Under the Oak Tree - Chapter 163

Chapter 163

Max needed to make herself busy. Being idle brought memories of her time at the Croix Castle and it made her feel like an empty shell. She then decided to go to the kitchen and supervise the servants to see if dinner was going well. Just as she came down from the stairs and was heading towards the hall, a loud voice called over her shoulder.

Max turned her head to the direction of the voice. Sir Gabel Laxion and Sir Lombardo walked through the wide-open door with serious expressions, which made her nervous.

They passed through the servants who were cleaning the hall’s floors and ran straight to her. Max was taken aback and widened her eyes.

Back when she had just started to practice healing magic, she often looked after injured knights and never experienced depleting her mana, but after the last incident such exchanges ceased. Still, it had to be something very urgent for them to decide to request her help. Max felt embarrassed and hurriedly opened her lips to talk.

They were in a hurry and didn’t wait for Max’s reply as they quickly led her to the door. She almost stumbled in hurry as she tried to keep pace with the knights’ wide strides.

Gabel lightly clicked his tongue and belatedly glanced at Max with anxiety.

Gabel spat out without hesitation, then began to slide down the railing of the stairs. Max tried to hurry down to keep his pace, but had to pull the hem of her dress up to one side to prevent her from rolling down.

Lombardo spat out in a tone that seemed more like a compulsion than a request and Max swallowed dryly. The knights had so far lived trying to hide even the smallest injuries, but now that they were actually coming to her for help in a moment of crisis, she didn’t know whether she was feeling happy or overwhelmed by what they expected of her.

What if I can’t handle it? She followed the knights across the garden, rubbing her damp palms against her skirt to wipe away the sweat. They passed through the doors leading to the training door and then headed straight towards the dorms.

Max stepped in the wooden building to follow them and stiffened as soon as she realized that the inside of the room was very dark: the sunlight was kept outside with thick curtains. It was only when the knight lit a candle that a desolate space with three or four camp beds came into view. The room seemed haphazardly made to cater just those who were injured during training.

As she followed the knights, she saw a shelf full of medicinal herbs and bottles of unknown medicine, a brazier emitting a faint light, and a boiling kettle. Max looked around and trembled slightly at the strange scenery. When she heard a weak moaning sound, she turned towards it and saw a young knight lying down on the farthest bed. She stepped over to him and frowned.

Gabel explained briefly, then lit a candlestick next to the bed and the dim light revealed the knight’s bare torso. Max looked down tensely and when she confirmed that the size of the wound was not larger than what she was expecting, her shoulders loosened a bit. There was a deep bite mark on his forearm, but fortunately the bone didn’t seem to be damaged. However, the infection was serious.

She placed the back of her hand against the young man’s face, her eyebrows furrowing at the heat of his body temperature.

Max turned her head at the unfamiliar voice. A young knight with an emaciated face entered the infirmary, carrying a flask. Sir Lombardo quickly took the flask out of his hand.

The young knight stubbornly replied, grabbing the flask, and approaching the bedside. He then soaked a towel with water and began to wipe the body of the unconscious man. When the cold towel met his feverish body, a weak moan erupted from him. Sir Lombardo stiffened looking at the pitiful scene and turned to Max with urgency.

She tilted the candlestick with a tense face, carefully examining the condition of the arm bitten by the monster. She had already seen a werewolf bite before, but that was very different from this. There was a foul odor emitting from the two pitted teeth marks, which were so deep that they looked like they had been nailed with a hammer. The bruise on his arm resembled a dark burgundy stain of paint and it was swelling like a plump sausage.

Can I really heal it? Max tried to recall the magic she had learned from Ruth as she placed her trembling hand on top of the wound. Healing venom-infected wounds consumed less mana than healing magic, but the process and the execution was more complex.

She started drawing out her mana, trying to remember the unfamiliar formula, but controlling mana in that way was not as easy as she had initially thought. She drew the magic formula twice without success and the tension was evident in the faces of the knights who were watching quietly by her side, noticing that she was encountering trouble during the process.

Max muttered in a creeping voice, her face turning red from the effort she was exerting. She felt regretful, thinking that she should have practiced this variant of magic instead of wasting time struggling with self-pity. She was afraid that if she didn’t succeed in healing that young knight, the trust that was built between her and all the knights would crumble in an instant.

Max aggressively wiped the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve and applied her mana once more. When a hazy blue light was emitted and it wrapped around the knight’s arm, she began drawing the intricate pattern again. The magical power that flowed into the knight’s body purified the blood contaminated with venom and discharged it from the body with the help of the magical formula. Noticing that it was working, Max exhaled a long sigh of relief. After a while, the dark red stain around the knight’s arm and its angry swelling subsided.

Max slowly removed her hand as she felt that the dark energy was completely eradicated from the wound. Gabel picked up a candlestick and looked closely at the knight’s complexion. He then suddenly pulled up the curtains and the bright sunlight flooded in, making Max squint her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows.

The other knight, who had been restless by her side until then, quickly started making tea, putting herbs and leaves into a kettle. Max sat by the window and sighed for a moment as the tea boiled. It had been a long time since she used magic, so she felt slightly tired, but she wasn’t feeling dizzy like it was when she completely depleted her mana.

She weighed her remaining mana and deciding that she could afford to use healing magic, she applied it on the knight once more. As the bite marks on his forearm rapidly healed, the young man’s face started to look better, showing relief.

At Sir Gabel’s polite words, Max’s face turned red. Hearing such appreciative words from others was like sweet rain amidst a drought, a break from the suffrage of dreadful thoughts. She muttered with a shy face whilst sipping the steaming herbal tea.

Max suddenly frowned and looked at the attending knight.

The other knight, who was sweating whilst stirring tea in the kettle, muttered with a preoccupied expression.

Gabel asked with a puzzled face.

Then, the attending knight opened his lips, carefully choosing the right words to deliver.

The knight then nodded with a firm expression.