When Aurelio regained consciousness, he felt as if his face had been smeared with hot charcoal, burning with pain in waves. He raised his hand to touch his cheek and then felt a sharp pain in his shoulder. Fortunately, his cheek was as smooth as usual with no signs of injury, which put his mind at ease.
After an unknown amount of time, the pain on his face completely dissipated, and his mind felt much clearer. Only then did he try to open his eyes. His eyes seemed to be covered with fog, and he could only see the outlines of the surrounding objects. After blinking several times vigorously, his vision became slightly clearer, only with occasional double images.
It was already the next day, and the sky was completely bright. Aurelio was lying on a patch of grass, a dozen steps outside the camp. He took out his pocket watch with his right hand and learned the current time - nine fifteen. With a slight effort on his waist, he managed to turn over. Immediately, a faint fragrance of flowers wafted into his nostrils. For some reason, this fragrance gave him a sense of familiarity.
He looked up and saw a woman kneeling beside him. She was wearing a full set of plate armor that had been polished and maintained extremely well. The sunlight shining on it reflected a pale golden light that was a bit dazzling. Her long, dark green hair was carefully coiled up so that it didn't touch the ground when she was kneeling.
She had her head slightly lowered, her eyes slightly closed, her thick, dark green eyelashes drooping, and her breathing was extremely light. It seemed that she was taking a short nap. However, her right hand was still resting on the hilt of the sword at her waist, and her left arm was holding the shield on her knee. It seemed that she was not the least bit lax and was always ready for battle.
Aurelio endured the pain in his shoulders and back and forced himself to sit up. He then looked at the woman not far away. By recognizing the emblems on her chest and shield, he identified her identity - a knight of Serencia. Moreover, she was a rare female knight.
He would have thought that he had been rescued by his comrades and was being taken good care of if he hadn't been lying in a patch of grass. He was full of doubts about his situation. He opened his mouth to wake up the female knight to ask, but found that his voice was extremely low, as if it were hoarse.
However, the female knight woke up suddenly, as if startled. She sprang to her feet, simultaneously drawing her sword and assuming a fighting stance. When she realized there was no enemy, she crouched down beside Aurelio again. She opened her eyes wide and examined the young mage in front of her with concern and asked a few questions.
Aurelio saw the woman's lips moving but couldn't hear anything. A confused look appeared on his face. He understood later and pointed to his ears and said, "I can't hear clearly."
The female knight nodded with a smile, then closed her eyes for a moment of meditation. Then she extended her right hand and guided a golden light from her palm to his ears. Aurelio felt a sharp pain deep in his ears, as if he had heard some huge noise again. A few seconds later, the sharp pain turned into a faint burning sensation, and after a while, both discomforts subsided.
"Can you hear clearly now?" The female knight leaned forward again and asked in a gentle voice, and then repeated the previous question, "It seems the injury on your face is already okay. How about other places? Is there any pain anywhere else?" She always had a smile on her face when she spoke.
The words of the female knight, along with the chirping of birds around, reached Aurelio's ears. His hearing had been restored. He then pointed to his shoulder, and the female knight, seeing this, used the same spell to treat his shoulder injury from the fall.
Healing spells were not the main focus of the knight order. However, his injuries were not serious. A fall injury that only affected the muscles and a temporary hearing impairment were not difficult to treat. In addition, the double vision caused by a mild concussion was also cured incidentally.
He tried moving his shoulder, and the joint was no longer restricted by pain. He thanked her softly. And as his vision became completely clear, he was finally able to see the other's face clearly.
She had fair skin, big and clear blue eyes, a small nose and mouth, and looked like a girl of only fifteen or sixteen years old. However, to be recruited into the Serencia Knight Order, one had to be at least eighteen years old and undergo more than three years of training before going to the battlefield. Aurelio had heard of such regulations. So he knew that the female knight in front of him was not as young as she appeared.
"Don't mention it. But don't stare at me like that anymore!" The female knight slightly turned her head away, glancing sideways at Aurelio with a dissatisfied expression.
"Sorry." Aurelio knew he had been rude. "Have you been guarding me all this time?"
The female knight looked to the right, avoiding his gaze, and replied, "Not all the time. Only about... about half an hour. Why were you lying in the bushes?"
Aurelio looked in the direction she pointed and then looked back at the camp. After estimating the distance, he silently thanked his lucky stars in his heart. He remembered what had happened yesterday. He had been blown away by the shock wave of the explosion and landed in a pile of bushes instead of on the spikes of the barricades.
Seeing that he didn't answer, the female knight pressed on, "What exactly happened?"
"Bombs. I can't remember the specific details either."
The female knight was startled and said in confusion, "Bombs?! How could there be bombs? Where is everyone?"
"The raid... You don't know?"
"I..." The female knight frowned. Her face turned red, and she had an ashamed expression. She put her hand to her forehead, slightly covering her face. "I went to the woods over there last night. I originally wanted to collect firewood, and then for some reason, my head felt dizzy and I got lost..." Her voice grew quieter as she spoke. She shook her head vigorously and simply skipped over the embarrassing part.
After getting separated from her companions, she wandered in the woods in a daze all night. It was not until almost dawn that she found her way back to the camp. When she walked out of the forest, she saw several corpses lying outside the camp. Most of the corpses were dressed as farmers, and only a very few were Serenians.
She went forward to check each fallen comrade and found that they were all lifeless. Then, she walked into the camp warily and saw a mess. Most of the tents had collapsed on the ground, some with charred marks. And the main force had long since disappeared, perhaps already gone. She paced back and forth anxiously and happened to find Aurelio. She then dragged him out to take care of him.
The female knight told him these circumstances and then picked up the staff lying beside her and handed it over, saying, "You were holding it tightly when you fainted."
After thanking her, Aurelio took the staff with both hands. He gently rubbed it to remove the dust stuck on it and carefully inspected it again, thinking, "Fortunately, the staff wasn't snatched away." There was a rather large ruby on the tip of the staff, which was the core of the staff and looked quite valuable. If it had been picked up by some greedy enemy and sold as a trophy, that would have been bad.
Just as he was secretly congratulating himself, the female knight suddenly let out a sigh.