Lita’s consciousness felt as if it were floating in a void. No matter how hard she tried to control it, she couldn’t return to the surface above that emptiness.
After who knows how long, she finally grabbed hold of something. Following that guiding force, she kept moving forward, rising upward. At last, all perception of the real world flooded back into her body like a tidal wave.
Her forehead made a dull thud, and something flew away from in front of her. Cold, hard, painful—and then a trace of warmth.
“Haaah…” Lita sat up abruptly, immediately feeling a biting wind.
She rubbed her eyes and finally saw what she had knocked away. Cecilia was lying on the ground, groaning in pain while trying to get up.
Lita quickly scrambled to her feet, only then realizing that she had been lying on the ground this whole time. And this place wasn’t some wind-swept tent—it was a dark, rocky cave. But in that instant, she could only think that far; helping Cecilia up was the top priority.
She managed to get Cecilia upright. Thankfully, Cecilia wasn’t like a little child who would sit on the ground and wail, so it took very little effort. If Cecilia knew what Lita was thinking right now, she’d probably start pounding her with tiny fists again.
“Lady Cecilia, where is this?” Lita glanced around at the ice-lit surroundings. It felt vaguely familiar.
“This is the snow cave of the Baba Bon tribe. You were unconscious, so I single-handedly defeated several Wild Hunts, the White Frost dispersed, and I brought you here,” Cecilia replied. “To be precise, I dragged you and the luggage all the way back here.”
The distance they had covered while fleeing the Wild Hunts on horseback was not short. For Cecilia to not only drag Lita but also bring back the supplies and even find this snow cave was nothing short of a feat. Lita noticed the luggage bags piled in the corner were quite worn and looked flatter than before, but that didn’t diminish how incredible Cecilia’s accomplishment was.
On the snowfield, Cecilia had faced far more dangers than Lita had. A snowstorm, a wild beast, even a slip could have left her unable to get up. Lita could only say, “Amazing.”
“Don’t talk about me yet. What about you? What really happened back then?”
What Lita had done was actually quite simple. She had only two means to rely on: the Crest and the part of her that was a Dream Demon. Her situation had been dire. To protect Cecilia, she almost certainly would have to be injured.
But luckily, the Crest’s power could heal her wounds. So, she decided to use her body as a price to break out. And that was exactly what she did. The moment Cecilia was thrown clear and she herself was pierced by a spear, she activated the Crest. With the White Frost as cover and Rosalia and the others held back and unable to assist, using a portion of her original power should be fine, right?
Then Lita unleashed the Dream Demon part of her power fully. Using the most useful ability she had learned against them, she directly attacked their souls. Though the Alien Ghosts came in all shapes and sizes, these heavily armored ones seemed vaguely like the physically robust type. Her ability might just stun these simple-minded, brawny things.
She had only intended to try, but unexpectedly, her ability worked surprisingly well. So she simply grabbed the soul of that Wild Hunt and crushed it. At first, she thought it might be a trap, but when the Wild Hunt collapsed and didn’t get up, she stopped caring whether it was a trap or not—just do it first and think later.
In the end, it was what Cecilia had seen.
“So you had it all planned out already. And you didn’t tell me earlier. And here I was, worrying about you so much.”
“I couldn’t guarantee my plan would succeed. And those Wild Hunts aren’t stupid. If I had said it out loud and they got wary, what then? If they had been more careful instead of pressing their advantage, I might not have succeeded so easily… ah, I mean, won.”
“Actually, I was worried that the stronger I used the Crest’s power, the worse the aftereffects would be. So I deactivated it the moment I was liberated, afraid I might lose the ability to move. But it sounds like I still got hit.”
Cecilia thought seriously for a while.
“But I can almost be sure that your mysterious fainting is related to your Crest. But other Holy Knights aren’t like that. And you yourself said it has nothing to do with how long you activated the Crest for. So didn’t you have this problem during training?”
Lita shook her head like a rattle. “No, not at all! If I had known, I wouldn’t have fought that way! I mean, the battle with Xingxian!”
“Never mind, that’s not the most important thing now. We’re still in the territory of the Baba Bon tribe. I don’t know if the Wild Hunts and other Alien Ghosts will return, but I think this is the farthest and safest place I can reach.”
Cecilia set aside the unknown problem. “Now that the horse is dead, our supplies are all here. There’s still a long way to the Northern Great Wall. I suspect that the attack on the Baba Bon tribe was no accident. Maybe that Alien Ghost with leadership abilities was eliminating dissidents, or maybe it was a trap set for us.”
Lita nodded. “That’s right. Leaving aside my mission for now, turning back isn’t easy either. I’ll have to think of a foolproof plan.”
“Speaking of your mission, I’m beginning to think Aierteer isn’t simply making things hard for you. If she were, why send you to the Everfrost Wasteland? She could have just sent you to fight some nearby Demon Race. And Rosalia is here in the Everfrost Wasteland…”
“Lady Cecilia, what is your view?”
“Instead, I feel her goal is for you to ‘witness’ something. Maybe it’s the war in the Northlands, maybe something else. I don’t know, and I don’t have the energy to slowly deduce now. But for now, I don’t think she’s just sending you to die.”
“Sigh, regardless of whether she’s sending us to die, it’ll be trouble if we really die! Maybe I could fly back with my wings, even if it exposes my identity, but at least we’d survive. What do you think, Lady Cecilia?”
“Don’t rush. It’s pitch dark outside now, and we both need to regain our strength. It’s better to rest for the night.”
Since arriving in the Northlands, Lita had gradually gotten used to the smell of burning firewood. The last smell she had gotten used to was the faint musty odor of the inn. That was even more unpleasant than the smell of burning.
Lita held Cecilia close to her body, just like during the day. The two hugged each other tightly. This wasn’t a tent, and the temperature was even colder than in the past few days. Even with two layers of fur as a mat, they could still feel the cold seeping up from the ground, forcing them to cling together for warmth.
A torn cloak was draped over them. It was the one Lita had used to tie Cecilia to her front during the day. Though it no longer blocked much wind, Cecilia had still retrieved it.
“Lady Cecilia, in this atmosphere, shouldn’t we talk about something?” Lita knew Cecilia wasn’t asleep; the little movements she made in her arms proved it.
“Talk about what?” Cecilia countered.
“For example, about last night when you helped me out? If you hadn’t said I could see curses, Princess Rosalia would probably have kept pressing, right?”
“She would. She meant no harm, but me suddenly acquiring a Personal Knight was indeed suspicious. If it were me, I’d also want to test your loyalty and figure out your reasons.”
“Ah… y-yes.”
“But after I said that, she absolutely won’t pry further. She might ask me alone later, but I know how to answer—better than you, at least. So rest assured.”
“I suppose so…” That topic came to a temporary end. Lita fell silent for a while, then didn’t know what else to say.
Cecilia seemed to have sensed something from Lita’s restless movements. “Since you want to say something, why not talk about why you did what you did today?”
“Did what?”
“Throwing me away? You had a plan, but it was still a gamble. If you wanted to escape danger, abandoning me would have been the better choice. And you could have done that anytime. After all, your power doesn’t come only from the Crest. You also have the Dream Demon part of your power. Even if you lost the Crest, it wouldn’t affect you much.”
Lita was at a loss for words. She thought for a long time but couldn’t figure out how to answer.
Loyalty? Lita felt she didn’t have any of that. She wasn’t a true medieval knight, and she didn’t understand the mindset of a suicide soldier. She just wanted to protect Cecilia out of her own will. She didn’t actually have to risk her life so much.
After a long silence, Lita finally forced out, “I honestly don’t know.”
“That sounds like something you’d say.” Cecilia murmured softly, then closed her eyes.
After another long while, it wasn’t Lita who spoke, but Cecilia.
“Lita.”
“Hmm?”
“How about we do something?”