That afternoon, Seira was wiping the windows in the hallway that led to the front yard of the mansion. She dipped the rag in her hand, and wiped the window in front of her. Making sure there was no dirt left behind.
"It's been almost two hours since they left, why aren't they back yet?" she muttered as she went about her work.
She felt somewhat worried about what Darco would do to the three knights. Seira knew that he would definitely do something cruel to them. This was enough to make her feel worried, but she hoped nothing would happen to the three men.
Until she heard the distant footsteps of a horse heading towards the mansion grounds. Seira looked out the window and found that the knights had returned. However, she was surprised to see Albert riding a horse with Harvey on his back.
"Why isn't he riding his own horse?"
She continued to watch until she finally realized that Harvey seemed to be unconscious. Leonard and Albert were carrying the man's body.
"Seira! Seira!" Leonard shouted which immediately made her run to open the door.
Even without him shouting, Seira was shocked to see them carrying Harvey's body.
"What happened?" she asked worriedly.
"The crown prince gave him a beating on his back. Hurry up and prepare some medicine and help treat the wound!" replied Albert who looked both worried and furious.
Of the three men, Albert was the most expressive. And if he looked angry like that, it meant that the current problem was very serious.
Seira then took the box of medicine while Leonard took Harvey to his room. They laid their leader down with his back on top. When Seira looked at him, she was surprised to see that the white shirt Harvey was wearing already had a lot of blood stains.
"Help me take off his clothes," she said, preparing some medicinal leaves to treat the wound.
After the clothes were removed, the wound on the man's back was revealed. A wooden stick had been hit there, causing scratches that were severe enough to cause an open wound.
"The wound is this bad?" asked Seira as she turned to them.
"The crown prince gave him 150 strokes with a wooden stick," replied Leonard, who couldn't bear to look at the wounds on his friend's body.
"150 strokes? That's too much!"
"I know! I should have gotten it!" said Albert in annoyance. "But Harvey took my place instead. The crown prince is really too much. If only he wasn't part of the imperial body, I would have..."
Before he finished speaking, Leonard stopped him from saying anything more and focused on Harvey's recovery instead.
Seira who usually never felt so worried, now she seemed unable to bear the injuries Harvey had received. A punishment that he should not have received.
She slowly cleaned the wound and it became clearer that it was very bad. Seira mixed the medicinal leaf powder with the cream and applied it to the wound. She even had to do it twice because there were too many wounds.
'The wound is really bad. He must be in a lot of pain. 150 blows from a wooden stick, they even said that it broke three times due to the force of the blows. That's really out of bounds,' Seira thought as she firmly grasped the mashing tool in her hand.
She did not know what would happen in the future if Darco really did become the next Emperor. She was sure that anyone who would go against his will would end up dead at his hands. Seira knew she couldn't let this continue. She really had to do something.
After bandaging Harvey's wound, they let him rest while Seira made lunch for them.
However, before she went to the kitchen, Seira went to her room and write something on a small piece of paper that she tied to an arrow. She then walked silently towards the kitchen and exited through the back door of the mansion.
"Looks like it's around here..." she muttered while making sure there was no one around. She climbed over the fence and rang a small bell.
Ring ring!
Not long after, there was a reply of a small bell ringing from the direction of the forest. After confirming her position, Seira shot her arrow towards the forest behind the mansion, right in the direction of the bell.
Ring ring!
The sound of the bell from the forest meant that they had received Seira's message. The woman replied, before hiding her bow under her dress and walking into the kitchen to make lunch.
Harvey's wounds were bad enough to cause him to develop a high fever due to the infection he had gotten. Leonard called a healer to check on the man's condition and gave him medicine to bring the fever down.
"It's all my fault, if only I hadn't let him replace me..." Albert felt so bad about what happened, but Leonard tried to calm him down.
"It's not your fault, I'm sure it's also because the stick that hit him with was so dirty that the wound got infected. The Healer has given him medicine, hopefully he will recover soon," he said.
Even so, Albert still felt guilty for what had happened. Especially when it comes to Harvey's life, it will take a long time for the wound to heal.
"Now he's resting, hopefully his fever will go down soon," Leonard said while sitting on the sofa.
He also still felt guilty and sad about what had happened. They had often been injured in battle, but not this seriously. They were still protected by wearing armor, whereas the blow Harvey got directly hit the skin and surely his spine was also injured.
"Luckily, the healer checked Harvey's back and said that there were no serious injuries to his bones. I really can't figure out the crown prince," he said with a harsh sigh.
"If only there was another heir who could replace him, I would do anything if that heir was much better than him!" said Albert.
"Unfortunately there isn't. The son of another concubine can't just replace the crown prince, it would cause a schism and they all still too young. Beside there's no way the crown prince would let that happen."
The two of them sat in silence in the living room, until Albert remembered something.
"Before the late Empress was put to death, didn't she have a child? I don't really remember if her child was a princess or a prince, I just remember she had a child," the man said.
Leonard who heard him slowly recalled his friend's words. "You're right. But where is that child? There's no way the imperials would have eliminated that child, right? Erased the child existence from everyone."
The two of them exchanged glances with each other at that thought.
"By the way, where's Seira? I haven't seen her since earlier."
"Oh she said that she went to get the leaves of the medicine that the healer said. But I don't remember the healer asking us to get any other medicine," Leonard replied.
At the same time, Seira walked into the forest with a lantern. She continued to enter the forest deeper and deeper while following the sound of a small bell ringing.
Ring!
Until finally she met a man wearing full armor and a sword at his waist, with a woman nearby.
"You've finally come," the woman said.
"Yes," Seira replied. "I have something to talk to you about..."
"...Maria."