Edrick shouted loudly toward them.
“Her Highness has been injured! She needs healing magic at once!”
Upon hearing that, Sir Hart instructed the knight following behind him to bring a mage.
A short while later, a young mage belonging to the Imperial Family came running over.
While he examined the Princess’s condition, Edrick and the knights began the work of clearing away the stones.
When they lifted the rock pressing down on her knee, her completely crushed knee and calf were revealed beneath the torn hem of her skirt.
Seeing several pieces of bone protruding through her skin, Edrick swallowed a groan.
In this condition, even if healing magic were cast, she might never be able to use her leg again.
“If we heal the wound like this, the shape of the leg will become completely twisted. First, we need to move her to the campsite, then set the bones.”
The mage, who had been examining the Princess’s condition with a grave face, spoke in a heavy, sunken voice.
Edrick looked at him with a dark expression.
“Will she be able to hold on until then?”
“I have cast recovery magic on her, so she should be all right for now.”
The mage replied as if sighing, then rubbed the back of his neck and added,
“Still, it would be best to splint her leg so the wound does not open further. Do we have any suitable tool?”
“Will this do?”
Sir Hart removed the scabbard from his waist and held it out.
The mage took the scabbard, shook it lightly as if judging its weight, then slowly nodded.
“Then I will bind her leg, so please hold the underside.”
Edrick immediately followed the mage’s instruction and carefully supported her swollen calf.
At that moment, a pained scream burst from the woman’s limp mouth.
Startled, Edrick lost his grip.
The leg with the bone protruding from it fell to the ground and spurted dark red blood.
As he stood there helplessly before the horrific sight, Varkas, who had been watching the situation from a little distance away, wrapped both arms around the Princess’s upper body and held her firmly.
“Hurry and stop the bleeding!”
Snapping back to his senses, Edrick hurriedly grabbed her leg.
Meanwhile, the mage tore his cloak and pressed down on the long wound running from her thigh to her knee.
With her face buried against Sir Siarkan’s chest, the Princess let out beast-like groans and wildly scratched the back of his neck with her dark red nails.
“That’s enough! Now bind the splint!”
Following the mage’s urgent shout, the knights bent down and fixed her leg against the long scabbard.
At last, when the emergency treatment was finished, Sir Siarkan lifted her in both arms.
Edrick urgently reached out toward him.
“I will carry her. Commander, your wound.......”
Just as his hand was about to touch her, the man’s arms pulled the woman’s body close toward himself.
At that defensive movement, Edrick paused.
Varkas narrowed his brow as if annoyed and gestured with his chin.
“Enough. Lead the way. There is no time to delay.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Muttering an apology without realizing it, Edrick took the torch and hurriedly lit the path.
They could not climb the steep slope while carrying the Princess in that state, so to reach the campsite, they would have to go around the rock wall.
He walked along the dark forest path and glanced back at Varkas.
The light held by the knights faintly illuminated one side of the man’s face.
Edrick stared at that face, which looked not only cold but even weary, then soon faced forward again.
Now was not the time to wonder about what that man was thinking.
Driving away the stray thoughts flickering in his mind, Edrick quickened his steps and left the densely wooded forest.
***
Her leg felt as though it were burning.
Groaning from pain that felt as if her skin were boiling, Thalia barely lifted her heavy eyelids, which would not open properly as though coated with glue.
Within her flickering vision, a ceiling mottled with firelight came into view.
Her confused expression lasted only a moment before pain, as if her bones were being gouged, made Thalia twist her body and let out a sharp scream.
“Hold her down so she cannot move!”
Drawn by the unfamiliar voice, she lowered her gaze and saw a plump, well-built middle-aged man bent deeply over her leg.
With one hand pressing down on her thigh, he was digging through her blood-soaked knee with something like a small pair of forceps.
Thalia watched the sight with eyes overwhelmed by fear, then twisted her body to escape from the man.
At that, someone standing by her pillow roughly pressed down on her shoulder.
“Your Highness! Please calm down!”
Thalia gasped harshly and looked up at the pitch-black shadow cast over her.
The haggard face, marked with deep fatigue, looked somehow familiar.
Only after a few seconds did she realize it was one of the maids Senevier had assigned to her.
But she did not feel even the slightest relief.
Thalia, whose pupils were dilated, looked back and forth between the maid’s hardened face and the man probing through her knee, then reached out and scratched the woman’s face.
The maid, who had been pressing down on her body with tanned, firm arms, screamed and hurriedly pulled her hands away.
Not missing that opening, Thalia began crawling across the bed to escape, but a rough hand shot out from somewhere and pinned her wrist to the bed.
Thalia struggled violently like an animal caught in a trap.
“Let go of me! I said let go!”
“Please calm down! We are treating your wound right now. You must not move like that!”
The man shouted desperately and pressed down on her upper body with his armored chest.
Thalia began struggling even more violently.
Extreme pain felt as if it were tearing her entire body to pieces.
But the fear that she had to run away immediately overwhelmed every other sensation.
“No! Don’t touch my body!”
“Bring a sleeping draught at once!”
The man shouted loudly.
A familiar fear and helplessness tightened around her throat.
Thalia looked up in terror at the rough face covered in dark shadows.
Her guard knight, who had always acted like a fool, was now wearing a viciously hardened expression as he restrained her.
She reached out to scratch his face.
“G-get away! I said leave me alone!”
When she screamed between rough sobs, a short curse burst from the man’s mouth.
Thalia twisted her body even more desperately.
At that, the man gathered her wrists in one hand and brought a cold glass bottle to her lips.
“Please drink. When you wake after sleeping, everything will be over.”
Thalia pressed her lips tightly shut.
But he did not give up easily.
Pressing the mouth of the medicine bottle firmly against her lower lip, the man spoke as if pleading.
“It is not poison! It is medicine that will help you not feel pain during the treatment. So please......”
Despite the knight’s desperate appeal, Thalia held out with her teeth clenched.
She could not trust anyone.
Everyone must be trying to do something terrible to me once I become powerless.
Thalia knocked the medicine bottle away with her elbow and stubbornly forced herself upright.
Then, as she thrashed her blood-soaked leg to escape from the beasts holding her down, she saw a slender shadow suddenly enter the tent.
The moment she confirmed his face, Thalia’s body went stiff.
The man who had brought with him the scent of heavy rain held her upper body with arms like snares.
There was no time to flee.
Varkas, who had positioned himself behind her, held her upper body firmly with one arm and nodded to the knight.
“Bring the medicine.”
The knight immediately obeyed the order.
Receiving a new medicine bottle, Varkas pulled out the cork stopper with his molars and pushed the mouth of the bottle to her lips.
Thalia stared at it with trembling eyes, then shifted her gaze to his expressionless face.
Varkas urged her in a low tone.
“Drink.”
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