The Odd Return

CHAPTER 11

The elderly man disappeared among the shelves as the knights followed him in Orion's order to help the man with the books.

After a few minutes of silence, Orion decided to break the ice.

"The list you gave had almost 10 to 15 books, it will take a while, so do you want to walk outside?" Orion asked.

"Sure, but we have to come back to pay right?" I asked.

"The check will be sent back to the mansion." He said as he looked at me weirdly for asking such a question.

"Nevermind, let's go outside." I said.

We walked through the crowd filled with people buying the stuff they needed. Some noble woman passing by gossiping, while a young family enjoying their time outside after a good lunch outside. So many nobles from different aristocratic families, gathered here just because they wanted to or had a specific purpose. No one bothered who was whose enemy or who hated whom. Everyone solemnly enjoyed each other's presence. We shopped around for an hour or two, walking from one shop to another. Laughing around as we walked around various shops.

"Greetings to you, Lord Esmeray, it's been a while." a voice cut through the laughter. Both me and Orion turned around to see a man in a knights uniform.

"Oh Percy! It's been a while indeed." Orion smiled and replied to the man. Once the man noticed me his face turned red. What is up with this reaction!?

"I greet, lady Evanora Esmeray." he bowed and greeted me.

"Please rise." I replied shortly.

"I had been with Percy when he trained under the duchy." Orion explained.

"Oh, I see." I said with a slight smile.

"Why don't you two catch up while I wait for you at that cafe." I said as I pointed at the cafe on the opposite side of the road.

"You sure?" Orion asked doubtfully. I nodded and put on a bright reasoning smile, I have no idea if Evanora ever smiled because Orion looked completely foreign to it.

"Okay then," he said as he walked off with Percy. I held the skirt of my dress so I could move around without tripping. Feeling a few eyes on me as I walked through the busy road filled with people, I sighed.

I read that Evanora was pretty, way too pretty. There are two things that always happen when she/I am around outside people. One, they get bewitched by her beauty. It happens everytime, and hasn't failed till now. And two, get hated. Well, aside from her wine throwing reputation, many people are jealous of her. I mean, who won't be. But I didn't care about either. All I want is to live quietly with a family and not get kille-

"Ah," I gasped as I hit the hard ground. I whined at the hard fall, I opened my eyes to see two ladies on the ground like me. Did I run into them? One of them had long blond hair. Hair which was so clean blond and pretty almost looked like sunshine rays. And the lady behind her has reddish orange hair. Her long red hair fell over her shoulder. In both my life, I had never seen a red head in real life aside from Pinterest.

"Oh my! I am so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going." I panicked and quickly apologised. Both the ladies looked up, the blondie looked like she was my age, her milk like skin shined under the sun while her pale green eyes glowed. While the red head quickly shook her head and apologised instead. The red head also had green eyes but her ones were darker and reminded one of the evergreen forest.

But something was not right, their clothes were dirty, not from the fall but as if they had been running in the dirt and dust for too long. Their hair was tangled and the red head was missing one of her pearl earrings. They are nobles for sure, but why are they like this?

"You are hurt." I said as I noticed the scratched elbow of the blondie.

"It's completely fine, milady! We should leave." They both tried to get up, but my words stopped them.

"If you know who I am then let me help you with that wound. It might get infected and scarred. And it was my fault for not seeing where I was going, so please don't refuse." I said. Both the girls looked at me as if I was someone else. Honestly I had been getting that look a lot lately. But soon that look changed into something more terrified. What are they scared of me now? Do they think I got possessed for something?

And just then, I felt something cold slide against the warm skin of my neck. Something cold, thin but flat made of metal. It doesn't take a genius to guess it. I had a sword against my neck.

"Lady Esmeray!" the red head gasped.

A sword against my neck. A sword.

I can't die just yet. The original story didn't start yet.

But why should I die? I didn't do anything evil yet.

WHAT THE FUCK!?

A blurred memory passes through me, the memory of getting stabbed by my so-called step father. The reason I got reincarnated into a romance novel in the first place. A shiver ran through my spine as my eyes blurred and my ears muted all sounds. My hands trembled as my mind went blank.

Where are the knights? Where is Orion? No matter how much he hates me, he can't let me die like this, can he?

A voice rang. But I couldn't understand it.

It was saying something. It was weird. Not something we used in normal human speech. What the- what is it saying?

My mind tried to understand the word on it's own, forgetting the sword against my neck. Even my own mind wants me dead. A word completely foreign to me.

"Deleri Spiritid." As soon as I whispered the word out, a small purple circle glowed on my hand. A circle with many detailed geometric designs inside with some sort of writing written in between the geometric lines. I stared at both of my hands as the beautiful glowing circle looked too familiar to me, what is this? Magic?

Some loud screams made me look up from my hand, and turned around and looked at the men who were surrounding us, the 3 men who stood behind me had the same geometrical designed circle in a much bigger size glowing below the feet of those men dressed black with glowing chains coming out of the geometric circle. I looked back at the smaller geometric circle in my palm, and as soon I closed my palm and turned it into a fist. The chains glowing out of the bigger circle grew longer and detached themselves from the circle and wrapped themselves around all those men in black.

The sword which was against my neck a minute ago fell on the road as soon as the chains captured them. Did I just do magic? On my own?

Something yellow dashed passed me as I turned my head to see it. The blonde lady who was with me grabbed the fallen sword and went against the thugs who were surrounding us. Swords clanked once againted as the blonde single handedly dealt with the remaining thugs, while me and the red head stayed on the ground.

"EVA!" I hear a loud voice call. Who is Eva? I turned around to find the source of the voice. But I only saw a furious Orion Esmeray rushing forward with his sword drawn. A couple of knights were behind him but it didn't matter, as soon as he reached us a few of the thugs lost their limbs while the others got stabbed. And in a minute the road was drenched in blood and all the thugs cleared out. This is what is called a blood-lust and blood-bath.

I didn't even notice the red head was hugging me. She must have gotten scared after seeing Orion's sword dance a minute ago. The blonde stood on the side watching the scene unfold before her.

"Wow, your sword skills have gotten better since we last met." she said. Wait, they know each other?"