Chapter 1: A Second Chance
The pain always comes so much later than the initial injury.
At least, that was always what Irene was told when someone had gotten hurt. She used to talk to knights a lot who were prone to injuries, but that felt like a lifetime ago—because it was.
Her wavy red hair had fallen into her face but she could clearly see a rusted blade poking through the center of her chest. Warmth was spreading down towards her stomach on that cold autumn night.
She knew she was bleeding. She was bleeding a lot.
"N—no," she tried to shout but the gurgle of blood in her throat where it wasn't supposed to be made it awfully hard to speak.
She had a knight guarding her before the carriage fell over and she was tossed out the door. Where was he?
The woman tried to turn her head but she was starting to feel faint. Movements were heavy. She didn't have it in her to panic.
Amidst the noise of the frozen rain falling that night, she heard the croaking sound of a goblin as it kicked her off of her blade. There was no resistance as she fell onto the wet ground.
Was that really the ending to her pathetic life?
Every decision she made up to that point was always further and further from what she wanted until she was too weak to defend herself. If only she hadn't been forbidden from using a sword by her mother.
To even an average knight, a goblin would have been easy work. Yet there she was, only able to run away until the damned monster caught her.