She wanted to lean against him; she wanted to rest her hand on his shoulder.
The path was lined with ruins, but the girl’s heart throbbed incessantly with unease and worry.
It wasn’t hard for Dolores to understand the source of these emotions and impulses — in an unstable environment, she happened to have someone beside her whom she could rely on and trust.
He was right there. She only had to turn her head to see him.
Dolores stole a glance at Green, realizing she could never manage to place her hand on his shoulder unless he bent down.
She felt the urge to reach out now, just as she would instinctively walk behind him and place both hands on his shoulders when she was frightened in a haunted house.
Friends could sometimes make a person “weak” because they supported each other, providing an anchor for a lonely harbor.
For someone like Dolores, this wasn’t a bad change.
She didn’t possess a heart of stone that could ignore all difficulties; she needed someone to lean on, a harbor where her fragile heart could weigh anchor.
Dolores reached toward Green with some hesitation, only to pull her hand back while shaking her head.
“What is it?”
Green, who had been scanning the surroundings and staying on high alert, noticed her movement.
“Nothing… I was just thinking. I was thinking that after we return to the palace, I want to have a good rest. I want to lie in bed, or lean against you.”
“But before that, we have to… are you doing all right?”
Dolores shifted her gaze to see Vesserian’s condition. She trailed off for a moment, having briefly forgotten the name again. Vesserian, whom she was watching, simply repeated that there was no problem.
However, the knight’s body was trembling slightly, beyond her control.
Dolores and Green were walking toward the palace, but their route would take them past the ruins of the old church. Because of this, Green was on high alert.
The old church was Count Canko’s true objective. Vesserian dragged the surviving captive across the floor while Green kept his greatsword in hand.
Green had initially considered taking a detour, but the destruction of the seals had created gaping holes to their left and right. Had there only been monsters, Green wouldn’t have been afraid to take those paths.
However, considering the unpredictability of human factors, he felt it was better to simply push straight through.
Suddenly, the sound of something cutting through the air rang out.
A new volley of arrows flew toward Dolores from the distance. Vesserian reacted quickly, drawing an arrow and shooting one down.
Those were magic-infused arrows; simply parrying them wouldn’t be enough.
Dolores could only stand behind Green, huddled like a small, weak kitten.
“I need five minutes to end this battle,” Green said to Dolores and Vesserian as he swung his sword.
“I can protect the safety of the Princess,” Vesserian promised, biting her lip.
Dolores felt a pang of distress.
She felt like a burden — weak and useless.
The enemy gave them no time for idle chatter. Green immediately charged into the group of enemies — dozens of knights disguised in black robes.
Vesserian blocked the magic and arrows for her. Meanwhile, Green’s battle proceeded with overwhelming one-sidedness.
In less than three minutes, the fight on Green’s side was over. Only a few remained near Vesserian.
They hadn’t expected to encounter a monster like Green. Especially in such a chaotic situation, they hadn’t anticipated that Dolores would have such a powerful protector.
The leader of the attackers turned to flee, revealing Count Canko’s Family Crest beneath his cloak.
These men were his minions as well.
Raging flames briefly separated Green from the others, the wall of fire blocking his line of sight.
Green’s furious roar shattered the fire wall. In a final act, the fleeing survivor loosed a cold, gleaming arrow toward Dolores.
Dolores had no combat ability and required protection; this had been her most glaring weakness since the very beginning.
Vesserian raised her bow. To her eyes, the incoming arrow moved as slowly as a stone thrown underwater.
She could see it. She saw it clearly.
She could hit it…
Suddenly, a wave of pain tore through Vesserian. The clear, slow-moving arrow in her vision abruptly blurred into a series of overlapping shadows.
She released the string. The arrow flew.
But it missed its mark.
The undeterred arrow soared toward Dolores.
Vesserian instinctively tried to use magic to compensate for her failure, but she had lost even the strength to construct a spell. As the magical outline flickered and faded, her instincts drove her to throw herself in front of Dolores.
“Cough… Princess, are you all right?”
Vesserian saw her own blood flowing from the wound, dripping onto the ground.
It wasn’t Dolores’s blood…
That was… enough.
***
Vesserian didn’t die. The arrow had pierced her shoulder rather than her heart.
She only needed time to heal.
Vesserian’s collapse was due to the total depletion of her strength. She should have fallen during the first ambush, but she had forced herself to walk further through sheer willpower.
It didn’t matter now; they had reached the palace.
Order still remained within the palace walls, but the King had been attacked after the dragon departed and was currently recovering in the ancestral lands.
The Knights Order and the guards had suffered heavy casualties. Both personnel and medical supplies were in short supply.
Still, Dolores was the Princess, so she didn’t lack medical attention. However, after a female physician finished examining Vesserian and concluded she was safe, the doctor hurried away.
In the current situation, the task of caretaking fell to Dolores.
Perhaps she could rely on Green a little as well.
When Vesserian had blocked the arrow for her, Dolores had been truly terrified.
She had watched the arrow pierce Vesserian’s body; she had watched the girl’s blood splatter onto her own hands. Once again, she had watched Vesserian get hurt to protect her.
At that moment, she had really thought Vesserian might die.
Die because of her.
Dolores had truly experienced death, and for her, death was something profoundly terrifying.
The sight of Vesserian in that moment had instinctively triggered that buried fear.
But when she came to her senses, she realized the one bleeding was Vesserian. She was merely the one being protected.
In that instant, her heart felt as if it were being squeezed tight.
Throughout it all, Green remained by her side, silently watching as Dolores stood in a daze before Vesserian.
It wasn’t until a faint sound of weeping reached him that Green took one or two steps forward.
“She won’t die. She just needs to rest for a while…”
The Green of the past had been spoiled by Dolores, and now he could only offer such blunt words of comfort.
But for the current Dolores, it was enough.
“I know, Green… I’m just thinking. Am I… am I really worth someone getting hurt for me?”
The moment the words left her mouth, Dolores realized she shouldn’t be saying such things in this setting, especially not in front of Green.
But by his side, she felt an uncontrollable urge to pour her heart out.
This was especially true after surviving such a violent ordeal. She had been enduring it all — enduring the walk back to the palace while carrying Vesserian, and enduring the departure of the physician.
She had endured until now…
“I know she was willing to get hurt for me, but… but I’m not happy about it at all…”
“If I weren’t so weak, if she didn’t have to protect me, she wouldn’t have been injured so badly…”
Dolores’s words tugged at the strings of Green’s heart.
‘Dolores…’
The ripples of a voice echoed in Green’s ears like a distant memory — his own.
‘For someone as selfish and weak as me… why do you continue to stay by my side? I know there’s no reason for you to indulge me like this… you could survive just fine without me.’
‘I’m the one who keeps making mistakes, over and over again, causing you to get hurt…’
Green had once asked Dolores those very questions.
But the answer he had received from that always-gentle girl was an even more indulgent, willful response…