Sylvia Again (2)
Cloud fled without so much as a glance over his shoulder.
Cold sweat trickled down his back. He was a rat driven into a corner. The city might as well have belonged to Sylvia — no matter where he ran, the soldiers blanketing every street would snag him in the end. A desperate thought came to dominate his mind: perhaps, rather than running himself ragged, it would be wiser to drop to his knees and beg for his miserable life.
"Stop right there! Cloud!"
Sylvia's pursuit was remarkably fast. Nearly arrow-fast, in fact. For Cloud, who had never trained in the martial arts as she had, any contest of stamina like a footrace was a fatal weakness.
"Absolutely not! If I stop, you'll kill me!"
He sprinted on, summoning every ounce of strength he'd possessed since the day he was born. He slipped out of the alley along an L-shaped street, then came upon a Y-shaped three-way intersection and faltered for a moment in the very middle of it.
"Which way? Which way do I go?!"
That was the instant Sylvia closed the distance and flung herself at him with startling agility, tackling him to the ground. The two of them went down together, and she nimbly seized his belt in a grip like iron.
"Give up already!"
"Like hell I will!"
Cloud thrashed and squirmed to break free — and in the struggle his foot caught her square in the face. Furious, she spat out a stream of curses and drove her fist into his backside with all her might.
Thwack!
"Ow! That hurts!"
"Then hold still, you idiot!"
She never loosened her grip on his belt.
Then a two-horse carriage traveling down the street belatedly noticed the tangled pair on the road and desperately tried to slow — but it was no use. Another few strides and they would both be crushed. Left with no choice, Sylvia released his belt, and the carriage swept through the narrow gap between their fallen bodies with barely an inch to spare.
The moment his body was free, Cloud scrambled up and bolted once more toward the market alley. Determined not to lose him, Sylvia sprang up just as quickly.
"I swear I won't let you off this time!"
She leapt onto the roof of a building in a single bound and raced along the rooftops. Sprinting at full power until she had closed the gap, she hurled herself down at Cloud as he ran through the alley below.
"Oof—!"
Sylvia came down, and Cloud was flattened beneath her. As she wrapped her arms around his waist and they rolled, there was a mighty crash — fruit from the vendor stalls, fish, and vegetables all came tumbling down at once.
The shoppers gaped in alarm at the sudden chaos, and the shopkeepers each glared at the pair and shouted.
"Hey, you damned hooligans! You've wrecked my business! Pay up!"
In the middle of it all, Sylvia, sprawled on the ground with Cloud, wore a smile of triumph.
"Today, I am never letting you go!"
"Will you, now?"
With an impish grin, Cloud snatched up one of the fish rolling around on the ground and stuffed it deep into the bosom of Sylvia, who still had him in a tight embrace.
"Kyaaah!"
The fish, wedged in the valley of her ample cleavage, flopped about with all its might. Startled out of her wits, Sylvia shrieked and hopped about frantically, desperate to shake the thing loose.
Freed from her restraint yet again, Cloud sprang to his feet and devoted himself once more to running.
Emerging from the market alley onto the main road, he ran straight into a band mid-performance. Cloud blew past them like a bolt of lightning. A heartbeat later, Sylvia — dressed ever so prettily in a white gown like a bride — swept past in his wake like the wind.
The conductor leading the band watched the two figures recede into the distance, then addressed his players.
"Right, then! From here on, let's liven things up. Faster, faster — faster and faster still!"
When the lively music struck up behind them, an inexplicable surge of energy welled up in their bodies. Running without an ounce of fatigue, the two crossed the broad plaza that opened up ahead.
Cloud vaulted onto the stage erected at the very center of the plaza.
"Isabel! To think I would be likened to the likes of you, who greedily lusts for nothing but victory—!"
"Just need to borrow this!"
"Eek!"
Cloud snatched the prop sword from the actress's hand and hastily dropped into a fencing stance.
Hot on his heels, Sylvia clambered onto the stage, breathing hard, and leveled her sword at him.
"How long do you intend to flee?! You die here regardless!"
"Woooooah!"
Confronted with two strangers barging in mid-performance, the audience responded not with bewilderment but with thunderous applause and cheers. To any eye it looked exactly like a lovers' quarrel — a woman fighting to claim her love, and a man fleeing from that very love. The spectators each picked a side and began rooting for one or the other with feverish enthusiasm.
But the two facing each other down on stage could not have been more serious.
"I hunted you high and low, ready to kill! You, who branded me with a shame and humiliation I can never wash away!"
A colossal resentment weighed in her words. Glaring at Cloud with eyes burning with hatred, she could not swallow her rage. Every night she had imagined killing this man a hundred times, a thousand times over — the man who had visited pain and humiliation upon her — and today, at long last, she would settle the debt. Her face said exactly that.
Cloud gave a wry smile. Then he said, quietly:
"Then kill me. If that is truly what it takes to unburden your heart."
He flung the sword in his hand to the floor and spread his arms wide, as if to say, strike here, through the heart.
"I shall run no longer. Whatever heavenly punishment you see fit to deliver, I will receive it here gladly."
"What scheme are you plotting this time?!"
"No scheme at all. Just accept that I've given up on everything. A soft-hearted fool like me deserves to die. You kept slapping me, so in my anger I took my revenge — and though the chance to kill you came more than once, I instead took pity on you, and as the price for my forgiveness I merely laid hands on your body. Ahh, yes. The fool was me, back then, too rattled to think straight. Why didn't I kill you? From what I hear, bandits sell their captured prisoners off as slaves. My sin was failing to do the same. And this — this is my reward. A hopeless idiot like me truly ought to die sooner rather than later. I'm just too kind for my own good."
"Stop spouting such absurd nonsense!"
"Am I wrong, though?"
"Silence!"
Cloud closed his eyes and took one bold stride forward.
"Come, then. Hurry. Kill me. This is your chance. The moment you have longed for is here."
Sylvia clenched her jaw and glared at him. Her eyes brimmed over with grudges. The mere memory of the past made her blood boil, and the hand gripping her sword trembled with the fury she could barely contain.
"This time, your hunt has succeeded. I'm your captive now, and like a proper captive I'll stay right where I am. Finish it."
Cloud stood for a long while, arms spread, eyes shut. Yet for some reason, she could not bring herself to run him through. When the standoff dragged on, Cloud cracked his eyes open and peered ahead. Sylvia was still standing there in the exact same pose.
What on earth was she hesitating for?
Heh heh.
Cloud smirked to himself. He already knew the answer. He hadn't clambered onto an open-air stage crawling with onlookers in the middle of his desperate flight for nothing. Could she really swing a sword in a place this crowded? Noble daughter or no, she could not. Slaughter a man in public, and the citizens' fury would swell beyond all control. Everything was unfolding precisely according to Cloud's plan.
But.
"Yes! I shall cut down a beast like you without a shred of hesitation! Farewell, Cloud!"
She hoisted her sword high above her head.
"We'll meet again in hell!"
"I'm sorry, what?!"
The moment he felt the genuine killing intent behind the descending blade, panic spread plainly across Cloud's face. He snapped his eyes open and waved both hands in frantic protest.
"W-wait! Wait, just hold on a moment!"
"What, you still have words left to waste?!"
"Are you out of your damn mind?!"
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Can't you see this sea of spectators watching us?"
Cloud gestured toward the seats. Not a single one stood empty; the stands were packed to the brim.
"What of them? You are the one who bade me kill you!"
"Even so, there are limits! Would you really cut a man down no matter who's watching?"
"You're hardly one to talk about acting without weighing the consequences!"
"So now you're copying me?"
"I refuse to lose to the likes of you!"
Just then, a lone spectator rose from his seat and, clapping in slow rhythm, began to chant:
"Kiss her. Kiss her. Kiss her."
The mortifying chant rippled outward through the crowd, and before long hundreds of spectators were clapping in slow unison, demanding a kiss from the pair on stage.
"Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!"
"You two are such a perfect match~! You simply must get married~!"
"If you're a man, accept the lady's confession! She even came out in a bridal dress, and you ran? Have you no shame?!"
Swept up in the mood, a middle-aged gentleman who appeared to be the master of ceremonies leapt onto the stage with a beaming grin.
"Now then, you two! Enough of this lovers' quarrel — how about sealing your reconciliation with a kiss? As you can see, the entire audience is rooting for you!"
"Kiss her! Kiss her! Kiss her!"
Blindsided by the mortifying turn of events, Sylvia hid behind Cloud, utterly at a loss — while Cloud, playing right along with the crowd's roar, beamed and waved at the stands.
"Ladies and gentlemen! We'll live happily ever after! Thank you! The kiss will have to wait!"
Just as he was brazening it out like a genuine couple, his eyes caught a cluster of soldiers far off at the rear of the stands.
"There he is!"
"Protect Lady Sylvia, quickly!"
The instant the soldiers appeared, the stands dissolved into utter chaos. Their priority was Sylvia's safety, not the civilians'. Shoving aside the spectators in their path, they charged toward the stage.
"Eek! Stay here any longer and I'm a dead man!"
Cloud slipped away like an eel. He ducked behind the stage and darted into the nearest alley. He ran and ran, and only when it seemed no one was following did he finally stop, tuck himself around a corner, and scan his surroundings.
Thankfully, all was quiet. Only after confirming that no pursuers remained did he finally breathe a sigh of relief, hand pressed to his pounding chest.
"Phew. That was close. That Sylvia girl really is relentless."
Intending to take his time from here on, he turned around — and there, not a hand's breadth from his nose, stood Sylvia with her hands on her hips, fixing him with a look of pure displeasure.
"Gah! Wh-why are you here?!"
He reeled back in shock, as though he'd seen a ghost.
"The moment those soldiers appeared, you grabbed my wrist and ran! Did you not?!"
Sylvia shot back, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"M-me? I grabbed your wrist and ran all the way here?"
"You did!"
Convinced he had done something utterly pathetic, Cloud clawed at his own hair.
"Ugh, damn it all! To think I was this much of an idiot!"