Moonlight fell on the smooth scale armor, scattering in tiny glints like sunlight filtering through leaves. There was something light and delicate about it, but it offered none of the sun's warmth. Instead, it made her hair stand on end. A chill spread straight from her spine through her entire body.
These exquisite objects forged from steel had been made to take lives from the very beginning. Especially in these troubled times, anyone could see that these terrifying soldiers had not come with good intentions.
The man at their head was particularly frightening. The terrible reek of blood about him nearly made her faint, and bone was visible inside the hideous wound on his face.
The sound of iron armor scraping against itself made her tremble all over. Beside her, the woman who had just given birth could barely stand. Already weakened, she had fainted at the sight of such a terrifying scene.
Yet her arms still clutched her child in a death grip. Even unconscious, she showed no sign of letting go.
The newborn felt uncomfortable when his mother's grip suddenly tightened. With no regard whatsoever for the occasion, he began to wail. His loud, piercing cries instantly shattered the murderous atmosphere.
The cavalrymen exchanged glances. It was still the man at the front who spoke first.
"Let this mother lie back down on the bed. She's only just had her baby. We won't hurt you... Besides, if I really wanted to hurt you, you wouldn't be able to get away."
The physician silently helped the mother back onto the bed. Only after soothing the incessantly crying child for a moment did she look uneasily at the man, who had already found a stool and sat down.
"My lord... May I ask what brings you here?..."
The young woman chose her words carefully. She did not want to anger this terrifying soldier. An intuition that was almost instinctive told her at once that there was no knowing how many people this man had killed.
People like him placed little value on life and would take it at the slightest provocation. That made it all the more important to be careful.
"Oh, I heard you're the only physician in this village, so I wanted to ask you to take a look at my wound."
The man leaned carelessly against the wall. His so-called chair was nothing more than a section of dried log. Silvery moonlight from the window illuminated his face as well.
The most striking feature of his face, with its smooth, hard contours, was his pair of eyes. They were like a hawk circling amid clouds and mist. Slightly upturned at the corners, they were extraordinarily keen, possessed of a force and presence that seemed to seize the soul.
Thin lips lay beneath a straight nose. His beard had been shaved clean, exposing a smooth, strongly defined chin.
His short black hair was combed back, revealing a broad forehead. Long, thick, swordlike brows slanted toward his temples, twitching faintly from time to time at the pain in his forehead.
All in all, this soldier, who looked as though he had slaughtered countless people, was unexpectedly handsome. He fit the Empire's standards of beauty extremely well.
Having visited imperial cities before, the physician knew very well what the people of the Empire found attractive. The man before her seemed almost to have been made from that very mold. Indeed, his looks were almost too exceptional.
The only thing marring that face was the terrible wound. The blade had cut across most of one side of his face, all the way from his forehead to his cheekbone. It had even sliced his eyelid in two, leaving her wondering how he managed to sleep at all.
The wound's condition was clearly far from promising. Although it was no longer bleeding, it had a ghastly pallor that made her shudder. The bone inside was plainly visible.
A wound this terrible would have left a man in his prime unable to move from the sheer pain. Yet the soldier before her did not flinch. Although his forehead twitched now and then, his expression remained calm and composed throughout, as though he had merely been bitten by a mosquito.
"Well? Can I still be saved?"
There was a smile in the man's voice, and he seemed quite relaxed. But the physician's sharp ears caught the sound of the fully armed cavalrymen tightening their grips on their weapons.
In that instant, their menacing presence nearly made her drop everything at hand and turn to flee. The tallest of them was even staring straight at her like a tiger watching its prey.
It seemed that if she confirmed the man's implied verdict, these soldiers would immediately do something terrible. Fear made even her tongue tremble. For a long while, she could not get a word out.
"Enough. Stop frightening the physician, you lot. Wait for me outside... Don't worry. I'm sure this physician won't do anything foolish. She looks like a clever woman."
She breathed a sigh of relief at once. That terrifying, blood-tainted pressure vanished in an instant.
Without the slightest hesitation, the soldiers immediately withdrew from the room, closing the door properly behind them. Only when the clatter of their armor had died away completely did the man turn his head toward her and speak again.
"Physician, tell me your name. You do have a name, don't you?"
"My lord, I'm Talina... Tuo Talina... That's my name."
The man rested his fingers against his chin and looked her up and down with interest. That intensely aggressive gaze immediately made her think of unpleasant possibilities. Inside her little herb-gathering pouch, her fingers closed around a sharp knife...
"You don't look like one of the Hols... The Hols are more slender than you."
"My father is from the Empire, my lord. My mother is one of the Hols."
The soldier nodded, as though his question had been answered at once. Then, still smiling, he continued.
"Then come here and stitch up my eye, Talina... Or if you have another idea, that's fine too. On this, I'm willing to take a physician's advice."
The man beckoned to her from the darkness. Despite his exceptionally fine looks, Talina still trembled all over with fear. But when he called a second time, the young woman went over to him after all.
"Forgive me, madam, but I can't tell you my name. It's for the good of everyone here. The less you know, the better. It'll make it easier for you to stay alive."
Talina, who could be considered the only person in the village who had seen anything of the wider world, immediately understood what he meant. At the same time, she was filled with the joy of having escaped a calamity alive.
His saying this meant that he had no intention of taking their lives. Much of her fear disappeared at once.
"Forgive me, my lord, but your wound is in a bad state. It should be washed with boiling water in which twinleaf grass has been steeped, to keep unclean things from entering. Then it needs to be stitched up with a needle and thread..."
The man nodded.
"That sounds like a good idea. But do you have any of this plant called twinleaf grass here? We don't have time to go looking for it."
"Yes, yes. That's what's boiling in the pot outside... It was meant for this mother, and it's ready now."
The soldier immediately called outside. Before long, the tall cavalryman came in carrying a wooden basin full of blue liquid. He set it down and left at once.
"Then come and treat me, physician. Just do whatever you need to do."
The man rubbed the corner of his eye as he spoke in an even tone.
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