Page 265 of The War God’s Favorite

Cassandra gently stepped closer, while Missandra and Opheus were left in awe at the doorstep. The young woman curled up even more, obviously afraid of her. In her appearance, she was somewhat reminding Cassandra of herself, months ago. She was very skinny except for her womb, and her lower lip was cut. Her body bore traces of old bruises, scars, and everything in her attitude screamed fear. Her long black hair was strangely short in some places as if someone had randomly cut it, and some of those strands were still lying on the ground. She was wearing a worn-out green dress, too.

“Who is that?” muttered Missandra, turning to Opheus.

The Prince shook his head. He had no idea, or wasn’t sure, but all three of them could see that the young woman had features of the Imperial Family. It was very unsettling to notice that, with her current state. Cassandra took a deep breath, and got closer, being careful not to scare her. The woman was obviously traumatized, not used to seeing strangers, and she didn’t want to scare her.

“Hinue, what are you doing?” whispered Missandra, a bit worried.

“We can’t leave that poor woman here,” replied Cassandra.

She looked for the chain, but it was closed with a lock on the woman’s ankle.

“Mie, give me the key from earlier.”

Gently, Cassandra approached the key from that woman’s ankle. Each of her movements was extremely gentle, clearly letting that poor girl see what she was about to do. That unknown woman hadn’t uttered a single word so far, and Cassandra suspected that she wouldn’t. Her quiet wailing was the only sound they had heard from her, and she was shivering non-stop, unable to avert her eyes for one second. It was as if they had locked eyes and neither of them could look away.

Cassandra tried the key on the lock, but it didn’t match. She frowned, upset.

“This isn’t going to work...”

“Let me see,” said Missandra, walking up to her with a sigh.

Her younger sister stared at the lock for a while, and turned to Opheus after a minute.

“Can I borrow your earring?”

The Prince seemed confused at her request, but handed it to her. Under their eyes, Missandra started fidgeting and trying to force the lock with it. Cassandra didn’t know if she should have been surprised at her younger sister’s skill, but she was scared to ask how in the world she had picked that one up.

After a few seconds, they heard a click, and the iron ring fell on the bed.

“You little thief,” chuckled Opheus.

As soon as he had talked, though, the young woman suddenly whimpered, staring at him like he was absolutely terrifying, and curled up even more on one end of her bed. Cassandra’s heart broke a little witnessing this, and she turned to Opheus.

“Your Highness, would you mind... stepping outside a little? You’re... scaring her.”

For a few seconds, Prince Opheus made an offended look, but that woman’s pitiful attitude was not something he could ignore. He eventually rolled his eyes over and backed away a little. Cassandra waited until he was completely out of sight, and gently rubbed the poor woman’s ankle.

“It’s alright... We won’t hurt you,” she whispered.

“Hinue, what do we do?”

Cassandra hesitated. She could never leave that woman here in her state. She was obviously malnourished and mistreated by whoever had locked her up in here. Cassandra had a faint idea of her identity, too, but whether it would be confirmed later or not wasn’t her priority for now. She took a deep breath and turned to Missandra.

“Take her to Lady Mariana, she will know what to do.”

“What? But you...”

“I will keep going with Prince Opheus to find the Emperor. Missandra, we can’t leave that poor woman here. Moreover, she is already dressed as a servant, and chances are high the Imperial Guards will have no idea who she is either. Grab the tray outside, and you can walk out with her and pretend you two were just bringing out some food for one of the Concubines here. They won’t worry about someone going out if they never saw you coming in, and if anything happens, Lady Mariana will be around to vouch for you.”

Missandra hesitated, glancing at the woman. Would that plan work? That poor woman looked barely able to understand what was going on. Cassandra insisted.

“Missandra, please. We can’t leave her like that. It might be her only chance to ever escape this place and whatever they did to her. You know I can’t leave someone in need, and she is pregnant, too.”

Missandra sighed.

“Fine, fine. Don’t worry, I’ll find a way to take her out of here, and to Lady Mariana... God,Hinue, I hope we are not going to get ourselves killed for being too nice, once again. Be careful, please. Even that Prince just killed a grandma without feeling the slightest regret about it.”

Cassandra smiled faintly to her. She had a heavy heart about letting Missandra leave here with that woman, but on the other hand, she would probably be safer out of Prince Vrehan’s apartments, with Lady Mariana. If anything happened here, at least Missandra would have higher chances to survive. She had the wits to make it out by herself, and Cassandra highly doubted many people in here would even recognize her as her younger sister.

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