The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

148 - The Meeting of Wind and Water - Part 4

Asher's Point Of View

"By the gods, hurry up! To think you'd cause her enough worried to make her send you away. You are a miserably inadequate excuse for a bodyguard!" the tall figure ahead of me says with the same sort of vicious snap you'd usually hear from Lady Lily. He turns his piercing ink black gaze at me to make sure I am still following along, giving only a condescending look at my attempt to follow his long strides.

Honestly I've never considered myself small, but this man easily towers a head taller than me, and with the heavy armor he is wearing he would easily overshadow me.

He turns back ahead with a mumble under his breath much resembling an unsatisfied growl, but doesn't slow down at all. The many layers of straw on his helmet gives a golden glimmer as he turns his head, much like I'd expect the golden mane of the magic beast that the old woman in the village of cold blood described to us months ago.

As he walks, his yellow almost golden armor shines. It's polished to perfection without a single fingerprint on the metal, and every thread is perfectly aligned without any flaying. The many small golden brown metal plates of his armor are sewn together with silken straps of gold, and if you look closely you can see the geometric patterns of white in every silken strap. He himself calls the color of their armor yellow, but the way it looks truly reminds me more of gold. Maybe a yellow orange is the way to describe it. It stands out.

Honestly, every bit of the armor itself is extravagant and clearly made for a noble. The straps alone must have taken months to make. Only the clothes he wears beneath it seem... so simple. The black, rough and heavy looking fabric barely seems to move despite his long strides. I cannot tell if it is clothes for war or for winter, but I don't have much of a clue as he's not that talkative when he is not giving me a verbal lashing.

His small and innocent companion Ellie sends me a small smile as she passes me and runs up next to him with her white lacy dress aflutter. Her steps seem so light she almost floats in the air, carefree and amused. Ellie runs off at times, but always returns to him with the playful smile of a child.

Ellie stands no taller than a child the age of five. Her pearly white skin contrasts with the deeper color of his. Her large childlike eyes opposite his eyes that narrow as blades. Only their hair is somewhat the same. Midnight black. Yet she is a noble. Her white lacy dress would be much too expensive for any non-noble to afford.

Yet she is dead.

Likely killed for her blessing... or her curse. The blessing of the faeries of darkness. Once blessed by them you stand only to be executed. Condemned as a danger to the throne.

A fate I now share.

—-*—-

I've always been at risk of attracting the attention of the faeries of darkness. After all, my eyes are quite clearly mauve... purple.

When I started out training to be a knight I knew that the moment I would receive the blessing of darkness I would never again be able to stand by Augustus'... by Lady Lily's side.

I'd be executed, and my dreams would end with that.

The risk was always there, so the day I received the blessing of an earth fairy I was elated, relieved and overjoyed. I thought I was free from the risk of the curse.

My mana was unattractive, but somehow I had still managed to get the approval of a fairy other than darkness. I was able to stay at her side, and I've stood by her side since I found her once more.

I must have gotten too confident.

I thought it would be fine to head into the forbidden area as I already had the blessing of a fairy. It would be fine, and Lady Lily might have needed my help.