Chapter 555: Chapter 557: Stranger Ding [Ragebaiting lv3] Damon was feeling guilty, really he was. While he was a deplorable person most of the time, he was still someone who felt guilty far too easily. Looking at things objectively, she hadn’t really done anything wrong to him. She didn’t kill his stag. He was acting reckless and bold because he didn’t want to give himself any free time or the mental headspace to accept that he had just massacred his whole village. If he stopped for a moment, the guilt would catch up to him. He knew running was never a good idea because his life had already taught him time without number that running did not help. His actions always caught up to him. When they did, they either broke him or left him with scars from lessons he refused to learn or accept. That was just Damon Grey. He was still tired. He still just wanted to close his eyes and go to the one place where pain, sorrow, joy, or anguish did not matter. However, while he was still here, still alive, he wanted to smile — not for himself but because he didn’t want those who cared about him to be brought down by his gloom. Before he was gone, he wanted to do one thing right. An action that would make him a true hero. Because the greatest of heroes were those who died at the end of their tale having saved a beautiful girl. Even if their deaths would hurt that beautiful girl and all those who had followed their journey. Damon carried Abellona and placed her on a blanket he had pulled out from his shadow storage. He glanced at the beautiful woman in front of him, hand shackled to his own. With a soft sigh, he reached into his shadow storage and pulled out a healing potion. Opening her mouth, he fed it to her. However, in her unconscious state she was unable to drink the contents. Damon glanced around. "Ahem ahem... well, I suppose I must help her... if I don’t go to hell, who would... I don’t enjoy this, you know... I have no choice..." Why was he even giving that justification? His shadow just watched him without any reaction. He poured the contents of the potion into his mouth, lowering his head. His lips touched her own, using his mouth to give her the potion. After the potion was administered, Damon sat to the side as her body began to heal. She would wake up in a few minutes. However, her wet clothes didn’t help matters. Her body shivered occasionally. "Should I help her take it off..." He stopped himself right there. He had already given the princess of Valtheron the worst possible impression of him. There was no need to do any more. ’Suppose I should build a fire...’ Damon pulled out a dried log he just so happened to have in his shadow storage for a rainy day. He threw it to the ground and with a flick of his finger he created a small black flame which turned red, spreading heat across the cave. Damon carried her closer to the fire to keep her warm. He dismissed the top part of his armor and sat there in silence watching the flame dance. A few minutes passed, then he heard soft groans at his side. Looking down, he saw the red eyes of Abellona staring coldly at him. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂 He jiggled the shackle on his wrist. "Can you take this off..." She didn’t say anything, only sat up next to him. Straightening her disheveled clothes and hair, she finally spoke. "Who are you..." She finally asked the question that had been burning through her mind all this time, since the first day she had met this insufferable man. "Why does that matter... who I am is of no consequence to you..." She closed her eyes, glancing at the flames. "I have introduced myself in good faith. Should you not do the same, stranger..." Damon was not going to tell her who he was. He had just provoked Abellona of Destruction. He was not about to let her know his name. However, he was too egotistical and arrogant to just let bygones be bygones by apologizing — not that she would let it go. "You introduced yourself in good faith? Is that what you call it..." He chuckled. "You were hoping to use your identity to pressure me. Apologies, princess, but that wouldn’t work on me. Your identity holds no weight here. In this cave, in this wilderness, you are just a woman and I am just a man. The only laws that matter here are the laws of the jungle." She didn’t seem fazed by his words, a thin smile on her face. "I didn’t ask you for a lesson, I asked for your name... surely you are not without an identity..." There was a calculating calm in her red eyes, as if she had cooled down from earlier. "I do... I did not come out of a rock... however I do not feel inclined to share..." She smiled coldly as if she had found some leverage. "Hmm, I see. So you are from Valtheron... you do not want to reveal your identity because you fear I would cause trouble for you or retaliate. Is that right... I cannot punish a nameless, faceless person." Damon tilted his head with a smile on his face. The last time he had met someone so cunning was little Astranova. As expected of a master of court politics. ’She really just buried her anger.’ "Why would I be worried about that..." Damon smiled calmly. "There are things that I fear, but you are not one of them, princess. There are things that should not be provoked, but I have already provoked them all. Why would I fear... you..." She smiled at him, her eyes narrowing. "If that is the case then you have nothing to fear... I merely want to know who I am sitting alone in a grotto with... surely you cannot be an assassin or I would have been dead in my sleep..." Damon sneered, then he scoffed, raising his shackled hands. "If I did that I would die too... thanks to these magic shackles... a single wearer does both do..." Her eyes flickered slightly. He continued. "You didn’t leave anything to chance..." There was a soft smile on her face. "I would die too if you were to perish... is that not enough reason to tell me your name... what do I call you... mysterious man..." Damon narrowed his eyes. "Very well then, if you must call me something... you may refer to me... as..." "Stranger." "Because I am just a nameless, aimless stranger. Will that do for you, princess." She glanced at him momentarily, nodding her head. "As you wish... I would like to make a proposition, Mister Stranger... if you would be interested..." Damon didn’t even let her finish. "Screw off..."