Chapter 57

Astelle understood the situation and nodded.

Clang! [sfx]

As the assassins began to attack, Kaizen came back to his senses and avoided the flying sword.

He deviated from the weapon and passed through the gap. His sword pierced the opponent’s body.

“Ugh!”

There were several assassins, but Kaizen’s sword was much faster and more skilled than them.

He easily defeated the enemies one by one.

The last remaining assassin crept in, but Kaizen’s sword cut through his chest in an instant.

The opponent screamed and collapsed.

At that moment, another assassin appeared from behind Astelle.

A masked man was holding his sword and running towards her.

Kaizen froze for a moment.

“Astelle!”

Surprised, Astelle leaned over to avoid the attack.

Kaizen’s sword blocked the one heading towards Astelle, but his posture was disturbed for a moment, and he lost his balance.

At that moment, the assassin pierced his shoulder.

“Ugh!”

In an instant, the blade of the sword was pierced deep into his left shoulder and his blood gushed out.

Kaizen’s sword pierced the opponent’s neck.

After a short struggle, the bodies of seven people were scattered on the floor.

Astelle noticed that Kaizen was bleeding and approached him.

“Your Majesty! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

As Astelle was walking towards Kaizen, the body of one of the assassins touched her feet.

Astelle, who unintentionally lowered her gaze, was terribly surprised.

‘This person…’

Even earlier when Astelle saw the assassin, she felt strangely familiar with him.

She knew this man. He was someone she encountered occasionally in the mansion since childhood.

Astelle had seen this man several times, enough to be able to recognize his identity just by looking at his half-masked face.

She doesn’t know his name, but she knows what he came to do.

He was one of the minions her father kept secretly by his side.

‘Why is this person here…’

“……”

Seeing Astelle’s pale face, Kaizen sat down, clutching his stabbed shoulder.

“Ugh…!”

“Your Majesty!”

Astelle suddenly came to her senses and approached Kaizen who was sitting with his back against a tree.

“Ugh!”

He frowned in pain and groaned.

His wounded shoulder was drenched in blood.

Astelle knelt down next to him.

“Your Majesty, I will examine the wounds.”

She carefully unfolded the torn hem.

The wounds from the sword were deeply embedded in his hard shoulder, which was wrapped in muscles .

Blood gushed from the sharp cleavage.

‘It’s not wide, but it’s pierced deeply.’

Fortunately, there was no bone damage.

Still, Astelle had to stop the bleeding as soon as possible.

If left as it is, he may bleed out and it could be very dangerous.

“The wound is deep. It must be stopped immediately. I will use the herbs I brought with me.”

She took the herbs used to treat wounds just in case she needed them.

She was really relieved even though she never imagined the herbs would be used for this.

Astelle wiped the wound with a dry handkerchief and applied hemostasis.

She then took out the herbs from the basket, wiped them with her handkerchief, and crushed them with her hands.

When she pressed Kaizen’s wound with her hand, he cried out as he endured the stinging pain.

“If you hadn’t fought to protect me, you wouldn’t have been hurt.”

Astelle stared intently at him.

It wasn’t wrong.

If Astelle wasn’t behind him, Kaizen wouldn’t have been hurt.

He had the ability to block seven or more assassins alone.

Without her, he would have easily escaped the crisis.

‘I knew he was good at swordsmanship, but I didn’t know he was this good.’ Astelle thought

When he was the Crown Prince, he liked to hunt, but his swordsmanship skills were known to be slightly above average.

Even when he occasionally battled with knights, he didn’t seem like a very powerful person.

It was just that he was good enough among the sons of high-ranking nobles.

It must have been that he wasn’t showing his real skills properly.

It meant that he did not trust anyone from the beginning.

It was comprehensible.

From Kaizen’s point of view, of course, he had to hide his claws and act cautiously.

Even with Astelle who was his fiancee of ten years.

Although they had grown up together since the age of ten, he did not trust her at all.

It was a bittersweet feeling since they had a relationship with no trust.

‘It must be unavoidable.’

Considering Astelle’s father and her family, it was understandable that Kaizen didn’t trust her and kept his distance.

“Thank you, Your Majesty. I will never forget this grace.”

Kaizen protected Astelle until he got hurt. It was something she should be grateful for.

As Astelle calmly expressed her gratitude, Kaizen mumbled dissatisfied.

“Is that all?”

“Then what do you want me to do?”

Astelle didn’t want to joke around in this situation, so she asked a bit coldly.

In fact, when Kaizen was hit by the sword, Astelle was very surprised.

She was so startled that she couldn’t even scream and was nailed to the spot.

She sounded so cold but Kaizen smirked at her.

“Why, why did you just stand still instead of leaving?”

Astelle didn’t know why this person was sneering even when she was doing good things.

She pressed harder on the cloth that was holding his wound.

Kaizen frowned in pain.

“Ugh…”

“I’m done.”

Kaizen gave her a pained gaze, but she ignored it.

She applied the crushed herbs to his wounds with her hands.

When the extract of the dark blue leaves was applied, the blood from the wound gradually subsided.

After the bleeding stopped, the wound became more visible.

The sharp cut was so deep that it almost touched the bone.

Kaizen saw that his blood had stopped and he pushed the hem of his robe as if nothing had happened.

“I’m fine now.”

When Astelle saw that, she felt bad.

It struck her heart that such a strong man had been badly hurt while protecting her.

‘Isn’t there any aftereffects?’

Astelle is not a doctor, so she doesn’t know.

She was worried about what would happen to him if he mistreats his shoulder by any chance.

It was then.

Footsteps were heard from the other side.

The two were nervous because they thought more assassins were coming, but familiar people appeared among the trees.

They were the knights of the emperor.

“Your Majesty! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

Kaizen noticed Lyndon running, startled, he got up on his feet.

“Lady Astelle, are you okay?”

“Yes. I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”

Kaizen looked at the knights Lyndon had brought and asked,

“How did you know there was an attack?”

“I spotted smoke rising in the forest, and I rushed in because I thought something had happened. ”

“smoke?”

“Yeah, over there…”

Lyndon pointed towards the smoke.

Astelle realized where he was pointing.

It was where Theor and her grandfather were.

She was startled and rushed to the place frantically.

She heard Lyndon shouting from behind, but she ran along the forest path without looking back.

“Theor!”

As she ran to the place where the tent was she noticed the smoke rising next to the fallen tent.

There were Vellian and the Marquis standing on either side of a pile of firewood producing smoke.

Theor was in Vellian’s arms.

“Theor, are you okay?”

Astelle took Theor and hugged him.

The little boy wept and buried his face in Astelle’s arms.

“Sob, sob… bad people have come…”

Theor’s tiny body trembled faintly.

Astelle grabbed him and patted him on the back.

“It’s okay, it’s okay Theor.”

Astelle calmed him with a soft voice to give him peace of mind.

‘Assassins have also come here.’

It seems that they were trying to get rid of Vellian and her grandfather, who would probably be witnesses.

‘If I did something wrong, I could endanger Theor and Grandpa.’

Just imagining it was terrifying.

Astelle hugged Theor’s tiny body tighter.

Her grandfather who was standing by the fire, approached her and asked anxiously,

“Astelle, are you okay?”

“Is Grandpa hurt anywhere?”

There was blood on her grandfather’s wrist.

“It’s not a big deal.”

Kaizen, who followed Astelle, showed up later.

Lyndon and the other knights followed shortly after.

Vellian walked over to him.

“Your Majesty. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Have the assassins been here too?”

“Yes, there were only three people.”

Vellian pointed to the broken tent.

There was a human body covered in white cloth.

‘It was a corpse.’

It seemed that they were keeping Theor from seeing it.

“I built a fire to make smoke and call out the knights.”

Astelle held Theor in her arms and handed the herbs to her grandfather.

It was the herbs that she had applied to Kaizen’s wound earlier.

“Grandpa, please treat this first.”

Vellian, who was standing next to him, grumbled as he saw the Marquis taking the herbs.

“I’m hurt too.”

Upon closer inspection, there was a red bruise on his forehead.

‘Oh, did you get hit while fighting? I don’t have any herbs for bruises right now.’

The Marquis who was handed the medicinal herbs looked at him pitifully.

“How could you say that it hurts!?”