“


  Max was distracted from the ongoing battle, when Garrow’s urgent voice pulled her out of it. She was shaken from her distraction and quickly fled across the uneven dirt terrain. Right now, their priority was to escape to a safe place and get out of the battle’s harm. She gathered the hem of her dress in one hand and ran across the chaotic plaza at once. They headed north and soon she saw a large barrack where all of the food supply was being protected by several soldiers.

  Garrow ushered Max into the makeshift storage house.

  Max looked around the warehouse, sacks of grains were piled on top of one another like mountains, she then found the priestesses at the heart of the place, sitting close to each other. Max ran to them at once and Idcilla jumped from her seat upon seeing her.

  Idcilla chewed on her lip, tears started welling up in her eyes like she was about to cry. Max tried to comfort her as looked at the fear-filled priestesses’ faces. Looking through them, there were quite a few missing from the group. Idcilla sobbed softly as Max held her.

  Max felt her head begin to ache dreadfully as counted the number of wounded lying on the ground like corpses and held her forehead. Yulysion was quick to help her regain her balance.

  Idcilla, who has lost half of her right mind, rushed to interrogate Yulysion. Yulysion quickly waved his hand to try to calm the hysterical girl.

  Idcilla’s frantic screams echoed throughout the warehouse. Some priestesses began to sob, unable to overcome their fear. When the situation inside began to spiral out of control, the knight leading the soldiers outside yelled loudly.

  The loud crying gradually subsided at his commanding voice. Idcilla, barely managing to regain her control, muttered an apology under her breath, then sat back down with the other priestesses. Time passed agonizingly slowly. A minute felt like an hour; an hour felt like a day. The howl of the ghouls and the screams of the soldiers continued endlessly. Only when they thought that this nightmare had no end, two soldiers jumped into the barracks.

  Just when they were able to sigh in relief, the soldier continued to speak urgently.

  The knight ordered the priestesses to immediately heal those who were injured and they headed out with wary but determined expressions. Max refused Yulysion’s dissuasions and followed the priestesses. The aftermath unfolded before her eyes: the barracks were in ruins and the soldiers busily weaved through them.

  The soldiers were pushing piles of wreckage to one side, making space to build makeshift beds and carrying the injured to lie on them. Along with the other priestesses, Max went straight to aid the injured soldiers. There were a total of 32 patients: it was a high number, considering that there were only about three hundred of the troops left in Ethylene Castle.

  After examining the patients’ conditions, she prioritized casting healing magic to those who had minor injuries. Right now, having even one of them up to their feet and capable of helping defend the castle was most important.

  As Max was in the midst of healing the wounded, she heard a loud and familiar voice scream. She immediately raised her head to see. Just a short distance away, Hebaron was holding his claymore in his hand, exclaiming loudly.

  Ruth was standing in front of him, yelling back at him with an equally angry face.

  Seeing their fight, Max hurriedly ran towards them. The two growling men immediately stopped their fights when they saw her approaching. She looked at Hebaron, unable to believe that he was wearing his armor and all on. Before either man could say anything, Max scolded the great knight.

  Hebaron made an annoyed gesture and sheathed his sword, which was longer than Max’s height, on his back.

  Hebaron interrupted in a sour tone and turned to head toward where the fighting was taking place. Seeing this, Ruth cursed out loud.

  Hebaron glared back at him, his teeth gritted tightly.

  Hebaron shrugged his shoulders and strode towards the castle gates. Max hurriedly went to chase after him and try to stop him, but Ruth grabbed her arm.

  Ruth spat out as he took in a deep breath.

  Hearing the bitter tone to Ruth’s voice, Max looked anxiously at Hebaron. The knight mounted his horse so effortlessly that it was hard to believe that he was suffering from a bad injury. Then, he went to approach the Grand Duke Aren, who was forming the battle lines. Their conversation grew more grim as they saw them prepare for battle.

  Ruth rubbed his face roughly and pointed at an area inside the castle. Max turned her head following his hand and held her breath. The ghouls’ corpses that were in a pile wriggled and twitched slowly. Ruth spoke in a calm manner as he gazed at the creatures still moving despite the long spears impaled through them.

  Suddenly, Ruth had a grim expression on his face.

  Max shuddered. For one of the best wizards in the world to say such a thing, they had to be in a very eminent, dangerous situation.

  Before Ruth could finish, a thunderous roar shot through the skies that seemed to break their eardrums. Max covered her ears and a flash of fire blazed from outside the walls accompanied by a blast of wind from the pressure. Ruth spat out curses.

  He screamed fiercely, and all the wizards who were tending to the wounded rushed to climb the castle walls. Max followed them, thinking that she might be of help even with her weak mana, but she barely took two steps before Ruth resolutely stopped her.

  Ruth didn’t bother to hear a single word of what she said. He called over his shoulder for Yulysion and Garrow.

  Yulysion immediately ran over and grabbed her arm. Max looked at Ruth, but the wizard turned and joined the other wizards up the wall. As she stared in a stupor at him, Yulysion began to lead her away in the opposite direction. Max’s eyes widened as her consciousness returned and she realized that the boy was rudely dragging her away.

  Despite her protest, the young man silently led her to an empty place. Max struggled and pulled with all her might, while glaring at him.

  Max looked at him with eyes full of disbelief and horror. The two young men quickly navigated through the remote forest and towards the wall. And in front of them, the soldiers were standing with three horses and Yulysion quickly took the reins from them.

  Yulysion’s face darkened at Max’s shocked voice. He avoided her eyes and spoke in a firm tone.

  Max, unconvinced by his explanation, frowned.

  Garrow held her waist and swiftly mounted her on the horse’s saddle.

  Max couldn’t ask any more questions seeing their sheer stubbornness and determination. She took the reins and looked at the soldiers as Garrow and Yulysion mounted their respective horses. Once they were ready, the soldiers pushed a part of the bricks on the wall, the bricks were then pushed back, and a small hidden doorway was revealed. Yulysion took the initiative and first moved forward, then ordered the soldiers.

  As Max reluctantly followed the two through the dark path, she looked behind and saw the light gradually disappear as the soldiers on the other side resealed the entrance. They were trapped in complete darkness. Garrow sensed her anxiety and tried to comfort her with a calm voice.

  Max handed over the leather reins and allowed him to guide her. They traveled through the dark tunnel in silence, hearing only the sound of clopping horseshoes for around 10 minutes. Yulysion, who was leading them, stopped and pounded on the wall when they reached the end of the passage. Then, Max finally saw a speck of light and soon, a narrow opening emerged through the brick walls.

  The sudden glow of sunlight on the other side made Max narrow her eyes. In front of them, a bumpy road full of dense trees greeted them. Yulysion went out of the passage and urged her.

  There was something unusual about Yulysion’s tone, but Max didn’t probe further. The three of them traveled in silence, but it was all too strange. When Max could no longer suppress her nagging suspicions, she finally spoke.

  The young man’s shoulders visibly shook, and he looked at her with a pale face. Max bit her lip. She knew something was going on when they rushed to take her away from the castle, and when she saw the truth for herself on Yulysion’s face, her heart dropped to the ground. Max was quick to protest.

  Garrow chimed in, his tone firm.

  Unable to counter his strong words, Max had no choice but to spur her horse and follow them. They rode through the winding forest road in great hurry. After a while, a steep rock wall emerged through the dense trees. Yulysion, who was in the front, turned to its direction and Max, riding her horse after them, stopped at once. Garow, who was protecting her from behind, brought his horse to a stop and gave her a confused expression. She looked at the sun’s direction through the trees, and when she realized it, her face hardened.

  Yulysion’s face paled at her question. He kept his mouth shut and lowered his head down, but that was the sufficient answer. Max spurred her horse to turn around, but was immediately intercepted by Garrow.

  Garrow replied calmly, but blood rushed to Max’s face.

  Yulysion quickly led his horse to block their path and spoke in a low, heavy tone.

  Before Max could say anything, Yulysion continued to speak.

  Max covered her mouth in disbelief with a trembling hand. As she began to understand his words and realized the situation, she felt a bile coming up her throat.

  Note –

  : DANG. SHIT WENT DOWN. ☹ But really, author-nim’s writing is superb. How could she think of this, just pure brilliance!