Guinevere came right in front of the girl before any of the demons and orcs could get their hands on her.
"Touch her and you're dead." She threatened.
The tone of her voice was enough to make them stop and back away.
"We can't just let her leave." Dyrroth butted in and grabbed the girl by the arm.
"Let go of her!" She warned him.
But Dyrroth glared at her. "Stay out of this. She's not even human!"
"What are you talking about?!" She asked.
"See for yourself." Dyrroth said, pushing the girl to her direction.
Watching him being so harsh on the girl hurt something inside Guinevere, a spark of disappointment hovering in the surface.
For a little while back at the river, she thought she saw hope for him to be good.
But as she stared back at his evil eyes now, she started doubting it.
Guinevere drew near the girl who cowered as she scanned all the towering monsters around her with her innocent round eyes.
"She's merely a mechanical doll, Guinevere." Selena said.
She was now back in her usual form; her bright pink hair falling straight down to her waist and her skin a lighter shade of violet.
She had always wondered why Alice and Dyrroth had been very cautious around Selena before, but earlier, she saw why.
Selena was nothing like the bright and bubbly Selena she knew when she'd let the Abyss demon take over her body.
Guinevere was somehow relieved she was back to her usual state.
Guinevere grabbed the girl's arms and realized what they meant.
The girl's arms felt lifeless, just a mere moving wood with invisible strings moving them.
Was that why the others left her there?
As if to say otherwise, the girl whimpered and Guinevere saw a genuine look of fear in her eyes.
A doll was not capable of making such pure emotions.
"I'll take her."
"You're not planning to send for help through her, are you?" Dyrroth asked.
Guinevere turned to him, now completely convinced he had no hope of changing back into a normal human.
His expression was smirking, as if he was taking advantage of the fact that she would not be so stupid as to get back to her loved ones and cause them their doom.
"You're hopeless." She said with all the hatred she could muster.
Dyrroth merely chuckled, unaffected. "Fine. Keep her. She wouldn't have any group to go back to anyway."
"What? What did you do to them?!" The girl demanded.
But one of the orcs kicked her back to the ground before jumping away from Guinevere's magic energy that exploded on the ground.
"I said don't touch her!" She warned.
The orcs stepped a couple of steps away from her.
She placed a hand over the girl's armored shoulder. "Don't be afraid. Come with me."
"How fascinating. A prisoner keeping another prisoner." Dyrroth laughed as the two of them headed to Guinevere's tent.
"Who are you?" The girl asked when they arrived inside the tent.
"That is not important." she answered, having no intention to let anyone inform someone of her location.
She had no intention of bringing doom closer to her loved ones, even if it meant enduring every single passing day of pain and misery just for their safety.
"What's your name?" She asked instead.
"Angela." The girl answered hesitantly.
Guinevere nodded and made her sit on her bunk.
There was just one thing she wanted to know.
"I just want to ask you one thing, Angela. The boy with the silver hair earlier, what is his name?"
Angela frowned, probably contemplating if all of these were just trickery.
"I'm not telling you!" She snapped.
Guinevere sighed impatiently. "Was it Gusion?"
The way the girl's eyes widen was enough to confirm Guinevere's guess, and she felt her heart clench in pain.
She wanted to see him up close.
Seeing him earlier, in an armor she could hardly recognize, made her realize she had been away for too long.
And all she ever wanted to do was run back and see him face to face, catch up with him and ask him how he was doing.
Thinking how difficult that would be made her want to explode in anger at how complicated things were getting...
At how complicated how her feelings were getting.
If only things were a little different.
She snapped out of her thoughts, the pain lingering in her chest making it harder for her to do what she was about to do next.
"Angela, I'm going to let you go as long as you promise me one thing."
The doll's eyes widened in surprise. "You're letting me go?"
She nodded. "As long you won't tell anyone that you'd seen me here."
It took a lot of her will power to say it.
Because in fact, she wanted Angela to tell everyone she was there.
She wanted Gusion to know she was there.
She wanted her friends to get her out of there and help her find a way out of her misery.
She wanted so badly to be with them.
She clenched her hands in fist as if she was holding tight on her control.
She needs to be away from them for them to be safe.
Angela stared at her, probably trying to understand why she would demand something like that.
"Promise me."
Angela nodded. "I promise."
"Promise." She demanded.
Angela nodded her head even harder that Guinevere thought it was going to fall off.
"Good. But for you to escape, we have to wait until dawn."
"A-alright." Angela answered.
Guinevere sat at the bunk next to Angela, and they fell into silence, each of them getting drowned in their own thoughts.
She started to wonder why Gusion had to leave in the first place.
And now when she'd seen him again, he was with a completely different group, with his magic feeling a lot different than it usually did.
Even the way he looked showed her how much they'd grown apart that she doubted she even crossed his mind anymore.
She let out a sigh.
Maybe it was for the best though.
After all, she was trying to hide herself from the world.
"Why are you doing this?" Angela asked, interrupting her chain of thoughts.
"Huh?"
"Why are you helping me escape? Won't this get you in trouble?"
"I'm already in trouble as it is. There could be no worse than this."
"Why couldn't we just escape together?" Angela asked.
Guinevere shook her head. "I can't escape, Angela." She said, smiling to conceal the sadness crying so hard inside her chest.
"We can."
"I can't."
Angela could not understand why, but she stared at Guinevere and said, "I'm sorry."
She nodded. "Is...Gusion doing alright?"
Angela stared at her, a curious look on her eyes. "He's fine. He's taking care of our squad well."
Guinevere looked down.
So all those months she'd been missing, he was away doing missions with his new squad.
She tried not to feel so bitter about that.
"Great." She answered Angela. "I'm glad to hear that."
Guinevere was amazed to see a crease form in the doll's forehead. "You look sad though."
"I'm not." Guinevere lied, hiding it in a chuckle.
"A-are you close? With Gusion?"
Guinevere looked away, considering the question.
At some point during their quests, she thought they were.
But as she looked back at it now, she realized there were too many things he didn't know about him.
And he left her life so easily that it made her realize how insignificant the bond she thought they had were.
Somehow, it made her heart sink.
"We just know each other."
"Oh." Angela answered. "I thought you were some girl he liked back then."
Guinevere's eyes darted on her, her cheeks suddenly going hot as particular scenes flashed in her mind;
Dancing in a forest filled with fireflies...
In the weapon's room floor with his face moving close to hers...
At a corridor in castle Gorge, her heart hammer in so fast as she felt his lips touched her forehead and down her cheeks...
"I-I'm not..." She muttered.
Angela smiled. "Well, that's a relief. I don't want Hanabi to be sad."
"Hanabi?" She asked, nervousness arriving at the sound of another girl's name.
Angela nodded. "She's in the squad, too.I notice her getting flustered sometimes when talking to Gusion."
"Oh. She must really like him." Guinevere guessed, feeling her heart ache.
"Yeah, I bet she does. I hope you would meet her. She's really nice."
"I would like that, too, but we both know I can't."
Angela sighed. "Are you certain you're not com in with me?"
"Yes. So please, when you leave this place, forget about me, too."
Angela's eyes were so expressive Guinevere could literally see them turning sad. "Alright."
So they just sat there, quietly, and waited till night came and it went deeper into dawn, when Guinevere finally peered through her tent and saw the orcs guarding it nodding in sleep.
"You have to go." She told her urgently.
Angela got to her feet and reached for Guinevere's wrists as she stared at her.
"You can come with me." She tried again. "The others...they'll help you. We'll help you."
But that was just what Guinevere was afraid of.
For someone to help her and she would just repay them with violence.
She was well aware that the more people she cared about, the easier for Alice to trigger whatever darkness was inside her and fully awaken it.
She was well aware the best way to stop that was to stay away.
So no matter how tempting Angela's grip was, she stood her ground and pushed it off her wrist.
"Be careful. And remember your promise. I never helped you. You never met me. You escaped on your own."
A scowl formed on the doll's face. "How could I even repay you with that?"
"You're repaying me with that." She said firmly.
Angela sighed and nodded reluctantly.
"Now, go." Guinevere gently pushed her to the tent's entrance, where she ducked out and finally flew away, disappearing into the darkness of the woods without stirring up anyone.
Guinevere sighed in relief the moment she disappeared into the darkness and she was finally able to relax in her bunk.
She hoped, desperately, that she would keep her promise.
She hoped that Angela would not tell anyone about her...
Especially Gusion.
She did not want things to get more complicated than they already were.
And Gusion always had the knack on making things complicated, on many different ways.
Her thoughts were disrupted when Dyrroth ducked inside her tent, making her gasp and panic.
His crimson eyes scanned the room before looking at her.
She went totally cautious when she noticed him being very calm despite seeing no one else in the room but her.
"Where's the girl?" He asked, a slight crease forming between his brows.
She merely looked away guiltily.
He would be stupid to believe she would keep her prisoner.
In contrast to what she expected, he began heading towards the exit.
"You're not saying anything?" She asked, totally confused at his calmness.
Dyrroth stopped right in front of the doorway and turned to her direction, his expression unreadable.
Guinevere noticed that the gem in the middle of his body armor was glowing light orange rather than its usual deep red.
"As if I expected you to keep your promise. I'm not as naive as you." He answered.
"Then why did you let me bring her?"
This time, Dyrroth started pacing towards her direction with a dangerous look in his eyes. "Because I know you're smart enough not to call for help."
She stepped back, the back of her knees eventually hitting the bunk. But he came right in front of her, leaning down that his face came too close she had to lean back.
She remembered the first time she met him in the woods. She was certain he was merely as tall as her back then.
So she was quite amazed when she realized how much he had to crouch his back just to come in her eye level.
"That's what you've been doing for the last few months; staying away from anyone you could possibly hurt." He continued.
It scared Guinevere even more how his voice sounded so calm, as if he was just actually saying it with no hint of mischief or cruelty in his voice.
In fact, she would've thought he heard some tone of fascination in them, the same emotion reflected in the way his crimson eyes stared down at her.
And it didn't really help how they'd turn human-like again, just like at the river.
"No. I've been trying to find ways to make your daily life as miserable as you're making mine." She seethed.
A smirk finally formed in his face as he stared at her intently. "Unfortunately, you're doing otherwise."
"What?" She snapped and pushed him away.
"What I'm saying is," he instead sat on the edge of her bunk and propped his hands against it so he could lean back. "you fascinate me. I'm quite amused of how someone who is so willing to give up her life and freedom just to be certain she wouldn't hurt someone she loves could have so much darkness hidden inside her."
"And I'm amused," she began, her voice dripping with bitterness. "how someone so ruthless could look so closely human at all."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"Suit yourself." She replied.
"Why are you being so cross on us? I mean, I literally saw you help Selena earlier when that short magician attacked her."
Guinevere frowned.
It confused her as well. She did not have time to see who the enemies were. She just did the first thing that popped in her mind; help Selena.
"I'd always thought you were bold, Miss Violet. But seeing how you're having an internal conflict about why you did that makes me think...maybe you're just a coward after all."
"You're not gonna get anything by provoking me, blond horns."
"Really?" He asked, his eyes round that it almost looked innocent for a moment. "I'm not provoking you though. I'm just wondering why you couldn't admit the fact that you see Selena as a friend."
"Not to mention she's the one who abducted me." She added.
"Oh. Alice made her do it. In exchange for something."
Guinevere looked at Dyrroth straight in the face, now suddenly intrigued. "For what?"
Dyrroth shrugged. "Ask her yourself."
"Why couldn't you just tell me?"
"Because I don't know as well."
"How could you not know?"
This time, it was Dyrroth's turn to be irritated. "I just don't!"
Guinevere's eyes widened as she realized something. "Alice isn't telling you things."
She saw how Dyrroth's jaws clenched as he looked away with an angry look on his face, the gem on his chest now glowing red.
She sat right next to him and faced his direction. "She doesn't trust you on things."
"She does!"
"Then why do you look upset?"
"I am not upset!"
"But you are."
Dyrroth glared at her. "Is this a special talent of yours? Annoying people?"
She shrugged. "What other things is she not telling you?"
Dyrroth sighed, got to his feet and started heading towards the door.
"Wait! We aren't done talking!"
"Yes, we are!"
She got to her feet and came on Dyrroth's way, her curious mind now at work.
"Haven't you ever wondered why she doesn't tell you things? How could you accept that willingly?"
"Stop prying or you'll burn your head off." He pushed her by the shoulders to get her out of his way.
But she came right in front of him again. "Snap out of it, Dyrroth. You're just one of Alice's many pawns. Just like how she's making me one of her pawns. And maybe also Alucard. We're all just a piece of her chess game!"
"I am not just a piece!"
She gasped when Dyrroth, whose eyes went into its usual black and red color, suddenly swung his arm, sending her flying towards the bunk where she landed hard.
Then his eyes widened, instantly shifting back into its human form again as he stared at her, surprised.
He took a step towards her before catching himself and he stopped hesitantly, his expression confused and bothered as Guinevere stood up on her own.
"You're not the Prince of the Abyss as you think you are." She said angrily. "You're just Alice's favorite pet because you're the most obedient, the smartest one in her options."
A dark shadow crossed Dyrroth's face as he clenched his jaw, but he did not do anything. Instead, he left without any word, leaving Guinevere suddenly so exhausted and guilty and bothered for blurting out those words and seeing how they affected him.
Dyrroth suddenly didn't look like an evil prince who was going to ruin everything she'd grown up with...
For Guinevere, he was now reduced to a boy; scarred and victimized and brainwashed...
And someone who needed rescuing as much as she did.