Under the Oak Tree - Chapter 151
Chapter 151: Chapter 151
Maxi was so flustered that it did not immediately occur to her to flee. Her ears were ringing, and she felt dizzy. She teetered as a bout of vertigo washed over her. Was it brought on by fear or by longing? She managed to regain her balance by grabbing onto a rock.
“Were you not told that I was not to be disturbed?” his cold voice rang out.
Keeping her head down, Maxi gulped. She knew she had to say something but had a feeling he would recognize her immediately if she spoke.
After prickling with sweat and remaining silent for quite some time, Maxi buckled under the strange pressure emanating from him and managed to croak out, “P… Please… forgive me.”
There was a heavy silence. Maxi felt his sharp gaze boring into her head like needles.
“Raise your head,” he said, suspicious.
When Maxi clutched her hood and began to back away, she heard splashing followed by the rustling of clothes.
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Not daring to look up, Maxi desperately glanced at the trees like a soldier seeking an escape route. Before she could find a way out, however, a pair of large, wet feet entered her line of vision. Riftan stalked toward her wearing only trousers.
“Did you not hear me?”
Maxi could feel her temples pulsing. Her eyes shifted desperately, her heart pounded, and her whole body dripped with cold sweat. She was trembling like a cornered beast when, suddenly, Idsilla’s urgent voice called out.
“F-Forgive us, sir knight!”
The young noblewoman came bursting through the trees like the wind and positioned herself between Maxi and Riftan.
“We were busy tending to the wounded… We did not know we weren’t supposed to approach the spring. Our sincerest apologies for disturbing your rest.”
The soldiers must have told Idsilla that Riftan was here, as the girl swiftly grasped the situation and hid Maxi behind her.
“If we have your pardon, sir… we shall take our leave.”
Without waiting for his reply, Idsilla slowly pushed Maxi toward the trees. Riftan, however, was not one to give up so easily.
“I have not given you permission to leave yet,” he said, his voice whip-like.
Idsilla stiffened, and Maxi edged closer to the girl’s back to hide from the dark shadow looming over them.
Riftan’s deep voice resonated close to her. “You, the one in the back. How many times must I tell you to raise your head?”
“Sir knight… a female cleric cannot reveal her face to a man.”
“I was not addressing you.”
“We are clerics under the church’s protection,” Idsilla replied. “We cannot violate the doctrines of our faith, even if it is a knight who commands us. We pray for your understanding.”
Astonishingly, the girl remained calm in the face of Riftan’s intimidating presence. If she had not been so terrified, Maxi would have admired her for it. However, all of Maxi’s attention was focused on Riftan.
After a suffocating silence, Riftan finally spoke. “Very well. You may go.”
Maxi almost sank to the ground in relief. Supporting Maxi, Idsilla turned them both around and was about to retreat when a force abruptly yanked Maxi’s hood.
The ambush had come from nowhere, and Maxi was too surprised to stop it. Her hood was wrenched back, and another strong hand spun her body around.
Maxi looked up at Riftan with petrified eyes. His gaze swept over her from head to foot as though he could not believe what he was seeing.
Water dripped from his wet hair and landed on her cheeks. Maxi felt a burning flush color her face.
While she looked no better than a beggar, Riftan was as beautiful as a water god who had just risen from a lake. His wet hair glistened like dark-blue satin, and his muscular torso gleamed red in the setting sun.
Even in the nerve-racking tension, Maxi could not tear her gaze away from the face of her husband whom she had not seen in months.
Riftan seemed equally transfixed, and his eyes swept hungrily over her as he let out a choked groan.
“By God, why are you…”
His trembling fingers touched her cheek, and for a moment, Maxi foolishly thought that he might be pleased that she was here. However, his eyes soon hardened and burned with rage.
“What in the devil are you doing here?” he growled savagely, grabbing her shoulders. “Who brought you here?! What were you thinking coming to such-”
“D-Do not be angry with her, Sir!” Idsilla interjected, stopping Riftan from bellowing like a madman.
His fiery gaze flew to Idsilla, and the girl desperately tried to defend Maxi despite trembling with fear.
“Lady Calypse is here because of me. I told her of my intentions to join the support unit, and-”
“Th-That is not true! I-It was… my choice to come. I just… could not sit by and w-wait any longer…”
“You chose to come here?”
His livid eyes returned to her, his whole body tense from barely contained rage. Maxi snapped her mouth closed.
Her handsome husband, whom she had been dying to catch a glimpse of all this time, looked as vicious as a lion from hell.
“Does the duke know you’re here? What fool allowed you to join the support unit?”
“N-No one knows… that I’m here,” Maxi answered weakly, wetting her dry lips. “I-I hid my identity… and… secretly joined the party as a female cleric.”
His rage seemed to surpass the limit that could be expressed in words. More than once, he opened his mouth as if to yell, only to clench his jaw like a man dredging up the last of his restraint.
Before long, his face smoothed to a blank mask. It was not a good sign. Maxi knew that this calm and silence meant that he was at the peak of his anger.
After icily staring at Maxi’s ashen face, Riftan turned to Idsilla once again. “You were the one who helped her?”
“I-Idsilla… did nothing wrong. I chose to-”
“Keep your mouth shut.”
Maxi helplessly hung her head like a criminal standing trial. After rubbing his face and taking a deep breath, Riftan glanced behind him. The soldiers who had come after Idsilla stood awkwardly among the trees.
Riftan motioned to them. “Take her back to the women’s tent.”
The men promptly walked over to Idsilla and ushered her away. Maxi discreetly tried to go with them when Riftan cut in.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said in a gentle voice that sent a shiver down her spine.
Maxi’s shoulders sagged. After picking up his sword and the rest of his clothes, Riftan began to walk in the opposite direction. Maxi had no choice but to follow him like a foal being dragged on a rope. There was no way out of this mess.
They made their way out of the forest in a silence that felt like the calm before the storm. When they entered the army barracks, the soldiers who had been eating around fires lit all over the campsite turned to look at them with interest.
One of the mercenaries whistled loudly. “Enjoyed a round somewhere, did you?” He eyed Riftan’s half-dressed state and sneered, “Behold, the skills of Wigrew’s reincarnation! Even in this godforsaken place, he’s found a woman to entertain him!”
Men snickered all around them, but Riftan remained unfazed. He shot the mercenary a menacing glare and did not break his brisk pace. Maxi almost had to run to keep up with him. They reached a tent bearing the banner of the Remdragon Knights, and Riftan shoved her in and closed the flap behind them.
Maxi instinctively stood as far away from him as possible.
Riftan eyes blazed before spitting out, “Now, talk! Let’s see what excuses you’ll spout.”
He threw his sword and clothes onto the floor.
“I said, talk!”
Maxi opened and closed her mouth, unable to think of anything to say. Riftan paced around the tent like a caged beast before he began to rebuke her.
“Was I making an unreasonable demand when I asked you to wait for me in Levan? What in the devil were you thinking coming to such a place?! Do you have any idea how dangerous this is? How could you even think to come here without a single-”
Riftan abruptly stopped his outburst and clutched his forehead as if rocked by a pulsing headache. “Good God, what were you going to do if your party had been attacked by an army on your way here? Goddammit! Must I shake you upside down for you to come to your senses?!”
“N-Nothing serious happened! The basilica’s soldiers and the knights… protected the female clerics… so I was never harmed during the journey.”
“You were just lucky, damn it!”
His anger spilled out of his control, and he shook her as he spoke.
“If there had been a big skirmish, there’s no knowing how many of them would have been killed! Tell me, who among them would have protected you properly? Do you think those men would have risked their lives to protect a single female cleric? You could have died if you’d been unluckier. Do you even realize how serious this is?”
Maxi finally managed to collect herself from the onslaught of his anger.
“Th-That… goes for everyone!” she retorted hotly. “Everyone in this camp… i-is risking their lives. I-It is the same for you, Riftan. You could a-also get hurt or even lose your life… if you are unlucky. And yet… you are still here, are you not? I-I also-”
“Do you even know what kind of comparison you make?” He snorted in exasperation. “I’ve spent my whole life on the battlefield. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade! How could you even compare yourself to me?!”
“I-It’s not as if… I joined to fight with a sword! There are s-soldiers here who are mere boys, and I am not… the only weak woman in this camp. All of the women… are doing their best t-to look after the injured men.”
The bulging vein on Riftan’s forehead looked close to bursting at her response. “Everyone in the world can come slave away here for all I care. But not you!”
“W-Why is that? How is that f-fair?”
“You are a duke’s daughter! A noblewoman! Why must you suffer here like everyone else?”
His illogical words caused something inside Maxi to snap. She was sick of it. She was not the lofty noblewoman he thought she was, but an ordinary person like everyone else. It frustrated her that he was incapable of seeing it.
“I-I am not a duke’s daughter! I-I am the wife of a knight! I-I am no longer a Croyso… but a Calypse!”
Riftan appeared to be at a loss for words as he looked down at her. Maxi, who had been fuming as she glowered at him, suddenly caught her breath. Pain lurked behind his dark eyes.
“Is that why you’re here?” he murmured, his voice somber. “Are you here… because you’re Maximilian Calypse?”
“Th-That’s not what I meant. I-I only wished to be near-”
“I apologize for the interruption, but you have quite the audience outside.”
Maxi’s head jerked toward the owner of the unexpected voice and saw Ursuline Ricaydo standing at the tent’s entrance.
“If you do not wish to give the northern barbarians something to talk about, I suggest you end your argument here.”
Maxi’s face was almost blue. After giving Ursuline a cold glare, Riftan grabbed the tunic hanging near the entrance and threw it on.
Turning back to Ursuline, he ordered, “I want you to guard her. I need a minute.”
Maxi grabbed his arm as he went to leave without another word. “R-Riftan… please, don’t be angry. Listen to me. I was so worried about you… th-that I had to come. I just couldn’t… sit by and wait any-”
“We will talk later.”
He coldly pried her hands away, and Maxi stared up at him in shock. Riftan regarded her somberly for a moment before turning around.
“I’ll only end up saying something I’ll regret if I stay. I’ll be back once I’ve cooled off, so wait for me.”
Maxi looked devastated as she watched the flap of the tent flutter in the chilly evening wind. Tears of anguish trickled down her cheeks, and she hastily wiped them away with her sleeve. Ursuline, who had been silently watching her, awkwardly opened his mouth.
“I will have someone get Ruth and Elliot for you.”
He summoned one of the soldiers standing outside and added, “I’m sure you will feel better with them here.”
The knight seemed unsure of what to say after that. He quietly regarded Maxi wearing an expression she could not make sense of. It was as if he were looking at a stranger.
