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Chapter 57
This Is Unbearable
“Your Highness!”
Even as the snow began to fall, Herya did not move to take cover.
Seeing this, Moldin grabbed the reins of his horse. The horse reluctantly moved, leading them deeper into the forest.
Immediately, an ear-piercing roar came down upon them along with a blizzard of snow. A biting wind, icy cold as if frozen, whipped around.
After a while, the snow stopped, and the rumble of the ground finally quieted.
All traces of the battle that had just taken place were completely erased, as if it had been a dream.
The knights, staring at the pristine snowfield, murmured in astonishment.
“My goodness. Could the Aeps have done this on purpose?”
“It must have been their scheme,” one replied.
The Duke recalled how unusually quiet the forest path had been. The army must have lain in wait until the spot where the avalanche fell, then struck.
It was an unexpectedly intelligent tactic.
“Damn it! The princess has disappeared!”
Herya cursed, spurring his horse onward. He seemed ready to dig through the site of the avalanche at once.
Moldin struggled to hold him back.
“Just a moment, Sir Deon! First, we need to check if she’s with the troops—”
“She was right behind me! Where the hell did she go, I didn’t even see! You idiot!”
“Sir! Please calm down!”
“I couldn’t avoid it! We need to save her, now!”
With a powerful shove, Moldin fell backward, landing hard on his backside. An ordinary priest stood no chance against a determined knight.
Herya charged ahead like a madman, clawing through the snow with his bare hands. His hands were gradually stained red, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“The princess has disappeared?”
The Duke watched as the guard tore through knee-deep snow, almost losing his wits. He quickly ordered Rose to search the ranks.
“Duke?”
At that moment, amid the commotion, a few knights arrived carrying the princess. She looked a bit dirty but otherwise unharmed.
Everyone let out a sigh of relief.
“You’re safe.”
“Of course… But what was all that commotion? Why haven’t we received further orders?”
Rose had killed an Aep that was attacking the supplies and checked if any other monsters had slipped in behind. Soon, the command to avoid the avalanche was heard, and she moved with the knights in the rear into the forest.
After the snow stopped, they waited for the next orders, puzzled at the silence from the unit.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Moldin examined her carefully.
“No. Why is everyone staring at me like that?”
At that moment, Rose spotted Herya ahead, frantically searching through the snow.
“Herya?”
He paused and turned around, exhaling visible white breaths. Rose looked at him in confusion, unsure what was happening.
“Why…”
Herya strode through the snow toward her, grabbed her shoulders, and shook her fiercely, his voice furious.
“Are you crazy? I told you to stay behind me!”
“Ouch! That hurts! Why are you so worked up?”
“Worked up? Monsters were pouring in from every direction, the snow was coming down, and you suddenly disappeared!”
Rose was stunned at his irrational behavior.
“I thought you were buried in snow!”
“I went to check the supplies because an Aep was attacking them.”
“Aep?”
Only then did Herya notice the bloodstained hem of her clothes and jumped even higher.
“Are you hurt?!”
“It’s not my blood. Calm down, please.”
Rose grabbed his hand to pull him away. His hand was ice-cold.
“And your hands… why are they like this?”
“The monsters were after the supplies,” Rose explained.
Duke Benoît nodded, confirming her words.
“Yes. They cut the reins of the wagon linked to the supplies. They probably intended to let it get swept away by the avalanche.”
“Clever,” the Duke said.
“If it weren’t for her, we might have lost everything.”
The knights murmured among themselves.
“Fighting Aeps like this… unbelievable.”
“There are plenty of injured soldiers too.”
The army, which had underestimated the smaller monsters, was thrown into chaos by the unexpected skirmish. Rose sensed the unrest and gave the next order.
“Quickly set up camp, treat the wounded, and assess the damage.”
Duke Benoît nodded and instructed the knights to find a suitable location for the night.
Once the aftermath of the battle settled, Rose’s gaze returned to Herya. He looked at her with a weary expression.
“You scared me,” he muttered weakly.
“Don’t do anything reckless like that again. What if the Aeps had attacked you?”
“You taught me how to hit the vital points,” she said.
“I didn’t teach you that to scare me like this.”
“Thanks to you, we handled it and protected the supplies. Sorry for disappearing without a word, but it was urgent.”
Rose smiled awkwardly, warming Herya’s cold hands with her breath. Herya sighed as he saw her blood-stained collar.
“I can’t even handle guarding you properly,” he muttered.
The army moved away from the avalanche site and set up tents to treat the wounded. Rose wrapped a bandage on a knight’s arm and finished disinfecting his injury.
“Don’t wield your sword with this hand for a while.”
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
She wiped the sweat from her brow and watched Moldin using divine magic to heal others. The white glow that flowed after his prayers resembled “Regeneration,” though unlike it, the wounds didn’t instantly close.
Divine magic focused on boosting the injured’s vitality and preventing secondary infection. Once the priests worked, the medics performed direct treatment.
“Your Highness.”
The Duke peeked into the tent and called her out.
“Could you step outside for a moment?”
Rose entrusted the wounded to the medics and left the tent.
“What is it?”
“The vanguard has reported. They broke through to the fortress and joined the allied forces.”
Rose swallowed nervously.
“Everyone is safe?”
“The prince is unharmed.”
“And the members of the Remigis Knights?”
The Duke furrowed his brow.
“It seems a few of the royal knights have suffered Magi poisoning.”
Rose’s heart sank.
“Who…?”
“I don’t know yet. Even Sir Sabas is having trouble with the medicine.”
For now, Tanasis and Sabas appeared safe. But Rose felt uneasy hearing that someone from the Remigis Knights had been injured.
‘Who could it be… not Arsen, I hope.’
Her troubled expression deepened, and the Duke continued.
“We sent scouts and found footprints likely from the vanguard. At dawn tomorrow, we’ll follow that path.”
“Understood. I’ll finish treating the wounded today.”
After the Duke left, a medic came for her, and Rose reentered the tent. In the dim light, Herya appeared, staring at his bloodied hands and glancing at the inside of the tent.
Through the gaps, he saw the princess tirelessly tending to the wounded. He blinked slowly, dropped his hands, and turned away without hesitation.
The rear guard moved quickly northward. Soon, they reached a wide basin in the midst of the forest.
“We’ll camp here tonight.”
Though it was still early, this was the safest place for the army to spend the night. The surrounding forest made ambushes easier to defend against.
Rose leaned against her horse’s neck as soon as it stopped.
“I thought I was going to die.”
Navigating the snowy, uneven slopes had left her body aching. Herya extended his arm to help her.
“Here, take my hand.”
She barely stepped down with his support, and he attended to her horse while she gulped water from her canteen. Ice chunks clinked in the leather pouch.
“Ugh, it’s cold.”
She took a red perilla leaf from her bag and chewed it, feeling warmth spread in her mouth.
“Give me one too.”
Herya held out his gloved hand, and she placed a leaf on it.
“New gloves?”
He had previously refused gloves, thinking them inconvenient. She had chided him before for this.
“You’ve been enduring the cold, huh? Told you to wear them earlier.”
He shrugged and silently chewed the leaf. Soon, a servant brought a brazier and lit a fire nearby.
“Is this seat taken?”
“No, come sit. Moldin, priest.”
Moldin placed a metal pot on the fire.
“Tonight we can finally stretch out and sleep.”
He was a bit excited at the chance to sleep on flat ground. Rose smiled softly.
“I can’t keep up with the knights’ pace on the march.”
“No kidding. If only you trained your stamina for the crusades.”
“Your Highness, you should’ve seen Sir Deon shove me earlier.”
“Shove you?”
Rose’s eyes widened as she stared at Herya.
“Just a little shove. Falling over from that is the real problem.”
“A little? He practically threw me. I thought my arm would break.”
Their bickering made Rose laugh. It was a brief respite amid their exhausting journey.
“By the way, Your Highness. About what I mentioned before…”
Moldin lowered his voice, glancing around.
“It seems the matter is more serious than we thought.”
Rose tensed, listening closely.
“There used to be a shipping route to the Dense Fog Lake from Thebe.”
“Shipping route… so it was a regular route?”
“Yes. Sailing into waters where monsters live—one wouldn’t do that without a purpose.”
“To gather ranch materials, perhaps.”
“Likely. It seems the rumors about the World Tree in Dense Fog Lake are true.”
The messengers of the gods greedily sought the spirit trees. Their continuous misdeeds increased magic and made monsters more ferocious.
“But now all such shipping routes are closed.”
“That means…”
No longer using the route means no need to go to Dense Fog Lake anymore. Moldin nodded somberly, acknowledging her thoughts.
“It seems the World Tree has been contaminated.”
