“What’s there to live for!? I might as well just die right now!”
“Then I’ll grant you that wish.”
Facing the woman’s self-abandonment and self-destructive remarks, Liyakade’s calm tone finally revealed a hint of killing intent.
Everyone present felt a chill run down their spines; the temperature in the air seemed to drop a few degrees.
The next moment, Liyakade flashed forward and gripped the woman’s neck.
“Stop!”
Ni Li was the fastest to react among everyone present, and she was also the only one who dared to attack Liyakade.
She didn’t even know where she got the courage to launch an attack against Liyakade.
Maybe it was because she thought Liyakade was kind and this action would ruin the image Liyakade had built in her mind, or maybe she thought Liyakade was so strong that this attack wouldn’t matter to her at all.
Anyway, regardless of the reason, Ni Li still acted.
Of course, she didn’t unleash a Wind Blade that could injure the other party.
Instead, she blew a strong gust of wind and applied force on the neck where Liyakade was gripping, thereby countering the immense strength coming from Liyakade’s delicate hand.
“No! Liyakade big sister!!!”
The second to react was Mi La.
She gasped, then rushed to Liyakade’s side, grabbed Liyakade’s sleeve, wanting to plead for the woman.
In Mi La’s perspective, although Liyakade was cruel, she was only cruel to bad people, to these scum of society.
For innocent people like herself, Liyakade would definitely be gentle.
She also didn’t want Liyakade to lay a hand on these innocent victims.
However, neither Ni Li’s magic nor Mi La’s pleas seemed to stop Liyakade.
The magic on Liyakade’s hand had no effect.
Liyakade held the woman’s neck and lifted her up with ease.
The woman was forced to stand up; if not for the fact that she was much taller than Liyakade, she would have been suspended in mid-air.
She could feel the immense force on her neck.
That crushing strength seemed about to snap her neck.
The intense suffocation blurred her vision.
Her survival instinct unconsciously made her grab Liyakade’s wrist.
“…No… I don’t want to die…”
The woman, with her throat constricted, barely squeezed out these words.
After the woman said that, Liyakade immediately let go.
The woman’s neck slid out of Liyakade’s grip, leaving red marks.
She collapsed to the ground, coughing violently.
The feeling of breathing air again made the woman feel reborn; for the first time, she realized that breathing was a wonderful thing.
“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough…”
“What? Didn’t you say you wanted to die right now?”
“I… I…”
Hearing Liyakade’s retort, the woman was at a loss for words.
She felt there was no point in living, but… deep down, she didn’t want to die either.
The killing intent in the air dissipated after Liyakade released the woman.
Ni Li and Mi La breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing the woman slumped on the ground in silence, Liyakade slowly crouched down to look at her eye to eye.
“Because you only have a few years left to live, so you don’t want to live, and you want to die right now?”
“If that’s the case, then why not just die at birth? Anyway, you only live a few decades, and in the end you die anyway. With that logic, you might as well die from the start.”
“I… I…”
Stared at by Liyakade’s crimson eyes and hearing her words, the woman didn’t know what to say.
She only felt that it wasn’t like that, but didn’t know how to refute.
“Since you don’t want to live, why did you say you don’t want to die just now? Actually, you want to live, don’t you? You persisted here until we came to save you. That shows you actually still want to live, right? In a corner of your heart, you were still hoping for this day to come, no matter how faint the hope. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have used lies about liking captivity to protect yourself, would you?”
“I… I don’t know…”
Hearing Liyakade’s words, the woman fell into confusion.
Indeed, as Liyakade said, she had developed this twisted mindset to protect herself.
Wasn’t that precisely because she longed to live?
Even if it meant living in a twisted way.
And now that the truth was revealed and she could finally break free from captivity, why wasn’t she willing to try living?
“I… I probably really don’t want to die, but I don’t know what there is for me to live for now… I’ve already become like this. Living will probably only bring me pain…”
“Who can say for sure about the future? Even if you only have a few years left of life, you should still live, right? Are you just going to not live at all?”
Facing the woman’s bewildered eyes, Liyakade maintained her earlier viewpoint.
A living dog is better than a dead lion.
Only by living can there be a story to follow.
“No… Even if I go home, my parents… after they find out what happened to me, will they still accept me as I am? My body… it’s already like this. I won’t even be able to find a partner in the future. I’ll definitely be looked down upon by others… Everyone will think that I escaped from the bandit stronghold and was already defiled by the bandits. Ha ha…”
Saying this, the woman even laughed self-deprecatingly.
“Look at me now. Anyone can tell I’ve been trampled on in that bandit den for years. Everyone will gossip about me. No one will give me a kind look anymore. They all know what I went through in that bandit lair. How can I have the face to go back home? I’m completely homeless…”
“That’s not true.”
Liyakade shook her head.
She looked seriously into the woman’s downcast eyes and gently draped the cloth she had thrown away earlier back over her body.
Liyakade understood the woman’s current state of mind.
She had been so broken down that she didn’t care about anything anymore.
Even if she returned home, she would only be looked down upon and gossiped about.
She was degrading herself.
“If your parents love you, they will never reject you. They will only feel heartache for the suffering you endured. You can rest assured about that. As for the gossip, there might be people who talk, but…”
“I have always believed that being able to face life head-on and willingly continue living after going through all this is a truly great spirit. I not only won’t look down on you, but I’ll respect you even more.”
Liyakade’s crimson eyes were filled with sincerity.
The woman flinched after hearing Liyakade’s words.
Feeling the cloth on her body, she sensed a dignity she had long discarded, a feeling of being respected, coming from this young girl before her who seemed powerful and well-dressed.
The woman could tell that there was no falsehood in Liyakade’s words.
She genuinely believed that doing so was a great act.
“So, are you willing to live?”
Liyakade asked once more.
“If you are willing to live, I will take you away from here. If you think your future life has no meaning, I won’t kill you either. I’ll leave you here. Of course, I will kill every single bandit in this stronghold without exception.”
“Now, give me your answer.”