YM778.TV Chapter 750: A Broken Vow
"Lilian, I\'ll marry you when I grow up," the boy, who looked just like Ethan when he was younger, said with a smile.
"Marriage?" Lilian tilted her head in confusion. "Why would you marry me?"
"Because Mother said that when I grow up, I\'ll marry an amazing lady just like her," the boy replied. "Lilian is amazing, so you must be my wife when I grow up."
"… What kind of logic is that?" Lilian smiled faintly. "You humans sure are funny. But when you grow up, I\'m sure you will forget about these things."
"I won\'t!" the boy said. "I even have this!"
The boy took something out of his pocket and presented it to Lilian with a big smile on his face.
"A ring?" Lilian observed the ring on the boy\'s hand. "This blue gem is quite mysterious. I can feel a faint power emanating from it."
"This is our wedding ring!" the boy said. "Mother said that my father picked up this ring in a place called a Dungeon. But instead of selling it, he said that it might be a good dowry for a girl I will marry when I grow up."
"Did you steal this from your mother?"
"No. They gave it to me two years ago, so it\'s mine. But it\'s yours now. You will be my wife anyway, right?"
"… I never agreed to be your wife."
"Eh?" The boy, who looked like the young Ethan, didn\'t expect that he would get rejected.
Even so, he decided to be stubborn and asked for Lilian\'s hand.
"Give me your hand," the boy said.
"…"
"Hand."
"You humans sure are funny."
But even though the Lady of the Lake said those words, she reluctantly did as the boy said and placed her hand on the palm of his hand.
With a big smile on his face, the boy slid the ring on her finger.
"Now it\'s a done deal," The boy stated. "The two of us will get married when I grow up."
"This marriage is so one-sided. I didn\'t even get a choice."
"Because you don\'t need to make a choice. I made the choice for you."
Lilian lightly flicked the boy\'s forehead, making the latter cry out in pain.
"You\'re already this pushy when you\'re still a boy," Lilian said. "When you grow older, you will definitely be more pushy."
"I won\'t." The boy firmly shook his head. "I promise that I will take good care of you."
"We\'ll see about that," Lilian smiled. "We\'ll see if you can keep that promise."
The years passed by, and the boy became a teenager.
Their relationship became closer, and Lilian, who knew that she would outlive the teenage boy, decided that it might not be so bad to spend a few decades with him.
She even temporarily left the lake to go to Fortis Town, where she got to know the boy\'s mother, who was his only family.
Even though her strength greatly diminished whenever she was far from her Lake, she thought that it would be alright as long as they built a small cottage near her home so that they could spend their time together.
Just as she thought that her happiness wouldn\'t be that short-lived, tragedy struck.
A bandit group that had come from another region had decided to raid the town.
The guards were overpowered by them, for they had planned their raid properly, allowing them to attack from outside and within the town.
When the guards were finally defeated, the bandits gathered the women to be sold to slave traders, keeping the more beautiful ones to become their playthings.
Since Lilian was an exceptionally beautiful lady, the Bandit Leader had his eyes on her ever since he entered the city.
Now that he had succeeded in subjugating the town, he decided to take the young lady as his woman and make her submit to him.
Tied up with ropes and unable to muster her power, Lilian felt incredibly helpless.
However, the young man, whom she was about to marry, saw an opportunity to free her before the Bandit Leader could have his way with her.
As the two made their escape, the angry Bandit rallied his men and ran after the pair of lovers who had just managed to leave the town.
The young man had managed to get a horse, allowing their escape to be faster.
Unfortunately, he wasn\'t proficient in horse riding.
He and Lilian were also riding on the same horse, with the young lady riding in front of him.
The young man did what he could do and made the horse run at a moderate, evading the risk of getting thrown off from its back.
Because of this, the Bandits managed to catch up to them, with the Bandit Leader drawing on his bow to shoot at the fool who dared to take his woman away from him.
The arrow shot swift and true, hitting the young man\'s back.
But, instead of falling from the horse, the young man urged it to go faster, hiding his injury from the lady whom he wanted to protect.
Fortunately, the lake could already be seen in the distance.
Lilian also felt her power returning bit by bit as she got closer to the lake.
"We\'re almost there," Lilian said, feeling hopeful because she no longer felt powerless. "Just a little more."
However, just as salvation seemed to be at hand, the young man riding behind her fell off from the horse\'s back, making Lilian scream.
Since she was only looking forward, and the young man assured her that he was fine, she thought that they could escape together.
When the Lady of the Lake saw that the young man had four arrows sticking from his back and was barely hanging to life, she immediately made the horse stop and jumped off from it, making her fall onto the ground.
But she didn\'t care. The pain she felt was nothing to the horror that was gripping her heart as she propped herself up to run to the young man despite her injuries.
"… Sorry," the young man said as his life slowly ebbed away. "I wasn\'t… able to keep… my promise."
After saying those words, the light in his eyes disappeared, and his body stiffened, making Lilian feel as if her heart was about to burst from her chest.
"He should have just stayed put," the Bandit Leader said after his horse stopped beside the crying young lady, who was holding onto the dead body of the person whom she had opened her heart to.
"Don\'t cry about the dead," the Bandit Leader said as she pulled onto Lilian\'s hair. "Soon, I\'ll be making you cry in joy. A day will be enough for me to make you forget about this loser. So stop struggling if you don\'t want to get hurt."
"Boss, do you mind sharing her after you\'re done with her?" The other Bandits laughed as they eyed the beautiful lady with lustful gazes.
"Do you want to die?" the Bandit Leader growled, making the Bandit who talked earlier scratch his head in apology.
Seeing that his subordinate understood that he didn\'t plan to share Lilian with any of them, the Bandit Leader decided to drag her with him by force.
Suddenly, something wet fell on his face, making him frown.
The skies, which were clear a while ago, were now covered by rain clouds.
Heavy rain started to pour, making the Bandit Leader click his tongue.
"Let\'s go back," the Bandit Leader grabbed Lilian\'s arm forcefully, intending to take her away.
To his surprise, the lady didn\'t budge.
Making him frown.
"If only you didn\'t come," Lilian said as she continued to gaze at the young man, whose blood soaked the ground. "If only all of you didn\'t come!"
"Boss, I think she lost it," one of the bandits commented. "You should knock a bit of sense into her—if you know what I mean."
The Bandit Lord snorted and was about to use brute force to carry his woman away like a sack of rice.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
One of the bandits cried out in pain and disbelief as the rain that hit him became as heavy as lead, puncturing his body.
The other Bandits also suffered the same fate, making them panic.
Some of them even attempted to escape, but they, too, were struck down by the rain, which had turned into countless bullets that pierced through their body without mercy.
The Bandit Leader finally realized that something he had never dreamed of was happening.
Out of fear, he even forgot about taking Lilian back with him, let alone his goal to have his way with her.
He ran toward his horse so that he could escape from the town as soon as possible.
When he was only a few steps away from his horse, the Bandit Leader found himself falling face-first toward the muddy ground.
He immediately tried to stand up but realized that no matter what he did, he couldn\'t seem to stand up.
That was when he realized that his legs were cleanly cut off from his body, making him fall from the ground.
"Nooooooooooo!" the Bandit Leader shouted. "Spare me! I don\'t want to die!"
A sad chuckle reached his ears, making him shudder uncontrollably.
"You don\'t want to die?" Lilian asked. "And what about him? Do you think that he wanted to die?"
"I-I was wrong!" the Bandit Leader pleaded. "I will turn over a new leaf. I will never steal or kill people again! Please, have mercy!"
"Mercy?" Lilian gazed at the scum in front of her and laughed. "Even death will not be enough punishment for you."
Lilian then snapped her fingers, and the water around her transformed into Water Spears.
"I will not kill you quickly," Lilian said icily, her gaze filled with madness. "I\'ll make you wish that you were never born."
The screams of the Bandit Lord reverberated in the surroundings as Lilian\'s tears fell like rain.
Ethan, who saw everything from start to finish, stared coldly at the Bandit Leader, whom he wished he could have personally killed with his own two hands.