Ruth placed a dense parchment, small scale, and a small mortar and pestle used for grinding herbs on the desk. Max, who was scrambling to jot down his instructions with an inked quill, glanced at him with an anxious face.

  Ruth shrugged lightly and began to teach her how to use the scale. Max tried to write down his explanation on the parchment in as much detail as she could. She knew that Ruth’s responsibilities were vast, but this was beyond her expectations. The pressure to fill his vacancy weighed heavily on her shoulders.

  Ruth, whose arms were crossed across his chest, looked up at the ceiling and took the key out of his pocket.

  Max took the key carefully from him, then there was a strange silence for a moment. Ruth scratched the back of his bushy head and made an awkward expression.

  Max smiled gently. She was well aware of how much Ruth did for Riftan and the knights. He took precious time to teach her various magic spells because of his dedication to Anatol and its people. She responded in the brightest voice she had, to try easing his concerns.

  Only then Ruth’s shoulders sank, like he suddenly remembered his situation.

  Max shook her head in a curious manner.

  Ruth responded giddily and turned towards the door. Max collected her parchment and gazed pitifully at his back as he left the room. She felt sorry for Ruth who was embarking on a rough journey. Moreover, it was going to be difficult to get through various mishaps on her own in the future. Only then did she realize how much she depended on the nosy wizard. Max spoke in the softest tone possible.

  Ruth glared at her and jumped up and down like he just heard Max utter a bad omen.

  She bit her lips. She was just trying to express her genuine gratitude, but Ruth’s attitude was not having it.

  Ruth muttered some stuff while going down the stairs and sighed in a muffled manner, when he suddenly sent a mischievous glance to Max over his shoulder.

  Max’s face turned beet red. Seeing her reddened face, Ruth giggled and eventually burst into laughter. Max glared at him with an indignant look and stomped down the stairs.

  Really, it’s impossibly hard to even bid a sincere farewell!

  ***

  That evening, the dinner served was the most grandiose they ever had. Roasted swans and whole piglets gracefully lined up the center of the tables, dozens of dishes seasoned lavishly with cloves, nutmeg, cumin, and pepper were served at a plenty. The knights exchanged farewells while they enjoyed sumptuous food and quality wine prepared carefully by the servants. None of them reflected any grimness or anxiousness in their faces.

  As Max watched the knights exchange mischievous jokes and slander like they were going to see each other again the following day, she wondered if one day she would also need to send Riftan off for a long journey with a smile. Right now, it seemed unimaginable to her. Just the thought of exchanging farewells with him made her feel like her body would split in half.

  She looked up at his face wrapped in the soft candlelight glow and thought about how important of a figure Riftan had become in her existence. She wouldn’t be able to bear it, shall he be away from her for half a year. Things would have panned out great if Riftan was an ordinary lord of a land in the countryside rather than a knight, but if the circumstances were as such, she wouldn’t have been married to him in the first place.

  She sipped wine and secretly soothed her troubled heart. She wanted to utter plausible words of encouragement to the knights who were leaving, but failed to say a word, like she was a mute.

  The next day, the knights set out for the expedition before dawn. Dozens of giant warhorses with loaded supplies strapped to their hips and armed knights on saddles, crossed the gates in an organized row. Max climbed the wall and watched as the knights crossed the moat. Sir Rikaido led the way, driving his horse down the road that glimmered dark blue against the early dawn’s light, following him closely there were Ruth and Sir Caron. The rhythmic pounding of horseshoes against the earth continued for a long time.

  She waved her handkerchief in the damp, cool morning breeze until they were out of sight. Riftan who was standing in front as he sent the knights off with a hardened expression, turned his head toward her.

  Max anxiously trailed the knights with her eyes as she watched their leaving figures that were now the size of ants.

  Riftan frowned and looked up into the dark skies. An annoyed sigh escaped his lips.

  He gently pulled her face closer to his and planted a kiss on her cold forehead with a soft smile. Recently, she could see Riftan oftenly flashing smiles like that. When he displayed that boyish smile, the crease from his face smoothed out and he appeared ten times more attractive and handsome.

  He rubbed her earlobes and whispered in a tone someone would use to a young child. Max blushed and grumbled with a dissatisfied expression.

  Riftan kissed her eyelids once and playfully pinched her cheeks with his fingers. The roughness of his fingers and the soft warmth of his lips felt pleasant. She looked up at him eagerly. She wished that he would give her more of his soft caress and kisses, but he appeared content with just that light kiss and gently led her back into the castle, telling her to hurry. Max could do nothing but swallow her disappointment and trudged back to the room.

  ***

  Just as Riftan had predicted, it started raining steadily around noon. Max gloomily watched the shimmering raindrops pour like mist over the lush garden. The colorful flowers seemed to have lost their vibrance as they drooped and even the deep blue leaves seemed to be dyed with black as it dulled and soaked with water from the rain.

  The strong, chilly wind rattled and shook the windows, deepening her worries for the knights. She felt sorry as it was only their first day of expedition, yet they already had to travel the rugged mountain path in this weather.

  Even Rudis, who was sitting by the windows while sewing quietly, sighed.

  Rudis rubbed her cheek lethargically and put down what she was sewing to get up from her seat and light the fireplace. Max looked out the wide window, listening to the raindrops pat against the windows.

  Will the road construction be fine?

  When it rained, there was a decreased occurrence of monsters appearing, so there was a low chance of accidents happening. For a moment, her head jumped from one worry to another. Max shook her head.

  This isn’t the time to waste on helpless worries. Instead, I should improve my skills enough to fill Ruth’s place as soon as possible.

  Max started by taking out the pile of parchment Ruth had handed her and sorted them. There was no order, it was a complete mess, like it was arranged by a hopeless person with no talent for organizing. Information about herbs, magic, healing, and medicine recipes were all mixed together. It was also noticeably lacking as there were incomplete sentences, like some information was missing. She suspected a few parchments were left back in the tower.

  I have no idea if this is being meticulous…… or being chaotic.

  She decided to visit the tower later, first to study what she understood and then to find the missing information. Max took out new pieces of clean parchment and simplified her magic formulas. There were two kinds of magic that Ruth had arranged for her. One was to accelerate the speed of her mana flow to increase her magic power and the other was to double the amount of mana she exerted.

  Max secretly expected that there was a powerful magic spell written on the parchments, like the flame magic of the royal princess, but her shoulders only sunk in disappointment. Even if she learnt such powerful kind of magic, she would only be able to barely make a flame the size of what’s on a candle with her current mana pool. All she knew how to do was to cast healing, detox, and recovery magic. Other than that, her magic was limited and stagnant. If she attempted to learn a new kind of magic, it was obviously not going to go the way she wanted it to.

  It would be better to focus on working and strengthening the magic that she could cast. Max began to study the structure of the magic formulas as she convinced herself of the judgement she had come up with. With her thoughts set, she began memorizing magic formulas. Fortunately, Ruth left her with detailed explanations so she could easily understand how it worked.

  The problem is practice……

  She was worried about how she could learn to apply a new magic formula by herself without Ruth’s help, but she had no choice but to try. She concentrated eagerly and memorized the complex structures of the magic formula.

  For a long time, she was immersed with her studies, when she suddenly felt a heavy pain in her lower abdomen. Max, who was dipping her quilt in the ink, felt something dripping between her legs, and her face stiffened.