I Will Be the Greatest Knight
Chapter 228: Spring

Chapter 228: Spring

They’re called the floodplains for a reason, Irene reminded herself as she sank into mud the moment she stepped outside of the tent.

Fortunately, they had been fortifying the sleeping tents with boards, canvas bags, firmly packed dirt—basically whatever they could possibly get their hands on in a place where deliveries were few and far between.

Actually, if Irene recalled correctly, they had even disassembled a wagon that came with a delivery in the name of blocking the flooding water from reaching the sleeping areas. Of course, Commander Lothian made sure to handsomely compensate the man who drove the wagon there in the first place.

Since there hadn’t been a massive wave of monsters recently, they used the time as wisely as possible.

It was late morning, her usual waking time since she, Leif, and Felix were all tasked with the first half of guarding either on the wall or in the field.

Since other apprentices had done breakfast already, she and the others were left with lunch duties and dinner duties.

The teenager was happy to leave the mud and step onto boards that hadn’t been completely sunken into the wet ground as she cooked. Again, the cooking area had become a strange respite, even though she hated it so much at first.

Warm hands, warm feet. She smiled faintly.

As she glanced to the side, she saw Leif step onto the boards as well, and he quickly glanced away from her, not wanting to interrupt whatever was making her smile.

He had been strange lately, yet Irene still found herself trying to be someone Leif could rely on whenever he was looking particularly sad. Since they had both guarded at the same time, they were back on a similar schedule the rest of the day.

Irene began cutting up a few of the last remaining carrots. She couldn’t help as she turned the overused knife to the side and caught her skewed reflection. Even though the knife had many imperfections, she could still see her face. It was clean, so why did Leif always stare at her?

She could hardly remember her age. Was she fifteen by now?

Was the problem that she hadn’t grown like the others? Rather than gaining muscle to their degree, she merely lost weight. While her entire body was more defined than that of an average girl of her age, she was still so far off from the others.

If they could only get past this war, then perhaps she could finally have her privacy back.

It had been hell.

Since the snow had thawed, they all openly bathed in creeks, but she always had to hide herself.

She hadn’t felt air on her abdomen in a long time since she had to practically wear a girdle to conceal her developing body from everyone else. All she wanted to do was bathe her entire body, but it wasn’t worth revealing her secret.

Even on the days her monthly bleeding came and went, she would only allow herself a few moments to curl up on her bed and hide her pains. If the others realized she felt so badly every month, then perhaps they would look into it a bit too much. Did men pay attention to those things?

She wasn’t entirely sure.

It was time to stop thinking of what she couldn’t control...

Each time they guarded from on top of the wall, Irene watched as the seasons slowly changed. What was once unbearably cold, even with a small fire between them for her fire arrows, became easier to handle. She even got to take off her outer coat and only wore a cloak to the top of the wall.

"The monsters haven’t appeared in quite some time," the girl realized as she turned to the ever-silent Leif. "Do you think, despite what we saw, it could be the end? What are they waiting for?"

Leif seemed melancholic. All he could do was scoff and turn his eyes back to the sword in his lap that he had been dutifully cleaning. There wasn’t much else to do up there since monsters weren’t around.

"We all saw the same thing," he muttered. "They’re waiting for something while we agonize over the hell that is due at any moment. It’s like waiting for a volcano to explode."

However, he didn’t stop there when he glanced at Irene, and she began to say something, which he said in unison with her.

"The only volcano is in Polona," they both said.

"Yes, I know," Leif continued. "We’ve all read the five available books we have in this hell."

She didn’t know why he was responding so aggressively, but when she turned her head to him, he was silently laughing and shaking his head.

"You’ve been quite the smart ass recently," she responded, unenthused. "This place is really getting to you."

He had nothing to say to that because he agreed.

At least teasing her made Leif seem happier that night.

The two apprentices finished their night watch shift only a couple of hours later and were finally able to settle in for the night, where sleep was easy because the temperature was finally getting better.

Irene felt in better spirits with good sleep and having her best friend finally on the same schedule as her, so she had someone to talk to. Things were looking up, and it could have been entirely due to the change in season. It always hit her surprisingly hard, but now that she was living in the outdoors, it had become even worse.

She felt like a flower that relied on the sun to wake up.

However, the following morning, Irene was up with a start when she heard activity outside the tents. She felt less like a blooming flower and more like a wilted one that hadn’t gotten enough nutrients or, in her case, sleep.

Her eyes went to her right, and she saw that Leif was waking up in much of the same way.

"Should we go?" she asked.

Leif nodded.

Those times, Irene never even bothered to think of her appearance, especially when so many surprising things were thrown in their direction. How unbecoming of a lady, but an average occurrence for apprentices, squires, and knights.

They both rushed out of the barrack tent only to see a disturbance in the field.

Sir Gunnar, who had already been awake for a couple of hours, strode up to his apprentice.

"They found a tunnel going to the Duke’s Tower," the knight explained. "A maid was found at the bottom of it, suffocating nearly to death because of the black poison. I haven’t been able to see her yet. The mages won’t let anyone else in the tent."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.