‘Why…?’

Hadn’t it been quiet for a while?

So, she let her guard down a bit.

Especially since returning to the mansion in the capital, Kael had even placed knights in front of his room on purpose.

After confirming that, she decided there was no need for her to wander near Kael’s room every night, and she stopped.

But… this turned out to be completely useless. No, to be exact, it made the situation worse.

The reason being, the knights who were guarding Kael’s room were now lying on the ground, bleeding from his sword strikes.

It seemed they tried to stop Kael and ended up like that.

‘More importantly… what should I do.’

These were the knights of the Grand Duke family, skilled in their own rights.

If Kael had overpowered such knights so easily, could she really stop him?

However, the situation was too serious to ignore.

Kael’s state would continue until he regained his senses, but who knew when that would be.

The deliberation didn’t last long.

While Leciel was still hesitating, Kael, with eyes glowing fiercely in the darkness, raised his sharp sword as if to take the knight’s life.

If left unchecked, that sword would pierce through the knight’s body and take his life in an instant.

“No, stop!”

Hoping her words would reach him, Leciel shouted.

But Kael merely glanced at her briefly and did not stop his actions.

Then, with a glimmer of hope, Leciel shouted again.

“Father, stop! Get a hold of yourself!”

Since Kael had listened to her when she called him <Father> before, she hoped it would work again.

At those words, Kael immediately stopped.

The sword that seemed about to pierce the knight halted just a hair’s breadth away from him.

Then, Kael, who had been staring at Leciel with unfocused eyes, seemed to regain his focus momentarily before collapsing unconscious.

“Thank goodness…”

At least she had saved the knight who had been on the brink of death.

‘But what is this…?’

She had called him just in case, but he really responded to <Father>.

Or perhaps there was some kind of magic in the term <Father> that she didn’t know about.

Come to think of it, when Kael had told her to call him <Father>, he seemed unusually insistent on it.

But regardless of the reason, Leciel was relieved that she had managed to calm Kael.

“Now what should I do?”

She couldn’t leave the unconscious Kael or the injured knights as they were.

First, it seemed best to check the condition of the knights, so Leciel carefully approached them.

Warily, in case Kael regained consciousness and attacked again.

Thankfully, Kael remained motionless where he had fallen.

As she came closer to the knights, the stench of blood hit her nose, and she grimaced.

Upon closer inspection, their condition was worse than she had thought.

Even if Kael didn’t attack them again, they could die if left unattended.

So, she had to call a physician immediately, or take them to the infirmary.

But there was no time to waste.

One of the three knights was in such critical condition that every moment counted.

‘At this rate, I have no choice but to rely on myself.’

She had the ability to heal others’ wounds.

Recalling that ability, Leciel grasped the hand of the most severely injured knight and prayed earnestly.

She prayed for his wounds to heal, so he wouldn’t die.

With her desperate wish, light flowed from her hand, enveloping the knight’s body.

How much time had passed?

Leciel, looking exhausted, withdrew her hand.

She checked the knight’s wounds just in case and found, to her relief, that they had healed completely.

However, perhaps because she had fully healed someone on the verge of death, Leciel felt too drained to heal the other knights.

‘But at least the other knights are in better shape than this one.’

So, it seemed best to leave the other knights in the hands of a physician.

But she needed help.

Even if she called a physician, she couldn’t leave the knights here; they had to be moved.

That was impossible for her to do alone, being only ten years old.

Moreover, it was difficult to ask for help at this late hour.

And… given the situation, she was hesitant to let others know about it.

She needed someone trustworthy.

Someone to whom she could explain the situation and ask for help.

At that moment, Carren came to mind.

Being Kael’s son, it should be fine for him to know about Kael’s condition.

He, too, was a child not much older than herself, but he would be more capable than she was.

Especially since she had seen him training today and thought he could manage to move the knights.

With that in mind, Leciel hurried to Carren’s room.

She felt sorry to wake him at such a late hour, but she had no choice.

Leciel cautiously knocked on Carren’s door, hoping he would hear it and wake up.

No matter how urgent the situation was, you couldn’t just open someone’s door at this late hour.

“… who is it?”

Fortunately, Carren’s voice came from inside.

It seemed he had been woken up by the knock, as his voice was quite hoarse.

“It’s me, Lessie.”

As soon as Leciel replied, there was a rustling sound from inside, and the door opened.

“What’s the matter?”

Although Carren had said she could come by sometimes if she was bored, he didn’t mean at such a late hour.

Despite having just woken up, Carren looked neat and wore a puzzled expression.

“Um, I need your help.”

Leciel spoke in an urgent voice.

“… alright.”

Even though he didn’t know what was going on, Carren could tell from Leciel’s reaction that it was something serious.

Carren followed Leciel as they walked.

“What in the world…”

Not knowing what was happening, Carren frowned at the scene before him.

Why were the knights bleeding and collapsed, and why was his father in such a state?

Even more puzzling was that his father held a blood-stained sword in his hand.

“… an assassin’s attack?”

Carren, unable to believe that his father had attacked the knights, muttered in a daze.

However, it didn’t quite seem like an assassin’s attack either.

No matter how skilled the assassin; he knew they couldn’t stand against his father.

“… no, it’s not an assassin. I’ll explain later, but for now, could you help move the knights? Their injuries are severe and need immediate attention.”

“Alright.”

Seeing the knights’ condition, Carren agreed with Leciel.

But even Carren couldn’t move three knights at once, so he and Leciel moved them one by one.

The physician, puzzled by the late-night injuries, still did his duty.

After treating two knights, the physician checked the last one and spoke with a strange look on his face.

“This one doesn’t need treatment.”

“Why not?”

“Though his body is covered in blood, he has no wounds.”

“What do you mean…”

Carren looked confused.

It was strange that one knight was uninjured while the others were hurt.

Moreover, seeing him collapse made it seem like he was injured too.

“Oh, I know why.”

“……”

Carren still looked puzzled as he gazed at Leciel.

“Shall we go move the last person now?”

There was space for the injured in the infirmary, so they could sleep there for the night.

Now, the only one left to move was Kael, who was unconscious but uninjured.

“… alright.”

Not understanding the situation, Carren trusted Leciel’s promise to explain later and followed her.

After leaving the infirmary, Carren moved his father, Kael, to his room. He tossed the blood-stained sword into a corner of the room.

“Now, explain.”

If it were anything else, he could have waited until morning, but he couldn’t just overlook what had happened.

“First of all, the reason one knight had no wounds is because of me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m quite capable.”

Carren looked puzzled for a moment, wondering what Leciel’s capability had to do with the knight being uninjured, but then he remembered something.

His father had mentioned once in the carriage that Leciel had special abilities besides controlling monsters.

The knight’s lack of injuries must have been due to one of Leciel’s abilities.

And that ability seemed to be the power to heal wounds.

With this realization, Carren understood.

“I didn’t know you had such an ability.”

Controlling monsters was impressive enough, but to also have the ability to heal wounds…

With such abilities, Carren could understand why his father had brought her along.

Given their family’s duty to subdue monsters, injuries were common, making a physician essential.

Leciel could tell from Carren’s words that he had figured out her ability.

Having no intention of hiding it any longer, she nodded.

“Actually, I wanted to heal the other knights too, but it was too much for me…”

“The Grand Duchy has skilled physicians.”

Meaning there was no need for her to feel guilty about not healing all the injured knights.

Carren didn’t want Leciel to feel unnecessarily burdened.

From the look of her, healing even one knight had been exhausting.

It seemed that knight’s condition had been worse than the others.

“Yes. And… about uncle…”

How should she explain this?

Leciel hesitated for a moment.

Watching her, Carren slowly spoke.

“Did you investigate sleepwalking because of my father?”

Back then, Leciel had said someone she knew seemed to have sleepwalking.

He hadn’t thought it would be his father, assuming it was someone else. But now it seemed that wasn’t the case.