Kill

But the sound was coming from right in front of me, getting closer with every second.

And that was when I realized that the clicking sounds were actually coming from my left, right beside me.

It was coming from the woman standing right beside me.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked up to see what she was looking at. She was facing her left side, the other side of which was facing me. Her dark brown hair fell gently around her pale white cheeks. Her lips curled slightly upwards at the corners.

She tilted her head to look over her shoulder to her right and then back to me. She gave me a soft smile.

A smile that sent my heart skipping a beat.

The woman turned back around to look at whatever it was that was ticking, her smile still firmly set in place.

The ticking continued and she seemed unaware of it.

I just stared at their piercing eyes and their threatening aura. The longer we gazed into each other's eyes, the more I felt trapped, like there was some force keeping me in place, pushing me forward.

The feeling lasted for a minute or so until they broke eye contact. They both turned their heads away and went back inside.

I took one last glance back at them before going back into the castle with the others. They hadn't even asked me why I had left yet.

"Did you find anything?",Charlotte commented.

I shook my head and shrugged.

"Not even anything interesting. I found the secret exit in the corner of the room but I don't think I have the guts to go in."

"You're already going in alone though aren't you? How are you supposed to get in if you're alone?"

I shrugged again. "If I'm lucky I'd get lucky. If I'm not luckier, I could end up dead."

"Yeah, well don't die. You might come in handy someday," she added jokingly.

The joke didn't land however.

I couldn't help it. I started laughing loudly.

"Oh yeah? Well, I guess I'll have to die then since you won't have anyone else to play games with," I replied, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.

But instead of cheering Charlotte up, her expression darkened.

"We shouldn't joke about death." Her voice sounded serious.

I nodded my head in agreement before I said the next sentence. "Anyway, did you manage to distract those guards?"

Charlotte nodded in response.

"Good. Now let's hurry before they notice us missing."

We walked towards the door and I opened it slowly and quietly. I looked both ways, checking to see whether anyone was coming towards us. After I confirmed that nobody was close by, I pushed the door fully opened and stepped out.

Charlotte followed behind me and I shut the door as slowly as possible. We waited patiently for the noise to fade away. A few moments later, I heard footsteps walking towards our direction.

I held my breath and watched carefully. I saw one guard passing by in front of us. Once he reached the end of the hallway, he disappeared from sight.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and we hurried down the empty corridor. Once we finally got out of there, we immediately headed to the main entrance. I unlocked the doors and pushed them open slowly, stepping outside. Just as I finished closing the gates of Castle Hoshino, I suddenly spotted three guards marching towards us with spears pointed ahead at us, swords drawn and ready to attack.

We stood rooted to the spot and were frozen in place, unable to move. We were surrounded. Two guards had their swords ready and pointed directly at us.

Suddenly, the one closest to me screamed out loud.

It was one of the guards.

Before he could strike, a flash of steel flashed past his face. A blade had plunged into his throat. Blood splattered in all directions. Before I could react, the guard that was holding me swung me hard into a wall, knocking the wind out of me.

Another guard tried pulling the sword out but it wasn't budging and soon after another guard lunged at him and stabbed him in the neck.

The third guard tried rushing towards me but the one holding me tightly slammed him back into a wall causing him to lose his balance.

His weapon flew out of his grip and landed on the ground. Without wasting any time, I grabbed it and stabbed the guard on the back with it, stabbing him in the back once again.

Then, I grabbed another one by the arm, twisting it harshly and snapping it in half.

The remaining guard had just begun turning toward the sound of the noise but he was too late, the blade had pierced his torso.

The other two guards tried attacking me, but I quickly sliced one in half and threw his body at the guard blocking me before slashing the one standing behind the one who attacked me in the throat.

With their weapons knocked out of their hands, the remaining three immediately fled in the opposite direction without even looking back to check if I was still alive.

I glanced behind to make sure they were truly gone and then quickly ran to the gate and jumped through. After landing, I quickly ran inside through the gate.

After the gate shut behind me, I looked at Charlotte who had just finished locking up the door.

"Did you get everything?", she inquired, sounding genuinely interested.

"Yea..", I replied while breathing heavily, "we made our way in undetected. Thanks to your sneakiness, I only suffered minor injuries because of your quick thinking."

She smiled and nodded her head at my compliment.

"Don't worry. You were the least of my worries at that moment.", she stated.

"Thank you", I whispered in gratitude.

She simply smiled in return and led me to the inn we would be staying in for the night. We arrived a few minutes later and entered the building.

After we had taken our seats at the table, I noticed how exhausted I was. I haven't properly rested for quite awhile now due to having to spend hours upon hours training and working, all in order to defeat those damn men.

It took a lot out of me.

When we were seated, our food came and it smelled so good, I almost moaned.

Almost, being the keyword. As soon as Charlotte placed it in front of me I wasted no time digging in.

We were eating silently, neither of us saying much.We both knew that it wouldn' t be long until we had to leave and continue our search .