"Huh? What are you saying Miss Bell?" Shocked, Alexia finds a obsessive grin on Miss Bell's face, she further becomes more uncomfortable as her hand was held tightly.
"What I am saying! Is that you should come and live with me."
Alexia tries to pull her hand away but Miss Bell refuses to let go, she stands up and trips few stools over. "Become my daughter! I always wanted a daughter as beautiful as you!"
"I-uhm. Need to g-go." Alexia closes her eyes and wishes to be saved. 'A-Altaris!'
"Lisha!" A rough and unfamiliar voice resounded in her ears. Alexia hesitantly opens her eyes as Miss Bell lets go of her. "What are you doing? Let go of the child!"
She turns to see the Tavern owner pointing his axe at his own wife. The people who were minding their own business till now are listening with keen interest.
"My husband, why? Why don't we take this child as our own?" Miss Bell speaks in a dramatic overly obsessed tone, licking her own lips.
Alexia quietly takes a step away from her.
The tavern owner glares at his wife before turning his gaze to the girl. "Lisha, even if you are enamoured for her, she does not feel the same way." He puts the axe on the table.
Miss Bell did not take her husband's words kindly. "Why not? We can provide her more. Far more than her she ever got. You also want to come with us, right?" She turns to Alexia in order to hug her, but it did not happen.
Alexia pushed Miss Bell away and hid behind the counter. "S-Stay away!"
Suddenly, Miss Bell's tone takes a drastic change and she begins to abuse her. "You wench! How dare you say no to my generous request! First, you spread your legs for that swordsman and now you are grooming that animalistic kid, do you not have any shame?"
Many prying eyes observes Miss Bell walks to Alexia and grab her hair. "You do not deserve to have this! You are a wench, you hear me?" She tries rip Alexia's hair off. "Aughhh!"
Alexia finally decides to fight back and scratches Miss Bell's hands. "L-Let go!"
Miss Bell's face tightens up due to pain, she grabs Alexia's head and smashes it on the table.
THUD!
"You are just a vile insect, lesser piece of dung!" Before Alexia could even stand up, she gets kicked in the face. "Be grateful that I am offering my help. Do you hear me?"
Miss Bell kicks once more. "Huh? Answer me you whore!"
As she was about to do it again, her husband holds her arms and lifts her up. "That is enough!"
"What are you doing? Let go of me!" She struggles and even tries to hit her own husband. "This is all your fault! If only you had not fought in the war and had your dick intact, I would have been a mother by now!"
The tavern owner pushes Miss Bell into a corner and slaps her. "Are you out of your mind?"
She holds her stinging cheek, looks down only to start crying. "I-I want to be a mother. I-I want a beautiful child too."
Her husband grits his teeth and scolds her. "This is not the right way! Lisha! What is even wrong with you?" Miss Bell breaks down and starts to cry uncontrollably.
The tavern owner's heart aches as he realizes his own actions. He rubs his face before approaching Miss bell. "Oh, Lisha. Forgive me."
As the couple shares a hug, the husband notices everyone staring at him. He quietly whispers in Miss Bell's ear. "Go to the kitchen. We talk later."
"I-I am sorry." Miss Bell lets out whimpers while apologizing. "I d-didn't mean to-"
"Into the kitchen! Now!" The tavern owner forces his own wife to stand up and pushes her to the kitchen. "By the emperor." He lets out sigh as he finally sees Alexia on the floor, stunned to move, blood leaking from a deep scratch from her forehead.
"Oh child, are you okay?" He helps her sit on a nearby stool. "You are hurt, wait." From his back pocket he takes out a dirty cloth and wraps it around Alexia's wound, in hopes of stopping the bleeding.
As he notices the girl is not talking or complaining, the tavern owner turns around to face everyone. "Ahem! My wife Lisha Bell has been mentally disturbed lately; I am deeply aware that everyone's experience has been fouled by my wife's sudden episode."
A drunkard in the corner raises his glass and yells loud. "No! We had fun! Bring another woman to fight!"
The tavern lightly chuckles as his sadistic nature resurfaces. "While, I seek everyone apology for ruining this night, only words won't cut it, right? As a form of repayment every order tonight will be free of charge."
Everyone raises their glass and shouts loudly. "YEAHHHHH!"
Miss Bell cracks a smile as she understands her husband tactic to keep every witness's mouth shut, her eyes focus on Alexia. "Now you will be mine."
BANG!
Suddenly a loud noise resonated, the wooden door was busted open with a bloody body flying inside. Everyone quickly became silent.
"Micah?" The tavern owner grits his teeth and quickly picks up his axe only to hid it behind his back.
I step inside the tavern, every step I take freezes the wood below me, fog escapes my mouth as I breathe. I notice every eye, every single lung expanding and contracting and the sudden drop in everyone's heartbeat yet I only searched for one person. 'Alexia… Where is she?'
The tavern owner slowly stepped aside and I saw Alexia sitting idle on a stool. When I saw blood on her, I dashed. For others I just covered dozens of steps in one, they only saw my blurring figure.
One sober man decided that it was a right moment to bail out but when he peeked outside, he screamed. "Ahhaahh! It's snow! It's frozen everywhere!"
Quickly, a small crowd gathered around the door and windows to see the snow, the drunkards ever truly mesmerized by the snow as it didn't occurred in these areas. "Woah." "Beautiful… I wanna eat some."
The tavern owner was in clear shock, his painful memories during the war rushed in, he was just a young rookie at that time. Young and naïve, wanting to make himself a name, he enlisted in the war but it crippled him, both physically and mentally. His eyes were fixed on Micah's semi frozen corpse while mumbling non stop.
"Magic warfare rule 338: T-The only magician who could use offensive magic a-at such large scale are wizards." He made a subtle eye contact with me and bend down to puke. The axe in his hand fell on the ground.
"Husband! No!" Miss Lisha Bell, his wife came to his side. "Are you okay?"
I turned to look at Alexia, in my hands formed a small ice cube, I pressed it on her open wound and held it on her head. "Hold this for me and wait outside."
Alexia let out a small noise and nodded before making her way to the outside.
Halfway, Miss Bell stood up and pointed at her. "Wait! You can't go!" She picks her husband's axe and swings it at Alexia.
A large ice emerges from the ground and pierces her through the roof.
BAM!
Blood was sprayed everywhere, the tavern owner looked up at his wife's corpse and remembered an old war slogan from his days.
"Run!! It's wizard!!!"