For the heart - Chapter 19

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 19

The boy clenched and unclenched his fists as he spoke up.

“Every night, that Prison Warden brought people here. He forced the Healers to provide healing, and if they refused, he wouldn’t give them food.”

“N-no! Commander! They were the ones who first requested conveniences from me in exchange—”

“That’s a lie. Ask the other Healer brothers too.”

“So a mere administrator not only used escaped Healers—who are state property—for private purposes, but also abused them by starving and beating them?”

At Nina’s chilling question, the man’s face turned deathly pale.

As if foreseeing his own fate, he couldn’t answer and trembled with shaking hands, his lips quivering wordlessly.

Nina, who hadn’t expected there to be an administrator bold enough to commit such acts, frowned as she looked around at the silent Healers.

The Healers, knowing they would be drafted into war at any time, would naturally have stubbornly refused.

They had to conserve their healing power as much as possible since they would need to heal not only wounded knights but also their own injuries through self-healing in the extreme conditions of the battlefield.

The Prison Warden would have tried to use food to manipulate the Healers to his will, but the difference in severity between going hungry and losing one’s life was all too clear.

Since most escaped Healers were young people yearning for freedom, he wouldn’t have been able to subdue them with force either.

‘So the Young Healer became the easiest target. Looking at his face, this kid must have refused quite stubbornly.’

The Prison Warden, who couldn’t know exactly when the Knighthood would depart, had clearly beaten the boy yesterday as well.

As time passed, the boy, whose pent-up grievances from all he had endured finally burst forth, glared at him with seething anger.

But though everyone was expected to speak up together, there were no further testimonies.

When the other adult Healers kept their mouths tightly shut, the Young Healer burst out in a shrill voice.

“Yesterday too, he took money from Crestin Marquis and forced me to heal his mother!”

The Prison Warden looked at the boy in shock.

He had brought Crestin Marquis’ Mother into the prison, but had deliberately dressed her in shabby clothes and even put a sack over her head so her face couldn’t be seen.

While one might guess her age range from her exposed skin and hands, how could this boy know that the person was Crestin Marquis’ Mother, and that he had received money from him!

He knelt before Nina and rubbed his hands together desperately.

“I-I was wrong, Commander! I was blinded by money and ended up doing something I absolutely shouldn’t have done! Never! Never again will I—”

Nina turned away from him as he poured out his desperate words and gestured to a guard.

“I’ll deliver the details this afternoon, so take this man to the detention cell.”

“Yes, Commander.”

“Commander! No, Your Highness! P-please forgive me just this once!!”

Even as his cries faded into the distance, Nina didn’t look back. She quietly looked down at the boy standing before her.

She didn’t know what circumstances had made him an escaped Healer at this age, but it wasn’t right to keep an injured child in prison any longer.

The boy, noticing that Nina was pondering for a moment, stepped forward and spoke to her.

“Please take me to the battlefield too, Knight Commander.”

“What?”

“I want to participate in this battle and help you, Commander.”

Look at this kid.

Nina was so dumbfounded that she let out a snort of disbelief.

She remembered how he had cried and wailed, not wanting to approach her when she was injured by Baraguz, yet now he was saying he’d go to the battlefield to help her.

“You can’t go to war unless you’re an adult.”

She had been fourteen when she was first deployed to the battlefield, and what an absurd thing that had been.

Looking at this scrawny boy brought back those memories as vividly as if they were yesterday.

That day when she had writhed in pain as her body was destroyed, too terrified to fight properly.

Nina sighed.

She couldn’t keep him in prison, nor could she take him to the battlefield as he suggested. It was a difficult situation.

“As long as it’s not a major injury, I can also…”

Seeing Nina’s troubled expression, the boy started to say something but closed his mouth.

It seemed like he had glanced at the other Healers around them, but Nina didn’t pay attention to that.

Soon, having decided what to do with the boy, she called over another waiting guard.

“Take this child to my Satellite Palace. Tell Tila he’s a new servant to help with the work.”

“Yes, Commander.”

Even as the child was led away by the guard’s hand, he looked back at Nina with apparent regret.

But Nina was already focused on selecting the Healers to take to the battlefield.

* * *

On the morning of departure, the Satellite Palace where Nina stayed was heavy with Tila’s sighs.

Nortanica had already fought several wars with Arsed, and in the process had grown increasingly stronger militarily, so even Tila, who didn’t know much about international affairs, understood that it wasn’t an easy country to conquer.

“Still, this time Prince Casian will be accompanying you as your dedicated Healer, so I feel a bit better. Don’t endure pain like before—you must receive healing right away. Understood?”

“Yes. I will.”

“And don’t skip meals just because you have no appetite. Here, I’ve packed some dried pirruha, that fruit you like, so if you really can’t eat anything else, at least have some of this. You’d just started putting on a little weight recently, and now there’s another campaign.”

Nina had indeed gained a little weight from Tila’s diligent three meals a day.

Tila paused in her packing to look at Nina with a sorrowful expression.

“If it weren’t for that damned oracle, Your Highness wouldn’t have to live such a harsh life. I’m dissatisfied with everything these days. What business does someone of this flower-like age have with battlefields, and what’s all this about battle gear.”

Nina smiled inwardly at Tila’s lament-like words.

What kind of reaction would Tila show if she knew that damned oracle was false?

She would probably beat her chest with both fists and burst with indignation.

But she couldn’t tell anyone yet. She needed to figure out where things had gone wrong first.

“Tila.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“I heard there was also a Saint in Arsed. Do you know about this?”

Nina asked about the Saint who had been filling her thoughts lately.

Since the Saint was said to have come to the Velan Duchy, finding her might provide a clue.

But despite Desmorak and the Velan Duchy searching for the Saint, they hadn’t found even a trace of her, so it didn’t look easy.

Tila would have been an adult twenty years ago too, so she might have heard some stories about them.

“Of course. The oracle was delivered by the saint. Long ago, the high priest, saint, and priests were all executed when they were caught colluding with the Dumont Ducal House.”

Nina only blinked slowly at Tila’s words.

“I read in the history books that they were publicly executed… Did you see that too, Tila?”

“No. Since it happened in the dead of night, I didn’t see the execution itself, but I saw their severed heads hanging in the square.”

Since all the members of the Dumont Ducal House who had tried to overthrow the imperial authority were also beheaded, there were over fifty heads hanging there.

Tila shuddered as if recalling the terrible scene that remained in her memory.

‘It wasn’t a public execution, but only the severed heads were displayed publicly. And Desmorak was the one who carried out those beheadings.’

There was a click as pieces that hadn’t quite fit together fell into place.

“Then was there someone who recorded the oracles?”

“Of course. In the past, there was a priest called the ‘Seregwan’ who recorded oracles. My relative was an attendant to that priest. He was the one who brought me to the capital.”

The Attendant of Seregwan?

Nina’s eyes widened as she looked at Tila.

“That relative who was an attendant, is he still alive?”

“Yes. After that incident twenty years ago, he returned to his hometown. Why do you ask?”

“You said your hometown was Tabur, right?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Tabur.

There was a small region called Tabur near the border with Nortanica.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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