Capítulo 39: The Ones They Left Behind
Rupert walked over to Zenos and saluted.
"Young master, we managed to free the captured girls, as well as take bring the slave traders into custody."
Rupert pointed to a group of badly beaten-up men bound in chains.
The chains that were previously used to bind the kidnapped girls to be exact.
"Good work Rupert. Let's head back to the estate for now. It's too dangerous for Arvell, the girls and I to be here."
"Yes, young master."
Lykos smiled.
'It's ironic, isn't it? These bastards are tied up in the same chains they used on the poor girls.'
Arvell nodded.
'Simply getting bound is nowhere near enough to properly pay for what they did.'
Arvell's smile distorted into a devilish grin
'This is just the beginning. Those bastards will go through hell for what they did.'
While Arvell didn't want to risk his life for nonsensical causes like 'the greater good', or someone he barely even knew, he did loathe people who caused suffering for innocent people.
Especially those who would rape, beat and sell women, while feeding their loved ones to beasts.
Even if he didn't want to throw away his life on a fruitless endeavour to 'rescue' the girls, he still did feel empathy for them.
He had no reason to waste one of his precious stink bombs to help the girls, but he went out of his way to use pit the bandits against the rank 4 beast.
Even if part of the reason he did that was to try to get the beast to give up chasing him and focus on the bandits.
Too bad the stink bomb seemed to piss the rank 4 beast off to the point where it would continue to chase him, even after they left the tunnel.
After finally being rescued, the girls broke down and cried their hearts out.
The group decided to all take a rest, and let the girls calm down before they continued their journey.
Their crying might alert nearby beasts after all.
It was better to avoid taking unnecessary risks if there was no need to.
The girls who had lost all hope of being rescued were hugging each other while crying tears of joy.
Some of them weren't able to mourn the loss of their fathers/brothers/husbands when they were used as bait for the beasts.
If they cried earlier, their captors might have done the same with them.
Now that they were free they were finally able to cry their heart out.
They were able to finally grieve for their loved ones.
One of the girls shakily stood up and stumbled her way over to Rupert.
Her legs were shaking, and she even fell down a couple of times, caking her body with wet snow.
However, despite her entire body shivering, she didn't seem to care.
She bit her lip, drawing fresh blood, which slowly dripped onto the fresh snow, dying it a deep crimson.
Her eyes however were dead.
It was as if they had been plucked from a corpse.
As she neared Rupert, he raised his head to greet her.
"Do you need something?"
The girl stopped in front of Rupert and looked at him with her dead eyes.
Tears started forming under her eyes, but she bit her lip harder to suppress a sob.
Her teeth sank into her lower lip, leaving a deep bite mark and opening the wound much further.
The girl didn't seem to care though.
Slowly she inhaled deeply and opened her mouth.
As soon as the teeth came out of her lip, fresh blood started spurting from her lower lip, trailing down her chin.
"...Why?"
Rupert through a concerned glance at the woman.
"Why what?"
"W-why didn't you all come here faster? Russel… My dear Russel… He might have still been with me… My dear husband was eaten right before my eyes!"
The woman in a fit of rage and grief slapped Rupert across the face.
Surprisingly, Rupert didn't react.
He didn't even use his enhancement magic to make his body stronger.
Even if he was the commander of the Silverdawn knight order, if he didn't use enhancement magic to strengthen his cheek, even a normal woman would be able to damage him.
Her handprint left a stinging red mark on his cheek, but instead of flying into a rage, Rupert simply bowed his head.
"No amount of words can express how sorry I am for your loss. All of your losses. Due to our inadequacy, you lost your loved ones and were almost sold off as slaves in a foreign country yourselves. If our young master and his sworn brother didn't tell us about you all, we might not have even noticed."
Rupert didn't try to shift the blame nor sugarcoat it. Even if it wasn't his fault directly, this still went on under his nose.
'People like him are quite rare. People who don't shift the blame but instead take it head-on. Most nobles in this situation would blame someone else, probably their underlings or their rivals, but no, the knight commander took on all of the blame,' Arvell admired.
Lykos nodded his head in agreement.
The woman was also shocked by his words.
Deep down, she also knew it wasn't this man's fault, but she wanted to blame someone. Anyone.
Naturally, she chose the knight commander.
After all, weren't people like him supposed to protect the innocent civilians like them?
"W-why us? The two of us finally got married… It took Russel so many years to finally propose to me… I waited so long for this, but just when the two of us got together this had to happen! We didn't do anything wrong! Russel and I were good people. We even offered bread every day to starving orphans. We were good people, so why did we deserve this?"
The woman fell to her knees and broke down, sobbing uncontrollably.
The woman's words seemed to affect Rupert, as he looked at her with wide eyes.
She didn't seem to notice his actions though. Her mind was too clouded to notice.
"Russel… My dear Russel…"
The woman once again pulled herself up, and slowly stumbled her way towards a nearby ledge.
"Dear, I'm coming to join you… I'm sorry for making you wait for me. We- we can finally be together again..."
The woman closed her eyes and stepped off of the cliff.
However, instead of feeling a rush of cold air and the sensation of free-falling, she felt solid ground beneath her feet.
She opened her eyes and found Rupert holding her hand, preventing her from falling.
The woman looked at Rupert angrily.
"Why won't you even let me die! You're no different from those bastards! LET ME GO BACK TO HIM! I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT RUSSEL! JUST LET ME DIE! WHY WON'T YOU EVEN LET ME DO THAT?"
Rupert looked at the woman with pitying eyes.
He took a deep breath and opened his mouth.
"Do you have any idea how he might feel? You deceased husband?"
"How Russel would feel?"
The woman was confused.
Her husband was dead, how could he feel anything?
"From what you said, your husband loved you! Do you think he would want the woman he loved to die for him? To cut her life short just to join him?"
"Even so… I can't! I can't live without him!"
"I also only recently married my wife, the same as you two. If I were to die, I wouldn't want my wife to die, just to keep me company in the afterlife. I would want her to live a long and fulfilling life. A life that would be fulfilling enough for both of us. Don't you think that your husband would have wanted the same?"
The woman shuddered at Rupert's words.
She recalled all of her memories with Russel.
The day they met.
All of the fun times they had together.
The day he finally mustered the courage to propose to her.
Finally his last moments.
When Russel was about to be eaten by a beast, instead of screaming in fear and terror, he looked at his wife with a loving smile.
"Selena, I love you. I always have and I always will."
While his voice was drowned out by the sea of beasts, Selena was still able to read his lips.
As she remembered this, she broke down into tears once more and hugged her knees in a fetal position.
One of the female knights came over and hugged Selena, slowly patting her head before she passed out of exhaustion.
The female knight carried the woman on her back, and they headed back to the group.
As soon as they reached the rest of the group, Rupert motioned for everyone to gather.
"Let's get going. These girls aren't well dressed for the frigid temperatures, so we can't stay until nightfall. If we depart now we can still make it to the base of the mountain range in time."
Hearing his words, the knights saluted.
"Yes, sir!"
REFLEXIONES DE LOS CREADORES 
Sleepy_Slime
Sleepy_Slime Chapter 39 and Chapter 40 are a little bit smaller, so I am posting them both.
Regalos
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Poder