Lily's Point Of View Returns!

We are currently about halfway to Celeste Castle. This also means that we are only a couple hours away from the capital, and that we could resupply there. The reasons I decided against this belong to two categories. Firstly, if I arrive in the capital with an army it may be taken as a sign of hostility if not communicated very carefully. Even if Alstair and the nobles know I mean no harm, the commoners panicked over the declaration may take it differently and act on their own.

Secondly, entering the capital may get us hold up and end up preventing me from reaching home, which is supposedly the most likely to start a rebellion. While I doubt Eric has lost control over the commoners I'd rather confirm the situation there than get stuck in the capital suspected for treason by bringing in an army.

—-*—-

"Celeste-sama," Spence chirps up behind me in his usual worry-less tone.

Spence ended up keeling over the other day from an infection inside his stomach from the injury. After talking and asking Lumere for advice on a suiting prayer, the disease is now gone. He's chipper as always and is actively showing off his scars and touching them with I guess is disbelief a surprising amount of the time. Then again, if not for healing magic he would have died with no hope for survival. As it is, there may be more complications in store for him over the years, but for now he should be able to continue fighting.

"We've been considering this for a while, but we would be honored to learn some marching songs from your previous life."

When I turn to stare at him, I see a big and cheerful grin going from one ear to the other. Had it been my former life then this lack of face, and display of emotion would have been seen as bad, but in this world they're allowed and encouraged to show passion. Spence is really a bundle of this.

"What kind of song do you want to hear?"

We were just marching the days away, and I couldn't think of a proper excuse for refusing.

Spence's expression lights up even further before looking to everyone else.

"Something where an enemy is mentioned," slips from Harken, one of the guys that had gotten heavily injured as well. Harken was the son of a scribe, so he will probably be fine despite his injuries. His lower part of his shield arm broke from taking the impact of a war hammer. The energy went straight through it. Still, he isn't the only one. I think a good deal of them ended up with injuries in that area. Far from all had their arms broken like Harken, but if left unhealed it could've caused problems in the future.

"We've enough enemies all around. No need to think of more. A hero ballad would be better," Arven gets out grouchily from atop one of the wagons. He gets irritated when his leg prevents him from marching with everyone else.

I can't tell if his limp will be permanent, but for now it's too heavy for him to run. Still, without healing magic his leg would have had to be amputated above the knee, so in comparison a limp is a better trade off. If his leg had been amputated it could have turned out quite horribly for his fief, which gets raided by bandits from the neighboring fief seasonally. He's needed there. I'm quite happy that Lumere managed to fix that leg as well as he did. Still, for now Arven is made to take breaks on the wagon once in a while and endures Darius' slowly improving jokes and stories, as well as talking of his dream. Yes, he still insists on this.

Mike kind of wakes up from his blanked out state and begins to participate in the discussion of what kind of song they want to hear. We made an arm sling for him since his arm kept dangling lifelessly, but there is nothing to do. From Vitis' report Mike had rushed in brashly to get to Rudder, and this was the price he had paid. His arm wouldn't move again unless perhaps Claire's magic could do something.

A war hammer had crushed and shattered his shoulder to pieces, and underneath the clothes it still looked crushed. My healing doesn't put things back the way it was, so bones will heal wrong, and skin will at best sort of pull itself together and close if it matches up somewhat neatly.

Other than the shoulder, quite a few of his ribs in the same side where hit too, and there were multiple smaller injuries both from that day and the day before. Mike won't be able to fight again.

Sadly, unlike Arven Mike is not the oldest son of a landed knight. The oldest son of a landed knight is be able to take over the land and live to manage that and the fief troops, but Mike has no such luxury. Despite doing well he hasn't done enough to be landed as it is right now. Father is kind though, so he may give Mike a station as an instructor. The pay will be low, but it will still be better than being a burden to his family.

All in all I think things went okay. Five casualties and six that will no longer be able to fight, one of which is Mike. Those who got severely injured were the ones that ended up being trapped.

"Why don't we hear our Lady's favorite song?"

Mike suggests this and at once the knights go quiet. My favorite marching song... it's been nine years since last I sang one of these, so hopefully I'll be able to remember the lyric-

"Celeste-sama! There is someone injured up ahead! Probably a woman!"

Felix interrupts our discussion with unpleasant news. As expected of a former black market tracker, he keeps tabs on his surroundings.

"Number?"

"Just one, Celeste-sama."

Attacked by bandits perhaps?

"Vitis, I leave you with the army. Felix, Darius, you're with Asher and I."

I snap out the orders quickly and run ahead. If Darius is hearing someone injured, then it's because the injuries are affecting their breathing. It could easily be fatal.

Then why am I bringing people that are all slower than me? I'm not allowed to get caught in traps where I'd be defenseless.

We dash down the gravel path towards the injured target. Though, as Felix confirms that we are getting closer it's obvious that there hasn't been a bandit attack on a merchant. There's no sign of it in the gravel of blood, nothing to hint something has been dragged into the tall meadow grass next to the path or signs of a struggle.

"To the right in the grass," Darius points out cautiously while heading cautiously towards it. Felix stops him.

"What is wrong?" If he's keeping Darius from approaching then it's likely bad news.

The world around us swirls as Felix moves to the edge of the road and brushes over the tips of the thigh tall grass with his fingers. The entire piece of peaceful calm green meadow in front of us twists with little screams in my ears and is replaced with much less thick and dense blood stained grass.

The smell of flowers disappear and is replaced with the stench of fresh blood and death. Small trinkets and vegetables are scattered around in the grass just where the tracks of a wagon disappear into the ground. A single guy is keeled over where the wagon had been with an spear straight through his stomach. Judging by his wide open eyes he might have been blessed by earth.

"Li... ly-sama..."

My skin crawls at the faint voice and draws a chill through my body. My breath gets stuck in my throat for but a second before I push Felix aside and rush to her.

No. No no no, what is she doing here? She should be at the academy shuffling about. What would she be doing outside the capital on one of the main roads between house Celeste and House Tepet?

"Celeste-sama?!"

I ignore Felix and begin brush the thigh tall grass aside frantically while my body runs cold as ice. No, she must've wanted to find me.

A small white cotton clad hand rises between the tips of grass and it makes my mind go blank.

Part of me don't want to know. The smell of death is lingering in my nose and my throat and seems to burn worse than usual. What if she cannot be saved?

My stomach sinks in fear and worry at the thought, and though I realize that much I can't stop. My hands shake as I rush to the outstretched hand and grasp it roughly, and squeeze it tightly.

I look down with dread.

It's Magdalin.

Her lips are pale and she peers up at me with tears of relief.

I grit my teeth as I crumble down on my knees next to her. Everything is there. Everything is where it should be. Her arms, her legs, her guts, her head. She's dressed, though her clothes and skin looks as though she's been dragged after a horse on the gravel road for a mile or so.

The exposed skin is either bloody red, or a purple-ish blue from what seems like bruises.

Before I can ask her what happened or she can speak I start the prayer to make Lumere heal her. She's beaten up, but she's alive. Magdalin is good with illusions so she was probably hiding from something.

I gather my mind enough to ask Asher, Felix and Darius to be on guard as I notice a flicker between the trees. Someone is here. That was a cloak.

[AN: A lot more dreadful chapter and rounding up the situation for characters at Lily's side. On a side note, after reading this you have now read over 970 pages of the villainess will not bring dishonor to her family.]