Chapter 14: Fire and Ice

The woman opened her eyes and raised an eyebrow giving a look of complete confusion. She saw the man who just defeated her smiling at her with his hands in his pockets. She was completely baffled at how casual he was acting and could only let out a single word.

"Huh?"

"What? I told you before I didn't come here to kill you, but you wouldn't let me explain myself and immediately attacked me before I got the chance. So, are you willing to talk now?"

Realizing she was out of options the woman merely nodded her head but was still wary of Ace. Before she could try standing up, she felt herself being scooped up by two arms into a classic princess carry. She couldn't help but be embarrassed being carried like this by a man she didn't even know.

"W-what d-d-do you think you're doing idiot?!"

"Relax, I don't want you walking on your injuries and since I'm the one who gave them to you in the first place this is the least I could do. Do you have medical supplies there?"

Ace looked over to the metal shack, which somehow was undamaged, indicating he was referring to that place. The woman nodded her head again while avoiding looking at Ace. He walked inside the shack and gently put her down on a nearby bed in the corner. She told him where to find the medical supplies and a spare health potion she kept and after some time, he came back and started to treat her. Ace gave her the potion first and watched as she drank it her wounds began recovering at a fast pace. Once she finished the potion, the smaller wounds were completely healed while the larger ones had become less serious. After some time, Ace finished treating her with the only visible injury being the bandages wrapped around both of her arms.

"Thank you…."

The woman didn't finish her sentence as she now realized she never learned this man's name.

"The names Ace and don't worry about it…"

"Rika"

The two stood in silence while Ace double-checked her wounds before he finally broke the silence.

"That was quite the show you put on back there at the castle."

Rika didn't reply and just looked at the ceiling in deep thought. Ace didn't pry any further figuring that if she wanted to talk about it, she would and decided to let her be for now. After some time, Rika finally responded still looking at the ceiling.

"I was there to kill the noble living at the castle, and when I didn't see him, I decided to destroy his home and return later to fully enact my revenge."

There was a brief period of silence before Rika continued speaking.

"That monster took everything from me, and I will never stop until he feels the same pain I felt."

"What does this noble look like?"

Rika was slightly confused by Ace's question and wondered why he wanted to know that. Nevertheless, she began describing the noble seeing no harm in doing so.

"His name is Edmund Ainsler. He's a tall skinny man with long blond curly hair. Why do you want to know such a thing?"

After hearing about an evil noble, Ace had a sneaking suspicion of who it was. When he heard the description, it confirmed his thinking that it was the person he saw Camael behead in the forest.

"Sorry to say this but someone beat you to the punch."

"What do you mean?!?"

When Rika heard this, she looked over at Ace demanding an answer. Seeing that she wanted to know what happened Ace began telling her about his encounter with Camael. After he finished recounting the story, Rika let out a long sigh.

"Well, I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed I couldn't be the one to kill him. However, knowing he is dead feels like a weight is finally off my shoulders. Ace, I have a request to make. When my wounds and mana are completely recovered, can you take me to see his body?"

Ace nodded his head in reply and went to the kitchen to cook dinner for the two of them as it had gotten pretty late.

For the next couple of days, the two enjoyed each other's company. Both of them were glad to talk to each other as they had not really interacted with another person for far too long. Over time seeing that Ace was a good person, Rika told him about her past and her reason for hating the noble Edmund.

She grew up an orphan with her twin sister Efi never finding out who her parents were. Being the only family, they had, the two sisters constantly relied on each other and soon became inseparable. Rika was always hot-blooded and would easily get angry; Efi, on the other hand, was always calm and kind to people. Many felt that the two were polar opposites of each other. One day, Rika saw Efi being bullied by some of the older orphans and went to rescue her. One of the bullies punched Efi and unable to control her rage, Rika unconsciously released some of her pure fire magic at the bully who hit Efi. When the people running the orphanage saw her magic and the damage she had done, they instantly became wary of her. Later that night the sisters were kidnapped by some thugs and sold off to Edmund. They later found out that it was the people at the orphanage who had sold them out. The two were tortured daily and couldn't fight back because of their handcuffs which shut off their magic. For the next ten years, they were constantly beaten and were barely hanging onto their lives. Things turned around when a guard accidentally dropped his keys in their cell letting them escape their shackles. They sneaked around the castle knowing that they wouldn't be able to survive if they fought all the guards. However, they ended up being caught and were forced to fight their way to freedom. Eventually, they were surrounded and Efi used her pure ice magic for the first time to take out the surrounding guards. Since she had never used magic before, she ended up using too much and collapsed from mana exhaustion. Rika tried carrying Efi but being fed almost nothing, her pace slowed considerably trying to bring Efi with her. The two managed to reach the exit but since they had slowed down some guards managed to catch up with them. Knowing her sister wouldn't be able to escape carrying her, Efi pushed Rika away and managed to create an ice wall trapping her inside the castle with the little amount of mana she recovered. Rika ran away not wanting her sister's sacrifice to be in vain. She made her shelter in this forest and survived by killing and eating the beasts nearby. She trained daily in preparation to save her sister. She went back to Tarrin after getting strong enough only to find out her sister had been publicly executed a few days after she escaped. For the next couple of years, Rika trained more this time with the goal to kill Edmund.

When Ace had heard her story, he was furious at the orphanage and Edmund for the way they had treated these two innocent children. Rika saw how Ace was mad for her sake and it made her extremely happy knowing that someone actually cared about her.

Finally, Rika had fully recovered and the two made their way to the forest Edmund was killed in, making sure to avoid going in Tarrin. Ace didn't want people to recognize Rika and even if they didn't, he wanted to avoid the person watching his puppet to notice him as well. After some time, they managed to reach the location and the body and head of Edmund had not moved from its original spot. As soon as Rika saw the body, she fired some magic setting the corpse on fire. She looked up at the sky with tears in her eyes.

"It's finally over Efi, you can finally rest."

Rika wiped her eyes and looked back at Ace who was watching from a distance.

"So, what do I need to do to join this party of yours?"