Chapter 54: Chapter 54 Don’t come to the hunting contest in the forest (16)
Wendy could not understand why Lard’s words came to her mind in this urgent situation.
‘Why did I recall Lard’s stupid remarks at this moment?’
She thought Lard shouted her name a moment ago.
“Argh!”
She felt some shock in her back. The pain was not stronger than she thought. Besides, the touch was also not rough, hard soil, so she could not grasp the situation.
Soon, she realized that someone was holding her tight. Hugging her, he was absorbing the impact that she would have felt. While she was tangled up with him and rolling the ground, Wendy couldn’t figure out who he was.
‘Who the hell is holding me now? Who is going through the pain on my behalf?’
There was nobody who suffered pain on her behalf.
She once again felt her body floating in the air.
It was a cliff. Closing her eyes, she realized she was falling into the air. She felt extreme pain in her wrists.
“Uh, Wendy!”
Wet dirt fell past her forehead and down the cliff. She barely raised her head and looked up at the face of the man holding her hand.
“Sir Schroder…”
He was Lard Schroder, captain of the 1st Imperial Knights. She met him several times until now, but he was no more than a stranger to her.
“Why…” Wendy couldn’t continue her words.
He was in a messy state. His dishevelled black hair was plastered to his dirty, scratched d face, his clothes were stained with mud. He was messed up.
Before falling off the cliff, the man managed to grasp the root of the tree that protruded from the edge of the cliff. He was doing his best to survive with his left hand grasping her right wrist with all his might.
Right after the shower of soil, the piles of wet soil near the roots crashed over them.
Wendy looked desperately into his face and met his eyes. Unless she grew a plant from the arm of this man holding her right wrist, it seemed impossible that she would survive.
She did not want to live at the sacrifice of this swordsman’s arm. There was nothing she could do about it. Even if she could survive for a few more minutes hanging on his arm, she would eventually fall to the bottom of the cliff. The only difference was that she would die alone.
She shouted, “Let go of me! You’ll fall like me! ”
She could not have the man end up dead because of her. If he let go of her hand, he could survive. Her green eyes met his gray eyes. His eyes were calm, as usual. Wendy vividly saw his decisiveness reflected in his eyes, but in reality, it was fear. Of course, he was not afraid of death. Nevertheless, the man was worried that her life was in his hands.
“You don’t have to worry about me.” Lard said with no expression on his face.
That was his typical way of speaking when she spoke.
She grinned with a distorted expression but felt like crying somehow.
Piles of dirt near the tree roots began to crumble all at once as they could not sustain the weight of two. The moment the tree roots in Lard’s hand broke, his body tilted immediately.
Before they could do anything, the two fell from the cliff.
The moment they began to fall, Lard struggled to keep a hold on heras best he could.
Barely grasping her waist, he hugged her tightly to him to reduce the impact of the fall. Given the height of the cliff, it was futile, but he had to do everything he could.
In the meantime, Wendy, with her right hand free, was making every effort to bring her index finger to the cliff. Although they were falling at a rapid pace, their descent was slowed down a little bit as he grabbed a tree root or rock that protruded from the cliffside. She pressed her index finger to everything she could see and touch. Although she felt sharp pain when her hands slid over the rugged surface of the cliff, she couldn’t stop trying to survive because of that pain. If she withdrew her index finger, it would be like accepting death.
Thud!
“Oops!”
Be it lucky or unlucky, they fell into a solid mass of soil that had been caught on the side of the cliff. She felt tremendous pain all over her body. Perhaps Lard would be in greater pain because he cushioned her fall. She felt Lard’s arms wrapped around her waist loosening. Astonished, she called his name loudly, but the pile of soil they had relied on again began to fall apart.
Something rumbled.
Light brown roots began to stretch out from the crumbling soil on the cliff.
Dozens of roots grew quickly, as if they were reaching out to Wendy. She instinctively reached for the roots.
‘Please!’ She was choked with hot emotions. As they were slightly out of reach, she had to clench her jaw and reach out with all her might.
Bang!
One arm shot out from behind her and grabbed the root closest to them firmly. The tendons and veins in his forearm bulged. Lard tightened his grip around her waist. The grip was so tight that it hurt.
Lard was struggling alone, holding a tree’s roots with one hand and holding her in the other.
He was sweating profusely. If the growth of the tree roots had been a little slower, the two might have fallen again.
The roots of the tree twined around each other and grew down towards them. Soon, she could reach a stem of her own.
With Lard’s help, she climbed up the roots and breathed out enough to shake her shoulders. Although the tree roots swayed with their combined weight, there was no sign that it would break. It was too early for them to feel relieved, but they had survived.
She carefully checked the condition of the tree. The tree roots grew and extended into a trunk until the tree’s root structure was long enough for the two to lie down on it and didn’t stop growing. Maybe it was struggling to drive its root deeply in the side of the dark cliff.
The name of the plant that saved their lives was wisteria. The wisteria bloomed lovely twigs in the summer. It could be easily found anywhere in the Benyahan Empire. Of course, the tree she created was thicker and stronger than an ordinary wisteria tree, but as it grew without support, she could not guarantee its safe growth.
The wisteria trunks created enough space for the two to rest. Somehow, he was curious while looking up at the still-growing tree. She felt something strange about his gaze.
“…Sir Schroder, are you okay?” Wendy asked him, taking a short breath.
As if he was exhausted, he sat, staring at the tree blankly.
Raising her head and following his gaze, she was full of frustration. She was ready to take his questioning regarding the wisteria, but the situation was too much for her to take.
On the cliff, there were many wisteria trees growing in several places, as if to show the track they fell off. The trees with thick trunks were covered with blue leaves. The series of wisteria growing under the heat of the bleak cliff created a strange atmosphere. Bundles of pale purple flowers hanging from the trunks shed deep fragrance, with slowly-blooming buds.
“Sir Schroder…”
A petal fluttered down and landed on his face. As his gaze turned to her at her call, she was speechless.
‘How should I explain this to him?’ She felt her mouth getting dry.
The wind blew once. Light purple petals poured down like rain on her head. She got so nervous about the petal on his left cheek that she reached out instead of making an excuse. He quietly looked at her instead of avoiding her touch. There was no shock or confusion in his face.
He carefully grabbed her right hand as it touched the petal. She felt the warmth of his hand. It was a rough hand with calluses, but his touch was gentle.
“Oh, your hand is bleeding…” He said, holding her hand.
Narrowing his eyes, he lifted her palm upward. Like he said, her right hand was bleeding. Several parts of her hand were ripped, scratched, and even tattered. The condition of her index finger was especially serious. The petal she removed from his cheek quickly turned red on her fingers.
As soon as she confirmed the wounds on her right hand, she suddenly felt fatigued.
The moment she felt dizzy, she found herself spacing out.
“Wendy!” He shouted sharply, holding her shoulders urgently as she was falling over.
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