Chapter Sixteen #4
The squire raised the wooden sword and then swung it down.
There was a whoosh as it arced toward her, followed by a loud shattering sound.
Maxi’s eyes widened as the weapon crashed through her shield as if it were a thin layer of ice.
Before he could pull back, the wooden sword hit Maxi’s forehead with a hearty thud.
Ulyseon let out a shrill scream as Maxi stumbled backward, her head spinning.
“M-My lady!”
The disorienting pain made Maxi groan and drop to her knees. Tears involuntarily trickled down her cheeks. “Ahh!”
“Ruth! Quick! Do something! Her ladyship—her ladyship is hurt!” Ulyseon frantically shook Ruth’s shoulders, panicked at having struck the lady of the castle.
The sorcerer simply gazed down at Maxi, unimpressed, before crouching next to her with a sigh. “If you could remove your hands for a moment, my lady, I shall ease the pain.”
Her hands trembled as she lowered them, tears continuing to stream down her cheeks. Without even trying to disguise his disapproval, Ruth clicked his tongue and cast healing magic over the knot forming on her forehead.
Maxi’s face flushed with shame, and once he was finished, she slowly rose to her feet. She wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and hide in it for the rest of time.
“Are you all right, my lady? Does it still hurt?” Ulyseon asked as he fretted about her nervously.
Maxi brushed the dust from her skirt, trying to feign nonchalance. “I am p-perfectly fine.”
“I am truly, truly sorry, my lady. I can’t believe I hurt you….”
“N-No. It happened because…m-my magic was weak,” Maxi muttered feebly.
“An understatement,” Ruth said scathingly. “I have never seen such a pitiful shield in my life. Parchment would have been sturdier.”
“It was my f-first try! The next one…will be better.”
Ulyseon paled. “You…intend to do this again, my lady?”
“Of course,” said Maxi with a determined nod. “I shall keep p-practicing…until I get it right.”
Maxi studied the rune again, but she simply could not work out what she had done wrong. She had let her mana flow through the symbol as she had been taught, so why had the shield broken so easily?
“Your mana is moving so slowly that it is weakening your shield to a ridiculous degree. You will need to increase your speed at least threefold for it to function decently.”
“Th-Threefold?”
“Or you could use double the amount of mana.”
Maxi looked dejected. “I think either would be d-difficult.”
“Try, my lady. It should at least be stronger than glass to be considered a shield, don’t you think?
As it is now, I fear a dragonfly would be able to breach it with a flap of its wings.
” Finished with his barrage of criticisms, Ruth waved at Ulyseon, who looked quite pale.
“You may go now. I think I will be able to assist her ladyship by myself.”
With that, he picked up a twig from the ground and swung it in the air as if he were swatting a fly. “We shall consider today’s training a success if you are able to block this.”
Maxi stared at the stick, no thicker than her pinky, and nodded despondently.
—
It took five tries before Maxi managed to block the twig. Her shield was still nowhere near battle ready, so Ruth decided that they would practice a different type of defensive magic instead.
Maxi’s shoulders slumped; she had poured immense effort into her training over the past few days.
Ruth, however, was firm. He did not think that they should be wasting time grappling with a spell she simply was not equipped to do.
Without allowing her time to rest, Ruth immediately drew a different rune on the ground and began his explanation.
“There are two kinds of defensive spells in basic magic. The incorporeal shield and the corporeal barrier. Since it does not seem like you’ll be able to cast a decent shield, a barrier is our only choice.”
“Does that mean…I’ll have to learn a wh-whole new rune? It took me a week…to memorize the rune for the shield.”
“The fundamental design of the runes is practically the same, so I doubt it would take you that long this time. A barrier only requires a quarter of the mana that goes into a shield.”
Maxi narrowed her eyes at him. “Then why didn’t you t-teach me how to cast a barrier first?”
“Because it is far more complex than a shield,” said Ruth, using a stick to etch out a lengthy formula on the ground.
“Compared to a shield, which creates a protective wall purely from mana, a barrier creates a barricade by transforming tangible materials around you. Since it is a spell that involves changing the form of matter, it entails a much more complicated calculation than a shield.”
Maxi grimaced at the dreadfully long formula. “W-Why don’t we…just continue practicing the shield? Who knows…I might be able to improve if we k-keep at it.”
“Certainly, but only if you are able to gather enough mana. At your current rate, it would take at least a year for you to do so. What you need, my lady, are spells you can use now. Would it not be better for you to learn everything you can before I leave?”
Maxi pried her eyes away from the formula, which was already giving her a headache, to look back at the sorcerer. “Has the k-king…sent for the Remdragon Knights?”
“He will soon enough. We received information yesterday that the situation in Livadon is growing serious. The church in Osiriya is deliberating countermeasures as we speak.”
Osiriya’s decision was predictable. They would surely request that military aid be sent from each country in the Seven Kingdoms.
Maxi looked anxious. “H-How long does it take…to reach Livadon?”
“At least a month. Even if one were to ride northwest for two weeks without rest to cross the border, they would still have to travel by ship after that for ten more days. It could take even longer if they were to meet monsters on the way.”
Just imagining the arduous journey was enough to make her heave a sigh.
“I suppose it will be a d-dangerous journey….”
“Indeed. I have had my fill of hardships from our stay in the Lexos Mountains, yet here I am, off to another wretched campaign!” Ruth’s shoulders slumped. “Truth be told, I did not wish to leave Anatol again for the next ten years or so.”
Maxi was worried about how the sorcerer would manage such a long voyage when he found it bothersome to travel the short distance to his own room.
And had he not also told her that every fief was currently struggling with increasing monster invasions?
The journey to Livadon would not be a smooth one.
“D-Do you really think…it would be all right for only a handful of the knights…to leave for the campaign?”
“We cannot leave Anatol defenseless just to help Livadon,” Ruth replied, his impassive mask returning as he scrawled the last bit of the formula. “And remember, we will not be traveling to Livadon by ourselves. We are combining forces with the knights from other territories as we travel northwest.”
“Other knights?”
“Do you think Sir Riftan is King Reuben’s only vassal? Since all of his vassals are sending their knights to comply with his command, we should be able to form quite an army. This is usually how it is done when the king sends troops across borders.”
“I see.”
“And it is not only Wedon. Both Balto and Osiriya will also be sending men. No matter how big the rampaging monster army is, everything should be over before winter arrives.”
Maxi relaxed a little at his confidence. “Then…I presume you’ll be back by early w-winter at the latest.”
“I desperately wish for that to be the case.” Satisfied with the rune, Ruth dusted his hands off and straightened up. “And you will have to take my place to some extent while I am away, my lady.”
“I assure you…I shall do my best,” Maxi replied, hunching her shoulders at the heavy expectation. “But there c-could always be a situation…that I won’t be able to handle by myself. Don’t you think we should hire another h-healer…before you leave?”
“I would have already done so if that were possible, my lady,” Ruth said, crossing his arms with a sigh.
“With the current crisis in Livadon, it seems every mage is set on leaving to join the campaign. Their value has increased several times over. And since everyone wants to hire their own mage, none would be willing to remain in Anatol unless we offer them sizable compensation.”
Maxi’s face clouded with worry. It seemed the world was in bigger turmoil than she had realized.
“Which is why you must strive to improve your abilities as much as possible before I go,” Ruth said, his expression equally grim. “That is the only way I can leave with peace of mind.”
“I shall…try,” Maxi answered weakly as she looked over the intricate, web-like rune.
Ruth patted her shoulder in a show of encouragement, then began to explain the principles behind every complex shape he’d drawn in the dirt.
—
Ten days later, the order from the king arrived just as Ruth had predicted. After reading the decree brought to him by the king’s messenger, Riftan immediately convened a meeting with the knights.
Maxi paced impatiently around her bedchambers as she waited for him to return.
Although he had told her that he intended to assign another knight to take command, the contents of the king’s message could have changed his mind.
King Reuben might have explicitly called on Riftan to lead his knights, making it difficult to defy his orders.
Maxi clasped her hands together as if in prayer.
The mere thought of him leaving frayed her nerves.
She had been waiting with bated breath for quite a while when she heard the door rattle open. Riftan entered the room, exhaustion clearly etched across his face, and she rushed over to him.
“What have you d-decided to do? What did the d-decree say? Y-You are not planning on leaving Anatol, are you?”
Looking surprised, Riftan laid a warm hand on her shoulder. “Maxi, calm down.”