Every time Soren’s left leg touched the ground, it felt like a red-hot needle was stabbing into the gaps between his bones.
Cold sweat streamed down from his temples, blurring his vision.
The footsteps behind him were getting closer and closer.
Jean’s furious shouts mixed with ragged breaths lashed across his back like a whip.
“Stop!
You can’t escape!
Without me, you can’t even feed yourself.
With your leg broken, you can’t even walk!”
Soren gritted his teeth and refused to look back.
Just as he was about to rush into the woods, a hand suddenly clamped tightly around his ankle–Jean’s fingertips carried a piercing force, her nails nearly digging into his flesh.
“Caught you… my good child.”
Jean’s voice sounded beside his ear, filled with the madness of something lost and found again, along with a trace of venomous resentment from betrayal.
She yanked hard, dragging Soren backward.
He lost his balance and crashed heavily onto the grass.
The agonizing pain in his left leg instantly blackened his vision, nearly making him pass out.
He struggled to get back up, but her hands pinned his shoulders down mercilessly.
“Why are you running?
I warmed milk for you, read picture books to you, took care of you so thoroughly… what more do you want?
Do I really have to break both your legs, cut off your tail, and lock you in a room before you’ll obediently stay by my side?”
The tip of Soren’s whole tail trembled, the heart-shaped end stretched so tight it turned pale.
Looking at Jean’s face so close to his own, he forced out a shattered plea from his throat.
“Let me go… Grand Master Jean, I don’t want to be useless.
I want to live on my own…”
“Live on your own?”
Jean looked as if she had heard the greatest joke in the world.
She suddenly laughed softly, her fingertips sliding down his cheek before finally stopping at his neck, lightly tightening around it.
“You stopped being able to live on your own a long time ago.
From the day you said ‘please’ to me, you became someone who could only depend on me.”
At that moment, the urgent sound of galloping hooves suddenly came from the distance, accompanied by a clear shout.
“Grand Master Jean!
Are you here?
The Knights have an emergency mission!”
Amber’s voice!
Soren’s eyes lit up.
Using the last of his strength, he shouted toward the direction of the voice.
“Amber!
Save me!
Grand Master Jean, she-”
Before he could finish, Jean clamped a hand tightly over his mouth.
Her gaze instantly turned vicious as she leaned close to his ear, lowering her voice into a deadly threat.
“If you dare shout one more time, I’ll snap your neck right now.”
The hoofbeats drew closer and closer.
Amber’s figure appeared at the edge of the woods.
She pulled on the reins, and the moment she saw the scene on the ground, her expression changed in an instant.
“Grand Master Jean?
Why did you…”
Jean immediately released his mouth, though she still kept Soren firmly pinned down.
A gentle expression returned to her face, though the gloom in her eyes had not yet faded.
“It’s nothing.
Soren’s leg injury flared up again.
He nearly fell just now, so I was helping him up.”
As she spoke, she viciously drove her knee into Soren’s left leg.
The sharp pain made him curl up, leaving him without even the strength to refute her.
Amber frowned, but she did not think too deeply about it; in her eyes, Grand Master Jean had always been reliable and gentle.
She tightened the reins a bit.
“But Grand Master, a hilichurl camp has appeared near the Anemo Archon’s Statue.
Captain Kaeya asked you to go provide support.”
Jean’s fingers gripped Soren’s arm so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Clearly, she did not want to leave.
Albeit the Knights of Favonius’ mission could not be delayed.
After several seconds of silence, she suddenly bent down and whispered into Soren’s ear in a voice only the two of them could hear.
“If I find out you’re still trying to run away…”
She paused.
“I’ll be very heartbroken…”
After saying that, she released him and stood up, revealing her usual gentle smile toward Amber.
“Let’s go.
We’re heading to the Anemo Archon’s Statue.”
The sound of hoofbeats gradually faded into the distance.
Soren collapsed onto the grass, the agony in his left leg and the terror in his heart tangling together until his whole body trembled.
He knew Jean would not give him much time.
Once she finished handling the mission, she would come looking for him immediately.
Supporting himself with difficulty, he slowly crawled behind a large tree and leaned against the rough trunk, gasping for breath.
The tip of his tail lightly brushed against the back of his hand, as though trying to comfort him.