Under the Oak Tree

Chapter 209

They were significantly delayed because of the troll attack that, by the time they stopped to make camp, darkness had already descended on the sky. Knights stood guard holding torches, while priestesses focused on the wounded. Most of their conditions worsened due to traveling continuously despite their weak bodies.

Max went with Idcilla to fetch water from the spring, so they could use it to boil herbs for the medicinal tea. After giving it to the wounded soldiers, they went to prepare a meal with the other priestesses. She was exhausted enough to pass out, but there was no time to take even a short rest. Only after they took care of the injured and handed out food to everyone, could they finally settle down to eat their own meal, consisting of whatever bread and soup was left.

Max didn’t think it was unfair. When the battle broke out, the soldiers risked their lives to protect them, now it was their turn to help nurse them back to health. She filled her stomach with the meager meal in the dark and went to lie down on a blanket near the campfire. Idcilla, who had also worked without a word of complaint, came to lay by her side. After a moment of silence, Max could hear the girl shuffling around.

She asked her in a whisper. “A-are you alright? Are you hurt somewhere...?”

“N-no. It’s just... it’s more terrifying than I thought it would be....” Idcilla blew her nose on the blanket, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. “I’m sorry. I’m a fool. What I did is practically not different from begging you to come with me...”

“No, i-it’s not. I... made my own decision.” Max responded quickly, then added hesitantly. “Do you want to go b-back?”

Idcilla shook her head. “Nothing like that. No, honestly, I want to go back. But still... I won’t do it.”

She bit her lip lightly before continuing. “You remember I told you about my older brother, right?” Max nodded. Idcilla’s voice was as weak as the wick of a dying candle. “Elba did not join the war to maintain his honor as a knight despite suffering from an injury. Although he claimed it was to maintain his honor... in truth, he did it to raise money for my dowry. My family is one of the oldest families in Livadon, but... since my father’s generation, our wealth and influence has been in constant decline. And my fiancé is from the Sedo clan of the southern region...”

“In that r-region... do they ask for a large amount of dowry?”

Idcilla nodded stiffly. “I told them to break the engagement, but my father would not hear it. For a noble woman, breaking an engagement or marriage is the same as a death sentence... Elba didn’t want me to be subjected to such a dishonorable situation. So, to earn my dowry, my father sold the little land we had left and Elba was forced to join the war. I knew this... I just pretended not to know and did nothing to stop it. If I had just walked into the monastery and become a priestess earlier... If Elba... ended up like those soldiers buried in the ground today... If something like that happens to him, I will never be able to forgive myself.”

Max heard the faint sound of sobbing. To think that Idcilla was struggling with guilt all that time... it all made sense now, she could understand why she came up with such a reckless decision. She was very unfamiliar with it all. A brother who would risk his life for his little sister, or a father who would sell his land for his daughter; it sounded like something out of a storybook.

“Sorry. You must feel uncomfortable from what I just revealed.”

“...It’s fine.”

“Tomorrow, everything will be better.” Idcilla wiped away her tears with her sleeves and claimed defiantly. “I must be very tired because my emotions became vulnerable.”

“...sleep now. When d-dawn comes... we’ll have to leave for the road again.”

Idcilla nodded and covered her head with a blanket. No more crying could be heard, the girl had to be really exhausted since she fell asleep very soon. Max rolled onto her back and looked up at the starry sky with a grim expression. Although she was born a girl, she never imagined that she would be loved. If she were smarter, prettier, and didn’t stutter, would have the Duke of Croix treat her differently? She felt her heart freeze at the thought.

Max curled up and pulled the blanket over her chin. There’s no use in making yourself miserable by comparing yourself to others.

She had Riftan now. Even when she was tattered and covered in dirt, he loved her. Just having him by her side was what she would probably ever need. Max closed her eyes and tried to erase the memories of her miserable past.

The next day, the preparations to depart began even before dawn broke. Max, feeling her mana returning, applied some healing magic to the wounded. The injured soldiers were not surprised as they thought they were receiving divine magic. Sighing in relief, Max went to the stream to fetch water to make breakfast; however, when she got there, she was the only priestess around. Perhaps the other priestesses already brought water.

Max turned towards the camp, when she suddenly saw her reflection in the water. She had been wearing the suffocating robe since the beginning of the expedition, so the exposed part of her face and neck were sticky with sweat. She hesitated for a moment, then quickly sat down near the water, pulled back her hood, and splashed the cold water over her face and neck. Her clothes were getting soaked, but she didn’t care. Rolling up her sleeves, she washed her arms and armpits before getting up.

At that moment, Max heard a rustling sound above her. She looked up and froze, as her face paled: it was Sir Quahel Leon, perched on top of a steep rock. He looked down at her with an expressionless face as he bit into his apple. It suddenly dawned on her that no one was around there to avoid disturbing his rest. She hurriedly covered her head with hood and quickly went to leave, but a monotonous voice stopped her from escaping.

“What were you thinking coming all the way here?”

Her heart fell to her stomach. The knight threw the core of the apple into the bushes and leaped off the rock.

“I’ve been snooping around and noticed that the Archduke knows nothing about this... just how did you sneak in?”

“Wha-what... are you talking about...”

Max pulled the hood down to her chin and played ignorant. The man said nothing for a while and stared at her, as if prompting her to answer his question.

Max felt her mouth go dry. “I-I must return, I have something to do...”

“I have delivered your letter.”

As soon as he said that, Max couldn’t move as if she was caught in a snare. It occurred to her that he may be lying, but the temptation was too hard for her to resist, she wanted to know from him.

“Is... is he hurt...?”

“Who the hell could hurt that person?”

Her eyes immediately filled with tears at his confident tone and her heart lit up with relief. She slowly raised her head to detect any lies in his words, but the man simply looked at her with an inexplicable expression. His eyebrows furrowed and his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

“Did you come all the way here just to verify that?”

Max grew red at the accusatory tone. “P-Please pretend you didn’t see me. I’ll make sure that I won’t bring you any trouble...”

“You didn’t have to go this length, nothing will harm him.”

Max looked at him furiously, upset at his sullen tone. “Ri-Riftan... is not immortal.”

The Paladin’s mouth twisted, as if wanting to refute her statement, but decided to keep his mouth shut. A strange emotion, too quick to understand, flickered through his cold gaze.

“Nothing will change even with the lady here.”

“...I know that. I j-just... want to see his face even from afar, I m-miss him...”

Max stammered in shame; her ears dying red in embarrassment. Sir Quahel, who was looking down at her, spoke bluntly.

“The camp where Calypse is in is at least a day or over away from Servyn Castle. Won’t that make your goal quite difficult to achieve?”

Doing her best to hide her disappointment, Max spoke as calmly as possible. “I-it doesn’t matter. As long as I can get frequent news about the situation, since it’s closer than the city, that would be enough for me.”

The Paladin’s mouth remained closed at her answer and Max looked into his impassive face with pleading eyes. Sensing her despair, the man frowned and went to pick up the cloak he had left on a nearby branch.

“It would be better for me to pretend that I don’t know you’re here. Otherwise, I would have to go to the trouble of finding an escort for the Lady. Do as you please.”

The man’s emotionless eyes slowly looked her up and down. Max hunched her shoulders, realizing how shabby and filthy she must appear. The knight opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something else, but turned and walked away, knowing it was none of his business to meddle in. The tension on her shoulders barely subsided. The knight didn’t seem to want to be involved in her affairs, and it made sense. The Commander of the Holy Knights could not be bothered by whatever she was doing. She slowly returned to the camp to prepare breakfast with the other priestesses and then she tended to the wounded.

Once the sun rose, the expedition began to move. Those who could ride on horseback did so, while those who couldn’t were transported through carriages. Because of that, the already crowded carts now barely had room to breathe. Max, sandwiched between everyone, began to nod off. The other priestesses were also drained by the scare of the day before and fell asleep despite the violent shaking of the wagon. After travelling for half a day, the wagon suddenly stopped moving. Max, still in a groggy state, looked out the window and saw the walls of a huge castle. They had reached Servyn Castle.

“I-Idcilla... I think we’ve arrived.”

Idcilla, who was sleeping on Max’s shoulder, raised her head. She leaned over and peered out of the window. Soon, the barred gates of the territory rumbled open for them and the wagons began to move again. She looked around curiously outside the window as they passed through the gates. Ruined buildings and debris were scattered everywhere, which were perhaps brought by the trolls’ conquest. Most of the walls were half-collapsed and the buildings were burned down, some were even reduced to ashes. If it hadn’t been for the thickly packed tents ahead and the Livadon flag, Max would have thought the city was abandoned.

“We have arrived. You may come out now.”

The wagons stopped and the soldiers went to open the doors. Max came out of the wagon with dozen other priestesses and a soldier led them to their tent.

“Follow me.” He instructed.

She did as she was told while looking around. Horses were tied to the fences, soldiers were busily running in and out of the barracks, and priests were busy caring for the wounded. She poked her head out, trying to find a familiar face, when the soldier leading them stopped abruptly, causing her to crush her nose into Selena’s back who was walking ahead of her.

“The women will be staying here.”

The soldier rolled up the entrance to their barracks and Max bent over to catch a glimpse of the inside. Thick piles of hay littered the floor of the low-ceilinged tent. The dark space was clearly only set up for sleeping, there was no space for privacy if one wanted to change or wash, and there was no proper bedding either. The space was so small that Max didn’t think there was even room for them to toss and turn in their sleep.

All the priestesses went inside, and Max sat at one corner of the tent with Idcilla. She organized her bag and immediately went back outside. The priest outside instructed them on their chores. They were responsible for preparing breakfast and dinner, while caring for the wounded all day. In addition to their main tasks, they also had to fetch water several times a day, tend to the horses, wash clothes once every ten days, and occasionally attend to the knights. Max’s face paled at the thought of having to do so much work, but she had no right to complain. Determined, she immediately went to work.

She also wanted to gather information about the Remdragon Knights right away, but with so much on her plate, it was going to be hard to find time to talk to the soldiers. Max got so worried internally that Selena took pity on her and went out of her way to gather information on Ethylene for her.

“I heard that reinforcements have arrived from Balto. And it seems that the situation is not as bad as it seems.”

“R-really?” Max, who was starting a bonfire with a soot smeared on her face, smiled genuinely.

Selena nodded. “I also heard that Sir Calypse is doing incredible on the battlefield. He managed to relentlessly defeat an army of a thousand trolls with only two hundred knights. There’s no one as valiant as him.”

Note – LF: I feel bad for Idcilla, I understand her now ☹ On another note, imagine someone slaughtering a thousand trolls because he wants to go back to you as soon as he can— Damn, I am selling my soul to get myself a Riftan.

Announcement – Nymeria: Hey guys! There was a little mistake with chapter 207 and 208, we fixed them as soon as we noticed, now they’re properly edited if you want to take another look at them ???? We also want to say something to y’all dear readers. First of all thank you for your love, we’re happy to translate this for you to read, but we want to ask you guys to be more understanding. We know you’d like to have more chapters per week, and we talked among ourselves about this matter, so in the end we wanted to meet your needs and decided to increase our weekly rating post to 4, but not more than that. We have many reasons to do this, please understand that we have to deal with more than just keeping high quality translations, there are many things involved in the work we’re doing here. The LNH team hopes you’ll keep going through this journey with us! Happy reading ????