Chapter 25
As soon as she left, the tension drained from my trembling legs, and before I knew it, I collapsed to the floor.
Davien seemed firmly convinced that I was Ibeliana. She probably thought I had infiltrated the Helderios family with some hidden scheme.
When I remembered the way Davien had looked at me with eyes full of killing intent, my body started shaking again. Until the maids brought breakfast, I stayed crouched there, trembling.
I’m not the real Ibeliana.
Why did I come to a place like this and end up suffering like this?
When a maid came in with breakfast and saw me, she gasped and gently wrapped the blanket from the bed around my shoulders.
“Are you very cold, miss?”
No. I’m scared.
Soon after, other maids came in carrying firewood and lit the fireplace. When I drank the tea they handed me, my shaking body slowly began to calm down.
I wanted to escape from this terrifying place as soon as possible.
But if I tried to run away secretly from here, I felt like Davien would catch me and throw me into a deep underground prison.
At that moment, Lloyd came to mind.
Should I ask Lloyd again to send me back to Zeronia?
At least I should try talking to him. Even if I said I was leaving for Zeronia, he didn’t seem like the type who would snap my spine in half or lock me in an underground prison.
Barely touching my food, I put down my spoon. I grabbed the maid who was about to leave with the tray and asked her to take me to Lloyd.
“But you were told you need absolute rest right now…”
“Please, I’m begging you. If not, at least tell me the way. Please.”
At my desperate plea, the maid sighed as if giving up.
“The young duke should be at his private training grounds around now. It would be difficult for you to go alone, so I’ll guide you.”
She took some outdoor clothes from the wardrobe. Even though I insisted I could dress myself, she carefully helped me get dressed anyway and then guided me to Lloyd’s training grounds.
“If you start feeling unwell, please tell me immediately.”
I followed behind the maid.
In front of the building was a large, beautifully arranged garden. A winding white gravel path stretched through it, and after walking along it for quite some time, the maid pointed toward one of the large buildings in the distance.
“That is the young duke’s private training ground.”
What a ridiculous waste of money. A training ground used by just one person, and it was enormous.
The estate itself was so huge that a private training ground being that size almost made sense. Without the maid guiding me, I would have definitely gotten lost.
At that point, I realized that trying to escape alone had been a crazy idea. If I had just run out blindly, I would have wandered around aimlessly and been caught by Davien, then sent straight to the underground prison.
Thinking that, I walked toward the absurdly large training ground—when suddenly, shouting came from a nearby building.
“This place is…?”
“Oh, this is the Fifth Knight Order’s training ground. It seems the knights are in training.”
There wasn’t just one knight order, but a Fifth Knight Order? Once again, I was reminded of how powerful the ducal family really was.
“…The smell of blood?”
Did training grounds usually smell this strongly of blood?
The heavy scent of blood hit me so hard that my head started spinning.
“Wait!”
“Ah! Miss! It’s dangerous!”
Ignoring the maid’s urgent cries, I ran toward the training ground. The closer I got, the stronger the stench of blood became.
And there, I saw—
“What…?”
A monster as large as a house was growling as it faced off against the knights.
A face shaped like a screaming human, a lion-like body, and grotesque tentacles writhing freely.
“Don’t tell me… a manticore…?”
A massive monster said to live only at the far edge of the continent was roaming freely in the middle of the capital, inside a ducal training ground.
Were they training with a manticore? These knights were insane.
The training I imagined was men taking off their shirts and swinging swords. But here, dozens of knights were covered in blood and wounds, fighting giant monsters.
While the knights were gradually growing exhausted, the manticore became even more aggressive and attacked relentlessly.
“Ah… at this rate, they’ll die.”
I hurriedly bit down hard on my right index finger and drew a magic circle with the blood that flowed out.
Enduring the sharp pain, I completed a dark red magic circle. It was a wide-area healing magic circle, meant to replace the wand I had left in my room.
When I recited a short spell, the magic circle began to glow red with a low humming sound.
Now then… what was the activation phrase for wide-area healing again…?
Just like last time, I recalled the words the healer in the game I used to play would say when reviving people, and muttered softly.
“Let’s fight again.”
The moment the activation phrase ended, a powerful light spread through the training ground.
“Aaagh?!”
“W–what is this?!”
The knights’ bodies, which had been covered in blood and wounds, were healed in an instant. As dozens of knights were healed at once, the manticore looked visibly confused.
“Alright! Get your strength back!”
At the shout of a man who seemed to be the knight commander, the knights let out a loud roar and charged at the manticore again.
‘Hang in there, knights!’
Even though the manticore fought back fiercely, it was still facing knights who were being endlessly healed. As long as I supplied mana and the magic circle remained, the healing would continue without limit.
Before long, under the relentless attacks, the manticore collapsed with a heavy thud.
The knights, who had been on the brink of death when I arrived, now looked lively again as they gathered around the fallen manticore, chatting among themselves.
Thank goodness. Everyone’s alive.
Now, I should go meet Lloyd.
Just as I finished erasing the slowly fading magic circle—
“What brings you here?”
A low voice and warm breath brushed close to my ear.
“…?”
Startled, I quickly turned around and met a pair of purple eyes right in front of me.
“Sir Lloyd?”
A fresh scent swept past my nose along with his sharp nose and long lashes. My heart nearly burst at the sudden appearance of such a handsome man. For a moment, I even thought about forgetting Zeronia and just marrying him and settling down here.
I quickly snapped out of it and took a deep breath, calming my racing heart.
Get it together, Kae. Think about Davien, who wants you dead!
“You’re not in good condition. What were you doing here?”
His gaze moved to the magic circle I had been desperately erasing.
“This is…?”
Lloyd grabbed my right hand in surprise. My finger, which I had bitten with all my strength, was badly injured.
Lloyd’s face hardened as he held my hand.
“Why did you use wide-area healing magic here?”
Did I do something wrong?
At his cold question, I answered in a fluster.
“Well… a monster appeared in the training ground.”
“A monster?”
“The knights were badly injured, so I was afraid something terrible would happen…”
At my shrinking voice, Lloyd’s face grew even colder.
“Did the knights ask you for help?”
“Ah… no.”
“The Helderios knights train every month using monsters captured alive from dungeons. It’s nothing unusual. Their injuries would have been treated by the order’s healers. You acted unnecessarily.”
This place was insane. No matter how strong and famously harsh the Helderios knights were, training monthly with a monster like a manticore was beyond extreme.
Maybe because the leaders were monsters themselves, they worked their subordinates just as hard.
Thinking of the knights risking their lives just to earn money, and seeing Lloyd frown seriously, I apologized.
I mean, I really had interfered.
“I made a mistake after seeing a manticore, something I’d only read about in theory books. When people are badly hurt, I end up moving without thinking. It’s like an occupational habit… I’m sorry for interrupting the knights’ training.”
“Manticore?”
At my apology, Lloyd hurriedly turned his head toward the training ground.
“What is this…?”
When his eyes landed on the fallen manticore’s corpse among the busy, murmuring knights, his expression clearly shook. Suddenly, he took my hand.
“Come with me for a moment.”
“Y–yes?”
Before I could even finish answering, he gently led me into the training ground.
At Lloyd’s appearance, the knights who had been moving in perfect coordination stopped and saluted him. I felt their gazes turn toward me, but at Lloyd’s gesture, they quickly looked away and returned to their duties.
“Sir Lloyd!”
A man in a commander’s uniform ran over, calling his name.
“What happened, Turner? Wasn’t today’s training monster supposed to be a skeleton goblin?”
At Lloyd’s question, the man named Turner snapped to attention and replied.
“Yes, sir. That’s correct. However, what came out of the sealing container was a manticore.”
“A… manticore?”
“It seems the seal on the manticore you captured in the Jenshu Dungeon last year weakened slightly and leaked into the skeleton goblin’s sealing container.”
Lloyd’s face began to tremble slightly.
“This is insane. How are you managing the sealing containers? How many casualties?”
When Lloyd shouted angrily, Turner shrank back and answered.
“You may find it hard to believe, but there were no casualties. When we were on the verge of annihilation, someone cast a wide-area healing spell. Thanks to that, every member of the Fifth Knight Order and all healers are completely unharmed.”
Lloyd’s gaze turned back to me.
His face was still stiff, but soon he gently kissed the back of my hand and spoke.
“It was thanks to you. Thank you.”
At that moment, I felt the stares of Turner and all the knights in the training ground stabbing into the back of my head.
But Lloyd didn’t care.
“However, I still can’t forgive you for injuring your own body. Never do that again.”
As Lloyd lifted his lips from my hand, Turner—who had been glancing back and forth between us—seemed to sense his chance and spoke up.
“Um… Sir Lloyd, this lady is…?”
At Turner’s question, Lloyd looked at me, smiled slightly, and answered.
“She’s the one who saved the entire Fifth Knight Order today. And the woman who will one day become the lady of Helderios.”
And the moment those words ended, loud cheers erupted throughout the training ground.
