The soldier nodded and returned to helping load the wagons. Maxi stood frozen for a moment, watching the sentries loading weapons, tents, and rations onto the wagons. She could feel the call to action filling her body with flinty determination.
Her husband was the greatest knight on the continent. There was no need for her to worry about his safety. Her only duty right now was as the lady of the castle.
She clasped her hands and offered a silent prayer.
—
When all the preparationshad been made, Maxi stepped into the carriage. The sentries manning the wagon were clearly troubled by her presence, but they could not rightfully stop her from coming along.
She watched the scenery pass by the carriage window in silence, fraught with anxiety. They reached the bottom of the hill, and, before she knew it, the carriage had darted past the village square all the way to the southern gate. Bricks and sacks of sand were piled in front of the gate, the entrance left only half open. As two carts were rolled through carrying the injured, Maxi rushed out of the carriage to the patients.
She threw herself into triage, losing all sense of how long she had been there. In the middle of inspecting the broken leg of a pale-faced worker, she heard a familiar voice calling from behind. “My lady!”
Maxi’s eyes widened when she saw Ulyseon, clad in full armor, rushing toward her.
He looked even more surprised to see her there. “What are you doing here, my lady?”
“I-I heard what happened and…I broughtreinforcements. Are more of the wounded…being transported here?”
“We lacked the men to transport all of the injured, so we only brought those we could move safely.”
Maxi inspected the three men in the cart that had come in with Sir Ulyseon. Although their wounds did not appear to be life-threatening, all three were bleeding heavily. Maxi approached one of the men, who was sitting on the edge of the cart, and undressed the cloth that was tightly wrapped around his thigh. Fortunately, it was clean. After making sure the bones were properly aligned, she ripped the man’s tattered trousers further and healed his wound with magic. The mana she had accumulated drained away rapidly, leaving her dizzy.
It was her first time healing such a severe wound, and the toll it took on her body left her shaken. Did such a wound really require so much mana? Even her arms prickled from the sudden depletion in her mana pathway.
“Are you all right, my lady?” Ulyseon asked, looking down at her pale face with concern.
Maxi forced herself to look calm and smile at him before moving on to heal the other two men. Cold sweat trickled down her back as mana bled out of her, but Maxi knew she could quickly replenish it. Once she was sure her patients were stable, she asked the sentries to take the men to the sick bay, then climbed back into the carriage.
Ulyseon followed behind her. “My lady! It is too dangerous. Please, do not endanger yourself and return to the—”
“D-Don’t be absurd! I-I am the lady of the castle. It is my duty to help…wh-when problems arise. Did you not just see m-me heal those men?”
“But you have only recently learned how to use magic, and there are still monsters lurking—”
“I-I can also do my part! D-Did I not tell you h-how…I was unfazed by o-ogres and werewolves in the past? Y-You need not worry,” Maxi said coldly before slamming the carriage door closed. Her pride was wounded; even a young man of sixteen was treating her like an incompetent child. Had she not chosen to learn magic so she could be useful in just such moments as this? If she had intended to stay cooped up in the castle all her days, then she would not have bothered to learn magic in the first place.
She gave the coachman the order, and he directed the carriage out of the gates at full speed. Ulyseon quickly mounted his horse and followed. She could see the squire throwing concerned glances at her through the carriage window, but she did her best to ignore him and focus instead on replenishing her mana.
After a while, the brick road ended, and a humble camp dotted with piles of soil and sand came into view. The carriage pulled to a stop in a clearing, and Maxi stepped out, immediately recoiling in fear when she saw the gigantic corpse of a monster that lay amongst the felled oak trees.
Ulyseon leapt off his horse to come and steady her. “It is a wyvern, my lady. It is that beast that caused all this wreckage.”
It was not long ago that she had feigned fearlessness, and now she could feel her face flushing in embarrassment. Could anyone appear unfazed at the blood-chilling sight of this unfamiliar, enormous monster?
The wyvern was sprawled on the ground with its tongue lolling from its mouth. It was at least forty kevettes tall. Itsmassive body was as black as charcoal, its head akin to a giant serpent, its broken wings bat-like.
And dragons are…ten times bigger than wyverns.
The thought made goosebumps prickle her arms. Just how terrifying had the monster been that Riftan faced in the war? The reality of a battle she had only vaguely imagined dawned on her and seized her with terror.
“You look pale, my lady. I really think you should return—”
“I-I am all right. I-I will be fine…once I’ve replenished my mana.” Concealing her fear under the guise of exertion, she turned and instructed two sentries to light a fire and boil water while the others helped to unload the wagons.
“Where…a-are the injured?” she asked one of the sentries.
“This way, my lady. We couldn’t leave them exposed to another attack, so we hid them in the trees.”
