The two fell into a silence that only close friends could share. Now, Dalia was under semi-house arrest, and Jorgen, as Mardias' tutor, had lost the right to leave Stormwind freely. But for inner freedom, silence was also a necessity.
"By the way, Jorgen."
"What?"
"That day is coming."
"You mean...the fifteenth of this month?"
"Yeah." On that day, I want to be with Mardias. "
Dean's memorial day. In the past few years, Jorgen did not know how Dalia had spent that day.
"But that day is not Sunday," Jorgen said. "You can't see Mardias."
"I know."
"I wish I could help you, but..."
"Just casually mention it, don't worry about me. I usually don't think about these things..."
"I thought you were going to tell him everything that happened five years ago.
"I don't know. Maybe never. I have to leave, Jorgen. "
Just as Dalia was about to turn her horse, Jorgen suddenly said, "Don't move."
"What?"
"Just stop there. Don't scare the horses."
Dalia heard a coarse, grating snort and the sound of dust shaking up from the bushes. She turned her head and saw a wild boar in the direction of the sound. It was huge, with aggressive brown bristles penetrating the surrounding air, and limbs like black anchors sunk deep into the grass. Its teeth were hung with countless battle scars, not sawed off like hunting wild boars - this was a beast that truly retained its fighting spirit.
The hunting grounds should have been cleared, Jorgen thought. But now was not the time to wonder why the wild boar appeared. It glared at the horses less than ten meters away, blowing the grass in front of its conical head. The horses began to get uneasy.
"Be quiet," Jorgen said to Dalia. He dismounted and drew his dagger. In this situation, anything from shotguns and swords to iron bars would be much more useful than daggers, but Jorgen had never considered carrying other weapons.
He moved slowly. The power of such a wild boar's charge could destroy a carriage, and Jorgen hoped it would sense the danger and flee on its own. Fighting was not the first choice.
Jorgen moved to the left, shifting the wild boar's gaze. When he was sure Dalia was out of its attack path, Jorgen could no longer get closer. He waited for the other to act.
The wild boar lowered its nose to the ground, its tail twitching irritably from side to side. It lifted its hooves and took a small step back, then stopped again. Just as Jorgen thought the wild boar was hesitating and was about to press forward slightly, it suddenly kicked off the ground and rushed over, splattering torn grass roots and soil.
Jorgen immediately crouched down, and when the wild boar was about three meters away from him, he rolled to the right to avoid this charge. The moment his left hand touched the ground, he felt the black trunk-like body whip up a roar of wind next to his ear. He did not deliberately draw his knife, but held it in his reverse grip, leaving it in the wild boar's path of attack. He felt the knife scrape something and almost slip from his grasp under the tremendous impact.
The wild boar rushed five meters away from him before stopping, then turned around with a howl and rushed at him again. Jorgen could see an obvious bloody gash in its left foreleg, and its running speed had slowed down. After two or three more such injuries, its charge would slow down enough for Jorgen to stab its throat.
Same direction, same action, slower speed. Jorgen thought he could easily avoid this blow. But an accident happened. The cumbersome shoulder straps of his third-rate noble outfit caught on a protruding sapling. As he lifted his shoulder, he felt pulled back, slowing his movement by half a second.
The safe distance of three meters was now only two meters. In that instant of judgment, he was already prepared to take the full brunt of this charge. Even if he was not hit head-on, with tusks piercing his body, there was a good chance of at least breaking three or four bones.
Just as the distance was extremely close and Jorgen could almost see the rage churning in the wild boar's eyes, the huge black creature suddenly let out a howl, slid to the ground, and then dragged a several meter long and nearly two meter wide trench. In its right eye and right leg, two long arrows were inserted. When its huge body stopped sliding, several more arrows pierced it. It rolled around for a while, but this only allowed the arrowheads to go deeper, so it soon stopped moving.
Jorgen tore off the troublesome shoulder strap and stood up. He looked back, Dalia was still safely on horseback, her expression showing that she had just begun to recover from tension and anxiety. A stern-looking man, with several soldiers carrying short bows, appeared on horseback from behind the trees.
"Are you all right, ma'am?" the man said.
"I'm fine, Jorgen..."
"His safety is outside my responsibility."
Dalia ignored the man and ran straight to Jorgen.
"Are you hurt? I saw..."
Jorgen shook his head, then glanced back at the man's stern interrogative gaze.
"I respect the lady's wishes, so I gave you some private time," the man said, "but I don't think there will be a next time, Jorgen."
"I will not allow you to speak like that, Travis. He saved me."
Travis Sylvan was the personal guard assigned to Dalia by the elder. To outsiders, he seemed like an important helper for the elder to keep Dalia under house arrest, but his own views seemed to differ.
"Sorry to offend, but from what I saw, he only put you and himself in danger. If I had been present, this would not have happened."
"Shut up, Travis," Jorgen said. "We're both men of the MI7, I don't have time for this nonsense. Speak straight, don't put on that pretentious tone."
"Are you trying to shirk responsibility for endangering Lady Dalia?"
"When I first came, I didn't see this big guy. Weren't you patrolling nearby? How did you let it get close to us? Besides, your men have convenient weapons like short bows. Those two arrows just now were quite accurate."
"I don't have time for meaningless arguments with you either. Remind you of your current status, watch your mouth. Grand Knight Shawl won't allow someone who can't even do basic courtesy to educate his..."
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" Dalia raised her voice.
Travis was clearly angry, but quickly suppressed it, with only his eyes showing the change. The huge dark red scar running from the left corner of his mouth sometimes made him look like he had four twisted lips. To avoid making this feature too conspicuous, he usually avoided smiling.
He nodded. "Ma'am, please return to your horse, the ladies' luncheon is about to begin. I will report this incident to the Master Huntsman. As for whether Jorgen made a mistake, I do not need to determine that."
"I suggest you report directly to the elder."
"What's wrong with you, Jorgen? We're colleagues too, since you told me 'don't come to me with this', I'll say it straight: I don't want to tear your face off just yet. "
"Just giving you a chance to show your loyalty."
"Get this straight, Jorgen. When I serve Lady Dalia, I serve her wholeheartedly. You can suspect whatever you like, but don't use this nonsense to trouble the lady."
"Very well." Jorgen returned to his horse. "Then our communication ends here. You do your duty, I'm going to look around, maybe I can find out who did this."
"What do you mean?"
"Since the place was cleared in advance, surrounded by guards, and the hunting wild boars were released from cages by the guards, I'm still interested in why a real wild boar appeared here."
Travis was silent for a moment, then ordered his men to stop and came to Jorgen himself.
"Jorgen," he said in an almost whisper.
"What?"
"Why do I tolerate your attitude? Because I understand that your desire to protect Lady Dalia is the same as mine. No, perhaps your desire is more intense. So I ask you, is it possible that this was a planned attack?"
"Finding this out is why I said I wanted to look around."
"Who do you think would harm the lady?"
"It's hard to say with these things."
"I wish you would be more honest," Travis lowered his voice further, "Do you think it could be the elder? - No, I don't expect you to answer me. For anyone to answer this question to others would be extremely dangerous, no matter which side they are on."
"It's not as simple as 'which side you're on'. You've been at the MI7 longer than I have."
Travis laughed strangely. "You're right. I may have overreacted just now. It seems I should thank you for helping Lady Dalia."
Jorgen hoped to find out Travis's true position soon, but the other man's experience was not inferior to his own. Many times he felt that Travis was opposed to the elder at times, but at other times seemed to be one of his most loyal subordinates. In front of such colleagues, telling the truth was extremely risky.
But Jorgen would not complain about this. Because he knew that in the eyes of many members of the Lodge, his own position was even more elusive. The events of five years ago were officially recorded in the archives only as "rescuing Lady Dalia from the hands of bandits", but some rumors had slowly gained influence, and some of them had already touched on the truth of the events. Jorgen's loyalty to Dalia was known to all, but after he became Mardias' tutor, his personal image began to blur.
"Well, the lady and I will be leaving now. I hope you find something valuable."
As Dalia followed Travis and left the open space, Jorgen said to her, "I'll find a way for the Memorial Day thing. Don't worry."