Chapter (157) 158: Rescue and Reprimand (I)
I tried to raise my left hand as high as I could to keep the blood from dripping, and shouted for help. Almost at the same moment the ring gave off a blue light, which shot straight into the sky.
Then I heard the sound of wings and something was falling from the sky. Boom! I felt a slight impact from the soles of my feet. I tried to look down and saw that there were many black arrows at my feet, and Tronbay stopped as if it had lost its strength.
"Head Priest!"
Seeing the familiar arrows, I looked up again. The winged lion was coming down straight for me. With the arrows of the Head Priest, I had no more to worry about.
But that was just my wishful thinking. Tronbay stayed quiet for only a few seconds, and after absorbing my dripping blood, it grew fast again. From my waist to my belly, from my belly to my chest, I felt the branches slowly climbing over me. Fear seized me again.
"Head Priest, hurry…"
The lion glided to the ground and the Head Priest sprang down. He rushed towards me with a long black bow in his hand.
"Maine, how did this happen?!"
"Priestess, sorry to keep you waiting!"
Perhaps the god of darkness had finally answered his prayer, Damuel wielded his black knife and began to try to save me. The effect of his knife, however, could not be more different from that of the black arrows of the Head Priest. No matter how he attacked, Tronbay didn't stop.
"How did blessings not work?!"
"It's not that the blessing didn't work, it's that Tronbay recovered in an instant! Why?!"
After being struck by the arrows, Tronbay only stopped for a moment and immediately resumed his activities. Though its growth slowed, it showed no sign of withering. The Head Priest continued to shoot black arrows at it in disbelief.
"Head Priest, it is blood. It is my blood that makes it…"
"Your blood?!" "After I told him why Tronbay was growing so fast, he suddenly raised his voice. I couldn't see his face, but I could tell by this alone that his eyes must have widened.
"What do you think I was doing to keep you out of the battle? I even sent guards to protect you! Thoes guards are useless fools!"
These words were uttered angrily by the Head Priest, and they severely rebuked the two knights who had been left to guard me. Now Damuel was fighting Tronbay with a knife, and Skicossa was trying to get the blessing of the god of darkness. After all, it was Skicossa who ignored the order of the Head Priest and threatened me, who was supposed to be protected, that led to this situation, so the Head priest was absolutely right.
Moreover, after listening to the complaints of the Head Priest as he attacked Tronbay, I knew that my blood contained considerable magic. Not only Damuel, he muttered, but even half the knights with blessed weapons would not be able to save me.
"There is no point in our attacking Tronbay now. We must stop the bleeding first. Where is your wound, Maine?!"
"Here."
I tried to stretch my left hand. At the sight of the wound, the Head Priest groaned and whispered a spell: "Interverrugu."
His black bow turned back into a wand. Then he muttered another spell and waved his wand, and a jet of red light shot skyward. The red light was probably a signal, because I noticed that other knights coming when they saw it.
"What comes next will hurt, but you mustn't cry. Tears, like blood, have a magical power."
As he reminded me, he ran his wand slowly over my wound. As soon as the wand, which emitted a dim glow, touched the wound, my body shuddered.
"Ah!"
A sense of conflict and pain as someone else's magic forced its way into my body made me tremble. My eyes involuntarily welled up physical tears. I looked up and kept breathing deeply, trying not to let the tears fall. I felt the wound begin to burn. The magic in me began to flow into the wound, fighting with the magic the Head Priest had injected into me, making it glint a yellowish light. As the light faded, the blood stopped.
"My wound…"
"This first aid is only going to stop the bleeding for a while. Your wound is not healing. Releasing magic around Tronbay would be like committing suicide, but there's nothing else I can do."
Thus said the Head Priest, in his exhaustion. My wound was no longer bleeding, but Tronbay was more alive than ever.
"Head Priest…"
"In order to stop the bleeding, I have lost the blessing of the god of darkness, so I have no weapon against Tronbay. Rescue should have come…"
Said the Head Priest, looking up into the air, and shouting at the knights who were coming this way: "Too slow!". He had always been so aristocratic that he never showed any real emotion outside the Secret Room, so it made me shiver to hear him roar now.
"Lord Ferdinand, that signal for help… What happened?!"
As soon as the knights landed, they were stunned by what they saw.
"Castid, it's the incompetence of the guards you chose that caused this! Save Maine now! I had lost my blessing to stop her bleeding, and now had no weapon against Tronbay. The branches are about to wrap around her neck. Hurry up!"
"Yes!"
With no weapon to confront Tronbay, the Head Priest turned aside to make way for the knights. Knights in metal armour charged with black weapons and stormed it. Explosions rang out all around me, sending up clouds of dust and debris.
I began to cough uncontrollably.
"Don't hurt Maine, Castid! Her blood will make good food for Tronbay!"
The Head Priest gave his order and walked slowly to Skicossa and the attendants. I could only see his back, but there was no need for expressions or eyes to convey his burning anger.
Although it was Skicossa who was at fault, he was an aristocrat of high standing. Under the rigid class system of this world, will I in the end bear all the responsibility? At any rate, will they punish or question me, as my blood has caused this unexpected battle?
… It's possible.
My mood darkened as I thought of what might happen next. The knights gathered around me, attacking the roots of Tronbay without a moment's rest.
"… the blessing begins to take effect."
Damuel sighed with relief. Because the wound on the back of my hand no longer bled, Tronbay lost its nourishment and stopped growing.
As a result of being attacked by weapons with the blessing of the god of darkness, the Tronbay around me began to wither, just like the giant Tronbay. Freed from the fear of strangulation, I settled for a moment.
"Oh, it's really hard to use!"
"Damuel, you're the only one here with a knife. Be careful!"
It seemed that the blessed weapon could not change its form, and so it fell to Damuel with the knife to cut the branches around my neck, while the other knights had to slowly and deliberately cut the surrounding branches with the large weapons they had used in their crusade against the giant Tronbay.
"Damuel, trainee priestess… is your name Maine? How did this happen? It's the first time I've seen Lord Ferdinand so angry."
Castid asked me in a low voice as he cut a branch at my feet.
"Well……"
Damuel turned his head to look at Skicossa. But he seemed unwilling to tell on Skicossa, and for a long time he faltered and said nothing. I felt an inexpressible restlessness at his ambivalence.
How harsh the class system was here!
The branches around my neck had been cleared away, so it would not be difficult to tell the truth in my present state, but whether Castid believed me or not was another matter. In a world where status was everything, I didn't know how much he would hear or believe what I say as a commoner. After all, he was also an aristocrat.
… What should I do?
"I must know the truth. Come on!"
Castid, driven by our silence, urged us through gritted teeth.
Then I remembered that the Head Priest had said to him angrily: "Castid, it's the incompetence of the guards you chose that caused this!" He was now anxious to know, in order to save himself, why the Head Priest was so angry; perhaps he would listen to me.
"If I tell you what happened, Lord Castid, will you keep me safe?"
I asked gingerly, also wanting to make sure that Skicossa was behaving in a way that was acceptable to the aristocrats. At least they wouldn't suddenly kill me before the ceremony had done, I figured. At last I made up my mind to speak to Castid. "Even if I confess everything," I said, "would an aristocrat be allowed to seize me by the hair, throw me to the ground, and threaten to gouge out my eyes with a knife, if I displeased him?"
"What do you mean?… did you do these things to her?!"
Castid took off his helmet with a loud clang, and showed his angry face. He glanced sharply at Damuel, who seemed frightened and began to defend himself with all his might.
"It wasn't me! It was Skicossa who threatened her with a knife. I wanted to help her, but Skicossa wanted me to remember who I was…"
"Idiot! No wonder Lord Ferdinand was furious!"
Castid tore off the branches that had become extremely fragile. The branches cracked with a clatter. It seemed that not only the Head Priest, but Also Castid was angry at the guards' behavior. In this case, even if I had told the truth, I should not have been suddenly hacked to death. I made my own judgment and turned to face Castid's pale blue eyes, which were brimming with anger.
"Speak quickly, Maine. But you must swear to the gods that you will speak the truth without any falsehood."
"I see, Lord Castid. I swear to the gods that there will not be a lie in what I say next."
"Wait a minute…" Damuel interrupted me, but Castid pushed him aside. Convinced that Castid was serious about hearing my story, I gave a full account of what the two guards had done, and stated that the attendants, who were present at the time, could testify for me.
It took the Order quite a long time to get me out of the tangle of branches without hurting me, so long that I could not get out of it until I had told all the details.
"Hey, are you okay?"
"I don't think I'm okay. Call my attendant, please."
It was a long time before I was free again. I looked as miserable as a lamb. My new ceremonial dress had been torn, and the blood-stained cloth was riddled as if it had been corroded. I felt pain all over my body, and probably because I had fought so hard, I couldn't muster any strength.
"Where is the attendant of the trainee priestess?!"