to wear off, I take another dose and inject it into my hand. A few tears rolled down my cheeks, I looked down at my left foot which had lost the little and fourth toes, I cleaned the wound and used a bandage to stop the bleeding in my shoulder and feet. The sweat was profuse and even though there was no pain I still feel dizzy. There was no time to waste now gritting my teeth I resumed my rescue mission.