The Stranger

As the days turned to weeks and weeks turn to months. Athena has survived a month up north Serfred and Athena continued to hunt in the forest, whilst Tycho and some men started constructing the village.

The crop that Athena planted in the Chief back house has finally grown, at the same time the dead tree before finally bare some fruits.

The Chief cried seeing the apple tree his grandparents planted and once again was bearing so much fruit. Once it was ready, he distributed the fruits to the children, which brought smiles to their face, to be able to taste something so sweet.

Diana and the woman of the village continued to be in charge in making new clothes for everyone at the same time prepare the meal for everyone.

Athena asked the church to handle taking care of the children and providing education for them.

Not only was Athena able to restore the land in the Chief's house, but she restores a little of the lands on people home so they can grow some crops as well.

While everyone in the village was busy doing their task, they all paused when they saw a group of people who went hunting all running back to the village.

"Everyone make way…" Gran yelled

"What do you think is going on?"

"Why are they back so early?"

Tycho who was fixing one of the roofs of the house. When he saw what was happening from above, he quickly jumps down and run towards the group of people.

When Tycho saw the blood dripping on the ground from Athena's shoulder, his face turned pale as he could not believe what he was seeing. "What happened?"

"She was acted by someone, it wasn't a monster, but someone attacked her." Serfred explained as he continued to run towards the church.

"What do you mean?" Tycho yelled, surprised that someone was after Athena's life.

"Someone seems to wish Lady Tina dead." Serfred answered with such hateful expression towards the person trying to kill Athena.

...What? Someone wishes for Tina dead? How come when she has helped us all. Who would wish for her to be dead. I know she is a noble lady from what Diana explained, but Tina never mentioned which family she came from. Has she run away from her family and now wish her dead. What is going on?

Those who saw what happened, followed as they worried for the girl in Serfred arms.

When they arrived at the church, the church boys yelled to call out the priest. When the priest saw entire villages running towards the church he wonder what was happening.

When Father Roland saw Serfred carrying Athena in his arms and blood was dripping, his froze as he suddenly lost balance of himself as dare not acknowledge what he just saw.

Father Roland focuses all his energy on the girl as he tried to heal her wounds, he was able to stop the bleeding, but for some reason the girl still looked pale and the wound started to turn blue. "It's not working, she was poisoned."

Serfred punched the wall as he did not expect something like this would happen to Athena. "Then what should we do?"

"I don't know, we don't have any Alchemist in the church and the nearest town is a few days away." Father Rolan explained as he continued to examine the girl wound.

"Athena wake up, " Diana cried kneeling beside the girl.

"What happened?" Chief calmly walked inside as he went to comfort his granddaughter.

Hearing the sound of Diana crying caused Gran to burst running inside. "Is Lady Tina dead?"

The sound of the woman crying and the boy yelling brought life back to the girl as she slowly opened her eyes.

...Ah- my head hurts. That stupid assassin, I can't believe the Queen is that desperate to kill me. My body is so numb, I can't even move. I won't be able to heal my wound at this rate.

Athena turned around to the girl crying beside her. "Diana stop crying."

"Tina, you're awake." Diana cried as she jumped and embrace the girl on the bed.

"Lady Tina…" Serfred eyes became teary as he saw the girl finally has woken up. He smiled as he tried to control his emotions.

"I'm fine, everyone don't worry about me. All of you go back and finish all your tasks for today." Athena smiled assuring everyone she was fine.

Once everyone left apart from Serfred, seeing the coast was clear, Athena could no longer hold it in as she started coughing blood out.

“Lady Tina.” Serfred panic seeing the girl cough out a lot of blood.

“I told you to just call me Tina.” Athena glared at Serfred despite she was in so much pain inside already.

“Tell me, who was the man who tried to kill you.” Serfred stared at Athena with such serious expression.

“They were sent by the Empire to kill me…” She did not hesitate and told Serfred the truth, seeing how the man has cared for him all this time.

“Why?” he clenched his fist.

“Because his Holiness declared I was a Saintess.” Athena averted her gaze from Serfred upset to see the man filled with anger.

...I shall kill them myself, how dare they lay their hands on my lady.

“Don’t worry about me and go help the village and complete your task.”

“I'll be back." Serfred grab the girl and pushed her towards his chest.

Athena could hear the beating of Serfred heart as her face started to turn red. The man walked out of the room, leaving Athena all speechless.

It was sunset when Athena started trembling and having cold sweat. Since everyone was still busy with their task. Athena was left alone to battle the pain she was feeling. She grabs hold of her chest as she clenched it tightly, her throat was so dry as her inside was burning in flames.

As her vision became blurry and white, she notices a figure walking towards her. As she slowly loses consciousness, she heard a soft voice whispering to her.

“Drink this…”

Athena felt the person hand wrap around her neck as the person held her up. As if her body moved on its own, she opened her mouth and drank whatever the person was giving her. As she force her remaning strength to see who the stranger is, her vision has turned black.

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