Alicia panicked a little because she had never treated such a large and fatal wound. But, she wasn't going to let the bleeding continue. She led her elder brother into the hut and laid him on the haystack.
With the knowledge taught by her mother, she immediately looked for a water source in the forest to clean his wound and stop the bleeding. She even tore off her dress to bandage her elder brother's chest wound.
Alicia didn't understand after all she had done, but the bleeding was still going on. She was scared and worried that her elder brother would die and leave her alone.
"It's my fault. I'm sorry for forcing you to help father." She just realized that her elder brother probably wouldn't be hurt if she wasn't stubborn to help her father. She cried as she saw her elder brother lying limply with a pale face.
"No, it's not your fault. If I don't try to help dad, I might regret it for the rest of my life. At least we know that monsters are no match for humans. You should remember that too, Alicia." With a limp and low voice, Theo didn't even blame his sister. He even advised her, who was stubborn.
"I understand."
"Instead of going back, we should go to the nearest town. It's useless for us to go back. Father and mother are also dead."
"... I-I understand." Alicia's cries grew louder when her elder brother declared that both of her parents had died.
Until her brother fell asleep, she was still trying to warm his palm by holding it tightly. And in the end, they both fell asleep in the hut.
But she did not expect that that night would be her last night with her elder brother.
___
"Brother Theo!" With the body covered in the sweat of a girl jumping off her bed, she felt terrible for some reason.
"Haa, haa, haa. I know what will happen next." A girl with short white hair panted while looking at her palms.
She still remembered that the next day after she had slept in the hut, she was no longer with her elder brother. Instead, she was already in the carriage of the Priestess.
She still didn't know what was going on with her elder brother. Even then, the bleeding had not stopped.
But before thinking about her elder brother, Alicia was confused when she saw where she was.
"Where am I!?" She still remembered that she would be sacrificed by the Holy Kingdom and felt that she was already dead. But, the same thing happened again. She was suddenly in a different place from her last memory.
Now she is in a reasonably large chamber with properties that seem luxurious and expensive. She can confirm that it's not her house or her jail anymore.
"I-is this heaven?"
Just as she wanted to confirm by pinching her cheek, she immediately felt a pain in her wrist as she moved her hand.
"This is definitely not a dream!"
"Or maybe this is what the guards meant. After that day will be the happiest day for me?" Although previously she denied that statement, after seeing her room that big, she began to believe that she had become the luckiest girl.
But after she remembered how the people in the Holy Kingdom treated her, she was sure that she wasn't in the Holy Kingdom anymore.
She worried that he had been kidnapped again by a different person. Since she was not handcuffed like before, she thought about leaving the chamber before someone saw her.
When she opened the blanket, she was surprised by her body which was mostly covered with bandages.
Her last memory was only up to a speech from Sir Cassius. She did not remember that she had a serious wound that had to be bandaged.
While she was still sorting her memories to find out how this all happened, suddenly the double-door in her room opened.
Since her body was still all sore, she couldn't make any quick moves to pretend to be asleep anymore.
"Ah, miss. Are you awake?" A man with a shelf trolley entered her chamber.
The man had black eyes and long purple hair with bangs, and he tied his hair back into a ponytail with a ribbon.
And what made Alicia sure that she wasn't in the Holy Kingdom anymore was the man's clothes. The man's attire consisted of several components, including a suit, long coat, boots, and cape to complete the appearance of a noble.
As the man approached her, she felt frightened. Alicia didn't know what was going on, but she couldn't hold back the surge of fear and made her shift to the corner of the bed that was far from the man.
"You don't have to be afraid. I'm just a healer. I just came here to check your wounds... Ah, I promise I won't touch you until you allow me to treat your wounds." The man just sat on the edge of her bed.
'What does this man really want? Is he trying to trick me?' Alicia was really vigilant and kept an eye on the mysterious man's every move.
The incident in the Holy Kingdom really traumatized her to trust someone even to speak. She still didn't want to.
It's been almost 2 hours, she kept watching the man who didn't even move an inch from his chair. Alicia began to feel that the man had no ill will towards her.
She increased her vigilance as the man moved and grabbed his bag on the trolley shelf. He took out some medical kits and showed them to Alicia. "Are you sure I'm a healer?"
Alicia also saw that the man's bandage was precisely the same as the bandage that wrapped her body.
She didn't know what was going on when she was about to answer the healer's question, but her voice couldn't come out. "..."
'What's with my throat?' She felt that her throat was parched. She couldn't even remember how many days she hadn't drunk water.
"A glass of water might help you." Although Alicia had not asked for drinking water, the healer immediately gave her a glass of water in his trolley.