Pick The Second Male Lead

07.8 - Easton Zed

                If Rosie Zoua still had her motorbike, it would only take her two hours to reach the fortress walls of Harika. Without it, it would be days before Maida and Rosie reached the City of Gold which was 100 miles away. Why does Maida end up going along with the protagonist? Well, Rosie is her ticket to entering the City of Gold. Now that she has the princess with her, once they reached Harika, the compassionate and gullible girl will surely repay Maida for her "kindness".

But escorting the princess back proves to be a challenge. Normally, if ones see an injured animal, one would either pity it or ignore it. None-the-less, whether ones decide to pity or ignore the animal, no one would really stop and try to save it. Unluckily for Maida, Rosie was not normal. Not only did she stop and tried to save the injured bird, she wasted a whole day of traveling due to it. The soul inside Maida was not a saint; therefore, she could not understand the protagonist's mentality. Currently, they did not have the luxury to care for unfortunate, wild animals. Maida's priority was getting of the City of Gold before their food and water supply runs out. More importantly, the lifeless, dead forest was no place for them to linger long.

"Maida look!"

Just when Rosie set the healed bird free, another injured creature caught her attention. Maida had wanted to drag the girl away, but instead, she was pulled by the taller girl. Once they were closed enough to the bloody mound, the girls realized the injured creature was an injured man. Maida stood aside and watched wryly as Rosie poked at the man's side, testing to see if the person was still alive. Thinking that the person is dead, Maida pulled at Rosie's arm, wanting to leave already.

"He's still alive," Rosie said with her misty eyes. "We can't just leave him here to die"

If Maida could have spoken, she would have curse up a storm.

"Maida, please," Rosie pleaded softly when she saw Maida's displeased expression.

Rosie was a kind soul - albeit, a very annoying one, but still, a good one. Watching the protagonist lift the man's arm to put it around her shoulders, Maida couldn't help but feel impressed with the girl's determination. And since Rosie was resolute in saving the unknown man, Maida did not bother to fight her. Instead, she quietly followed behind the girl as she managed to half-drag, half-carry the man alongside her.

Soon, they spotted a tiny cave hidden amongst the rotten and broken trees. Even though the ground was wet and hard, it was at least without mud and dirt. Setting the unconscious man down, Rosie proceeds to check for injures and found the deep incision on his left abdomen. While Rosie rushed to clean the man's injuries with the little water that they have left and bandaged the wound by tearing their shawls, Maida resist the urge to roll her eyes at the typical scene of the beauty saving the hero. Except the hero was some unknown character - at least, that was Maida had thought until the gold medallion that fell from the man's jacket pocket when Rosie had removed it to tend his wounds. Upon picking up the medallion, Maida instantly took note of the character "Le" engraved on it - thus letting Maida know the bloody man was none other than the male lead, Erin Le. If one examines his clothing more closely, she would have noticed underneath the black and red blood was white and gold militia-like attire. The insignia marking on the shoulder of the jacket revealed Erin Le was currently the vice-commander of the militia unit. Maida knew that in a few years, the male lead will be the commander.

"Maida?" Rosie had finished bandaging Erin Le when she noticed Maida looking at the medallion in her hand. "What is it?"

Maida handed Rosie the medallion. Confused, Rosie looked at the gold round plate until she recognized the name.