[BL] Guardians of Fate
Chapter 140 - 28: Frozen Thorns [5]

Chapter 140: Chapter 28: Frozen Thorns [5]

"What?!" Solana said, her voice no longer quiet, but at the same time not loud enough to alert anyone on the lower levels. "Beatrice, what are you talking about? You can’t be serious..."

"Why wouldn’t I be?" Beatrice said calmly. "And we don’t have much time, Solana. The others are probably searching the entire third floor right now. It’s only a matter of time before they come up here and see him."

"No, no, I mean... You’d get in trouble for that!" Solana said, clearly trying to dissuade her friend from doing something reckless. "Why would you help him?"

"You know exactly why, Solana," Beatrice said calmly. "I owe them a debt that I must repay."

Solana’s eyes widened.

Ardyn, on the other hand, was perplexed. "Debt? What debt?"

He was good with faces, so he didn’t even know this woman. Who was she then?

"The man your friend saved earlier," Beatrice said. Her tone had changed slightly, trickles of emotion seeping into her voice. "The one who got injured. His name is Geffroy, and he’s in a room on the third floor right now. I’m his wife, Beatrice."

"Ah...!"

The man that Luke chose to heal earlier downstairs, Ardyn realized.

The very thing that caused him to reveal his identity...

"I... I see," Ardyn said, not knowing what else to say. He didn’t blame Luke for what he did. A life was a life; it was precious and shouldn’t be taken so unjustly. It must have been even harder because the man — Geffroy — was in pain, suffering from the poison that was spreading through his body. If Ardyn had the ability to take away that pain and heal that wound, he would use it in a heartbeat.

Suddenly a thought struck Ardyn. "Then... why are you here on the fifth floor when your husband is on the third floor?" he asked.

Two floors difference... It was a bit significant, considering that her husband was still recovering from his injury.

"Geffroy is sleeping in his room at the moment, so I left him there to rest undisturbed," Beatrice said, a hint of grief in her eyes. Ardyn caught a glimpse of her fists clenched unconsciously at her sides. "I can’t get to sleep myself, so I thought about taking a broom to clean downstairs to distract myself."

"I was already here and told her I had already done that," Solana explained. "We were about to go downstairs to get a glass of water when you... well... suddenly appeared out of nowhere."

"Oh." Ardyn was momentarily at a loss for words.

What now?

Yes, she told him that she would help him escape and free his friends, but... how?

As if she read his mind, Beatrice said, "We can’t keep talking like this for too long. As I said, the others will come here eventually, and when they see you, you won’t be able to escape. You saw the Guardian at the shed, didn’t you?" Her tone grew softer. "He’s strong. Your friend was formidable with a sword when he fought those beastspawns, but since I have no idea what magic he possesses, as he has never used it, I must assume that the other Guardian is far more skilled."

"Leon is strong," Ardyn said immediately, the words leaving his lips as if by instinct. "He’s just hesitant by nature. But he’s strong, and his magic can be quite deadly if he wants it to be."

Beatrice blinked slowly. "What about you?"

Ardyn looked taken aback. "Me?"

"Yes, you. If we are to formulate a good plan, I need to know what your magic is. You’re a Guardian too, aren’t you?"

"I..." Ardyn swallowed. "I... don’t know."

Emotion finally showed on Beatrice’s face as she stared at him in surprise. "What do you mean, you don’t know?"

Ardyn felt his mouth dry. If he told her that he was actually an Otherworlder, the one who caused all this mess in the first place, would she still help him? Would she still try to repay her "debt"?

At that moment, Luke’s words, once again, came echoing back in his head.

-

"I’ve witnessed firsthand how cruel people can be, so even though our identities might get exposed eventually in the near future, I’d rather the bad experiences I went through not come to you this early on. If I could delay it even just a little, I would."

-

"You mean you’re not a Guardian?" Solana asked tentatively. "Or have you lost your memories?"

"It’s... a long story, sorry," Ardyn finally said. "To make it short, I can’t use my magic right now. I can’t draw it out for some reason."

"All right. Then a distraction with magic is out of the question," Beatrice decided promptly. "We’ll have to make it flashy."

"F—Flashy how?" Solana said hesitantly. She sounded conflicted that she had somehow been dragged into this crazy idea. To be honest, Ardyn couldn’t blame her.

"For this man to be forced to leave his post, he’ll need a distraction that amounts to a real emergency," Beatrice said. "Some dramatization might also help. In short, the plan just needs to force him to have a good reason to rush over here."

Ardyn processed her words and nodded slowly. "That’s right." At that moment, something crazy — borderline insane, even — occurred to him. A scene he had seen in many action thrillers and dramas.

His mouth moved before he had a chance to stop it.

"I have an idea. But it’s going to take a lot of good acting to pull it off."

Beatrice looked slightly intrigued. "Oh?"

Solana, on the other hand, looked confused. "What do you mean ’acting’?"

"Well, listen to this and tell me if it works for you two..."

***

"Oliver, what the hell?"

The short man with graying hair and a prominent mustache turned around in irritation. "Now what?" he said, annoyed.

"What are you dilly-dallying for?!" a man said angrily as he slammed the door shut after searching the room thoroughly. "We need to find their third companion!"

"Well, he’s obviously not on the third floor," Oliver shot back. "Why are you getting mad at me?"

"Because you’re standing there like an idiot!"

"Hey, watch your tongue, you damn—"

"Oh, for the love of the Spirits above!" an annoyed female voice interrupted. "Will you kindly shut up and keep searching? We’re going up to the fourth floor now. We need some guys to stay behind just in case the man escapes downstairs!"

Oliver grunted. "I’ll stay here. I’m tired."

The other man was even more enraged. "You’ve been sympathizing with these travelers from the beginning! You don’t even want to capture the last one, do you? What are you going to do if he’s dangerous, huh?"

"Dangerous how?" Oliver spat back. It had been a really long night and he was tired of being polite. Everything was just a mess. "If he wanted to, he probably could’ve killed us all during the beastspawn attack. Why didn’t he seize his chance, then?"

"That’s not the only possibility. They carry the Otherworlder Curse with them. What if our village is attacked by a plague next time and—"

"I don’t believe in such outlandish superstitions. If I haven’t seen it myself, I don’t believe it’s true."

"You—! There’s already a lot of evidence in history that—"

"HELP! Somebody, please help!"

The argument was instantly cut short as they heard the unmistakable scream of a woman.

"What the—" Oliver began.

"Hey, that’s Solana’s voice! Isn’t it?"

The loud thudding of footsteps rushing downstairs was heard, and soon enough, Solana’s frantic face came before them, brow sweaty and her breathing labored. She looked both dazed and incredibly anxious to the point where she was having trouble speaking.

"I—He—Someone just— Upstairs!" she managed to say. "She’s in the... the room...!"

"Solana, calm down," a woman with black hair tied into a bun said, grabbing Solana by the shoulders. "Tell us slowly, okay?"

Solana nodded shakily, and she took a deep breath to relax herself for a moment.

"S—Sorry, I’m just... I—I don’t know what to say and..."

"It’s fine," the woman assured. "Why are you calling for help? Did something happen upstairs? Tell us one by one."

Solana swallowed heavily. She looked nervous and hesitant, but she eventually told everyone present what she had seen.

"The... The other companion. I saw him," Solana explained. "He suddenly came out of nowhere on the... the fifth floor and cornered me and Beatrice."

The woman’s eyes widened. "Beatrice?! What was she doing up there?"

The room was filled with confusion and fear. The atmosphere turned tense, and everyone waited for Solana to explain the situation further.

A feeling of foreboding crawled into Oliver’s gut. He had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like what was going to happen next.

"She... That doesn’t matter. You’ve all gotta help her!" Solana pleaded. She kept licking her lips nervously. "The outsider suddenly grabbed her and he locked themselves in a room on the fifth floor. He’s holding her hostage!"