Max frowned when she saw that it was only Ruth, who ridiculously shrugged.

  He retorted unwaveringly and pulled a chair across from her. Max couldn’t figure out whether she should laugh or get angry at Ruth’s rude attitude. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, Ruth’s attitude remained the same.

  The wizard yawned wide, his face gloomy as usual, and then took the book from her hand, skimming through it.

  He placed the book back on the desk and scratched his head in agony.

  With a new impression, Max’s eyes traced the drawing of a beast that looked like a lizard and a human fused together. It had a reptile-like face, a muscular body covered in scales, and a long tail. The strange beast did not appear as clever as he said. As she squinted her eyes to read the description below, wondering how dangerous of a monster it was, Ruth tapped the desk with his fingertips, as if trying to call her attention.

  Ruth tapped the tip of his chin with a thoughtful expression and spoke.

  Max nodded stiffly.

  Max felt like all the blood drained from her body. Even though she was half-expecting that response, her heart still tightened at the thought of being separated from Riftan. She bit her lip, recalling the far distance of Pamela Plateau. How long would the expedition take this time around? How many months? Perhaps even years? Ruth, seeing her pale complexion, added cautiously.

  Ruth nodded with a wry smile at Max’s eager question, she was unable to hide the relief on her face.

  Ruth hesitated to answer her question but eventually confessed frankly.

  Ruth fumbled with his fingers, weighing the possibilities, and then sighed deeply.

  Max’s face darkened as she recalled the words of Princess Agnes about the king suspecting Riftan’s loyalty. There was a chance that King Ruben would go to the extent of nominating him to join the expedition just to test him. The agreement made between the Seven Kingdoms was a treaty created for the sake of peace and safety of the continent’s whole population. It was made under the jurisdiction of court laws, even Riftan didn’t have the power to easily defy it.

  Max gazed at the drawings of the hideous beasts through the book’s pages and bit her lips ‘til it hurt. Her stomach twisted as she imagined Riftan battling enormous armies of monsters. No matter how tremendously skilled a knight was, there was no guarantee that he would be safe or unharmed in battle. Several times, she had been made aware of Riftan’s recklessness so she was certain that he wouldn’t spare himself in battles, he wouldn’t hesitate to fight like hell in the front lines.

  She felt angrily emotional out of nowhere. Riftan was a hypocrite for being obsessively anxious about her safety but not caring a bit for his. What kind of absurd way of thinking did he have? Her lips were protruding due to her disgruntled mood, deeming it unfair that she was the only one who worried to her stomach. Ruth’s calm voice suddenly broke her relentless thoughts.

  Max lifted her head. Ruth, who was staring at the ceiling with his arms crossed, spoke like he was lost in thought.

  Max’s eyes moved anxiously at his sudden remark. Ruth nodded at her with a serious expression.

  He continued calmly, but then walked back and forth behind Max with hesitation.

  Max didn’t have words to say at his extreme candor.

  He confessed with a shrug. Max was dumbfounded, her face slowly stiffening. She felt betrayed by the fact that the man who insisted for her to learn magic, did not expect much from her. Max stared at him coldly and noticed how Ruth was unusually timid.

  Max didn’t reply and simply glared at him while Ruth scratched the back of his head in shame, perhaps seeing how she was truly offended.

  Max looked up at him, scrutinizing whether he was really speaking from the bottom of his heart. Ruth persuaded her calmly, confronting her with a sincere look in his eyes.

  Max swallowed dryly at the increasing pressure she was put under. She also felt the need to polish her magical skills. She had been in Anatol for less than a year, yet she had already experienced two major accidents.

  During the early days of winter, she took care of large numbers of injured people who were attacked by werewolves at a logging site and recently the attack of the wyverns at the road construction site. There was nothing that could assure her that it would never happen again.

  If she faced a situation where she had a lot of injuries to deal with and Ruth was not around, she wasn’t confident that she would be able to properly resolve it. Max, who tried to measure her abilities coldly, shook her head. Her mana depleted after healing four or five people, her current skill-level was not enough.

  She wasn’t sure how many months it would take for her to practice so she could be able to replace Ruth. Max gathered all her confidence and managed to barely utter the words out, like sand slipping off her mouth.

  He grinned with a satisfied expression and tapped Max on the shoulder.