I Will Save you my Lady

Chapter 16 - Confessions

The guards were blocking my escape, and Basil and Rose were blocking me from asking anyone in the crowd for help. I knew I was done for.

"Creating such disarray, and spreading misinformation is a criminal offence," Basil stated, lifting his sword, ready to swing it at my neck.

"Such lies!" Rose added, "I think we need to interrogate her darling, find out who sent her."

I nervously glanced back, into the crowd, hoping that someone, anyone would come to my rescue. I saw a dark-haired man hesitating, as we made eye contact. Strangely enough, I recognised him as the first person I'd met when coming to this world, but I didn't have time, or a use, really, to act upon that knowledge.

"You're right. It would be in everyone's best interest to interrogate her first," Basil spoke, lowering his sword from a lethal to a merely menacing angle.

I didn't even know what to say to defend myself.

Basil swung his sword, and I shut my eyes, bracing myself for the worst. But instead, I heard the sound of shattering glass, and cries of fear coming from the crowd. Before I knew it, I was swept up, by a giant bat-like creature, which promptly exited the same way it'd come in.

"Ludwick?" I asked as I remembered his true vampire form being described as something of the sort.

We landed on the roof, and I was let go. The giant bat shifted forms, confirming my guess that it was Ludwick. I looked at him in confusion, ready to ask for clarification, when I noticed Lady June standing some distance behind him.

For a long moment, the three of us remained frozen in place, as the wind howled through the decorative guardrails around the flat roof, and somewhere in the building below the commotion continued.

"I shall leave you two to it then." Ludwick broke the silence. He gave June a knowing nod before vanishing.

The wind was strong and cold, and I had to shut my eyes at a particularly harsh gust. When I opened them not even a second later, Lady June had crossed the distance between us. Her eyes were as cold as the wind, and her expression harsh and unfamiliar.

Not giving me the chance to protest or resist, she pushed me backwards, pinning me against a decorative column.

"My Lady?" I asked. I shouldn't have been scared, I knew my lady well, but my body couldn't help but react as I tried to make myself smaller, to vanish from this encounter just like Lude had.

"Start talking."

She really didn't sound like herself. Her voice had never been this cold, not towards me or any of the train workers she occasionally chatted with. It was almost as if she were a different person as if some instinct of hers had kicked in, and she had put up these emotional walls to protect herself.

"My Lady ..." I repeated, not sure how to reassure her that everything was fine. Part of me did not want to reassure her but to run away, and that part was making it hard to get words out. "It's not what you think."

"No?" Her voice was like a blade trying to cut me down. Had she not been pinning my shoulder with one arm, and blocking me with her other, I would have tried to slip away.

"I ... I'm sorry." I sniffled. Even in this situation, I couldn't help but pity her, and think about the circumstances that made her like this.

"How do you know about the scroll of Thessirée?"

I stopped sniffling.

"Huh?"

"It's too late to play dumb Naomi. Tell me everything you know. Tell me who you work for. Who sent you to – to me?"

For the briefest of seconds, her voice did sound regretful, and I knew that brief instant had been the real June speaking, but more importantly, I was confused. I couldn't, rather I wouldn't accept what she was accusing me of.

"No one sent me, My Lady, I came on my own."

She glanced at her free hand, and I noticed a familiar artefact in it. It was shining faintly, just like it had on that balcony.

"That can't be."

The comment was directed at both me and the artefact, and I suddenly knew what I had to do.

"I came here, well, here to the ball, but also to your mansion, to save you from dying."

We both glanced at the tablet. It was still glowing. A perplexed expression slowly appeared on June's face, as she released her grip on me. I let out a sigh of relief, as a part of me had never stopped fearing for my life, but that part was becoming smaller and smaller by the second.

"Then why couldn't you just explain yourself this morning?" She asked.

"It's because you wouldn't have believed me!"

"Oh come on Naomi, you can't do worse than 'a psychic cat told me'."

"Well," I paused. I didn't really mind her knowing that I was a transmigrator, but I was a bit worried about how she would react to knowing that she was a character in a book.

"Naomi, tell me. I need a proper explanation. I'm willing to believe that you're not an evil spy, but if you don't explain things right now, I don't think I'll be able to trust you anymore."

"No!" I exclaimed. That was the worst possible scenario. "It's a long story, and one that's hard to believe," I began.

I sat down, and June followed my lead. She sat in a way that shielded me from the wind, at least partially, and she listened about 'Summer Flowers', and how I ended up in this world.

"That's the tale," I concluded, after a good twenty minutes of explanations. "So everything I did, today included, was to protect you. I – I don't want to come off as pretentious," I turned towards June, and shyly took her hands in mine, avoiding her gaze, "But knowing the childhood you had, the hardships and trauma you went through, with your father and-" I cut myself off, deciding not to force those memories of hers back up, "I wanted to be a friend to you, someone you could rely on."

I looked up, meeting her eyes. I had chosen not to tell her how I truly felt. This was neither the time nor the place.

I was surprised to find a confused expression painted on her face.

"My what childhood now? Naomi, what do you mean?"