Chapter 23: I will escape by tonight! (Author's note: he didn't....)
Chapter 23: I will escape by tonight! (Author's note: he didn't….)
There was a strange flash of nostalgia that crossed the duke’s eyes when he finished telling the story of his first encounter with the woman who would eventually change his life.
A silent atmosphere formed between father and daughter as each were lost in their own thoughts in quiet contemplation.
“What… what happened after?” Sophie tentatively asked.
“That crazy woman took me back to a cave and spent weeks nursing me back to health while also repairing my damaged meridians,” the duke replied.
Sophie was a bit confused by this change of events. She was under the impression that her mother wanted to kill her dad on the first meeting.The duke saw the question marks forming on his daughter’s face and reluctantly clarified what happened next.
It was unfortunately one of the most humiliating times of his life….
(Flashback)
(Two weeks after the fight)
Rokan had fallen unconscious in the aftermath of his fight with the insectoid woman and suffered with a high fever. In his delirious dreams, there was the figure of a beautiful fairy who would press her dainty hands on his forehead and feed him delicious food.
She would also softly sing unfamiliar songs to soothe his pain in a language he could not understand.
“Human! You’re finally awake!” a surprised voice echoed beside him.
A pounding headache assaulted his head and Rokan slowly raised his eyelids to observe his surroundings. He found himself on top of a grass bed with fruits and flowers covering the sides of his chest in what looked to be some sort of underground cavern.
“I was relieved that you woke up… I thought humans were pretty fragile, but you didn’t stop breathing so I figured you would probably regenerate…”
Nonstop chatter filled the duke’s mind and he glanced at the end of the cave to see a woman happily talking to him. Gentle glows of light from the rocks illuminated her face and made her seem like a celestial maiden sent down from the heavens.
Except the image was ruined by spider legs attached to her back along with pointed fangs poking out of her mouth.
Wait a minute… wasn’t this the woman who nearly killed him!
“What’s your name human? My name is Thai’lle,” spoke the insectoid.
Rokan struggled to reach the blade at the corner of the room but found that his arms had no strength. Thai’lle watched his struggle was bemusement flashing through her eyes so he stopped trying to pick up his weapon.
Maybe he should go along with his captor’s whims and attempt to make an escape once he regained his strength.
“I am Rokan the proud and noble duke of the Peterlor house,” he curtly replied.
He could not resist the curiosity in his heart and asked, “Why did you heal me?”
A demonic grin flashed across Thai’lle ‘s face and she simply fed him some fruits then left the cave to hunt for prey.
“I will regain my strength and escape by tonight,” muttered the duke. Unfortunately this plan was doomed to failure as he found himself tightly bound to the bed by what seemed to be spiderwebs.
(One month later)
“You foolish insectoid! Now that my strength has recovered to the peak…. I will slay you with the second form of the Lighting Sword Arts,” the duke roared.
Thai’lle smiled softly and raised a palm with purplish flames dancing merrily under the sunlight.
(Two months later)
“Cough…. cough…I was going easy on you last time insectoid fiend! Now I will no longer fall for your petty tricks and illusions,” a confident declaration spilled out of Rokan’s mouth.
He spent the past two months carefully observing this devilish woman whenever she cultivated and memorised the qi circulation of her illusion techniques. Now he would be able to identify the clones from the real image.
“Don’t call me insectoid fiend… you ignorant human! My name is Thai’lle!” the spider woman charmingly pouted and stomped her feet on the ground in rage.
“I’m going to beat you up till you remember it!”
(Five months later)
“Insectoid wom…” began the duke
A fierce glare that sent shivers down the duke’s spine was then directed at him from the woman sitting across in the cave
“I mean Thai’lle… A gentleman knows that ten years is never too late to take revenge! I recently cultivated to the peak of the god stage. You should take care lest I injure you too badly in this fight!”
“Oh?” came an intrigued look from the lady.
“Maybe I should go all out then?”
(Six months later)
“Look Thai’lle… maybe I was too rash when I talked about defeating you in revenge. How about we just settle this grudge with peace and forgiveness?”
Rokan had now entered the bargaining phase of his unfortunate stay with this demon.
Thai’lle smiled at him with a loving gaze and spoke gently, “Actually the grudge was just an excuse… truthfully…I… really…”
She was interrupted by a fierce beam of sword light that was thrust towards her chest. Rokan had decided to try a sneak attack while she let her guard down.
His blade was stopped by a clenched fist from Thai’lle who now had an extremely stormy expression of rage on her face.
“Um… what were you going to say before I attacked you?” the duke hopefully asked.
He was then met with a fierce kick to the face.
(One year later)
“I… I don’t want to fight anymore…. Please just let me go!” the once proud duke was now in tears. He no longer had any thought of fighting this crazy battle maniac, it turns out that she would beat him within an inch of his life then allow him to heal and then repeat the process.
“Too bad human!” came a swift reply.
(Main Story)
“Dad… How on earth did you and mom end up together?” Sophie was in utter bafflement.
Were her parents lovers or life and death enemies?