I Will Be the Greatest Knight-Chapter 454: Heal His Knight

Admittedly, Henry had been searching for excuses to leave his room.

And the woman he was interested in being injured was a perfect reason to do so. He was still burning to get to the bottom of whatever happened, but answers could come as soon as he knew she was alright.

The sight of blood seeping through wet bandages was enough for him to realize it wasn’t something to brush past.

As he went down the hallway, to the objection of maids that had been occupying the other wing at the top of the stairs, he knew that his body was weaker than it was before being poisoned. His legs felt like wet noodles, and he could feel his heart racing at the strain.

How disappointing it was to know he was going to have to build himself from the ground up. He just hoped that the strongest woman he had ever witnessed would wait for him while he felt so pathetic because that’s all he felt.

At least he could do this much by summoning the mage who promised to stay at his side and help his knighthood—for handsome compensation, of course.

However, his luck seemed to be at an all-time high because as he made it to the ground floor, without a doubt completely winded, he was shocked to see Siverly walking from the dining hall with a jar of canned apples in his hands from the past autumn season.

The mage instantly narrowed his eyes, seeing his most recent patient walking around as if he hadn’t just pulled him from the grips of death just a week before.

"Who told you that you’re allowed to be walking around like this, Your Grace?" Siverly wondered, being the only one who could talk so bluntly to the man because of their history in Henry’s own path into knighthood.

"No one told me," Henry responded. "I need you to help me with an injured knight."

The mage let out a burdened sigh at that.

"Who?" he asked as if the answer was going to make him weigh his options.

"The dame," Henry responded, knowing there was only one person who could be.

Siverly sighed. Why did it have to be one of the knights he was fond of?

"Hold these and don’t let anyone eat them," he directed as he handed the apples off to the Commander. "They’re the last in the food storage. I will be back with my items. Your room, I assume?"

Henry took the jar and stared down at it with raised eyebrows for a moment.

"I’ll wait for you," Henry responded. And at Siverly’s glare that he didn’t want him to bother with that, the Commander added, "I’m a bit winded. Need a break."

Siverly walked away and out the back entrance, uttering something insulting, most likely, and Henry waited patiently with a jar of apples in his possession.

A short while later, the mage returned with his hood over his head and the top half of his body littered with droplets of water. In his hands, he had a bag full of an undetermined number of things, but certainly items he thought would be useful.

"It’s worth the money," Henry reminded the mage.

"I’m beginning to wonder if peace is worth trading for any amount," the mage easily retorted.

However, since he was the one leading them up the stairs that time, the Commander only laughed it off. He would have to pay the mage handsomely soon to keep him around. That was already the plan, considering what he had done to ensure Henry healed up.

Since it was Henry’s room they were headed towards, when they made it to his door, he walked in first. It had been shut to preserve the warmth in the room.

What he wasn’t expecting to see was Irene’s head lulled to the side as she started to doze from the said warmth of the fire. He couldn’t help but faintly smile at the sight of her. She had spent every drop of her energy just because he wanted to keep a promise to him. How was he meant to resist gestures like that?

He lightly cleared his throat to give her a gentle warning, but Siverly broke the peace by muttering a few choice words as he entered the room.

"What has happened now?" he wondered aloud.

Irene’s head immediately popped up as if she had been awake and aware that entire time. She turned to see the mage who had barged into the room.

"Hello, Siverly," she responded as she stood up.

"Might as well keep sitting down," the mage suggested. "Could you remove the bandage, dame?"

Again, he used titles to avoid total insubordination, but his tone would suggest otherwise.

Irene didn’t mind at all. She was used to Siverly and knew they worked all the mages to the ground.

Without argument, she began unwinding Felix’s carefully done bandage job, and she winced as she got to the lower layers. Even though some parts were covered in animal fat so they wouldn’t stick, they were still hard to remove and caused blood to seep out of her fresh wounds.

Henry had taken up a spot by the fire so he could watch from a distance and allow Siverly to do his job, but when he saw the marred skin, he couldn’t help stepping forward.

"What happened?" he asked yet again. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"It was a Nok," Irene explained. "We found goblins in a forest, but I lost sight of the environment and made the mistake of not checking the ponds due to all the snow melt. Better me than an apprentice."

"A Nok?" Henry asked.

He wanted to disagree about her last statement, but he held back because he would have done the same.

"Oh, in the south you have kelpies," she recalled. "They’re quite similar, but those ones are taken down easier than Noks... At least the apprentices still use iron arrows for a reason."

"Did it spit on you?" Siverly asked, more urgently and practically cutting off her words.

"Yes, but I swear I rinsed it," Irene promised. "Well, Felix rinsed it with clean water from his waterskin."

"It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious," Siverly insisted. "Shall I fetch a maid to bring us water?"

To Irene’s shock, the Commander and Duke, someone who should never lower themselves to anyone, said, "Don’t worry. I’ll do it."

And without hesitating, he went to get a small basin and water which was the job of a maid and not at all befitting the man of his station. However, it didn’t stop him.