The successor to Count Russell’s family came with vast sums of wealth and a title.
Russell, the most powerful family to be born on the entire continent. It was clear that with such a person by his side, Richard would be able to entice investors from all around the area, including Endeavour, to invest in Bernst, considering how it would now have better prospects.
So, what will happen should Endeavour’s investors leave and turn to Bernst? Endeavour will be forced to return to what it looked like 5 years ago.
For the sake of Endeavour, he had to stop Deertes from going to Richard’s side.
After all, it is relatively easy to stop a person. All that is needed is a bullet. Plus, the blame from her death can simply be pinned on Alex’s gang. Claiming how she was unlucky to have lost her life by crossing paths with his group.
There would be no remorse for her. Considering how Bernst had already killed handfuls of Endeavour’s investors who had turned their backs on Bernst and decided to find Endeavour instead. As it is difficult to disguise such crimes as one committed by an indigenous person, so Lachlan easily saw through the lie.
Everyone here is a soldier. Murder is only one of the tasks that soldiers are ordered to do.
Even if Lachlan were to kill one person, there will be no doubt that will be placed on him as he is seen to have just accomplished his job and what was needed of him to do.
Lachlan murmured as Brian turned from where he faced, looking back at the road they came from.
“…I didn’t kill her.”
“Sorry? What do you mean?”
Brian’s eyes widened as he took in Lachlan’s words. Was this the same Lachlan who had never hesitated to do anything for the sake of Endeavour?
As far as Brian was aware, a while after he had set off, he had come in contact with the woman who did not hesitate to put a gun to her chin. Yet, Lachlan had said that he had not killed such a woman?
“…If you insist, then I shall not do it as well.”
The area was already littered with dead bodies. There were so many bodies that creatures that appear at night to hunt for food, had trouble collecting all the meat. Even more surprising due to its apparent preference for living meat to dead meat.
Lachlan thought as he looked at his hands. The hands that he had used to madly whip his Remu was soaked with blood. Yet, strangely enough, instead of feeling pain in his hands, he felt the soft body that he had held last night.
The memory and scene of the crying and trembling figure flashed through his mind again.
‘You said that you can never let go.’
Tightly clenching his fist, blood slowly started dripping down his hands as he stood up and too looked in the direction that they had come from.
The legend was wrong. As he had managed to abandon death.
How long has it been? After going through all the terrible times, was he finally able to stand here in such a position? Endeavour was his everything, his future. So, it would only be natural to deal with her in a manner befitting of being Endeavour’s poison.
A gust of dry wind blew in his direction. Lachlan looked further away from past the dunes. Upon first glance, it was as if he had heard a cry.
***
Maybe the sun is a ball surrounded by hot blades. Deertes thought as she glanced up at the blazing sun in the sky.
The sun, when it had first entered her mind, lit up the gloomy surroundings and fuelled her with hope. However, now it was an evil entity, ready to burn everything in its path.
At first, she and the five other remaining women seek refuge in the shade that had formed under the dune. That did not last as noon approached and they had to once again enter the burning rays of the sun.
Beth, the red-haired woman walking around the bonfire and the beach as if she were looking for something. Lucy, the woman who had been hit by Cassar’s whip. Emma, whose white hair and deep wrinkles are a telltale sign of her age. The other three friends being Lina, Nera and Deertes.
Silently, Deertes glanced at Beth who was searching around the beach. Asides from searching the beach, she also continuously changed spots, one moment searching and another moment undressing the bodies of the dead men that were gathered around them.
After a while, she took off her clothes to see if she found anything of use before wearing the clothes that had been removed from the dead body.
Beth, who soon came next to Deertes, who was sitting down, said.
“I’m about to leave this area. Is there anyone who wants to travel with me?”
“…”
“…”
The five only turned and glanced at one another, each unable to give a quick reply.
“If no one else wants to join, then I shall just go alone. Are you sure that you’re all not leaving?”
“…Where will you be going off to?”
“Anywhere else aside from here, as long as I’m able to get out of this area. The men had mentioned that they will be travelling to Endeavour or something…”
“They said that they had to run for a few days. So it might take dozens of days to get there on foot.”
“Either way it’s much better than dying here!”
Beth exclaimed, upon hearing Deertes’ words.
“Oh how unfortunate, if you don’t dare to leave with me, then just shut up! We chose not to pick any of the men. But you, you were completely abandoned! You thought that they would take you with them, right? Oh my name is Deertes and I’m an aristocrat, I’ll pay you handsomely if you take me with you. Plus, I even saw you clinging onto the men on the ship! You’ve always been the only one that has been allowed on the deck the longest! You’re the one who got another bread, both in better condition than the ones we were given!”
Beth shouted, the veins in her forehead about to pop as she kicked the sand in front of her towards Deertes.
“And that smug expression, how does it feel to be an aristocrat huh? What? How does it feel to be on the same boat with someone like me?”
“Let go!”
Deertes roughly shook off Beth’s grip on her arm. When she turned to ask for help from the other women, Cinder’s face and words suddenly flashed through her mind. The cold and emotionless expression she wore as she said the words, “Why should I help you?”
“Aack!”
Beth screamed as Deertes kicked her in the leg.
That sense of hopelessness she had felt then, she did not want to feel such a way ever again. So, she had to act on her own now, there is no point in placing her hope on someone to step forward and help her. After all, there is no one on this land that will willingly help her without asking for anything in exchange. A land that is filled with enmity towards her.
Beth’s body lurched back at the unexpected attack. Deertes quickly took a few steps back, ensuring there is enough distance between the both of them before she looked at her.
One of the women who witnessed the scene laughed as she noticed Beth’s figure.
“What the hell!”
It was as if the sound of laughter had caused her anger to rise feverishly. Beth straightened herself and approached Deertes. Deertes quickly picked up a stone that was in front of her and prepared to defend herself.
“Don’t come any closer! If not I’ll throw it!”
“Ha. You’re hilarious. Do you really think such a small rock can hurt me?”
Despite having said that, Beth did not move any closer to Deertes. Maybe what she said was not a lie.
Just last night, she had thought that Deertes was simply a rich aristocrat who could not even eat the potatoes properly with her own hands. She would have never thought that the woman would come at her in such a manner.
‘Damn.’
Beth stared at Deertes, swallowing down another curse. She had wanted to scare her enough, then proceed to coax her along, at least that was what her original plan was. After all, Deertes’ title and face can be of great help to Beth.
Usually, aristocratic women are weak people that are unable to do anything. Ones that will tremble at the slightest harshness in tone whenever being talked to. So, she had said her words loudly through a shout, but what she did not expect was for Deertes to instead pick up a rock as a weapon.
Glancing at the shoreline, Beth clicked her tongue. Her father, a sailor, would come home about once every year, so she had a little bit of knowledge about sailing.
And at a distance away, were traces of anchored ships. It was proof that there was at least one ship that had been resting here for a while, even if it was not from Alex’s gang. And it is because of that ship that there was a possibility of the crew members of the gang that had died yesterday coming here. Beth touched the pocket watch that was kept in her pocket.
There was more money left on the bodies than she had originally thought. The firewood, guns, and military uniform are also highly coveted, so…
Beth turned back to look at Deertes with an irritated expression.
‘If such a situation were to occur, the girl will be able to come in handy.’
The story that she had heard in passing which tells of a descendent of a forest fairy was not nonsense at all. She was beautiful even if her hair was extremely tangled, her face covered in dirt, and wearing clothes that seem to stick to her.
To be honest, she had no idea in the slightest why the men had left Deertes behind. Should this be the back alley in the home country and she is a woman who seems to have been abandoned, the number of men that would have jumped her in the span of one hour would be more than all the men she has held hands with her entire life.
‘Such a woman can sell for very high prices.’
Beth had been sentenced to a lifetime in prison for having stolen dozens of times in the capital. She depended on stealing and selling anything pretty and shiny as her job. What about the owner’s permission? Well, the one who ends up selling the goods is the owner. And Beth wanted to be the owner of Deertes. After all, this was an extremely rare opportunity that had fallen into her hands.
‘If things continue on in such a manner… she won’t end up being as obedient.’
The reason why Beth had not followed the men was that no one had offered and asked for her hand in marriage. In the end, all that had remained were spots for slaves, and Beth hated being a slave more than anything else, even dying. Once she gets ahold of Deertes, she would be able to finally gain freedom and increase her wealth in any way possible.
However, Deertes was still cautious and wary of Beth, holding the stone even tighter, as if it were a lifeline. Deciding it will be a better decision to wait for her to calm down first, Beth turned towards the bead bodies instead.
While looking around the bodies, she noticed one woman’s body, the same woman that had been sold during Alex’s auction for three potatoes. Noticing how the perished woman’s hair was the same colour as hers, Beth lifted upon a stone and proceeded to bring it down on the woman.
After which, Beth placed an identification certificate in one of the clothing’s pockets which described how the body had a protruding cheekbone and a plethora of freckles. Although now having been slightly decomposed and not as recognisable now.
Beth, the petty thief that had been sent to Saul, had died.
Beth glanced at the shackles that were chained to her leg. One of the things that she had gotten from Sicho.
‘All I need is that forest fairy… If the rest of them were to collapse while in this desert, it’ll be easier for me anyway since it’ll be easier to threaten and make them obedient.’
Beth thought to herself before calling out to Deertes.
“Fine, if that’s what you plan to do. If you’re planning to stay here and wait for death to come then so be it. I’ll go by myself then.”
After the last sentence, Beth turned away. When one of the women, Lucy, called out to her, Beth only glared back without another word as she continued walking. Before long, her silhouette disappeared over the dunes.