At the sudden shout from outside the window, Sophia immediately stopped humming. She concealed herself again and listened in silence.

“Ahahaha, it’s just been too long since I’ve seen a woman.”

“Quit wasting time. Finish up and take these bitches back. Then we can do whatever we want with them! We got word that soldiers from the New Empire will be patrolling this area in the next few days. We need to move faster.”

“Tsk. Why aren’t they hunting down the former empire’s prince? Why come all the way to the border to hunt us bandits?”

“Don’t say that. They are here to hunt the prince. But do you really think they’d pretend not to see us if they found us?”

“True, true. You go on ahead. I’ll deal with things here soon.”

Nick laughed it off and drove away the man who had come to hurry him along. Then his sinister gaze fell upon the window once more.

Meanwhile, Sophia narrowed her eyes slightly. A thoughtful glimmer flashed through her water-blue eyes.

“What are you planning?” An raised its eyes slightly and glanced at Sophia.

Sophia replied through telepathy, “You heard them too, didn’t you? Rigan’s soldiers are coming here. Even if we evade these bandits, we’ll eventually fall into the soldiers’ hands.”

“So? Judging by that tone, the little princess already has a plan.”

An genuinely wanted to know what Sophia could come up with.

Sophia nodded. “From their conversation, these bandits seem confident they can avoid the soldiers’ search. In that case, I’ll simply go with them. Once everything settles down, we can escape.”

“Whatever.”

An lost interest the moment it heard that. Then it closed its eyes again.

It had thought the little princess’s bloodlust had finally awakened. Perhaps she planned to slaughter her way out and give An a chance to stretch its limbs.

But now…

Heh.

At that moment, Nick’s voice came from outside once more.

“Hehe. Still hiding?”

With a faint creak, Nick climbed through the window and entered the pitch-black room.

As he drew closer, Sophia could even hear his heavy breathing.

“Out this late at night, wearing a black cloak too. Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to see you? Stop struggling. I’m a fourth-level warrior!”

Nick quickly adjusted to the darkness. He immediately spotted Sophia crouching behind the door.

Overjoyed, he rushed forward, seized the girl by the arm, and yanked her out.

Sophia’s gaze turned cold. The hand gripping her wand tightened again and again.

But then she remembered that she had to appear weak and let herself be “captured” without a hitch.

In the end, she held herself back.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. What slender arms. Just my type. Let’s see what you look like.”

Nick’s disgusting voice echoed through the room.

He was too focused on ripping off the girl’s hood to notice the wand in her other hand.

Sophia endured his filthy words with all her strength. The chill in her water-blue eyes grew even sharper.

Nick still didn’t stop. Instead, he went further, reaching straight for Sophia’s hood to see her face clearly.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the cloak, a burst of red light suddenly erupted in the dark room.

Then came the sound of blood spraying everywhere.

“You… you! A mage!”

Nick stared in disbelief at the water spike that had pierced through his chest.

A great sheet of blood burst from his wound and splashed across the black cloak before him.

As he spoke, the light in Nick’s eyes rapidly faded. It vanished completely soon after.

“God will never forgive your soul.”

Sophia coldly left him with those words, then dispelled the water spike.

With the spike no longer holding his chest open, Nick’s corpse collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud.

Even more blood poured from the gaping hole in his chest.

“Aaaah!”

A piercing scream came from beside the window.

Sophia turned her head and saw the woman of the house staring at her in terror.

More precisely, she was staring at the corpse at Sophia’s feet.

“D-Dead! Someone’s dead!”

She knew that the man who had died had been beating her husband moments earlier. He had even tried to violate her.

But the woman had grown up in a simple village. When had she ever seen someone die?

And this “dead man” had been full of life only moments ago.

The extreme contrast, combined with her fear of death, made the woman cry out instinctively.

“Don’t scream! That bandit deserved to die! Be quiet!”

Her husband quickly covered her mouth and tried desperately to comfort her.

But it seemed he was already too late.

The woman’s screams had drawn the attention of the other bandits. Carrying their cleavers, they began making their way over.

Sophia watched the scene unfold and slightly furrowed her brows.

An lay on the bed board, half-lidded and dozing. It let out a mocking laugh as it looked at Sophia.

“So this is what you humans are like? How utterly laughable. Your weakness and your incompetence can both serve as entertainment for me for days.”

Sophia ignored An’s mockery and fell deep into thought. Her mind raced at full speed.

Even now, she still didn’t want to abandon her plan to hide inside the “bandits’ den.”

Suddenly, Sophia’s gaze fell upon the husband’s back.

It was stained completely red with blood. Whip marks covered his back, beating the skin raw.

“An, you’re right. But you’re only seeing one side of it, understand?” Sophia said mockingly. “The wisdom of the dragons, huh… Heh.”

An slowly opened its tightly shut eyes and studied Sophia with interest.

It wanted to know what gave this little princess the courage to mock the mighty dragon race.

“What happened here?”

Several bandits came over and shoved the husband aside, shouting at him in an unfriendly tone.

“N-Nothing!”

The husband tried to cover his wife’s mouth while forcing a fawning smile.

But how could the bandits possibly believe him?

One of them immediately pulled the whip from his waist and brought it down over the husband’s head.

Crack!

Another bloody mark split open across the husband’s face.

He said nothing. He knew he had already betrayed his humanity once.

Crack!

The whip fell again.

This time, it carved a bloody welt across the husband’s arm. Blood flowed steadily from the wound.

Seeing how stubborn the man was, the bandit grew furious.

Then his gaze shifted to the woman in the man’s arms, and he bared his teeth in a grin.

“Beating you is useless. Fine, then I’ll butcher your woman!”

As he spoke, the bandit drew his cleaver with a metallic scrape.

The other bandits watched the scene with amused expressions.

Murder?

In the eyes of these bandits, this was little different from a stage play.

With a low shout, the bandit swung the razor-sharp cleaver down.

“Water Curtain!”