The Grand Duke's Soulmate
Chapter 39: An Angel with Emerald Eyes

Chapter 39: An Angel with Emerald Eyes

The late afternoon approached, and the sun tilted to the west. Soon, darkness would prevail and wrap the surroundings with night.

Despite it still being daytime, the enormous clouds that looked like airy anvils drifted from the north, blotting out the blazing orange sky and turning the atmosphere sombre.

The young teenager cried endlessly. As gloomy as the area was, his heart was stricken with devastation. His brother and their neighbour were lying helplessly, with no movement. Only their chests were still pumping up and down, showing they were alive.

After the two knights and the lady they met left, several men came, but they did not approach nearby. They covered their faces with a cloth from the bridge of their noses to their chins. One of them yelled out a question and asked whether the lying men were still breathing from afar.

Between his cries, the young teenager told him that they were still alive. He pleaded for their help, but they only instructed him to stay put as they raised tents nearby.

The man who asked about their well-being left, and several other people who covered their faces with masks later arrived.

Anna looked up at the sky.

"The dark clouds are coming. It’s going to rain soon," she said quietly.

Her face was still pale from the blood withdrawal. Damon, who accompanied her, held her right hand as she moved. As she was still weak, the knight helped her walk. Eli also escorted her to her left.

"My lady, are you sure you are already fine?" The young knight asked in concern as his forehead creased, looking at the frail lady.

"I’m fine."

Ayden, who had been there earlier, came and approached them.

"From what I saw here, the rashes indeed looked like Laradie. Since you’ve read about the disease, can you confirm it?" asked Ayden to her.

"Yes. But you need to guide me. My knowledge might not be as extensive as yours," she replied, looking at the assistant healer with doe eyes.

"What you know is good enough already. You might as well become an apprentice." Ayden smiled beneath his mask. He was confident in Anna’s brilliance.

"What should I check first?" asked the commander’s wife to the assistant healer.

"Check on their physical condition and their symptoms. Do some history taking and distinguish their ailment from other types of sickness. The more information we compile, the more accurate the diagnosis is," explained Ayden, telling the princess what Rafe had taught him.

"Right, got it!" Anna nodded her head.

Understanding the dire situation and that she was the only one who could attend to them, she had no objection.

"If there’s anything you are unsure about, you can shout to me. I’ll be waiting here," added Ayden.

"I’m going now. All of you should stay here. Don’t come any nearer," she told them.

"Give me the parcel," she then requested of Eli.

The young knight nodded and handed the parcel in his possession to her.

"I know you’re immune, but my lady, please be careful anyway," Damon said before releasing his hand.

They all worried that Anna would faint, knowing how fragile she was. The anxiousness was written all over their faces.

"Don’t worry too much! I’m not as weak as I look. I’ll be all right!" The commander’s wife tried to reassure them when she saw their clouded faces.

Exhaling their breaths, the three men finally let her go.

"I hope nothing happens to our precious lady," prayed Ayden.

"I hope so, too!" added Damon. Both were still looking apprehensive.

"Our lady is surely brave! I adore her bravery!" Eli put both of his hands to his heart and smiled.

The trio looked at the small figure walking towards the foragers.

"She surely is something!" said the tanned knight as his orb-like eyes stared at the lady.

***

The teenager looked up when the sound of snapping branches reached his ears. Traversing the path to them, the little lady who came with the men approached nearer. Looking at her peasant dress, she did not seem to be an essential person. However, the behaviour of the men towards her earlier showed the opposite.

The teenager also heard them calling her lady. As such, she should be someone important. However, if so, why would she dress modestly? Seeing a woman in the army at the frontier was also weird.

"Who... who are you?" the teenager stammered when she came before him. His crying ceased slowly.

He was sitting on the ground, holding his brother’s head on his lap. The other man lay next to him.

"I’m Anna. Don’t be scared. I’m not a bad person." Her soft, reassuring voice emerged from her lips as she introduced herself and sat down.

"Are you with the army?" the teenager asked her, sniffling his nose.

"Yes, I am. I’m here to help you," she replied.

The teenager’s eyes grew wide at her response. It had been two days since they had gotten sick, but no one had offered them help. This was the first time someone had been kind enough to give a hand.

"I need to check their condition first."

Not wasting any more time, the lady examined the two men.

The pungent smell of alcohol permeated from her hands. She observed the rashes on their skin, touched their foreheads, and examined their upper limbs.

"Rashes, high fever, dry lips, shaking hands..." she muttered as she checked on the patients.

Then, she went down to their feet and opened their dirty shoes. She even touched the soles of the men’s feet.

"Cold feet... everything matches with Laradie." She sighed.

Then, the princess looked at the teenager and asked, "Since when did you get sick?"

"Three days ago. This is my brother, and that is my neighbour. We got sick when we went foraging in the forest," the teenager replied.

"Can you tell me how it began?" she asked again.

The teenager recounted his story. The three of them were foraging in the Dartrey Forest when the illness started. His neighbour went into a cave seeking Liverworts. The man then got sick, followed by his brother and him.

They began to experience high fever and vomited the next day. Then, rashes started to appear on their skin. When they could no longer bear the sickness, they returned home to seek help.

However, when the villagers took a glance at them and saw the rashes, they screamed out of horror. The panicked men even armed themselves with pitchforks and shoved them out of the village area, saying they had brought a weird sickness.

"The disease’s manifestation took only one day to show symptoms," Anna mumbled as she recalled the symptoms of Laradie that she used to read.

The teenager looked at her perplexedly, not understanding her muttering.

"Are you a healer?" he asked her.

"No, I’m not. But I know a little bit about diseases. Now, I’m trying to confirm your sickness," said the princess.

"Why didn’t the healer come?"

"The healer is not in the camp currently."

Anna pointed to Ayden, who was standing in the distance, together with Damon and Eli.

"That man with the long hair is an assistant healer."

"How come he didn’t take a look at us?"

"He can’t. We believe you’ve contracted a dangerous disease. I’m the only one who can attend to you," she replied.

"Why so?"

"If it is confirmed to be the disease, it could infect everyone else. So, we are taking precautions since I’m immune to it," she briefly explained.

"Are we going to die?" the teenager shouted in fear.

"I won’t let you. That’s why I’m here."

The teenager looked at her with hopeful eyes. His eyes began to glisten with tears again.

"Please help us! I’m scared!"

"Don’t worry. I’m doing my best to help you," she said.

Anna shouted at Ayden, reported her findings to him, and asked for his instructions. The assistant healer told her to proceed with the cure.

The princess then opened the parcel she brought. She took out the water bottle and washed her dirty hands. Then, she took another bottle containing alcohol and rubbed the contents on her hands. She picked up a small knife and a vial and approached the lying men.

"What are you doing?!" the teenager shouted in panic when he saw her raising his brother’s arm while holding the knife. He quickly grabbed his brother tightly.

"I’m applying the cure to your brother. If I don’t do this, he will die," Anna explained to him.

The teenager hesitated at first. However, when he thought about it again, he knew he had no choice. Furthermore, this woman would not have come here and risked her life knowing they were infected with a dangerous disease if she had intended to hurt them. She could have just left them to die.

The teenager nodded and released his grip. He looked as Anna began her procedure. With the small knife, the commander’s wife cut a small wound on the teenager’s brother’s arm and spread the vial’s content on the slit. She repeated the same to the other man.

"It’s your turn now," Anna told the teenager.

"It won’t be so painful. It’s just a small cut," she persuaded him when she saw the scared face of the teenager.

The teenager nodded and held out his hand to her. The blade of the knife, which was already cleaned and sterilised with alcohol, was pierced into his skin. She stretched the wound and dropped the blood in the vial onto it. Then, she covered the wound with gauze.

"Do you want me to bandage it?" she asked the teenager.

The wound was not so big. But still, since the teenager showed much fear of the procedure, she asked him out of caring instinct.

"No. It’s fine."

"I brought you some food and drinks. But for now, you should take this first. Pour them into your mouth and drink the water."

She held out two small pouches from the parcel to the teenager.

"What’s that?" asked the boy curiously.

"This is salt, and the other one is sugar. The salt could help with dehydration, and the sugar will replenish your energy quickly. When you feel a bit better, you can start eating," Anna explained.

The teenager obediently nodded. He was no longer afraid of the lady.

"They’re going to be alright, aren’t they?" he asked the woman as he turned to look at his brother and neighbour.

"I believe so. You’ve contracted the disease for only three days. There will be no guarantee if it is more than five days."

To her knowledge, patients infected with Laradie usually succumb to their death after the period.

"Thank you for helping us." The teenager looked at her with glimmering eyes.

"You’re welcome. What’s your name, and how old are you?" Anna asked again.

"My name is Armel, and I’m fifteen years old," he replied after gulping the water.

Anna smiled. The boy’s name sounded like a rhyme to her kingdom, Ardel, and he was also the same age as her deceased younger brother.

When she first saw the foragers, she thought they were all men. Little did she know that one of them was an adolescent.

"After you got sick, did you get close to anyone?" she asked Armel.

The teenager shook his head.

"When we returned to the village, the men at the sentry post stopped us and disallowed us to enter. They, too, didn’t come close when they saw our rashes," said Armel, telling the story.

"A sentry post?" Anna raised her brow.

"Every village along the border will have a sentry post. The men have taken turns guarding since the slave market began to grow. Occasionally, thieves invade our village to steal livestock and valuables. Other villages have faced situations involving kidnapping and robbery," Armel explained.

"So no one got near you at all? What about while you were on the way? Did you meet anyone?"

"No. We went straight home and didn’t meet anybody."

Anna breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly told Ayden the details. If everything had gone smoothly, they might have prevented an outbreak.

Eli hastily left to convey the information to Luke, who besieged the village.

"I will stay here until we see some improvements in them, all right?" said Anna, cheering Armel.

The teenager smiled and nodded. In his eyes, the lady’s emerald irises looked so beautiful, like an angel. God must have sent her to save them from death.

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