Before Alicia and Paulina even arrived at the dungeon, they could already hear loud voices, cries, and ongoing arguments coming from the direction of the dungeon gate.
When the dungeon's gate came into view, they realized the number of women and young girls standing out there, hoping to be let in. There were up to fifteen of them in total, and only a few young men of noble families watched from the side like it was an amusing sight. However, some young men stood with the women too.
Within a few seconds of seeing this, Alicia could already tell that the desperate women were the families of some of the arrested people, while others had simply tagged along.
Most of them had something in their hands. Either it was a warm cloak, a covered bowl of food, a gourd of water, etc.
"My daughter is in there! How could you arrest my little daughter and put her in this stinking place?" A woman asked with tears in her eyes, and the others echoed the same. They wanted to meet their children.
The guards didn't budge. The five men blocking the gate looked weird and were not dressed in the normal knight's uniform. They were also bigger, older, dirtier, and looked very aggressive, carrying crude weapons. They weren't exactly guarding the gates since they sat separately on whatever could serve as a seat, be it large bricks or rocks.
The men seemed to be having fun taunting the women and cackling loudly at whatever they thought was amusing.
Who were these people? Alicia had never seen this group of people before.
"I... heard Princess Amber changed some guards. I don't know where they came from either." Paulina whispered in her ear.
When a loud cry sounded from inside the dungeon, one of the women cried loudly.
"THAT IS MY DAUGHTER! THAT IS HER VOICE!" She cried out and tried to force her way inside.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the men were done messing around with these women because they suddenly looked serious, and one of the men who looked like their leader stood up and rudely pushed her to the ground, startling everyone watching. As the man approached the woman, who was wincing in pain on the ground, the other woman gasped in fear and unconsciously retreated, just like the young men.
The man suddenly stopped walking and looked around him at the other frightened women before he let out a hearty laugh and turned to his friends, saying, "Reminds me why I love women. So fragile."
His friends bellowed in laughter at the 'amusing' scene, especially when the woman on the ground tripped on her dress when she tried to stand up and fell back to the ground.
"Son of a bitch!" Alicia muttered in anger and tried to walk up there, but Paulina quickly held her hand and shook her head, telling her not to.
"They are all scared of you... I mean, Princess Amber. It won't... be good."
For a second, Alicia was torn. But her attention was drawn when they heard the woman crying on the ground, and all eyes were fixed on her.
"I just want to see my daughter. She... feels awful pain when she is bleeding. You cannot keep her in this dirty place. She is a lady!"
The men ignored the woman and joked among themselves, laughing heartily and spitting in an uncultured manner that made the ladies retch in disgust.
One of the women boldly went to help the other woman to her feet and pointed at the men, yelling, "You uncultured riff-raffs! It's no surprise you do not know how to treat ladies because you all grew up in the slums. I hope you all die miserable deaths."
That seemed to make the men stop hollering in laughter, and their gazes turned serious.
The one who seemed like their leader approached the woman and grabbed her by the hair. Then he began to drag her past the dungeon gate while saying, "Your cultured husband won't be able to save you, whore!"
The other women could only cry and demand she be let go, but they could not save the woman, who was screaming in pain and fear as the man dragged her inside.
When Alicia turned to look at Paulina again, Paulina didn't need to be told. She let go of Alicia at once, who was brimming with anger at this point.
"LET HER GO THIS INSTANT!" Alicia demanded fiercely.
When the other frightened women saw her, they didn't know whether to be hopeful or frightened. It was the same woman who had killed her stepmother only recently and made her husband go unconscious. She was also rumoured to be a witch, and they had all witnessed certain strange things that could confirm she was indeed one. So most of the women also withdrew and moved away from her path.
The man still firmly held onto the woman's hair even as he turned to face Alicia.
"Ah! Another feisty one." One of his friends mocked, making the five of them laugh loudly in amusement.
As if taunting Alicia, the man grabbed the woman's hair even tighter as he pulled her along with him to stand in front of Alicia, pointing his other free hand at the sword she was holding.
"Careful so it doesn't hurt you." One of them said in a sing-song voice while pointing at her sword. This made the group of men burst into laughter once again.
"Do you even know how to use that, wild rabbit?" He mocked as he reached to touch Alicia's face while looking at her with eyes glazed with lust.
After all, she was dressed in a rather plain dress that most ladies didn't wear out of their rooms.
"We can see if I can use it or not," Alicia said in a serious tone before she wielded the sword with both hands and, without thinking twice, stabbed it right through the stomach of the man.
Gasps and screams echoed all around from the frightened women and the young noble lads, and even the man's friends seemed to have realized that this wild rabbit wasn't joking because they all stood up at once.
Alicia looked up into the startled eyes of the man she had stabbed, whose hands had finally let go of the poor woman's hair.
"Seems I can use it just fine," Alicia said quietly before she dragged the sword out of his stomach, making him scream out in pain as he fell to the floor, soaking in his own pool of blood.
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