Threat (5)
This time too, Marius’s sword could not pass by Vlad. Vlad kept his gaze fixed in the air and stepped back to avoid the sword that Marius was wielding.
Did the duke just see a demon? While irrational fear slowly tainted the Imperial Knights, the Knights of de Winter knew very well why their master was acting that way.
Gallahead rested one hand on his forehead. “It’s ruined.”
Vlad’s gray eyes, who had been wandering, quickly settled down after grasping the situation. “…Lily.”
The sound of a horseshoe hitting the ground from afar echoed only in his ears. It belonged to a single horse, but to him, it sounded like thunder. That one horse was like an army to him.
Soon everyone heard it. As the mare with her cream-colored mane fluttered into the training ground, two things happened at the same time.
“Come!” Ingrid folded the fan.
“No, Vlad!” Lily screamed over her horse.
An astonishing clamor struck like lightning among the Imperial Knights.
Vlad’s dark eyebrows twitched slightly. The sensation he felt after a long time spread like paint in his lower abdomen. A burning, sharp pain as if heated iron had been inserted. There was a feeling of a cumbersome foreign body that had penetrated between the bones and stuck inside the body.
As he lowered his gaze, he saw the tip of the sword protruding through his side. The sword that Marius stabbed from behind pierced his stomach. Drops of blood dripped from the silver blade to the ground. Vlad finally furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
Seeing the weight disappear, it was as if Marius had put his sword down. Marius’s bewildered breathing was heard behind his back.
“This is what I purposely tried to stab from behind…”
“Vlad!” Lily was in a panic. It was almost like throwing her body at random as she jumped off her horse with some spirit.
Vlad’s whole body twitched over and over again. He gave strength to his legs as if she was about to run to him, but then he flinched at the strange feeling he still felt in his upper body. The sword was still stuck.
He hurriedly stretched his arm back and grabbed the blade with his bare hand. As he pulled the sword back, blood gushed out from his wounds. Lily’s startled scream was heard again. He commanded Gallahead, clasping his wound with a large hand as if trying to prevent her from seeing his blood, “Stop her.”
The knights scrambled in front of Lily as she was running. She was instantly surrounded by his men, like an iron wall. Her eyes looking up at Gallahead were desperate.
“Get out of the way!”
“I’m sorry, Madam. Until the duel is over, it is customary that no one intervenes.”
“Custom, what good is that? Vlad is hurt, hurt! Stay away. Hurry!”
A prince wielding a sullen sword towards her husband. She was afraid that the sky would fall just by witnessing the scene.
The prince stabbed her husband. His sword pierced through her husband’s body. She saw it all clearly.
She slammed into Gallahead’s body as she screamed. Gallahead backed away as far as she could out of reach, but he never got out of the way. In the end, tears fell from her big eyes.
“Get out of the way, quick! It’s a command, it’s a command. Please. Let me go, Gallahead… Vlad, uh… !”
Water dripped down all over her little face, and then tears fell down to the dirt floor. Even the knights, including Gallahead, were restless and twitched.
Ingrid’s voice pierced through them like salvation. She commanded resolutely, swinging her folded fan like a baton, “Make way for the duchess. She is right in what she says. What good is custom when her husband is hurt? Go ahead and put an end to this stupid duel.”
When the knights opened up a gap between them, Lily ran out, pushing hard between them.
Vlad, who was wiping the blood from his hands on the back of his clothes, stopped. While the bloodstain was still on him, Lily ran to him and jumped into his arms.
“Lily, wait…” The skin of the palm cut by the blade was still wide open. While he hid his injured hand, Lily grabbed his clothes.
She had wet palms holding his uniform. She ran hands down his clothes and turned her trembling hand to reveal her own palm. His blood, red and vivid.
“Blood, there is blood. You… So, the blood….”
Her eyes flickered. He whispered something over and over, as if trying to calm her down, but nothing was heard. It just felt so hard to breathe. Her head was filled with the horror of his torn uniform and the smell of rust.
She looked up at him frantically. “Heal him right now. Priest, no. That’s n-no. Call anyone. Come on… lean on me. I-I somehow…”
“Lily.”
“No. Don’t move. From hemostasis…”
“Lily!” He gave strength to his voice.
The words she had been pouring out of her suddenly stopped.
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