The man who appeared on horseback ahead had quite a gentle impression.

Brown hair tousled by the wind.

A faint smile resting on his lips.

And brown eyes, the same color as his hair, filled with delight.

That man must surely be Cedric, the guard knight Cahilid had mentioned.

But Cedric was not what Ihis was looking at.

“To think Lord Cahilid personally came out to meet me! This is truly surprising!”

“Behind……”

Ihis’s small voice was drowned out by Cedric’s booming one.

“And who is the person beside you? I do not believe we have met before……”

“Behind you……!”

Even as Cedric continued speaking, Cahilid gave no answer at all.

He simply sprang to his feet and drew the sharp greatsword from the sheath at his waist.

It happened before Ihis could even try to stop him.

Without the slightest hesitation, Cahilid charged toward where Cedric was.

“L-Lord Cahilid?”

“There is a monster behind you!”

Ihis shouted with all her strength, her voice trembling violently.

“Dodge!”

Only then did Cedric grasp the situation and turn around, but it was already too late.

Attacked by a monster that closely resembled a wolf, Cedric fell helplessly from his horse, and Cahilid, biting his lip, began running like a madman.

“Y-you damned……!”

Pinned beneath the monster in an instant, Cedric cursed with a stiff expression.

He struggled desperately to push away the monster’s gaping jaws.

At this rate, they really might die. Both of them.

The snowy fields north of House Erbereje.

Monsters had lived there for a long time.

The very wolf-type monsters that had attacked Cedric.

Mahie, too, had once been attacked by them.

It had happened in the middle of winter, just like today.

In spring or summer, when there was relatively plenty of prey, they did not cause much damage. But in the dead of winter, when there was nothing to eat, the situation was different.

That was why she remembered.

She remembered that this area was extremely dangerous.

“Lord Cahilid!”

Meanwhile, Cahilid, who had drawn close to Cedric, swung the greatsword in his hand mercilessly.

The monster, which had been lunging for Cedric’s nape, flinched and lifted its head, then glared at Cahilid, whose blade was now piercing its side.

At the same time, Cahilid’s expression stiffened.

The sword isn’t going in deep?

Then the monster began charging not at Cedric, but at Cahilid.

Using that opening, Cedric hurriedly drew his sword as well.

Fortunately, Cahilid nimbly avoided the monster and swung his blade.

It was the moment Cahilid’s sword pierced the monster’s belly once again.

“The neck!”

Ihis’s scream rang loudly across the snowy field.

No wonder. No matter how many times I stabbed it, there was no effect.

Once, after returning from being attacked by a monster, Mahie had clearly said that.

It was the neck. Its weakness.

The neck?

They are a species that has lived there since before House Erbereje settled in this land. The winters in this region are terribly harsh, so they must have evolved some method of survival.

“No matter how many times you stab it anywhere else, it won’t work!”

“It is not obvious from the outside, but the skin itself is as hard as steel. But perhaps it is limited to the body, because when I cut its neck, it died immediately.”

“Cut its neck!”

Ihis shouted like a madwoman as she ran forward, and Cahilid aimed for the monster’s neck with all his strength.

Cedric, too, having heard Ihis’s words, swung his sword toward the monster’s nape, but it was not particularly effective.

The monster swung its large, rock-hard paw to protect its neck, and Cedric eventually went tumbling across the snowfield, bleeding.

“Cedric!”

The moment Cahilid briefly shifted his gaze toward Cedric—

She saw the monster open its jaws wide like a beast and lunge for Cahilid’s neck.

“No……!”

This never happened in my previous life.

If Cahilid had been seriously injured, Father would have tried to use me.

In the end, he had only made an excuse to come out here so he could hear my story.

But what if Cahilid died because of this?

Because of me.

She could no longer think of anything else.

As if possessed by something, Ihis threw herself forward.

In front of Cahilid.

“……”

In that instant, Ihis’s pain-stricken face was reflected in Cahilid’s red eyes.

“Aaah……!”

Ihis groaned as the monster bit into her shoulder.

Blue veins bulged on the back of Cahilid’s hand as he gripped his sword.

What happened next took place in an instant.

Dark-red blood sprayed before her eyes, and a heavy thud rang loudly in her ears.

Unable to understand what had just happened, Ihis collapsed on the spot and instinctively looked back.

“H-hiiik……”

The moment Ihis saw the monster’s head, its sharp fangs still buried in her shoulder, her face turned deathly pale.

Disgusting.

Terrifying.

She had healed people who had been tortured endlessly, but this was the first time in her life she had faced a monster like this.

Trembling in fear, Ihis squeezed her eyes shut, and Cahilid gripped the monster’s head with all his strength.

“Please endure it just a little longer, my lady.”

Cedric, who had approached Ihis at some point, spoke with a pained expression.

But there was no time left to endure.

Cahilid quickly pulled the fangs lodged in Ihis’s shoulder free and threw the monster’s head far away.

“The wound is severe. You must receive treatment at once.”

“Ugh……”

“Lord Cahilid, this lady should be…… Huh?”

Cedric could not continue.

Because golden light began to seep out over Ihis’s wound as blood poured from it.

It was healing power.

The witch…… of Erbereje?

This woman?

Then why is she with Lord Cahilid?

Unable to grasp the situation at all, Cedric wore a blank expression.

And Cahilid……

“Are you insane?”

With a face filled with fury, he bent down, grabbed both of Ihis’s arms, and demanded,

“What the hell was that?”

She had been lucky that it was her shoulder that was bitten. If the direction had been even slightly different, the one whose head went flying might not have been the monster, but Ihis.

“I asked what the hell you were doing!”

If she had been an ordinary person without healing power, it would have been a wound more than enough to kill her from blood loss.

“Answer me, Ihis Erbereje!”

Why?

Because she had healing power anyway, was she trying to win his favor?

By making some ridiculous sacrifice so openly?

Was that what she wanted him to believe?

“B-because anyway……”

But Ihis’s answer was not one Cahilid had expected.

“Even if you had been bitten by the monster, Lord Cahilid, I would have used my healing power……”

“What?”

“If someone had to suffer for nothing…… I thought it would be better if I was the one who got hurt……”

“……”

“I-I’m fine. I’ve been hurt worse than this before…… It’s bearable. And it will heal soon……”

Ihis was right.

Her wound had already stopped bleeding.

If they waited a little longer like this, it would close completely.

But Cahilid knew better than anyone that just because a wound healed, it did not mean the pain she had just endured disappeared with it.

As if proving Cahilid’s thought correct, Ihis trembled violently, her face deathly pale.

“S-so…… please do not worry about me.”

Even as she spoke in a voice as small as a mosquito’s, Ihis was unable to keep her senses because of the extreme pain.

In the end, she let out a feverish breath, and before long, lost consciousness.

“Lord Cahilid, what on earth…… No, why would the witch of Erbereje go this far……?”

Even at Cedric’s dumbfounded question, Cahilid gave no answer.

He merely carefully gathered the unconscious Ihis into his arms and rose to his feet.

“We are returning to House Erbereje.”

“……”

“Right now.”

At Cahilid’s strangely sharp words, Cedric had no choice but to close his mouth and follow him.

Before long, Cahilid mounted his horse with Ihis in his arms.

With an unreadable expression, he looked down at Ihis, whose face was as white as snow.

And bit down hard on his innocent lip for no reason.