Chapter 3
Riftan shook the hand off his shoulder and tried to escape but the guard snatched his back.
"Didn't you hear me, I said you can't go in!"
He looked resentfully at the shoulders. Who is this person to say that when he's clearly not qualified enough, letting a child wander around the woods alone with her dog, ad have the audacity to stop him?
It was Riftan who saved her. Certainly, he must have the right to see her heal. He was about to argue his thoughts but noticed that the man had a strange glint to his eyes.
And he wasn't the only one giving him that look. Hearing the commotion, another knight rushed to hear what exactly happened and started interrogating.
"You're saying a monster showed up? Where the hell is it?"
Only then that Riftan realized they were wary of him, and his face hardened. Just because he was a brown-skinned peasant that was seen to be carrying a dying noble-lady from a monster attack, he's suddenly become a person of suspicion. He lifted his head rebelliously and pointed towards the forest where he ran from.
"That way. I saw it on my way to get lime for the smithy."
"Fine. Then lead me there. "
"I'm not lying! A venomous black lizard suddenly appeared and attack the young lady! If I didn't happen to see, the young lady...!"
"That's why I'm asking you to lead me to the place where the monster is."
The knight responded with annoyance. His careless face that seems to be around the age of thirty-five became stern for a couple of moments.
"If what you say is true, that a monster appeared in the castle grounds, then we need to exterminate it right away. Don't make me tell you twice and show us where it is!"
Riftan quit trying to avoid the situation and clear his name as it would seem to only make him more suspicious. Riftan glanced at the castle's entrance where he saw the girl disappear into and reluctantly turned his body around.
However, while retaking the path he went, the stiff body of the girl in his arms lingered in his thoughts. He forced his feet to move and rubbed his chest, pounding it anxiously.
Will she really be okay?... She'll get healing from a priest, so you have nothing to worry about.
As Riftan ran his thoughts to clear his anxiety, the knight who was quietly following him suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
Riftan turned his head. The knight was staring through the bushes with a vigilant expression. He followed his gaze and saw that the knight was looking at the monstrous lizard and the black dog's corpse, then removed the man's grip from him.
"There's no need to be cautious. It's already dead."
The knight's eyes narrowed as he approached the lizard's body, pulling out the branches impaled through its stomach.
"You're the one who killed this?"
Riftan nodded his head. The knight smirked and drew the sword from his waist, cutting off the lizard's head with one short blow. He then grabbed the creature by its long, thick, and muscular tail with his gloved hand and lifted it up.
Riftan took a step back, avoiding the blood dripping from the monster's throat. The knight trailed his eyes up and down the monster's body and shouted at the soldiers waiting behind him.
"This is a young Hume Lizard! Search around the wall. It must have dug a tunnel and hid inside the castle grounds; it's nest is probably around somewhere nearby."
