Giant shields suddenly stood in front of all the soldiers from who-knows-where; the people present were far more than five, but dozens.
But the range and speed of the explosion still exceeded expectations. A few drops of scalding black liquid and a small piece of sharp bone fragment just grazed the edge of the shield, flying straight toward Seraphina’s direction.
“Your Highness!” Bask reacted the fastest. Before Seraphina even noticed, he swiftly responded.
At this critical moment, he couldn’t care about etiquette or hierarchy. He fiercely shoved from the side with a burst of strength.
Pushing Seraphina hard to the side!
She stumbled and crashed into the cold stone wall, her elbow painfully bruised.
Those few deadly drops of acid flew past her sleeve, splattering a few times on the spot where she had just stood. White smoke immediately rose from the stone, corroding small pits.
The bone fragment deflected a bit, failing to hit Seraphina.
Seraphina took a deep breath, suppressing her wildly pounding heart. At first, she was a bit at a loss, but when she saw Bask’s face full of worry, she realized the danger just now.
Compared to being directly corroded by the acid, this bit of pain in her elbow was completely insignificant.
“Sorry, Your Highness; the situation was urgent. I could only resort to this.”
“It’s fine.” Seraphina steadied herself, straightening her slightly disheveled robe from the impact.
“Clean it up. Are the soldiers…… all okay?” Under the gaze of the many soldiers, her voice sounded steadier than she had anticipated.
“Reporting to Your Highness, no casualties, just dirtied armor.” Bask’s voice remained as steady as ever. “I should have noticed this lesser demon’s peculiarity earlier and prepared in advance. It was my negligence that startled you.”
Seraphina shook her head, her gaze sweeping over the filth below being quickly cleaned. “No need to say that. I’ve now seen the insidiousness of lesser demons with my own eyes.”
Then, looking at the obvious dust and slight damage on her elbow sleeve, the corner of her mouth curved into a helpless self-mocking smile. “It seems that just standing here watching the battle still poses risks to my body.”
But her arm was still badly bruised; it would probably turn blue and purple. Her strong pride made her endure the pain.
The only good news remained from that black land once despised by all.
Finally, Seraphina forced a nonchalant appearance, gave Bask a few unimportant instructions, then excused herself to “calm down” and left early.
Every step she tried to take steadily, afraid others would notice the throbbing pain from her elbow.
Only when she returned to the small room and closed the door did she allow herself to completely drop the facade, inhaling sharply, carefully removing her cloak and cape.
Wearing that modified Gothic dress, she clumsily tried to twist her head to look at the injury on her elbow.
A slightly larger movement made her vision blur with tears from the pain.
“Hiss…… damn it……” She cursed under her breath, unsure if it was at those lesser demons or at her overly fragile body that couldn’t withstand even a bump.
Using the gradually dimming light from the window, she could see the collided area: the originally fair and delicate skin now shockingly showed a patch of alarming blue-purple, with faint blood streaks in the middle.
The swelling restricted joint movement. The sleeve fabric was quite fine, but rubbing against it still brought stinging pain.
“Just this small injury…… that’s all.” She tried to comfort herself, her voice carrying a grievance even she hadn’t noticed.
If it were her knight self back then, injuries ten times worse wouldn’t have been a concern.
She vaguely remembered there seemed to be spare clean water and gauze in the room. Enduring the pain, she rummaged them out.
She also found the dark green ointment Bask had given earlier, claimed to be miraculously effective for bruises and sprains.
The process was clumsy; operating with one hand was inconvenient, and the injury was at the elbow, an awkward angle.
Multiple attempts to clean with water ended with most of it spilled, also wetting her skirt hem.
Trying to apply the ointment, but because of her stiff arm and clumsy left hand, she smeared it everywhere.
The cool, sticky sensation made her uncomfortable. In the end, she forgot how to bandage herself with one hand……
It was either too loose or too tight; too tight tugged at the wound, hurting so much that a few tears fell.
After all the fuss, not only was the wound not properly treated, but from multiple touches, it seemed even more swollen. She had also worked herself into a sweat, irritation instantly overwhelming her mind.
“Really…… so annoying……”
Just as she was about to give up and throw everything out, the door was gently knocked.
“Seraphina, dinner is here.” It was Lina’s voice.
Seraphina jumped in fright, then hurriedly tried to hide all the “evidence.” In the panic, she knocked over the water bottle. Clang! The water spilled completely on the floor.
Lina outside the door heard the strange sound, hesitated a moment, but still pushed the door open and came in.
Then…… she saw Seraphina frozen in place, one hand still clutching messy gauze, the other arm bare with blue and purple patches, unevenly smeared with ointment like plastered walls. The water stains on the floor were also glaring. It was simply a mess.
The two stared at each other, the air instantly freezing.
Seraphina’s face visibly flushed red at a speed visible to the naked eye, spreading all the way to her ear tips.
Her strong pride made her speak first. “Who let you in! I haven’t spoken yet! Get out!”
But her slightly reddened eyes and rapid breathing made her words sound unconvincing, like mere bluffing.
However, Lina ignored Seraphina’s command. Her gaze moved from the embarrassed face to the injured area, silently walking in.
After placing the dinner tray on the table, as if she hadn’t heard Seraphina’s expulsion at all.
“You’re injured?”
Lina’s tone was very calm, with no discernible emotion.
Since Lina hadn’t been by her side when Seraphina climbed the watchtower earlier, she didn’t know.
“Just a small bump! I can handle it!” Seraphina turned her head, unwilling for Lina to see her current embarrassment.
She reached to pull the quilt to cover it, but accidentally touched the wound, letting out a soft “mm……”
Lina looked at the scene that had been ravaged into who-knows-what, then at Seraphina’s appearance of clearly unable to hold on but still stubbornly pushing through.
The string called hatred in her heart trembled slightly. An inexplicable emotion, perhaps helplessness, or perhaps the concern she had always been unwilling to face, quietly emerged.