With trembling fingers, she painstakingly pried open the chest.
This was the chest Lina had secretly packed to the brim, so Seraphina had no idea exactly what had been stuffed inside.
It was a complete mess. The clothes Lina had carefully folded were scattered everywhere—some torn, others soaked by melted snow.
Still, fortunately, one or two pieces were wearable.
She first grabbed the off-white cloak and draped it over herself. The fluffy inner lining brought a faint trace of warmth.
Then she rummaged for food. A packet wrapped in oil paper caught her eye.
Her body’s instincts told her this was it—the food.
She frantically tore open the oil paper, nearly dropping it in the process. The jerky inside was somewhat squashed but edible.
At the very bottom of the chest, an iron tin came into view. The container was badly deformed, but inside were a dozen mint candies and a bottle of stamina-recovery potion.
“So thirsty…” Seraphina licked her cracked lips. She scooped up a handful of clean snow and stuffed it into her mouth. The melting water temporarily eased the dryness in her throat, though it made her shiver.
Next came treating her wounds.
Several outer coats that were no longer wearable drew her attention. Using a wooden splinter from the chest, she tore the softer, relatively clean sections. Then, with her teeth, she painstakingly ripped those into smaller strips.
The process was clumsy and grueling. Her teeth ached, and the wounds throbbed worse whenever she exerted force.
With no water, she could only use snow to clean the more obvious injuries on her forehead and arms. The icy touch stung so badly that tears welled in her eyes.
Then, with shaking hands, she wrapped the strips around the wounds as best as she could remember from past bandaging.
Though crooked and uneven, it would at least help staunch the bleeding and reduce the risk of further infection.
The remaining strips she folded neatly and tucked into the cloak’s pockets.
Finally, her gaze fell on the bottle labeled as a stamina-recovery potion. She pulled out the stopper.
An indescribable, pungent smell assaulted her nostrils.
She wrinkled her brow. Just the scent alone made her want to gag.
“Drink it…” she told herself inwardly. Pinching her nose, closing her eyes, she tilted her head back and forced down the small bottle of thick, bitter liquid.
The taste was utterly vile, sending her into dry heaves, but she held it in and didn’t let herself vomit.
After a moment, a faint warmth began to circulate. It couldn’t drive away the bitter cold or heal her injuries, but it did give her a slight boost of strength.
She gathered everything usable she had found and set off on her escape without pause.
She didn’t dare linger. Wild beasts could appear at any moment.
Forcing herself not to look at the fallen knights, she fixed her gaze in the direction opposite to where the assailants had withdrawn—a vast, open wilderness of rolling hills and barren, withered trees.
It was also, in her memory, roughly the way toward the Giantwing Demons’ territory.
Back at the outpost, Lina’s mood grew increasingly heavy. She stared in the direction Seraphina had left, brows furrowed, blinking frequently without realizing it.
Unnoticed sighs escaped her now and then. Leaning against the iron railing of the watchtower, all she could see was a vast white expanse. Fresh snowfall had long covered the wheel tracks.
“Miss Lina, it’s windy and cold up on the watchtower. Please return to your room and rest,” Bask said from behind her. Though he was close, his voice seemed distant somehow.
Lina acted as if she hadn’t heard.
Only when Bask repeated himself did her fingers tremble as they released the railing.
Suddenly, Lina realized this parting from Seraphina felt far more unsettling than any before.
As if resolving herself, she turned to Bask. “Prepare a carriage. I’ll lead a squad of cavalry to find Her Highness!”
“But, Miss Lina, Her Highness set out quite a while ago. We might not catch up.”
“If we can’t catch up, that’s even better—at least we’ll know she arrived safely. But… what if we do?”
At those words, both Lina and Bask drew in sharp breaths.
“Understood! I’ll prepare it right away!”
The snow was falling harder.
At first, Seraphina could still rely on vague instincts to move in one direction.
…
…
But willow-like snowflakes pelted her face in dense waves. Visibility dropped rapidly to a blinding white, less than ten meters!
The world seemed to collapse around her, leaving only her own ragged, pained breathing.
Her sense of direction… vanished.
Everything was that cursed white—surrounded by blackened, withered trunks, undulating snowdrifts, without a single landmark to orient herself.
She felt like she was futilely circling inside a massive maze.
Her injuries, blood loss, the cold, and lingering numbness made her mind grow heavier, everything before her eyes blurring.
Finally, her foot stepped into nothing. She tumbled into a shallow pit concealed by snow—perhaps only half a meter deep.
The violent impact nearly knocked her unconscious from pain. Lying at the bottom, she stared up at the gray, overcast sky as snowflakes fell mercilessly onto her face.
She didn’t know where she was, which way the outpost lay, or how far the Giantwing Demons’ territory might be. The heavy snow had buried the trade route.
Maybe… this is it.
Despair, suffocating and icy, surged like a tide, threatening to shatter her spirit.
She wasn’t sure how long she lay there—minutes? Hours?
She only knew a thick layer of snow had covered her body. The cold drilling into her nose jolted her awake.
What remained of her survival instinct drove her hands to frantically brush off the snow. Her stiffened limbs dulled the pain somewhat, a reminder that her body temperature was plummeting rapidly.
Fortunately, during that unknown stretch of unconsciousness—short or long—she hadn’t been attacked by beasts.
Then again, in this deadly weather, no beasts would be out either.
The snow… seemed to be lightening a little.
This was undoubtedly good news. It rekindled the hope that had nearly died in Seraphina’s heart, even if only faintly.
Fumbling inside her cloak, she found the iron tin. She grabbed a few mint candies and popped them into her mouth.
Combined with the biting cold air, it cleared her head a bit.
She tightened her clothes again, trapping what little warmth she could.
“Everything Lina packed… it’s all coming in handy…”
After that brief murmur of gratitude, she set off once more into the unknown ahead.
The jerky was meant for Seraphina to eat on the road. The mint candies were just to complement the sachet and ease her motion sickness.
As for that bottle of stamina potion… it had been an offhand choice by Lina. Without it, there would have been an empty space in the tin, and nothing else would fit quite right.
Only this potion was just the perfect size.
Perhaps it was fate. But at the very least, Lina had already set out swiftly…