I had been extremely angered by what they’d done to Maria and her mother, as well as the way they’d injured Cezar, but I hadn’t meant to do this to them. I’d only wanted to rescue Maria. That’s all I wanted, I thought, before involuntarily wrapping my arms around my own body.
Some time had passed since Pochi had become attached to me and I had gained the ability to wield Dark Magic, but this was the first time I’d ever lost control of my powers this way. All this time, I thought I didn’t mind possessing these powers, but now I felt really scared. As I felt my body tremble slightly, I wrapped my arms around myself even tighter, but the trembling wouldn’t stop. How strange, I thought the cold coming from inside me had gone away.
Then Cezar put his own jacket around my shoulders.
“Right now, the only thing you need to worry about is what we can do about this situation. Everything else can wait until later.”
Something about the blunt way he put this, and the comfort of the jacket around my shoulders, helped stop the shaking.
He’s right. Now we have to think about what to do about our present circumstances. I can deal with my personal problems later. I shook my head to snap myself out of my stupor.
“Ah, Cezar, what about your injury?” The spot where he’d been cut a moment ago was still stained red.
“Ah, don’t worry, it’s only a scratch.” So said Cezar, but his clothes were bright red, and I could still see blood dripping from the wound. There was no way it was only a scratch.
“Please, let me take a look,” I said, then I pulled Cezar’s arm closer—somewhat forcefully—rolled up his sleeve, and looked at the place where the blood was coming from. Part of Cezar’s arm had been cut clean open, with blood gushing from the wound.
I knew it. This isn’t a scratch at all, is it? In a panic, I took out my handkerchief and pressed it against the wound, but the blood kept on pouring out, staining my handkerchief bright red. This is quite a lot of blood. If he keeps bleeding like this, he’ll be in trouble.
As I was quite the rambunctious child in my past life, I had sustained many deep cuts before. There were even times when the blood kept on oozing from injuries, and was not easily stopped. It was my older brother who was closer to me in years—being a fellow repeat offender when it came to getting injured—who had taught me to wrap the wound tight to stop the bleeding in these cases.
I wished I had some kind of cloth I could use to bind the wound, but my handkerchief was already soaked in blood, and it wasn’t long enough to wrap around his arm, anyway. After looking around the room, I saw nothing that looked usable.
Okay, if I have no bandages, I’ll just have to make one.
I proceeded to rip off part of the hem of my own skirt. I knew from past experience that it would tear quite easily. When I had a length of fabric that looked long enough, I wrapped it around Cezar’s arm. I didn’t know the proper way to do it. I’d always just copied the way I’d seen my brother do it in my past life. I hoped it would stem the bleeding, even just a little.
The whole time, Cezar was staring at me with a blank look on his face.
“What’s the matter?” I asked him.
“Nothing. I was just wondering... Where did you learn to do that?” he inquired with a perplexed look on his face.
Right, your average young noblewomen wouldn’t know how to do this. To be fair, this is my first time doing it in this life. I hesitated, unsure of what I should say.
“You sure are full of surprises,” Cezar finally said, apparently resigning himself to this reality on his own.
Though I’d only dressed his wound by copying what I’d seen my brother do, somehow it seemed to have worked pretty well. The blood had stopped dripping. Thank goodness.
Since Cezar seemed to be all right for the time being, next I went over to Maria, who was still lying on the floor. The color of her face had entirely returned to normal. Thank goodness. Looks like it was being constricted by that black snake that turned her face so horribly pale. When I held my hand in front of her mouth, I was able to confirm that she was breathing normally. I felt even more relieved.
Then my concern turned to the unconscious men and Sarah. I was about to go over to them, but Cezar held me back.
“They all seem to be unconscious, but we can’t say for sure that they aren’t still dangerous. Don’t be too quick to approach them.”
“Ah. Okay.”
He could be right. If I got closer and one of them suddenly grabbed me, I wouldn’t know what to do.
As I was thinking that, Cezar suddenly turned to look at the door, stepping in front of me protectively. Surprised, I turned and followed Cezar’s gaze to find a man standing in the doorway.
“Goodness me, looks like you took them all out,” said the man, his tone of voice lacking any trace of anxiety. He looked to be about the same age as my father, but... How can I put it? He was a beautiful man, who just exuded some kind of allure.
What? Who is this guy?
From Cezar’s wary attitude, I was sure he wasn’t one of his allies, but I also couldn’t sense any hostility from the man. Besides that, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen him somewhere before. As I stared steadily at the man, our gazes suddenly locked, and the man narrowed his eyes.
“Pleased to meet you, Miss Katarina Claes,” he said with a toothy grin.