Chapter 8
Riftan practically had to haul Maxi back to the castle on his horse.
Dazed after their lovemaking, she rode with him on Talon while Rem was led by the reins behind them.
After carrying Maxi to their bedchamber, Riftan bathed her in warm water, dressed and fed her, and then lay in bed with her to lull her to sleep.
The next day, as Maxi worked with Ruth in the library, her mind wandered to Riftan and his tender care of her.
When they were together, he was little different from a nanny, constantly making her eat and rest more.
He was particularly adamant that they bathed together and, in the mornings, he would snatch the comb from Ludis so he could brush Maxi’s hair himself.
Such constant attention baffled her. All her life, she had been taught that courtesy, polite disinterest, and duty were the only pillars of marriage.
She had never once heard of a man treating his wife with affection.
It made her wonder if her father was the exception and most husbands were, in fact, just as caring as Riftan.
Maxi had lived a cloistered life at Croyso Castle and had only been allowed to leave its walls to attend church—but even those visits were forbidden after she turned fourteen.
So everything she knew about the outside world came from overheard conversations with guests at the castle.
The two people who’d had the greatest hand in shaping her worldview were her father and Rosetta, but their cynicism knew no bounds.
The longer she lived outside of Croyso Castle, the more Maxi began to suspect that her knowledge of the world was warped.
“You’re good with your hands, my lady.” Ruth’s voice interrupted her thoughts. He inspected her calculations with a satisfied grin. “And a quick learner too. I must say I’m surprised.”
Unsure if he was complimenting her, Maxi smiled wryly. “D-Doing the same thing over and over t-tends to make one f-faster.”
“We’re nearly done. At this rate, we’ll be able to finish the device by tomorrow.”
Maxi sighed in relief and rubbed her stiff neck, rolling it gently from side to side. Her initial enthusiasm had not lasted long. The endless calculations and diagrams had quickly become tedious, and now the mere sight of a piece of parchment made her feel exhausted.
“I d-didn’t know p-performing magic required all these d-documents. I thought it would b-be more s-spectacular…”
“Magic is one of the highest forms of learning, my lady. It requires meticulous calculation and research. Spectacles can only be expected during battle. Even the sorcerers in the Mage Tower never get to experience such excitement. They spend their whole lives making diagrams like these.”
Maxi paused her work and gave Ruth a quizzical look. “W-Were you a m-member of the M-Mage Tower?”
“Yes. For a time.”
Maxi’s eyes widened. The Mage Tower, on Nornui, was the birthplace of mages and the greatest repository of knowledge on all the continents.
It had been built by the mages of antiquity, raised up on an artificial island in the Issyrian Ocean.
Nornui was a neutral territory, and its mages protected the world order, never intervening in the affairs of other states.
Even Maxi, confined to Croyso Castle, had heard of the tower countless times growing up.
Ruth, however, seemed unimpressed. “Sorcerers in the Mage Tower must accept certain restrictions the moment they become a high mage,” he said with disdain.
“In exchange for learning the dangerous and classified magic of Nornui, they must accept constant surveillance, lest they disturb the world order by using magic for personal gain. That’s why I left. ”
“Is…Is that a-allowed?”
“Certainly not, which is why the mages of Nornui consider me a traitor.”
Ruth’s tone was indifferent. Were all mages as brazen as he was?
“Th-Then did you meet R-Riftan after you left the t-tower?”
“Indeed. I met him not long after I became a mercenary. By then, he was already somewhat famous.”
Maxi perked up, eager to hear about a young Riftan. “W-Why?”
“For obvious reasons.” Ruth counted them out with his fingers. “Incredibly good-looking, extraordinarily well built for a sixteen-year-old, nerves of steel. Everyone thought he was a madman back then too.”
“A m-madman?” Maxi stumbled over Ruth’s choice of words.
“He knew no fear,” Ruth said with a helpless shrug.
“He would fight ogres with nothing but a dagger, and he’d rush into the mouth of a drake to crack open its skull.
He did all sorts of crazy things without batting an eye.
I was a nervous wreck any time I had to go on missions with him—he was so unpredictable. ” Ruth shuddered at the memory.
Maxi listened, horrified. To think that Riftan had been so reckless so young. At sixteen, he would have been younger than Rosetta—younger even than the squire Ulyseon!
“Is he s-still so r-reckless?” Maxi asked, her voice trembling as she licked her dry lips.
“Even now, he charges forward without regard for his physical safety,” Ruth said with a heavy sigh.
“But he no longer takes the perilous gambles he used to. He’s powerful enough now to slay most monsters without endangering himself.
The only time I’ve seen him risk his life recently was during the Dragon Campaign. ”
“W-What happened?” Maxi blurted the question, unable to stop herself.
Ruth sighed again. “Sir Riftan has the unusual ability to absorb his enemy’s magic and transfer it to his sword—temporarily. It’s a skill he gained after years of battling monsters. And frequently being covered with monster bile and blood probably had something to do with it too.
“So, to answer your question, that ability allowed Sir Riftan to defeat the Red Dragon. With it, he was able to cut through Dragon’s Breath—the most powerful magic that exists in the natural world—and infuse the dragon’s magic into his sword, which he then used to cut off the creature’s head.”
Maxi imagined Riftan rushing headlong into the dragon’s flames and her heart beat at a panicked rhythm.
Ruth gritted his teeth. “The slightest mistake could have turned Riftan into ash. But that reckless bravery is why he’s now regarded as the most valiant knight on the continent.”
Maxi had heard Riftan’s deeds during the campaign praised before, but she hadn’t realized how rash his feats were. If Riftan had died, she would never have gotten to know him. Their wretched first night together would have remained her only memory of him.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you, my lady,” Ruth mumbled when Maxi did not say anything. “Blast! That wasn’t a proper conversation to have with you. My apologies. Extended time with only these rowdy knights as company has made me tactless.”
“I-I was the one wh-who asked.” Maxi doubted it was the knights’ company that made Ruth tactless, but she decided not to voice the thought.
She returned to her work in silence, her mind in turmoil.
As a knight, Riftan would have to face more danger in the future.
Once winter was over, King Reuben would inevitably call him and the Remdragon Knights on another campaign.
How many battles could one man survive? Riftan was powerful, but he wasn’t invincible.
The thought was enough to choke the air out of Maxi’s lungs. She had not realized how fragile her current happiness was.
“I see you’re distracted.” Ruth squinted as he scanned the desk to assess their progress. He lowered his quill. “Why don’t we stop here for the day?”
Grateful, Maxi nodded and rose from the desk. New servants were scheduled to arrive at the castle today and she wanted to greet them. After discussing the matter with Riftan, she had asked Aderon to hire an additional thirty servants to help ease the workload on the current staff.
In the great hall, Maxi greeted the new hires and assigned veteran servants to train them.
Once everyone was settled and introduced, she made her way to the kitchen.
The winter preparations were nearly complete, and the place no longer resembled a battlefield, though it was still a flurry of activity.
When they finally finished the preparations, time in the castle would slow down again, and Maxi would not need to frantically rush about.
“We’ll see the first frost in a few days, my lady,” Rodrigo said, shivering as he pulled his coat closer to himself.
Maxi frowned with worry. “W-Will we be able to f-finish all the w-winter garments b-by then?”
“I am told they are almost ready, my lady. With the additional help, they should be finished before the weather turns truly cold.”
With the impending drop in temperature on her mind, Maxi inspected the bedrooms in the castle to ensure that they were stocked with plenty of firewood. Then she retired to her room to write her daily log.
—
With the days growing shorter, darkness fell on the castle long before Maxi finished her work. She lit a candle and walked to the window, her thoughts turning again to Riftan.
No one in the castle worked harder than he did.
Throughout the day, he inspected the land, trained soldiers, and scoured outside the castle’s perimeter to stave off monsters or plunderers lying in wait along the roads.
Then he would visit the village to oversee construction progress, hold negotiations with tax collectors, and settle disputes.
Despite working day and night, he never showed signs of fatigue.
Could it be that Riftan was made of iron instead of flesh and blood? Such an exhaustive list of duties would have drained most, yet he performed them with apparent ease.
Maxi focused her thoughts on Riftan’s resilience in an attempt to forget what Ruth had told her that afternoon. Lord Calypse was no ordinary man; he was strong enough to overcome any trial. There was no need for her to fret over things that had yet to happen.