Inside Margaret's Bedroom…
Margaret who was sleeping soundlessly, suddenly opened her eyes and woke up with a jolt.
"Hagh!" She screamed and tried to get up but found herself bound.
"Margaret, you're finally awake!" Helena, who was knitting on a cloth stood up from the chair and went to her.
"Helena?" Margaret asked, not understanding what happened.
The last thing she remembered was seeing Henry's pissed off look before a graphical image that was blurred, "What are you doing here?"
Helena didn't say anything and instead checked Margaret's health. Nodding as she found her okay, "Good, you're not ill."
"Ho-" Margaret stooped and looked around to find herself restricted.
Her whole body was wrapped in bandages. Her left leg was tugged up in a string and right hand covered in bandages so much that it was concerning. Even her head was wrapped in medicinal bandage and couldn't move it.
"What the! What is happening here? Answer me, Helena!"
"Calm down, Margaret. Getting agitated would only worsen your state." Helena tried to help her friend who was anxiously trying to move around, "If you move again, the doctor would need to bandage you again from the start!"
Margaret after her initial feat of worry, stopped. She took a few deep breaths before calmly asking her maid/best friend, "Can you tell me now what happened?" New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on novel✶fire.net
"Me?" Helena looked more confused than her, "It should be I who should ask that question. You tell me what happened."
"Helena, I'm losing you."
"Okay" Helena calmed down and rearranged her words, "I don't know much. The thing I know is that last night as I got ready to sleep, the whole place suddenly shook in a big tremor."
"It came from the training ground so I went to check and to my great horror, found you, lying still on a large pit. I couldn't even tell if you were unconscious or dead, do you know how scary that was? To find my friend almost dead and me, without a job!?"
"Helena… get to the point!"
"Oh! After that, Lord Seman came with the doctors and checked you in before giving medical attention. The doctor said that many of your bones in the limb and stomach were broken and it would take time to heal them but there wasn't any critical danger to your health." Helena smiled.
"Okay" Margaret took in those words before remembering, "And what about Henry? How is he?"
"Lord Henry? Why do you ask?"
"What do you mean by that? Isn't he also hurt? Or has father went soo angry that he already killed him?" Thinking too far, Margaret sighed, "And just when I find a strong enough husband that had grand ambitions."
"I don't understand what you're talking about Margaret? Why would our Lord kill him?"
Margaret's eyes suspiciously turn to her, "…Forget what I said, have you seen Henry around me after… my current change?"
Helena nodded, "Yes, he was here with Lord Seman all the time. Waiting as the doctor took care of you and finally went away when Lord Seman told him to go."
"Oh? so nothing bad happened, that's good to know." Margaret's smile remained for just a second, "But he wasn't hurt… how can that be? I gave him quite the beating yesterday and he's still fine?"
Helena hearing Margaret's murmurs was shocked, "You beat him? What happened? Did he want to cancel the engagement?"
"Why would he do that? Stop thinking bizarre things Helena and leave me be."
Helena paled and quietly turned around to leave.
"What?" Helena turned around and wanted to hear her friend's apology.
"Where is Henry right now?"
Inside the Religias War Room…
The red place was big and wide enough to hold over hundred people.
Right now there was a large wide table made of ebony wood, placed at the center of the room, sturdy and tall chairs around it and a large board behind the wooden table.
By the table, all captains of the Religias Household sat as they listened to the crucial words being spoken by Seman.
Every single person in the room had serious and gloomy features as they quietly listened to Seman.
"And that… is the situation men." Seman said, his voice gruff and facial looking scary, "The time is critical for us."
Captain Vein nodded, his young and brave face enamored by trouble, "To think there is such a force behind those bandits… it's really bad!"
Captain Gosco sighed while tapping his shaved head, "If we had more time we could have… no, the situation still wouldn't have been any better."
"If only we could have killed that retched guy that day, then such a situation wouldn't have happened." Captain Calvin angrily gritted his teeth.
Captain Marko patted his shoulder, "No point in thinking of the past… what we must do now is think about the future."
Right now, why all of this men were so worried at the moment was because of what they learned from Seman.
Oricon is the Bandit King, but he wasn't back twenty years ago.
Back then, the guy was just a member of a big group of bandits that the Religias army fought numerously. But still, Oricon was cunning and bad enough for him to be especially noticeable.
Twenty years ago, Seman's wife Sarah, led a successful campaign against Oricon's bandit group and defeated them completely. But somehow the cunning bastard survived and hid away from watchful eyes.
But he reappeared again a few months ago, launching several small raids that caught Seman's attention and started the raid.
A few days ago, when the Bandit King Oricon attacked with his army of five thousand and was successfully defeated, Seman captured him. That's when he learned of something extremely dangerous.
Oricon's son, Orion was situated at a hidden base with 50 thousand men prepared for battle.
There was already cause for trouble when Oricon came with just 5 thousand men… now, all these men learned that real problem was 10 times more than that.
The Religias army wasn't big enough to handle such power. At most, the army could bring up to 10 thousand men but even that won't be able to handle Orion's retaliation.
Right now, I was seated at the far end of the table, quietly listening to their worries.
After what happened last night with Margaret, I thought Seman would outright jail me if not give some punishment. But the guy just took care of his daughter and told me to attend the current meeting. Seman still hasn't said a word about his daughter to me.
I couldn't tell whether he was silently angry at me or didn't say anything because the current situation made him stay quiet?
"The state is indeed one of the worst… but it's not the end yet." Klein said and turned to Seman, "My Lord, have you already contacted her majesty about this situation?"
Seman nodded, "Yes and she has already given me an answer. The royal army would help us repel the bandits, she has already sent them on our way."
"That is good news… but I worry." Nance said, "What if Orion got word of it already and is intending to attack us? The army would take time to come and by then Orion's army could already be upon us… it would be too troublesome holding them down until the royal army's support."
Seman, Klein and Nance's faces darken and they frown.
"Don't worry, Orion won't attack us."