TMLHGCFTV 16

Chapter 16

When asked, Lilia nodded with her swollen, tear-streaked face. Then she looked around with trembling eyes before wrapping her arms tightly around Rosana’s neck and hiding her face against her.

Seraphine, who had been watching from a distance, finally let out the breath she had been holding. The tension visibly drained from the hand gripping her sword.

Holding the tiny body against her, Rosana strode toward Kael with the confidence of a victorious general.

“…Remarkable, in more ways than one.”

Lilia, who hadn’t allowed anyone else near her even once during the journey, was now naturally clinging to Rosana.

The child’s curly hair fluttered in the breeze. Kael found himself staring blankly at the sight before him—the sight of Rosana approaching him.

Her appearance, stained with dust and faint traces of blood, could hardly be called beautiful. And yet, he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away.

It almost seemed as though a faint glow surrounded Rosana. Kael frowned and rubbed at the corners of his eyes. Perhaps the exhaustion was finally making him see things that weren’t there.

As though the already disastrous journey wasn’t enough, they had even had to deal with a criminal incident. It felt as if what little sanity he had left was being worn away.

Even in a situation where everything seemed swallowed by darkness, Rosana alone continued to shine with vitality, like an ember that refused to go out.

A military tribunal was convened.

As if attempting desertion weren’t bad enough, they had also plotted to kidnap the young Saintess. It was an exceptionally heinous crime. Perhaps because rumors had spread throughout the night, every member of the expedition had gathered by morning to watch the trial.

Everyone whispered among themselves, but their eyes remained fixed on the four prisoners, Lilia standing before them, and Rosana, who was holding Lilia’s hand tightly.

Millers stepped forward to conduct the trial.

“Under military law, they must be punished severely. When a member of the knights harms someone who is supposed to be under their protection, the punishment is castration, ensuring they can never have descendants.”

Their descendants were essentially being regarded as seeds of future criminality. It was an antiquated way of thinking, but it was also the law that had governed the knights until now.

Kael stared coldly at the criminals.

Millers continued.

“In this case as well, military law dictates that they should be castrated. However—”

Everyone gathered at the trial turned their eyes toward two of the four men. The two who were still relatively intact had been apprehended by Millers, while the other two, who were battered beyond recognition, had been captured by Rosana. The latter pair looked so utterly dazed and miserable that they appeared as though they had been possessed by ghosts.

“Ahem.”

After being examined by the military physicians and informed that they would never be able to father children again, the two men had remained in a daze ever since. The shock seemed so great that they had forgotten even the pain that had coursed through their bodies.

Kael rubbed his face with his palm.

They had effectively already been castrated.

“In this case…”

Millers trailed off and glanced toward Rosana. She stood there with an utterly unfazed expression.

Beside her, Lilia, the victim of the incident, clung tightly to Rosana’s leg. Her face was still flushed from crying, and tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.

Millers looked away from the pitiful child and turned back to Kael.

“What should we do, Your Highness?”

The judge, who had never once lost sight of justice or reason, suddenly found himself at a loss.

The murmuring among the expedition members grew louder.

Among them, an elderly knight known for his sense of justice stepped forward.

“Please punish them severely. There are many children in this army. Unfortunately, that is the reality. We must make certain that nothing like this happens again.”

He wasn’t wrong. Kael happened to be thinking the same thing.

“I will take your words to heart.”

The old knight bowed his head and stepped back.

Kael rubbed the space between his brows.

“…What should we do?”

At Millers’s question, Kael let out a long sigh.

In all his years as a knight, he had never encountered a situation like this. He had never even read about one in the records.

Kael pressed his lips together for a moment. If they were to reach Greystone according to schedule, they needed to hurry. They could no longer afford to waste time here. But if they simply handed out a light punishment and moved on, there was no guarantee something similar wouldn’t happen again.

He looked at the elderly knight’s weathered face, then at the countless faces lined up behind him. Each person had their own reason for being there. Among them were surely parents who had left behind children Lilia’s age to join the expedition.

Kael understood their anger all too well.

He closed his eyes, then opened them again.

“These two will be castrated. All four will be tied to a tree, and we will leave tomorrow as scheduled.”

Kael made his declaration in a heavy voice.

Rosana seemed somewhat dissatisfied, but she didn’t argue. She merely expressed her displeasure by pursing her lips.

“Y-Your Highness! Then what will happen to us?”

“Did you not plan to desert from the beginning? It seems things have turned out exactly as you wanted.”

Kael turned toward Rosana.

“Lady Rosana.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“What punishment do you think they deserve?”

“I think their wrists should be cut off. That way, they’ll never be able to do something like that again.”

Rosana’s eyes flashed as she bared her teeth in a low growl. The criminals met her gaze, immediately clamped their mouths shut, and turned their heads away.

Rosana really had changed.

Far beyond anything he could have predicted.

Kael suppressed a quiet laugh.

And strangely enough, he didn’t dislike this troublesome situation.

Nor did he dislike Rosana’s changes.

Or her smile.

Several things changed after we left Willow.

More than anything, the way everyone in the expedition treated me had changed. People no longer regarded me as nothing more than a nuisance, and there was something different in the way they looked at me now.

Kael’s attitude was no different.

He called me over again. After silently studying me for a while, Kael finally spoke.

“I would like you to look after Saintess Lilia for a while.”

“You want me to take care of Saintess Lilia?”

Kael nodded. There was an unmistakable exhaustion in his eyes.

I had rescued Lilia from those men right before we left Willow. It had only been three days ago.

And now he was asking me this?

“Lilia asked for you.”

Technically, we could send Lilia back to the capital even now. But would she really be safe there? The temple would gladly push a young child forward again whenever it served their interests.

At least Kael and the knights of the expedition treated Lilia like the child she was.

The same applied to the other children who had been dragged into this expedition.

There was only one reason Kael hadn’t sent them home.

Because they wouldn’t be safe there.

For the children who had practically been sold into this expedition, there was no longer anywhere they could call safe.

According to the original novel, Kael had said that he wanted to take these children somewhere safe. There was no embrace in this world that could truly protect them.

He really was a good man.

He was handsome on the inside, too.

Just like his face.

There was a good chance this request was for Lilia’s sake as well.

And if accepting it helped me earn some goodwill from Kael, there was nothing wrong with that.

But…

“I don’t have much experience taking care of children, Your Highness.”

Sure, I’d played the role of a virtual aunt from afar, but that was completely different from actually dealing with children.

And Lilia was already in a terrible emotional state.

Could I really help her?

I wasn’t exactly confident about it.

“That doesn’t matter, Lady Rosana. This is what Lilia wants.”

Kael let out a quiet sigh.

“She was a child who couldn’t sleep properly or even eat.”

Kael glanced at me as though carefully choosing his words. The way his hand passed over his face seemed to carry the weight of all the troubles he had been carrying.

What was he trying to say?