Another Life, Another Me

95. The Promise

Wails and groans rang out around the dark basement room and they echoed pitifully against the cold stone walls.

I was completely frozen as dozens of thoughts passed through my head.

This was my fault...

If only I hadn't made a single sound...then none of those people there would have needed to go through this...

But at the same time, my heart was still tightening painfully against my chest.

I bit my tongue so hard that my mouth began to bleed and I could taste the blood as it slowly dribbled down my chin.

"Ah...Ah! Ugh!" the cries rang around the basement.

I need to help these people...

The moment that thought passed through my head, Ace gripped his hand around my wrist as if to tell me: "Don't you dare do anything stupid."

I stared at him defiantly in frustration and slowly lowered my eyes when I realized that he was right.

If I got caught here then...

Another loud scream rang around the room and closed my eyes shut in order to force myself to pretend that it didn't exist.

But it was useless.

This is wrong.

With the flick of my wrist, I snapped the chain whip in the Marquis' hand into dozens of small, harmless pieces.

It wasn't enough to save the prisoners but it was enough to lessen the guilt I felt that weighed down on my chest.

"Wha- What happened?!" the Marquis yelped as the whip crumbled to pieces in his hand.

Ace gave me a flabbergasted look and let out a low, deep sigh before wrapping his arms around me and running out of the room, ignoring the fact that he was completely revealing our location.

"Who's there?!" the Marquis and Marquess screamed as we vanished in front of their very eyes.

Luckily though, we were moving so fast that I was sure that all the Marquis and Marquess could have seen was our blurry after-image. 

"I'm sorry," I gave an awkward chuckle as I gripped onto Ace's chest with my trembling fingers.

My breathing was ragged and I struggled to keep my consciousness as I looked up at Ace.

Within a mere second, we were already far, far away from the marquisate and were well-hidden, deep within a large forest.

"Cordelia...do you know..." Ace murmured in a voice so quiet that I could hardly hear it.

"Huh?" I asked Ace.

For some reason, my body, especially my fingertips felt a little cold...very cold, in fact.

"...You're not dead, Cordelia," Ace murmured.

"Y-Yes...???" I nodded my head in confusion.

I definitely wasn't dead...or, at least, I was sure that I wasn't.

Why in the world was Ace talking about this now?

"..." Ace was silent for a while as he stared at me with a gaze that I couldn't understand in the slightest.

"What's wrong, Ace? Are you okay...??" I asked as I wondered if anything happened to Ace while we were in the basement.

Oh no.

Did he get hurt somewhere?!

I pushed myself away from my arms so that I could check his body for myself, but Ace didn't let me go.