The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 59: The last person to mention

Her heart beat which had just found its normal rhythm was back to losing its rate.

Joanna wondered if the sound that she heard from behind the tree that she chose as her hiding place was coming from the creatures that drooled at her before. As the thought crossed her mind, Joanna’s heart beat even more, imagining what had happened to the General’s men and Lucy.

Joanna closed her eyes, taking a deep breath as guilt struck her. However, before the guilt penetrated deeply to the core, she opened her eyes as the smaller the distance of the coming sound toward her direction, she perceived that it was not the sound of footsteps that were made by animals.

As if trying to ensure that her perception was not wrong, she listened to it very carefully until she was certain that it was indeed not the footsteps of animals. Based on the rest of the logic that still worked in Joanna’s hazy mind, there were no animals that created such heavy footsteps which were clear enough to echo in the quiet, eerie air no matter how careful they walked if one concentrated to perceive it.

However, if it was Lucy or the General’s men or Barasca knights, they would call her and move in a rush to find her. They would not make cautious steps like what she was hearing right now.

Then, there was a high probability that what was approaching her was not her attendants.

Joanna regained her composure, fighting her tremor state. She slowly pushed her body up from the cold, humid grassy ground. As she stood up, she lifted her skirt with her trembling hand, avoiding making any sound that would be created by the grass under her feet or the rustling fabric of her dress.

She did not know who they were. She did not know if they were good people or not. She was also not sure what they wanted. She only knew one thing to do at the moment which was to implement precautionary measures she always did in facing something based on her intuition. Hence, she would do what she could do to defend herself from anything coming towards her, regardless of the result she would obtain.

She wanted to run at the moment but she knew that she could not just run like she did when she faced the wolves as no one was ready to protect her like before. She was alone now, with no Barasca knights who were always ready to guard her. There were also no the General’s men who had insisted to follow her, offering to be her guardian. Therefore, she could only rely on herself.

Aside from that, she was sure that whatever that might be only ten steps away behind her had noticed her hiding place. Otherwise, no cautious steps toward one exact direction were made, like a hunter who was carefully eyeing prey before capturing them.

It was good if they were good people. But if they happened to be the bad ones, she had at least done something to defend herself.

Joanna unsheathed a dagger that she always hid under her skirt every time she was out of her home. The sheath was tied to her right thigh, above the garter that she wore.

With the dagger in her right hand, she leaned her back closely against the large tree trunk as if trying to be immersed inside the tree so that she would be invisible to others and kept focusing on hearing the sound of footsteps that were getting closer and closer in her direction.

The more audible the cautious footsteps as their distance was getting smaller, the more rampant the beat of her heart and the tighter she gripped the hilt of the dagger in her hand.

Joanna turned her head to the side, trying to catch anything that came to her sight first through the dim surroundings that enveloped her as there was only a faint trace of morning sunlight that was allowed to seep into the rare crack of the green living canopy above her.

Counting every step she heard, Joanna prayed in her heart. If today was the day that had been destined to be the end of her life, let the process of her departure to the hereafter be easy and quick. No torture and no pain she would experience.

She also did not forget to mention her father and brother, for them to forgive her for leaving earlier, and not able to provide them what she should provide. And for the little boy, she wished he would recover and grow well although she failed to help him.

About six steps left. She randomly mentioned people who had come into her life and currently appeared in her fuzzy mind in her prayer.

About three steps left. When she was about to end her prayer, a person that she had not mentioned earlier suddenly came across her mind in a flash. Then, she resumed her prayer. And last, for the General, she wished to never meet him again if she was given the chance to have a next life.

With the prayer having been lifted, the daunting sight of a long leg that belonged to whoever seemed to target her appeared about one step away before her eyes.

She did not make a move, still leaning against the tree trunk, even until a pair of legs were caught by her eyes, as she still wished the owner of the long legs would walk past her because she was invisible. Apart from that, she wished her intuition was wrong and that she was not the target of the long-legged person.

However, noticing that none of her wishes was answered as the owner of the long legs did not continue to walk past her, but stood still beside the tree of her hiding place for about two seconds since they were caught by her eyes, Joanna lifted her gaze up to find a tall silhouette which was one step away from her had already faced toward her.

As she was sure that she was not familiar with that daunting figure and felt that her intuition was right, Joanna stormed with the dagger pointing out as if ready to stab whoever it was before her.

But her effort seemed to be in vain as her wrist, which the dagger was held, was already caught by the owner of the long legs before it could reach anywhere it was pointed at, while her mouth which had leaked a single voice of self-encouraging shout was covered by the other hand of the man.

She was sure that the uninvited presence before her was a man as there was no woman having a large, calloused palm like what was in contact with the skin around her mouth now.

Panic when she noticed that the one opposite her was a man whose build was far superior compared to her slender one, Joanna moved her target. Pulsating her strength to her right leg, she kicked the thing between the legs of the man with her knee.

At such a strong, deadly impact, the man let out a heavy groan of pain, bending his body immediately but not letting go of the woman’s wrist and mouth. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Under such a situation, Joanna turned more afraid. With a muffled grunt, she struggled to free herself from the man, shaking her wrist and her head as strongly as she could as if to remove the man’s hands from her body part. But the man was not budging at all. She wanted to bite the man’s hand that covered her mouth but she could not do so as her free hand which was grabbing his hand was not strong enough to make it shift even a bit.

Noticing the man still did not budge and let her go, Joanna went rampant. She gave a hard kick on the man’s legs with the point of her shoes while hitting every part of the man’s body that could be reached with her free hand. His head, his cheeks, his shoulders, his back, his legs were hit by her.

Panting heavily, when she felt that her effort was in vain once again as the man, who had responded to any harsh actions that were inflicted by her with repeated groans of pain, did not give up on releasing her, Joanna took the dagger, which was tightly grabbed in her right hand, with her left hand that was now in pain after being used to hit the stone-like body. She was about to stab the man again.

Meanwhile, as if sensing what the rampant woman would do, the man began to move, readying to make the woman pay for what she had done to him.

He grabbed the other hand of the woman with the hand that he used to cover her mouth as if he was sure that the woman would not let out any single voice even though there was nothing covering her mouth this time.