Riftan narrowed his eyes, noticing her outfit as his eyes trailed her from head to toes. Startled by his gaze, Max quickly grabbed her loose clothing and lowered her eyes uneasily. Riftan’s fierce expression became more and more distorted with irritation and fury.

  He rubbed his head roughly as if trying to ease a terrible headache.

  Hebaron intervened again in a slightly calmer tone.

  Riftan, screaming blind with anger, suddenly fell silent. His face was fiercely contorted with anguish. He couldn’t risk the lives of his men simply for the sake of his own matter. The gentlemen in the room noted this dilemma and began to chirp to ease him.

  Riftan responded fiercely.

  They all turned their attention to the dark-skinned knight who was still standing against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He shrugged like it was no big deal and continued.

  Gabel quickly supported.

  Max’s shoulders sank. She claimed it so confidently but in truth, she wasn’t sure her barriers were strong enough to withstand an attack from a Remdragon knight. She internally squirmed as the knights reached a unanimous decision.

  Gabel looked at Riftan with unwavering resolve. Riftan alternately glared at Max and the knights with a sharp gaze, finding no more justification to object and twisted his lips. He remained silent for what seemed like an eternity, before finally forcing himself to speak again.

  He turned around and walked out the door. Hebaron patted Max’s tense, frozen shoulders.

  She had to be successful. But what if she made a huge deal out of this only to fail in vain like the last time?Max swallowed the dry lump stuck in her throat.

  No, my barriers…… don’t break that easily.

  The other day, Medrick swung a pickaxe he used to plow as a test, and it deflected without a hitch. However, a skinny old man’s pickaxe and a trained knight’s strike are miles different.

  She followed the knights into the field and peaked at their physique. They all had strong, bulging forearms and muscular legs like a stallion’s. Riftan led them to an empty space behind the training ground and turned to her after finding a decent area.

  The knights rushed forward when they saw Riftan grasping the handle of his sword that was secured to his hip.

  All the knights, even Max, looked at him in disbelief and doubt was clearly evident in each and every one of their eyes. Everyone knew, unless you were an idiot, Riftan had every intention of breaking her defenses, no matter how strong she did it now.

  Hebaron booed loudly.

  Once again, Gabel stepped between the two angry hounds eager to bite each other’s heads.

  Riftan turned to Max, but she quickly avoided his expectant gaze. No way would she choose him. They would think of her like crazy if she did. Max looked at the assembled knights one by one and tried her best not to look in the direction of Riftan, whose eyes were punching a hole in her and practically yelling at her to choose him.

  Hebaron was bigger and slightly taller than Riftan. As for the other knights, all of them have massive shoulders and bulging forearms. She narrowed her eyes as she examined them more closely, then turned to Gabel, whose physique was the slimmest among the knights.

  The corner of Gabel’s soft smile twitched slightly.

  Max could feel Riftan’s icy gaze pricking her cheek, but she continued to look ignorant. Gabel looked at her with knowing eyes and then stepped forward with a deep sigh.

  He unsheathed his longsword tied at his waist and slipped into stance. Under an unusual pressure, Max caught the reality of the situation and scurried to lift her mana. She focused on pouring out all her concentration to maximize her mana. As she practiced, she increased the flow and speed of her mana and the ground below her trembled weakly. Soon, the land around her began to rise into the air. Max reinforced the barrier with the magical formula Ruth taught her, making the walls made with earth thicker and harder.

  Max spinned her mana to full speed and pushed her mana to its maximum capability. Her heart was pounding nervously and cold sweat trickled down her back when she heard Gabel kick the ground and run toward her, it was then followed by a heavy blow. The defensive wall of the barrier shook violently.

  She looked at the barrier with a nervous expression plastered on her face. The attack was followed with two more thumps but the wall didn’t break and didn’t budge at all. Max couldn’t believe her eyes; her barrier was still firm in front of her. She turned her head to Riftan, and gave a triumphant expression.

  Contrary to her expression, he just stood there, tall and commanding, and looked at her with a complex expression that she couldn’t define in words. Max smiled nervously at the darkness that gripped his features. Despite the stifling atmosphere surrounding Riftan, Hebaron approached him and laughed.

  Riftan simply turned.

  Then, he walked away in anger. Hebaron simply shrugged at Riftan’s bitter attitude.

  Hopefully Hebaron was right, Max prayed as she watched Riftan retreat back with desperate eyes. Her heart felt belatedly heavy from disobeying her husband so blatantly, but she quickly pulled away from those faint-hearted thoughts. He gave his permission. She could take any amount of coldness and anger from him, as long as she could go with him.

  1 – It means Riftan’s holding up his nose too high. Basically, Hebaron’s saying Max should crush Riftan’s pride lol.

  ***

  They embarked on preparing to leave for the expedition. Max also quickly ran back to her room to pack only what was necessary. Rudis was helping her pack while acting like a mother full of worries, she even had to fight with her, who tried to stuff fifteen outfits into her leather bag. And Rudis was not alone. Rodrigo and all the other servants brought her all kinds of things, asking her if she would like this or that. Even the seamstress who made all of her dresses came with a hat and veil, saying it was to protect her face from sunburn, but Max only picked up a few essentials. She managed to fill her bag with a pair of sturdy pants, three changes of underwear, a pair of socks, and two robes tunics that apprentices usually wore.

  Max also brought a bag of medicinal herbs, some of Ruth’s medical tools, and three manastones. Even though she knew it wasn’t a pleasure road trip, she couldn’t leave behind a small ivory hair brush and half a bar of soap wrapped in a pouch, hanging them on her belt. She wanted to bring books on herbal medicine or magic, but it would burden her to bring such expensive items, so she only packed a few parchment with Ruth’s notes.

  Rudis, who was working to fix the straps on her bag, spoke with a tremor in her voice. Max was delighted by her concern; her usual calm and firm maid, who never showed a hint of her own personal emotions, finally expressed herself for the first time.

  Rudis hesitated then grabbed her hand.

  Max looked deeply into her dark brown eyes and nodded vigorously. Rudis smiled sadly. She took her hand firmly again, then stepped back. Max walked over to the mournfully meowing cats, hugged and kissed them before finally leaving the room.

  Note –

  : AAAAAH MAXI IM SO PROUD OF YOU <3

  : Again, don’t mind me, just wiping my proud tears in a corner. Also, I love to see Hebaron getting all the love he deserves from you guys. He truly is the best character! T^T