During the commotion, Aaron led Lucilia behind the rock.

After placing the hollow reed stem in her mouth, he lifted her effortlessly.

Crossing the river the way they had come was too risky as they would be detected, and with arrows raining down, their lives couldn’t be guaranteed.

Though they had hidden clothes to change into nearby, they now needed to escape via the waterway, so they would likely need to wear the clothes hidden downstream.

Lucilia entrusted everything to Aaron.

She trusted his skills, which had been designed with various possibilities in mind.

A long tube flowed along the stream above the white-breaking foam.

Unaware that the spies were hiding deep underwater, the soldiers swam desperately, narrowing the distance.

The remaining soldiers swept their gazes around, maintaining vigilance.

Of the five who had jumped into the river, three were swept away by the rapid current, and only two barely managed to hold onto the rocks.

The leader’s expression crumpled savagely.

“Useless bastards! What are you doing instead of crossing over!”

The leader screamed that he would kill them if they returned like this, and drew an arrow. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, he shot at his subordinate.

Faced with death either way, the surviving soldier climbed onto the rock with all his might.

With the continued interference, he began searching the surroundings without even catching his breath.

Eventually, a loud shout pierced the air and crossed to the other side of the river.

“There’s no one here!”

“Are you sure you checked properly?”

The soldier who had climbed onto the rock a little later also thoroughly checked every small gap before crossing his arms above his head.

“There’s really no one!”

Only then did the leader hand over his bow to the subordinate standing beside him.

Though he still felt uneasy, he dismissed it as oversensitivity and properly put on the clothes he hadn’t fully fastened.

The two soldiers who had raised their voices loudly were terrified that Caldman troops might be pursuing from behind and hastily jumped back into the water.

* * *

Without Aaron, she would have died long ago, reed tube or not.

Aaron maintained his balance skillfully without even holding the reed stem in his mouth. And he did so with Lucilia on top of his stomach.

He submerged in a lying position so she could breathe, but she was unbearably anxious about whether he was holding his breath well below.

If not for the strength of his hands firmly holding her waist, she would have thought he was dead.

That’s how murderous the current was.

Because of this, Lucilia also swallowed water several times while trying to breathe through the tube.

She doesn’t know how much she concentrated to maintain her composure.

Thus, they barely survived by breathing underwater.

Though the real life-and-death situation was probably being faced by Aaron.

When they reached a point slightly away from the rapid current, her lying body was raised upright.

Aaron lifted his upper body while holding Lucilia.

The moment rough breathing burst from behind her back, relief flooded in like a tide. At the same time, as the time spent in terror dissipated, tears burst forth.

She didn’t even think about the bone-chilling cold.

“Oh God! I’m so glad you’re safe. How much I… sob. What if you died, huh-huh. How worried I was. Thank you for staying alive.”

Lucilia couldn’t contain her pent-up emotions and hugged Aaron’s neck.

As she sobbed with shaking shoulders, Aaron subdued her anxiety with a steady voice.

“If I were to die from something like this, I would have died on the battlefield long ago. Today doesn’t even count as dangerous. Not having to face Mrangel warriors is fortunate enough, so it’s actually a day of many gains.”

He spoke more than usual.

Perhaps he too had been anxious that she might lose consciousness from the current.

Lucilia wanted to feel the hand patting her back for a long time, so she clung tightly to him.

It felt so good to be in his embrace, which didn’t push her away but waited until she calmed down.

As staying in the water would rapidly lower body temperature, Aaron swam nimbly while holding her.

In contrast to Lucilia, who was completely exhausted without the strength to move a finger, he was still fine.

Even when they reached a place where they could walk out, he didn’t put her down but carried her to the cave where dry clothes were hidden.

She begged to be put down, but he didn’t listen.

As if she didn’t feel bad enough, when she came out of the water, she realized she was barefoot, her shoes gone somewhere.

“I really can walk.”

“Can you keep up with my pace while limping? It’s faster to carry you.”

Realizing that persisting would only waste energy in a pointless battle of wills, she stopped pleading.

Still, she was concerned about Aaron.

No matter how unrivaled his stamina was, he was still human after all.

Lucilia moved her lips, hoping to give him a little strength.

“I saw His Holiness the Pope.”

“What?”

“I saw the Pope’s figure in that man’s eyes. It was a scene created by imagination… Anyway, our eyes met when the Mrangel leader noticed we were watching.”

“Are you saying he was thinking about the Pope?”

Aaron stared at Lucilia as he trudged over the rocky ground.

It was gratifying that he met her gaze without hesitation. Though it was a brief moment, as short as a passing breeze, there was an expectation close to ecstasy emanating from their briefly locked eyes.

Lucilia looked at Aaron’s lips with a pounding heart.

“And what else did you read?”

“It seems Mrangel made a deal with the Pope. He recited the lands of Caldman they would gain. This place, Echorn.”

“Echorn?”

It was said that rumors were spreading around Echorn that misfortune had befallen the Kingdom of Caldman because the false saint had not been executed.

Mrangel had also launched surprise attacks on Echorn.

What the Pope wanted was the power of the old religion. Was he intending to condemn the new religion as being in league with the seductress under the pretext of God’s will?

And he chose Mrangel as his means?

A sigh full of anger escaped through Aaron’s teeth.

“Rest here for now.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll bring the horses tethered upstream and the hidden clothes.”

“Ah… that’s right.”

Yesterday they had returned to camp from upstream, but today they had fled downstream.

Nodding, Lucilia pressed her trembling body against Aaron.

Aaron headed to a secluded cave.

After lighting a fire with branches and dry leaves he had brought in advance, he dusted off his hands.

“Wait here and don’t go outside until I return.”

“Alright. I won’t go anywhere.”

Aaron left the cave hurriedly, saying they needed to return before dawn.

In the silence, the crackling sound of sparks spread.

Lucilia sat in front of the bonfire and thawed her frozen hands first.

Suddenly, she thought of Aaron running through the mountain paths in the cold wind without even changing his clothes.

“He’ll be cold from being wet… He’ll really damage his body at this rate.”

Despite his pride in being resistant to cold, there would be limits to what a human body could endure, as it wasn’t made of stone.

Her safety depended on Aaron’s well-being.

Lucilia clicked her tongue at her foolishness for not stopping him.

Though she was afraid wild animals might appear while she was alone, she decided to change clothes first as Aaron had instructed.

She shouldn’t cause trouble by catching a cold from dawdling.

Even though no one was watching, she instinctively went to a dark corner with the large cloth pouch containing clothes.

Then she began to remove the clothes clinging to her body one by one.

Though she had only moved a little away from the bonfire, her vision sank into darkness, making it difficult to see objects.

When taking off her wet pants, she staggered several times and leaned against the cave wall.

As she pulled at her pants, trying to free one leg, the stones under her feet rattled, causing her to lose balance.

“Whoa!”

Just as she managed to find her footing, a sharp rock pierced her bare foot.

“Ouch! Ugh…”

Fortunately, she distributed her weight to the other foot before it could deeply embed in her flesh. Lucilia roughly adjusted her waist and sat near the fire.

Turning over her sole, she saw blood flowing from a slightly torn area.

“At least it’s not a bad injury. It won’t hinder my movement.”

She gauged how severe the pain was by curling and uncurling her toes.

At this level, the bleeding would stop if left alone, so she wouldn’t need Aaron’s support.
She planned to act as if nothing was wrong so he wouldn’t worry.

Suddenly, tears welled up at the thought that this whole situation was because of the Pope, making her feel wronged.

“This is truly outrageous. What an evil person!”

* * *

Aaron, who had been climbing the mountain at a rapid pace, unexpectedly lost his balance.
If he hadn’t grabbed a protruding tree root, he would have rolled onto the dirt ground.

“D*mn it…”