Don Quixote

The moment he entered the forest, Titus, with his keen senses, vaguely detected something amiss.

It was the strange feeling of being watched.

As he rode forward, a flash of white seemed to streak past the edge of his left eye's vision.

Titus looked up to his left. The high treetops were empty, as though it had all been his imagination.

He ordered Captain Parker to stay on guard discreetly. At once, the mounted formation gradually closed around him, keeping the Earl of Starpike firmly protected near the front of its center.

The riders hurried along the path beneath the great trees, and nothing else stirred.

Just as Titus began to wonder whether he was being oversensitive, three men and a woman suddenly burst out of the woods ahead in a chase, emerging onto the road directly in front of the party.

In the lead was a young woman in a pure white hunting outfit, with a hooded cloak of the same color over it.

The young woman had a graceful figure and ran swiftly, her movements full of beauty. She possessed an agility and athleticism that ordinary noble ladies lacked, like a leopardess prowling through the woods.

The three men pursuing her were somewhat slower. All were dressed as hunters, carrying three crude, spear-shaped weapons that had been set alight.

With his exceptional hearing, Titus could hear horses neighing in the woods on the side they had emerged from.

From the look of things, the three men seemed to have first frightened the horses with fire, then relentlessly pursued the lady who had fallen from her mount.

Interesting.

Putting this together with what he had seen and heard at Nightsong, Titus ran through three or four thoughts in an instant. He straightened in his saddle and raised his right hand above his shoulder, signaling the cavalry behind him to slow down.

You had to admit it.

There really was something uncanny about these woods.

First Miss Lora Blackmont, and now this. Did this forest spawn female NPCs specifically for him?

"Ser, please help me deal with these vicious bandits!"

The young woman seemed only then to notice the mounted party and turned to run toward Titus and his men. A moment ago, she had resembled a hunting leopard; now she was like a bounding fawn.

The girl was quite an actress!

A smile touched Titus's lips. He waved again, and three spear infantrymen who knew how to ride spurred out of the ranks, charging at the three "bandits" dressed as hunters.

The three had already been hesitating at the distant sight of such a large party. Now they grew even more flustered. Shouting, they grabbed their spears, turned, and fled.

Titus noticed that although the three looked frightened, their hurried movements were not disorganized, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

By then, the swift-running young woman in white had reached the front of Titus's horse.

The woman dressed all in white lightly raised a hand and lifted her hood. Golden hair instantly spilled down like a waterfall, covering the left half of her face before flowing over the white leather armor on her shoulders, its silky strands falling all the way to her ample chest.

An eye as blue as a cornflower lifted to gaze up at Titus on horseback. An innocent smile rested at the corners of her lips, and her voice was as clear and cool as morning dew:

"Thank you, good ser. You have done me a great service. Had it not been for you, I dare not imagine what would have become of me in those bandits' hands."

"A chaste woman is like a crystal mirror from Myr: a single breath can cloud it. They should be cherished as carefully as a beautiful garden in full bloom. Protecting defenseless women is precisely a knight's duty."

Titus nodded in acknowledgment of her thanks, looking every bit the righteous knight who had rescued a maiden.

"Rest assured, my lady. As long as I am here, no one will be allowed to offend you."

He noticed a sword in a white scabbard hanging at the waist of the golden-haired, blue-eyed young woman before his horse. The large sapphire set into its silver crossguard glinted dangerously.

She carried a quiver on her back and wore fingerless gloves on both hands. Her left hand rested lightly on the white-lacquered longbow on the other side of her slender waist. The white of the wooden bow almost blended with her fingers, making it hard to tell which was fairer.

Equipped with a bow and sword like that, she hardly looked like a "defenseless woman."

Yet she accepted every word, immediately adopting an endearing expression and smiling with touching vulnerability:

"You truly are a brave and upright knight. My name is Alicent. Might I have the honor of learning your name? Oh, please do not misunderstand. I only wish to have my father give you the reward you deserve."

With that, she shyly lowered her head.

The movement revealed, for the first time, the left half of her face that her golden hair had concealed.

Titus could clearly see that the young woman calling herself "Alicent" wore a white leather eyepatch over her left eye, utterly at odds with her bearing.

This young woman actually had a damaged left eye-she was one-eyed?

The late-winter sunlight fell through the thick foliage, gilding the woman's golden hair. The dappled light and shadow on her hunting clothes, together with the brightness in her right eye, could have made a painting.

That eyepatch was the culprit that spoiled its beauty.

"Miss Alicent, your left eye-was it injured?"

"Ah!"

Alicent gave a startled cry and made a show of covering her left eye, looking ashamed and self-pitying. Her red lips, as though lightly kissed by glowing coals, uttered pitiful lines:

"It is an old injury. I hope you do not mind how ugly it is... Oh, you still have not told me your name."

As their conversation grew more involved, Titus did not press her. He gave Captain Parker a look, nimbly swung down from his horse, and replied with a smile:

"I am the captain of the Earl of Starpike's guard, Don Quixote."

The entire forest they were in likewise lay within Starpike's territory.

Under the customary laws of the lords of Westeros, hunting without permission in a lord's forest was considered theft, punishable by the loss of a hand.

Of course, offenders also had a choice between two options. They could "voluntarily" choose exile to the Wall, far beyond the North, and atone by joining the black-cloaked ranks of the "Night's Watch."

Theft cost a hand, spreading rumors cost a tongue, and rape cost a cock.

The so-called "laws" of Westeros were just that simple, brutal, and unadorned.

Moreover, everything rested on the judgment of the local lord. Commoners, who were not even entitled to surnames and whose grandfathers, fathers, and sons shared the same name, distinguished only as Old Tom, Big Tom, and Little Tom... had no right to defend themselves, much less the standing to demand a trial by combat.

Having introduced himself under an alias, Titus took Black Pearl's reins in one hand and pointed with the other at Captain Parker, whose position he had stolen and who was struggling to keep his expression composed.

"This is my deputy captain, Sancho Panza.

"Justice has a realm of its own, where no selfish desire or greed dares interfere. Please do not speak of rewards. Rescuing a lady as beautiful as yourself is enough to delight me for an entire day. A happy heart is far more precious than any gift."

Only after dismounting did Titus realize how tall the blonde beauty before him was: at least five feet nine inches.

Alicent shyly and swiftly looked over the knight standing before her. His fine black armor certainly suited the captain of an earl's guard.

She bravely raised her head, seemingly still a little embarrassed and uncomfortable at having her eyepatch seen, and looked toward the magnificent Black Pearl beside Titus as she softly asked:

"What a beautiful horse. Does it have a name?"

Titus looked hesitant as he answered her question with a smile:

"This is a new horse, and I have not settled on a name yet, but I am thinking of choosing between 'Rocinante' and 'Doflamingo.'

"Perhaps you could give me some advice, Miss Alicent?"

Brother Doflamingo: