>>5719471>>5719506>>5719731>>5719739>>5719855I suppose that it counts as a vote to save the lady ?
>>5719923>>5720168I agree with you, he is at the same time bigoted, superstitious and illiterate but he is far more brave and capable of putting himself in danger for others than the average modern man.
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The freezing water menaced to drown you, you tried desperately to hold the girl with your left arm and to stay afloat by moving your arms and legs, hoping to heat them a bit by doing it but you understood that you expanded energy far too quickly at this pace. You then looked at the half frozen girl that you held. She was not heavy but took one of your arms when you had trouble to stay afloat. You thought, one instant, to let her down, to save your precious life at the expense of a peasant girl, after all she would probably die in childbirth or of an illness in some years and a part of you suspected her of witchcraft for staying afloat so long. You tried to shake her an instant but nothing, no way to get her to move more than a bit. This voice in your head telling you to abandon her grew stronger and stronger until you felt shame.
How could you think such thing ? How could you bargain for your life like some merchant in a besieged city ? Risking your life and protecting your people was your role, as a Lord. Maybe it was stupid to jump in this well but you already failed to save a girl, no way you would kill the other. What would it make you if even with this you would die ? You would be a murderer, a coward, how will the Lord and your ancestors look at you once you are in paradise... If you even were in paradise after such a cowardly act.
And damn it, protecting the widow and orphan was the role of a knight, you had sworn vows, you had to uphold them. Of course the peasants were stupid, unwashed, or in the case of this lady they preferred to take their baths cold, you chuckled to yourself, but they were your people, your subjects and you had to take care of them like a father of his children. To be harsh but fair and to be ready to defend them.
You surged with all your strength and stayed afloat, even if at a moment your face was under the water and you almost swallowed some you held fast. Your arms ached, your legs ached, but you had seen worse during many battles and trainings, you will hold fast, ignoring the cold, ignoring the dark, ignoring the water you held the girl above it and flailed your arms and legs.
