He appeared like a white knight who had come to save me — or, perhaps more accurately, a black knight clad entirely in black besides a purple pendant around his neck. Seconds after I saw him, I tripped and fell while I ran, which was terribly embarrassing. To make things worse, one of the repulsive kidnappers grabbed my leg, pulling me toward him. 

A dashing older guy appears to save you, and the first thing you do is trip and fall on your face? Nice going, Vanessa.

My eyes darted back to the hill where my hero stood moments ago, only to find he had disappeared. I panicked.

He can't just leave me here —!

Before I knew what I was doing, I called out to him. Someone had to rescue me from these men who planned to kill me if my father didn't agree to pay the ransom. Relief washed over me when I saw him step back up onto the crest of the dune. Like a hero out of one of my books, his cloak flowed behind him cinematically, blown by the sweltering desert breeze. The moment he took out his blades, I shivered. He meant business, and it showed.

A moment of hesitation passed before either party made their first move. Finally, the leader shoved a man forward to fight the mysterious wanderer who appeared from the sands.

This man clad in black will beat them, right? He has to!

Just as the wanderer ran at my captor, a bright light flashed from his necklace, blinding us all. When we opened our eyes, my savior vanished again but reappeared within a fraction of a second. Another brilliant flash revealed he had closed the distance between himself and the bandit, stabbing him without hesitation. 

What… Was that?

The unbelievable feat was only the start of his surreal abilities. He moved at a speed I'd never seen before, beating the two men in a blink of an eye while his necklace glowed.

He's dangerous but graceful. Every single movement is swift and efficient.

Once he finished the last bandit off ruthlessly, the young man turned to me. My heart stopped.

Gods… He's beautiful.

Our eyes held a mutual gaze for a moment as he stepped toward me, but I could tell something was wrong. My eyes widened as my rescuer fell to one knee. I ran to help, but I didn't make it in time to catch him as he fell into the sand. 

What?

With thick ropes around my arms, I couldn't assist my savior, so I ran to one of the swords lying in the sand to cut them. When I was free, I rushed right back to him.

"H-hey, are you okay?" I called, shaking his shoulders with a gentle touch, but he didn't reply. Concerned, I pushed the man over, and once again, his handsome face came into view. His grey hair was long and side-swept, his long fringe covering parts of his face. The hairstyle suited him well; it added to his mysterious aura. He appeared to be in his mid to late 20s, but his hair was silver, a color I had only seen on the elderly, and as strange as that was, his skin was pale as death.

I leaned closer and looked at his necklace, which was now emitting a soft, pulsing glow. The light was dimmer than before, making it hard to believe the stone had given off the blinding flash. 

What is this thing? Some sort of magical artifact?

In a cautious manner, I tried to take the necklace off of him for further inspection. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't come off, and I gave up after a short while. My savior must have tied it very well.

What a mysterious person. I've never met anyone like him in my life.

That only made sense, though. I hadn't traveled far from the city I was born — my father wouldn't have allowed it. He always told me I was too important to put myself in danger. After my older brother's death, I was the only remaining Van Doren heir. When my father passed away, I would be the one to maintain our family's influence in the region. If something were to happen to me, other noble families in the Umbra territory would be delighted to hear there was one less competitor in the fight for domination. I suspected that to be the reason someone kidnapped me in the first place.

Placing the blame on any single family would be difficult; any of them could have been the culprit, hiring those awful bandits to kidnap me. There was a possibility it could have even been another clan seeking to cause chaos in the Umbra clan as well. People would do anything for power.

Quite some time passed before I realized I was spacing out as I looked at the bodies of the kidnappers. Snapping out of it, I turned back around to face my rescuer. 

It's almost sundown now. I've got to make a fire so we don't freeze. Gods, I'm lucky the bandits had this place well stocked — it looks like they've been hiding here for a couple of weeks. 

I took a moment to stretch my arms, which were stiff from being tied up for the last few days. Something told me it would be difficult to move the unconscious wanderer into the temple ruins. I was naturally petite and by no means strong, but even so, I had to move him so no desert animal would attack us while we were out in the open.

With an awkward stance, I approached the wanderer and grabbed his arms, only to drop one and watch it fall limp by his side. 

"S-Sorry!!" I stammered, moving a hand over my mouth. After doing so, I rolled my eyes at myself because it wasn't like he could hear me apologize in this state.

Gods, I'm such an idiot.

I picked up the arm again and began dragging him into the temple, which gave me a major case of the creeps. The choice was close, but I decided we would be better off inside a creepy temple than to expose ourselves to the elements.

By the time I dragged the wanderer inside, I was out of breath, and it had taken me much longer than I'd like to admit. 

I've got to start getting out more — sitting inside the castle all day hasn't done me any good.

Now that he was inside, I returned to the front of the temple to gather his weapons. Everything about the wanderer seemed mysterious; even his knives differed from any I had seen, curvy and inscribed with odd runes. In Umbra, we all heard stories about religious fanatics hiding out in the Lacuna Desert. Could my savior be one of those dreadful, god-crazed cultists? I hoped not, but in all honesty, the blades had "dark cultist" written all over them. 

Have these been used to perform bloody rituals? No… That can't be!

After thinking about it, I wanted nothing to do with them. I hurried back into the temple and set them beside the wanderer. 

I hope he's not some religious freak. That would be a major letdown. Handsome? Check. Brave? Check. Strong? Check. Creepy god-worshiping cultist? … Check?

Society looked down on those who practiced any type of religion. Anyone with half a brain knew that the elemental gods were only a myth fabricated a couple thousand years ago. 

How long has it been since then? A good 2,000 years? Yeah, it's obvious that our superstitious ancestors made them up. But… If it's all a myth, what happened when the wanderer fought off my kidnappers? I'll have to ask him when he wakes. I'm sure he'll have answers for me.

Mere speculation was getting me nowhere. Shaking my head, I walked across to the far side of the temple with a storage room inside. There, I found firewood, water, and even some dried meat in a cauldron. 

Jackpot! Time to prove how useful I can be!