( Lin Mu's POV )
The last thing Lin Mu saw before losing consciousness was Thalion attacking Ben Faulkner and cleaving him in half, even as Ben embedded three daggers into Thalion's body in a double kill.
At that moment, the blood loss from her wound became too severe causing her vision to blur, as she slowly drifted into unconsciousness, unaware of what her surroundings would look like when she woke up from her slumber.
She had no idea as to how many hours she was unconscious, however, when she eventually woke up, she was not inside the royal medical wing, nor was she inside the royal prison, as to her surprise, she was within some shoddy looking motel room that was not a part of the palace at all.
Her clothes were neatly folded by the side of her bed and she laid there bare chested with several fresh bandages covering her wound up.
'Hmm?' Lin Mu thought feeling confused, as looking around the room, she noticed how someone had performed an emergency operation on her, cleaning and bandaging her wound several times until the bleeding stopped, however, she could not help but wonder who?
There was no one in the palace that she was particularly close to and she did not think that Virex Corps Commander Jake cared about her enough to personally treat her like this.
'Weapon? Where are my Weapons?' she thought, panic evident in her eyes, as she sat up and tried to look around, moving her upper body, as immediately she regretted the decision, as intense waves of pain overcame her body.
"Your stitches are still fresh…. You won't be able to move for a couple days–" A deep male voice said, startling Lin Mu big time.
Glancing towards the source of the sound, Lin Mu finally noticed the silent man who was leaning against one corner of the room, as although he had been standing there ever since she woke up, Lin Mu had completely failed to detect him somehow.
"Who are you?" She asked, unable to correlate the man's silhouette to anyone she knew, as slowly the man walked under the light source in the room.
*GASP*
Gasping, Lin Mu could not believe her eyes for a moment, as she had most certainly witnessed the death of this man with her own eyes just a few moments ago.
Recalling that incident, Lin Mu replayed in her mind how he was cleaved in half by Thalion, and yet he stood before her, almost unharmed.
"You? How! I-I saw you die!" She said, her mind blanking out as she could not make sense of what was fake or real anymore.
'Was I so dizzy due to blood loss that I hallucinated the fight's ending sequence?' Lin Mu wondered, as Ben began to chuckle heartily looking at her reaction.
"Of-course I'm not dead, girl–, who do you think I am?" Ben said, his nose raised in pride as he rejected the very notion of being killed by an inferior fighter like Thalion.
"You risked your life to save me…. That's rare, usually people are fast to blame me, not save me. Hence, I saved you back" Ben said, as he placed her weapons belt on-top of the clothes beside her table, which Lin Mu clutched happily.
"I saved you because you're the master of the love of my life. I can't bear to think how poor Jin would feel once he learns of your death, so I did what I did to spare him such pain" Lin Mu said, as for a moment Ben was stumped by her words.
If he recalled correctly, he had previously witnessed Leo enjoy his day out with a different girl, a blacksmith, who also seemed to be pretty close to him.
'So… my disciple is not the kind to stick to one woman eh? Seems like he has taken after his master in this aspect as well' Ben thought, as he coughed lightly recalling his young days when he was a lover of many women.
"Umm, Sir Ben, if you don't mind me asking…. How did you do it? How are you alive when I clearly saw you die?" Lin Mu asked, as Ben simply shook his head and refused to reply.
"How I survived is a secret between me and my disciple. Nobody else needs to learn of it.
To the world, Ben Faulkner has died today, and with Julien dead I don't intend to make an appearance within the light of this world ever again.
You're the only other person aside from my disciple I'm sharing this secret with–" Ben said, as he refused to share with Lin Mu the secret behind his survival.
"Humph" Lin Mu said, puffing her cheeks as she did not appreciate Ben not indulging her curiosity, however, she dared not kick up a fuss in front of the vastly more experienced Assassin like Ben.
Currently the entire Empire was in a state of uproar over the deaths of Emperor Julien D Evanus, Commander Thalion, Chief Strategist Alaric and Legendary Assassin Ben Faulkner, however, only three out of the four of them were really dead.
With so many eye-witnesses to his death, nobody questioned whether or not he was still alive, which played perfectly into Ben's retirement plans, as somewhere through his near comatose state, Ben decided that he was too old to be involved in such drama over and over again, and that he needed to exit the world stage, for once and for all.
"You rest here, I'll go write a letter to my stupid disciple to tell him that I'm safe, lest he hear the news from someone else and start marching towards the Capital with an army–" Ben said, taking his leave from the motel room, as he went to the post office to send an urgent letter to Crest-Hill Barony, informing Leo that he was alive and well.
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/// A/N - Thankyou so very much guys for all the support you have shown this book in the month of August!
The story is about to go insane heading into September and I intend to keep the release rate the same, so hopefully, I'll see you all next month! ///