Tale of Death

Chapter 20 - Childhood? 3

"What are you doing to my daughter you bastards!"

A voice called out from behind the group, catching not only the attention of the merchant and his goons but also the attention of Shi who was still being pinned to the ground. For some reason she felt as if the voice should be familiar, yet, something within her told her she didn't know the voice, something soft, like a whisper, warning her about the voice. Yet the feeling that she should be familiar with the voice, that this voice was safe, was too overwhelming to ignore.

The merchant moved back upon being startled and looked up at the newcomer, it was a man dressed in iron armor, with a sword to his side. On the armor was a symbol that he didn't recognize, but he knew that to have a symbol on your armor meant you belong to a group, and he didn't want any kind of trouble with a group.

"Tsk, let's go boys, leave the girl." He ordered the two hired thugs that were still holding down the girl while also keeping an eye on the man. Upon hearing their order, they released the girl, and quickly moved back, standing in front of the merchant while keeping an eye on the man in armor. They still had a job to do after all.

Now being released, Shi quickly stood up from the ground and turned to look at the man in armor. What she saw surprised her, but she also felt like she should be surprised, causing the feeling to be quickly suppressed, it was definitely an odd thing that Shi didn't outright notice due to being distracted. Before her, stood a young-looking man, no later than his 30s based on looks alone, dressed in what she could only describe as knightly armor. An iron chest plate to protect his upper body, along with leather pants to protect his lower half while still allowing movement.

His face wasn't hidden, which should've allowed Shi to see it, but no matter how much she tried to look at his face to see how it was, she just couldn't. It felt like she was staring into the sun, her eyes blurred with every attempt to see his face, and slightly hurt, forcing her to look away. 'What the hell?' She thought to herself, however, as soon as she thought that, another thought assaulted her mind. This thought was screaming to her that she could in fact see the person before her and that it was her father.

Just as fast as it came, the thought of how weird this was also left her mind, leaving Shi without any doubt that the person before her was actually her loving father whom she loved so much, causing her to quickly shout, "Dad!" She called out to the armored figure who was now revealed to be her father, causing the man to also turn and look at her.

"Do not worry dear, daddy will punish these bad men, quickly come here, and stay behind me while i deal with them." The man said as he urged his daughter to come towards him quickly, in case the thugs changed their minds and decided to use her as a shield, or worse, she got hurt in the fighting between the two.

"Ok, dad!" Shi replied as she quickly ran over to her father, dashing behind him and hiding behind his wide frame, as if using him as a shield. She peeked out from the side in order to see what the thugs were doing, only to see them glaring towards her direction.

Both the merchant and the two thugs were initially shocked by the sudden revelation, they hadn't expected that the random girl they were trying to capture would turn out to be the daughter of a knight, why would they? They saw her dressed in old clothing, thinking she was from just some poor common-born family, who would assume a knight's family dressed so poorly. What really got to them, however, was the fact that her father said he was going to deal with them, which meant this wasn't going to end with just them running away. They had to fight here, or they would be screwed.

After a short moment of hesitation, the merchant ordered the two thugs to attack the man, while he stood behind them, "Get him you fools, he's not going to let us go without a fight." The thugs knew this was true, plus they couldn't disobey the order of their employer, so they stepped forward, this time drawing their weapons out.