Chapter Fifteen #4
“Forgive us for the interruption, my lady,” they said, weaving past the servants scrubbing the floor, “but someone has been injured. Could we ask for your assistance?”
Maxi’s eyes widened. Although she had frequently tended to the knights in the past, she had not done so since she depleted her mana during the wyvern attack. She surmised that the situation must be grave. Growing flustered, she asked, “Wh-What about Ruth?”
“The sorcerer is currently at the construction site. We do not wish to burden you, my lady, but we cannot afford to go down to the village to search for another healer.”
The knights were visibly anxious as they led Maxi to the door without waiting for her reply. She stumbled along behind them, struggling to keep up with their long strides.
“C-Could you…tell me who got hurt?”
“One of the knights who was sent as a scout to Livadon last winter. It appears they were attacked by werewolves in Anatolium, and he got himself poisoned, of all things….” Gabel clicked his tongue, then turned to Maxi with a worried expression.
“Are you able to neutralize poison with magic, my lady?”
“I have studied the r-runes, but I have yet to try it….”
“Then you could use this opportunity to test it,” Gabel replied without a hint of hesitation before practically sprinting down the stairs. Maxi had to gather her skirt at one side to avoid tripping after him.
“W-Would it…not be better to w-wait for Ruth to return?”
“If we delay and the poison spreads, the man will lose his right hand for good. It would mean the end of his life as a knight. It does not matter if you fail. Please, try.” Sir Remus’s tone was closer to coercion than a plea.
Maxi swallowed, a lump in her throat. She did not know whether to feel happy or troubled that the knights, who had been unwilling to have her heal even their superficial wounds at first, now relied on her in such a dire situation.
What if it was too serious for her to handle?
Agitated, Maxi kept wiping her clammy palms on her skirt as she followed the knights across the garden. They strode past the gate and rushed straight into the knights’ quarters.
“This way, my lady.”
Inside, thick curtains were drawn over the windows. Maxi froze as she stepped into the dark room.
Someone lit a candle, illuminating three or four cots lined up on the floor.
The sparse infirmary had probably been prepared to treat minor injuries during training sessions.
Against the wall was a shelf with pouches of herbs and unfamiliar medicine bottles, a faintly glowing brazier, and a boiling kettle.
The eerie interior made Maxi hunch her shoulders as her eyes darted around.
A faint moan came from the other side of the room. Maxi turned toward it and saw a young knight lying on one of the cots.
She walked over to the man and frowned. “It is h-hard to see his wound in the dark. C-Could you draw the curtains back?”
“Werewolf venom makes one extremely sensitive to light. The sun would be too harsh for him,” Gabel explained. “It would increase his pain. Here, allow me.”
Gabel lit the candle next to the cot. In the flickering light, Maxi could just make out the injured knight’s bare and tanned torso.
She cautiously inspected the wound on his right forearm, and her shoulders sagged with relief when she saw that it was not as bad as she had feared.
Although the bite was deep, his bones appeared to be intact. Still, he was badly poisoned.
Maxi placed her hand on the young man’s forehead to check his temperature and frowned when she felt his burning skin. “Have you tried…d-detoxicants?”
“He was given mandrago leaves right after he was bitten, but the beast that got him was a powerful monster. The detoxicant was ineffective,” said an unfamiliar voice. Maxi turned toward a young, haggard-looking knight carrying a pail of water into the infirmary.
Sir Remus hastily took the pail from him. “I told you to rest. Let the servants handle such tasks.”
“I’m fine. He was bitten when he tried to protect me, so it’s only right that I tend to him myself,” the young knight replied stubbornly, snatching the pail back and walking over to the cot.
After soaking a towel in the bucket, he began gently wiping the unconscious man’s face.
A faint moan escaped the injured knight’s lips.
Sir Remus watched with a hardened expression, then turned to Maxi. With an urgent edge to his voice, he said, “You must hurry, my lady. His arm may be permanently damaged if the poison spreads any further.”
“I shall t-try.”
She moved the candle closer to the injury. She had seen werewolf bites before, but this was different. The fang marks sank as deep as if they had been hammered with a pike. An awful stench rose from the wound. The flesh of his forearm was purpled and swollen like an overstuffed sausage.
Can I really heal him?
As she positioned a trembling hand over the wound, she tried to recall the magic rune Ruth had taught her.
Detoxification consumed less mana than healing, but it involved more complex calculations.
She had to make her mana flow along a path she had never used before, and it proved more difficult to control than she had anticipated. She drew the rune incorrectly twice.
The knights watched silently, their faces growing anxious as she struggled.
“Is it too difficult to heal him?”
“A-Allow me to…try again,” Maxi mumbled in a whisper, an intense flush coloring her face.
Guilt flooded her. How nice it would have been if she had practiced detoxification magic instead of wallowing in self-pity all this time. If she lost this young man now, the knights would never trust her again.
Maxi swiped at the beads of sweat on her forehead and mustered her mana for the last time.
Thankfully, a haze of blue light appeared and enveloped the young knight’s arm.
It spiraled and curved in intricate patterns as it flowed along the rune, Maxi’s magic now pouring into his body and neutralizing the poison in his blood.
The magic was working.
The color of the knight’s arm soon returned to normal, and the swelling gradually subsided.
“I-It’s done,” Maxi said with a sigh of relief.
The murky energy completely dissipated, and she slowly pulled her hand back. Gabel leaned over with the candle to inspect the quickly healing wound. Satisfied, he proceeded to draw back the curtains. Maxi squinted into the bright light that streamed into the room.
“He doesn’t seem bothered by the sunlight. The poison must be gone.”
“Even so, I th-think we should give him more detoxicants…since there could still be trace amounts of poison left in his body. Could someone boil the herbs?”
“Allow me, my lady,” said the young knight who had brought in the water. He had been fretting beside the cot throughout the healing, but he now placed some mandrago leaves and other herbs into a kettle and hung it over the brazier to boil.
Maxi sat by the window to catch her breath as they waited for the tea.
It had been a while since she had last used magic, and while she still felt tired, she was nowhere near as dizzy as when she had entirely depleted her mana.
She carefully gauged the remaining mana in her body and, after deciding that she still had a safe amount, cast healing magic on the injured knight’s wound.
The others looked relieved as the bite marks on the man’s forearm disappeared.
“Thank you for helping us, my lady. You should also have some mandrago tea. Its roots are good for restoring mana.”
“Th-Thank you.”
“It is us who should be thanking you, my lady. Thank you for saving our comrade’s life.”
Maxi’s face flushed at Gabel’s sincere gratitude. Her inner monologue had been nothing but self-deprecation lately, and his words felt like a rainfall after a long drought.
Taking a sip of the steaming tea, Maxi bashfully muttered, “I am glad…th-that I was able to help.”
“Your help was everything, my lady. He would have lost the use of his arm if not for you. With Ruth out of the castle, it was a miracle that you also had knowledge of such magic.” Gabel suddenly frowned and glared at the young knight who was boiling the tea.
“You should have searched for a healer instead of returning to the castle right away.”
The young knight, dripping with perspiration as he stirred the kettle, lowered his eyes in shame.
“We entered Anatol through the western gate, so we thought it best to head straight to the castle instead of taking the long way down the hill to the village. And besides, he was the one who insisted that we return right away. I’d wager even he didn’t know that he was this badly poisoned.
But more importantly, we did not want to waste any time in delivering the latest news to the commander. ”
“The latest news?” asked Gabel.
The young knight paused, gathering his thoughts before speaking. “I am sure you are both aware that Lord Calypse sent us to Livadon to gather information. We spent the last winter there investigating the migration of the monsters.”
“And were you able to learn anything?”
The young knight nodded, his face grim. “Monsters of the Ayin race in the Pamela Plateau, in the northern region of Livadon, seem to have formed an alliance. There are reports of the more intelligent creatures like lizardmen and trolls gathering large-scale armies and attacking villages. According to the latest report we received before we left, an army of trolls plundered a fairly large territory in the north.”
His speech shocked everyone in the room.
“A large-scale alliance between monsters?” Remus finally broke the silence, snorting loudly. “That’s ludicrous. A tribe of monsters would only be the size of a small village at most. I have never heard of Ayins organizing into an army like humans before in my life.”
“Because no one has ventured deep into the Pamela Plateau. Intelligent monsters could have formed a civilization there without our knowledge.”