Page 44 of I Destroyed the Elf Prince's Harem

“Whoa! Wait a minute! Nylian is helping her. My job is to get you to the inn safely. They’ll meet us there.”

“But she’s outnumbered, and they’re going to kill her,” he argued, hitting me with those big, helpless brown eyes. Fuck. Was this why Nylian was still stuck with me?

“In case you’re forgetting, I’m shit at fighting. That’s why we hired your sister.”

“We don’t need to fight them. We just need to distract them long enough for her to get away.”

That word was becoming the very bane of my existence.

I sent up a quick prayer for us to get this done without getting killed and without Nylian catching me, because I was honestly more afraid of the elf than I was of those four maniacs.

“Come on,” I growled, jogging after the crazed group pursuing Adeline. While we lost sight of them, the noise was easy enough to follow through the streets. The few people left on the sidewalks at this hour had stopped and were whispering about the madness that had passed. So far, there was no sign of the City Watch, but it was only a matter of time until they appeared to round up the rabble-rousers. I did not want to be part of that group.

After a few more twists and turns, we located our target. Adeline had taken a wrong turn down a dead-end alley and the four men were blocking her primary escape route as they edged along the alley toward her. My heart raced and a cold sweat covered my skin, chilling me to the bone as I reached for my sword, only to find it missing from my hip. I squeezed my eyes shut for an instant and swore. I’d left my sword in my room at the inn because I thought I wouldn’t need it for a simple dinner meetup with Nylian.

A dinner I’d never gotten to taste because I was now trying to weasel my way into trouble I was supposed to be avoiding.

Fuck my life!

With no sword on hand, I spotted what I hoped would be the next best thing. A shovel. It was a heavy bastard with a stout cast-iron scoop. Considering the way it smelled, the thing was probably used to clear out stables. I didn’t know what it was doing in the alley, but I was glad it was there.

I took a step closer to the group in front of me, testing the weight of my new weapon. If I bashed the closest guy on the head, I wouldn’t kill him, right? To hell with that—I’d collapse his skull and end up in the dungeon for murder. That would get me sent to Gushan for some serious explaining to my royal father about why I’d gotten sucked into a common street brawl.

Besides, this was supposed to be a minor distraction.

Searching the alley, my eyes lit on inspiration. Just over the gaggle of brutes was a sagging awning that had collected rainwater along with gods only knew what else. Definitely trash and a bit of human waste. One of the support beams was a couple of steps away. Yes, this was the perfect distraction. Adeline’s attackers would get covered and distracted, giving her the chance to escape. It should also provide Jasper and me time to escape as well.

Clenching my teeth, I held the heavy shovel like a baseball bat and swung it with all the strength I had. The iron spade let out an ominous bong as it hit the wood support, sending bone-rattling vibrations down the handle and into my entire body. The support cracked and partially collapsed, but it didn’t give completely.

A small amount of the water spilled out, hitting one man on the back, causing him to yelp in what sounded like icy shock. All four men turned and were now staring daggers at me.

Long story short, my distraction sucked, and I was a dead man.

I threw the shovel at them, only to have it clang against the wall, and ran away from them and toward Jasper. Yet, the second I laid eyes on the wannabe wizard with his grimoire open in his hands, I shifted from fear to abject terror. Oh fuck, he’s gonna cast a spell. Nylian was going to strangle my tiny squirrel neck.

Jasper spoke some garbled words that sent a powerful echo into the marrow of my bones, and thrust out his hand. A bolt of purple light shot forth, and I dove for the ground, not caring that I was getting covered in dirt, mud, and worse. Metal clattered against paving stones, followed by several loud and angry quacks.

I shoved upright and twisted while still kneeling to see four white ducks waddle out of the alley.

“Ducks?” I shrieked. My head whipped around to see Jasper cringing behind his grimoire. “You turned them into fucking ducks?”

“I was trying the same stone spell I attempted with the ogres,” Jasper replied, his voice muffled behind his book.

With a groan, I climbed to my feet and glared at the ducks, who were quacking and waddling in all different directions. This was a disaster, not a distraction.

Jasper hurried over to my side and helped me to pat away the dust and dirt that now covered my clothes. “Don’t worry! They’ll turn human again in an hour or two. I’m sure of it.”

“That’s assuming that someone doesn’t catch them, pluck them, and roast them before they’re human again.”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

I sighed and looked at the alley to find it empty. Adeline had likely climbed a wall or slipped into a window the moment those assholes had turned toward me. She’d missed the magical half of our performance.

“You know,” a too-familiar voice above my head said. It sent a chill along my back, and I curled up a little prior to lifting my eyes. Nylian sat on the railing of a small balcony on the second floor of a residence. He held the slender stem of a red flower between two fingers, twirling it slowly, as if he were the most carefree person in the world. But when he lowered his stare to me, I wished the four brutes were here to beat me to a pulp. “I thought the inn was in the other direction,” he continued in an icy voice.

“I think you’re right!” My voice was so high, I thought I was going to shatter glass. I grabbed Jasper with both hands and turned the wizard in the correct direction. “We are going the other way right now.”

I partially dragged Jasper along the street, speed walking the entire way to the inn so that we were panting and sweaty as we arrived. I wasn’t brave enough to glimpse over my shoulder to see how close Nylian was. If I were lucky, he’d take some time to calm down. Because right now, I was pretty sure the elf was going to kill me.

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