Trouble before the Banquet

Trouble before the banquet. 

"What even is the security doing around here?!"

I angrily muttered to myself as I looked at Ophelia's predicament, the reason I'm not going in and beating them up is that there are a few types of organizations here. 

The 'Oh? He dares mess with my ___ I can't be lenient with that' then proceed to burn his entire resources, then there's the 'You dare mess with my brothers? You'll regret that!' etc, those are the annoying types of people. 

"Just give us the brat, bitch"

The lackeys grabbed the maid and pulled Ophelia off her grasp. That's when I saw a dead body on the floor in a knight's attire. 

A vein popped up on my head, I got annoyed by two things. Letting Ophelia hear a bad word that I've been trying to filter out over the years and the fact that he called Ophelia a brat. 

I don't have my sword right here, but thanks to the inheritance my body is different from that of a child. 

I grabbed a pebble on the street and aimed for the man who had a saber and threw it with all my might. 

With a bam! It got some blood spring out of his head and when he was about to fall I ran with all of my power on my legs. 

I dashed and slid towards the knight's body. 

"Julie, cover Ophelia's eyes!"

Grabbing the sword I looked at the lackeys who were still trying to understand what happened, there were three of them and at close range at that. 

With my training, I aimed for their knees and threw away the sword, 

"Agh!"

"What the!"

"Argh!"

Going to Julie and Ophelia I grabbed them and started tugging them, clearly implying them to stand. Ophelia, who was weak at the moment, could hardly stand so I decided to give her a piggyback ride. 

"Julie!"

"Yes! Yes!"

I can't leave Julie here because I would get reprimanded, worse ostracised. By none other than Penelope. I can't have that, she's like a second mother to me. 

[Samuel, Focus on where you're running]

I looked In front of me watching out at the road, then completely, and my running abruptly stopped to a halt. 

Then a carriage, which was going too fast passed us. If I didn't stop I would've been run over. 

I looked behind me, in which Julie was catching up. Good thing she wasn't going as fast as me or else she would've got hit by the carriage.

"Gasp... Huff... Huff... Samuel, you're fast… even carrying the young lady"

"Yeah… "

"S-Sammy… "

Ophelia let out a weak voice, I could hear her sobbing. 

"Don't worry Lia… I'm here"

I try to cradle her but to no avail. She was still crying, but her hands started gripping more intensely on me. 

"Did she see what happened to the Knight?"

Julie looked with a grimace and then nodded, averting her gaze probably because she knew she couldn't do anything in that situation. 

"Let's go back to the residence"

I said whilst gritting my teeth. Ophelia didn't need to see that, I on the other hand was already killing adults at the age of 3. Well more like poisoning their water. 

Ophelia on the other hand didn't come to that path, unlike me she can't even hurt a fly. So seeing what happened to that Knight must've been traumatic. 

We went back to the Marquis estate, Ophelia wanted to cling to me but I told her to go to her room.

I wanted to report what happened to the Marquis first. 

—Knock knock

"It's me"

I waited for confirmation, "Come in" then opened the door and went inside. Closing the door behind me I found the Marquis in front of me with interlocked fingers. 

"I heard from Julie"

"Yes…"

"Are you here to put more into the story?"

"They have a tattoo, the same tattoo that is"

"... Go on"

"A skull and two facing knives at the bottom, do you know something about it?"

"Ha… they still didn't do anything about that?" Lennon muttered quietly. 

"Go on and thank you for telling me that" Lennon waved his hand dismissively. 

Nodding, I immediately went away, going out the door once again, though, unbeknownst to me, what Julie reported is that the knight sold Ophelia to the gang. 

The Knight wasn't part of the Knight's garrison and snuck in when the Marquis went to the capital. 

Although that's something Samuel should know for another time. 

***

Cries of an innocent young lady could be heard across the room, she's been crying ever since Samuel left, the young lady being Ophelia. 

She was dragging Julie with her to find out what kind of present Samuel prepared for the Princess. Her curiosity got the better of her. 

When she lost sight of Samuel in the market she then pouted and instead, took the time to look around as the knight escort they had brought to sightsee. 

But they didn't expect it when they were led into an alleyway. And got surrounded by dirty men. 

"Hey, hey hey~ with this my debt is all covered right?"

"tsk, the only thing going for you is your darkness element"

Darkness element, Ophelia remembers this from her lessons, there are six elements in total: fire, wind, water, earth, light, and darkness. Darkness is used for more discreet things. 

But what's the relevance of the knight and Darkness element? It's because it can cause [Discord] one that can mess the mind. 

[Illusion] in which he used to sneak inside the Knights garrison. 

"Left me the maid though, it's been a while since I had fun~"

"Nah, take the damn kid, we want the maid."

One of the skinny men yelled. 

"C'mon man~"

The large man proceeds to take out his sword and point it at the knight. 

"fuck off"

"Hahaha~ c'mon don't do me like that!"

"It's just for a little while—"

Before he even completed the sentence what lay before Ophelia's eyes was something she didn't expect to see. 

The tip of the Sabre is visible from the fake Knight's back, the large man then proceeds to lift him and throw him on the side, Ophelia saw a lot of blood that day. 

She was shaking, trembling at the sight. Her fear of dying was worse when she was with the strict tutor. Ophelia could only hold onto Julie who was beside her, hugging her. 

"H-help… help me… mama… Sammy…"

"it's okay My lady"

Julie tries to reassure Ophelia but to no avail, she was still shaking. 

"Let go of the brat, Bitch"

Julie glares at the large man, she couldn't do anything, she was weak and she didn't expect anything like this to happen. 

But then. 

—Bam!

"Julie! Cover Ophelia's eyes!"

Samuel came dashing in like a hero, he grabbed the fake knight's sword and went directly for the three other men. 

He aimed for their legs and the men let out a pained groan. Samuel tugged at the two fallen individuals who were struck with fear and indicated they ran. 

Ophelia couldn't forget what happened that day, after all, she was exposed to various things. 

—knock knock. 

"it's me" Samuel's voice can be heard on the other side. 

"S-Sammy?"

Ophelia let out a weak voice. Then the door opened, it was Samuel with proper clothes and he was clean. 

"I'm sorry that I have left you, I needed to say that to the Marquis"

"I-its okay…"

Samuel walked towards Ophelia and sat right on her bed, he scoots closer and hugged her tight. 

"it's alright, it wasn't your fault"

His voice became high pitched and when Ophelia looked at Samuel's eyes it was Grey, she couldn't help but tear up again. 

She couldn't just let go of that traumatic experience in a day. 

"Luna… I'm so scared…"

"Yes… I know…"

Ophelia felt the warmth of Samuel's body, and Luna's embrace, she cried on their body till she fell asleep. 

"Ha… Markus, what should we do?"

"Yeah I mean… ugh... Fine another incense that is."

Though it looks like Samuel is talking to himself it is far from the truth. After all, he is talking to his other selves