Riftan motioned to them. “Take her back to the women’s tent.”
The men promptly walked over to Idsilla and ushered her away. Maxi discreetly tried to slink away with them, but Riftan cutin.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said in a low voice that sent a ghastly shiver down her spine.
Maxi’s shoulders sagged with defeat. After picking up his sword and the rest of his clothes, Riftan began to walkrapidly in the opposite direction. Maxi had no choice but to follow him like a calf being dragged on a rope. There was no way out of this utter disaster.
They made their way out of the forest in a terse silence, an eerie calm before the storm. When they entered the army barracks, the soldiers who had been eating around fires lit all over the campsite turned to look at them with interest.
One of the mercenaries whistled loudly. “Enjoyed a round somewhere, did you?” He eyed Riftan’s half-dressed state and sneered, “Behold, the skills of Wigrew’s reincarnation! Even in this godforsaken place, he’s found a woman to entertain him!”
Men snickered all around them, but Riftan remained unfazed. He shot the mercenary a menacing glare without breaking his brisk pace. Maxi almost had to run to keep up with him. When they reached a tent bearing the banner of the Remdragon Knights, Riftan shoved her inside and closed the flap behind them.
Maxi instinctively retreated as far away from him as possible.
Riftan’s eyes blazed. After an agonizing silence, he spat, “Now talk! Let’s see what excuses you’ll spout.”
When there was no answer, he threw his sword and clothes onto the floor. “I said, talk!”
Maxi opened and closed her mouth, unable to think of anything to say. Riftan paced around the tent like a caged beast before he began to rebuke her.
“Was I making an unreasonable demand when I asked you to wait for me in Levan? What in the devil were you thinking coming to such a place?! Do you have any idea howdangerous it is here? How could you even think to come here without a single—”
Riftan abruptly stopped his outburst and clutched his forehead as if rocked by a pulsing headache. “Good God, what were you going to do if your party had been attacked by an army on your way here? Goddammit! Must I shake you upside down for you to come to your senses?!”
“N-Nothing serious happened!” Maxi protested feebly. “The basilica’s soldiers and the knights…protected the female clerics…so I was never harmed d-during the journey.”
“You were just lucky, damn it!” Riftan seized her shoulders and shook her as his anger spiraled out of control. “If there had been a big skirmish, there’s no knowing how many of them would have been killed! Tell me, who among them would have properly protected you? Do you think those men would have risked their lives to protect a single female cleric? You could have died if you’d been the slightest bit unluckier. Do you even realize how serious this is?”
Maxi finally managed to collect herself from the onslaught of his anger.
“Th-That…goes for everyone!” she retorted hotly. “Everyone in this camp…i-is risking their lives. I-It is the same for you, Riftan. You could a-also get hurt or even lose your life…if you are unlucky. And yet…you are still here, are you not? I-I also—”
“Do you even know what kind of foolish comparison you make?” He snorted in exasperation. “I’ve spent my whole life on the battlefield. I’ve been doing this for more than a decade! How could you even compare yourself to me?!”
“I-It’s not as if…I joined to fight with a sword!” Maxiobjected. “There are s-soldiers here who are mere boys, and I am not…the only w-weak woman in this camp. All of the women…are doing their best t-to look after the injured men.”
The bulging vein on Riftan’s forehead looked close to bursting at her response. “Everyone in the world can come slave away here for all I care. But not you!”
Maxi clenched her fists. “Wh-Why not? How is that f-fair?”
“You are a duke’s daughter! A noblewoman!” Riftan shouted. “Why must you suffer here like everyone else?”
His illogical words caused something inside Maxi to snap. She was sick of it. She was not the lofty noblewoman he thought she was, but an ordinary person like everyone else. It frustrated her that he was incapable of seeingit.
“I-I am not a duke’s daughter! I-I am the wife of a knight!” she cried. “I-I am no longer a Croyso…but a Calypse!”
Riftan appeared to be at a loss for words as he looked down at her. Maxi, who had been fuming as she glowered at him, suddenly felt her breath hitch in her throat. Pain lurked behind his dark eyes.
“Is that why you’re here?” he murmured, his voice somber. “Are you here…because you’re Maximilian Calypse?”
Maxi swallowed hard. “Th-That’s not what I meant. I-I only wished to be near—”
“I apologize for the interruption, but you have quite the audience outside.”
Maxi’s head jerked toward the owner of the unexpected voice and saw Ursuline Ricaydo standing at the tent’s entrance.
“If you do not wish to give the northern barbarians something to talk about, I suggest you end your argument here,” he said flatly.
