“Your blood,my lady.”

Ingrid’s heart pounded rapidly in her chest. She instinctively took a step back, fear evident in her eyes. "How... who are you?”

“Don’t be afraid, my lady. We are not your enemies,” Naz said with his hands raised in the air.

But Ingrid became even more suspicious of him. The number of people who said that to her to deceive her was too many to count. Such words will never trick her!

“My lady, I swear I will explain everything to you. But for now, we have to save your friend.”

Ingrid’s eyes became complicated. She never expected that there would be someone else who knew about the secret she so desperately wanted to keep. She thought she had hidden it well.

Her gaze shifted towards Iris, still lying unconscious on the ground. She looked so weak and helpless—a contrast to the Iris she knew, who always stood like an immovable tree beside her.

She clenched her fist. It doesn’t matter now. If it’s to save Iris’s life, then she is willing to trade her secret.

With a deep sigh, she took one of the arrows lying on the ground.

“My lady, that’s…!!!” But before Naz could finish his sentence, Ingrid had already sliced her own palm.

If the arrow poisoned her, then that means her blood isn’t capable of removing the poison from Iris’s body. In that case, dying with her doesn’t seem pretty bad.

Blood dripped from her hand as she walked towards Iris, leaving a trail behind her. She kneeled beside Iris and allowed her blood to drip over her slightly parted lips.

Naz watched her with a hint of worry. Once it’s over, he quickly takes out a handkerchief and gently wraps it around Ingrid’s wounded palm.

Rebecca forced herself not to laugh when she saw how focused her captain was. It was as though he was handling fragile glass that would easily break.

An inaudible snicker escaped from Rebecca’s mouth when her captain’s pinky finger unconsciously rose as he tied the knot. But Naz, who had a very good sense of hearing, heard her and glared in her direction. Rebecca quickly averted her gaze and pretended to be checking Iris’s pulse.

However, her eyes suddenly went wide. She looked at Iris’s face, saw the color slowly returning, and went to check her pulse again in disbelief.

“What the miracle working power is this?!” she exclaimed.

“What is it? Is Iris okay?” Ingrid asked nervously.

“She’s more than okay! The poison is slowly disappearing from her system, and look at this!” Rebecca showed them the cuts on Iris’s arms. “Her wounds are slowly closing! This is more effective than my healing magic!”

Ingrid flinched and looked down when she saw an illusion of someone she never wanted to remember overlapping with Rebecca's eyes. Her heart hammered in her chest. She began to fidget nervously with her hands, which caused her wounds to bleed again.

Naz, who noticed Ingrid’s reaction, was about to speak when a young boy came out of the woods screaming, “Naz!! Rebecca!!”

Their heads turned in the direction of the voice, and they saw Felix from a distance running towards them at top speed. His whole body was covered in so much blood that it was hard to recognize his cute and boyish face anymore.

Ingrid’s first reaction when she saw him was worry. She thought that the young boy was wounded. But seeing how lively he is while running, the blood on his body probably isn’t his.

Remembering the dying screams she heard from the forest, her gaze towards Felix became complicated.

“What is it? Did someone manage to escape?” Naz asked.

“Huh? Are you looking down on me?” Felix asked while glaring at Naz as though he was ready to pick a fight.

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Ingrid found it amusing. With his tiny body versus Naz’s giant bulk, the young boy looked like a tiny rabbit challenging a lion.

“How dare you glare at me? I’m your captain.” Naz smacked him in the head.

Felix rubbed his head with a pout. “That hurts, you know,” he complained, feeling extremely wronged.

“So what is it that made you come running back?” Rebecca asked.

“I saw some soldiers of Aradhya heading this way," Felix grumbled, still pouting. “That annoying crown prince, why does he have to follow us everywhere? And what’s with those Lightning horses? They said it was the fastest creature on the planet. Tch, they can't even catch me.”

Naz pondered for a moment and glanced at Ingrid. “I don’t think they are here for us,” he speculated.

“Huh? Then who are they here for?”

Naz ignored him and took out a small pouch from his waist and placed it on Ingrid’s palm. “My lady, I’m afraid we will have to cut our reunion short. But this will make you understand that I am on your side, hopefully."

Felix's eyes went wide in surprise when he recognized the mahogany-colored pouch on Ingrid’s hands. "Hey, that’s~” but before he could finish his sentence, he was dragged away by Naz.

“Until we meet again, my lady,” Rebecca said, her eyes lingering for a few seconds on the small pouch before following behind the two.

“Why did you give her that thing?" Felix asked with a frown, “Isn’t that super important to our group?”

“Because it’s hers to begin with,” Naz vaguely answered as they disappeared beyond the forest.

A few seconds later, a group of people riding on top of Lightning horses arrived on the scene.

“Quickly check the surroundings! Protect the lady!" The man at the head of the group commanded as he dismounted from his horse. He walked towards Ingrid with giant strides and knelt before her with one knee. “My lady, forgive us for being late.”

“You are Sir Augustus, right? You were one of the delegates that came with the crown prince,” Ingrid said, her voice distant as her mind flew somewhere else.

“Indeed, I am my lady,” he replied, his face grim. They didn’t rush over, assuming that things weren’t that bad with Iris and the grand duke’s elite soldiers protecting her. But who would have thought that there was someone capable of wiping out the grand dukes soldiers and injuring Iris?

“Kevian!” Augustus called.

A man with long black hair that reached until his hips dismounted from his horse. He was the only one not wearing armor in the group. Instead, he was wearing a long robe and a purple cape.

Kevian quickly rushed over when he saw Iris lying on Ingrid’s lap. “My lady, may I?" He asked while bowing towards Ingrid.

She nodded her head.

Kevian placed his palm on Iris’s forehead and closed his eyes. His hand started to glow with a blue hue. After a while, he opened his eyes again, and the glow on his hand slowly faded.

“How is she?” Augustus asked. Worry was etched on his face, not just for Iris’s well-being but also for the faith that awaits them once the news reaches the crown prince. Who knows what the crown prince Aleric would do if he found out that they weren’t able to protect his future wife and even almost lost one of their strongest general in the process?

“She has been poisoned,” Kevian answered with a frown. “But it looked like she already had the antidote.”

“Reporting to the general!” A scout said and kneeled before Augustus.

“Report!”

“We found several marksmen inside the forest. One of them was tied to a giant tree, so we brought him with us for questioning.”

As if on cue, two soldiers appeared holding a man wearing a white robe, tied with a vine.

“Release me! How dare an insect like you touch me with your filthy hands!!!” He roared condescendingly.

“And what about the rest?” Augustus asked ignoring the man’s annoying screams. One of the soldiers couldn’t take it anymore and shoved a cloth over his mouth.

“They were already dead when we arrived. Their bodies were filled with slashes, probably from a small weapon—most likely a dagger.”

Augustus fell silent. Iris’s weapon is a giant dual-bladed axe. Besides, she wouldn’t have had the chance to take care of the marksmen while protecting Lady Ingrid.

Then he remembered the kid covered in blood that blocked their way earlier. He knew that kid. He was one of those his highness the crown prince referred to as "wild boars” that he had been trying to catch and tame all these years. As far as he knew, that kid lived in the south. So why is he in Aradhya?.

He ordered his men to catch the young boy, but who would have thought that even with the speed of the Lightning Horses, the kid still left them in the dust?

“Lady Ingrid, by any chance did you meet a young boy before we arrived?” Augustus asked.

Ingrid clenched the small pouch in her hand, weighing her answer. For whatever reason, those trios are running away from the crown prince’s men. She was afraid that she would harm them if she told the truth. After all, they saved her life. She doesn’t want to become the reason that they get caught. But if she denies seeing them, they might begin to speculate about how Iris got the antidote to the poison, and her secret would be in danger of being discovered.

“Lady Ingrid?”

Ingrid swallowed and said, “Well…when Iris was…in a pinch, something did come in a flash to save her. But…it was so fast that the dust on the road flew around and created a fog of smoke. So I don’t know who or what it was. And when the dust settled, there was only Iris lying on the ground.”

“They must have been the ones who gave Iris the antidote,” Kevian concluded. There was a hint of awe and curiosity in his eyes. No wonder the crown prince was so desperate to recruit them into his army. To be able to swiftly identify a poison that even he isn’t sure about and detoxify it, in this world, only a handful of people are capable of doing that.

“My lady, allow us to escort you back to the grand duke’s residence,” Augustus said.

“Okay,” Ingrid replied, secretly hiding the pouch on her sleeve.