When we arrived, the canteen was even more horrifically chaotic than I had imagined. Many knights were writhing on the floor, while those who seemed healthy rushed around them frantically.
The moment Sirius gently set me down on the ground, he was summoned by the knight who appeared to have taken charge of the scene. He hurried off, leaving me to look around on my own.
The knights lying on the ground seemed to have been heavily affected by the cockatrice’s poison. Most of them were wearing blue uniforms, indicating they were members of the Horned Beast Knights, but a few knights in the red uniforms of the royal guard were scattered throughout, and my attention was instinctively drawn their way.
“Canopus!”
I spotted a familiar face among the royal guard members and ran over to my personal knight, who was sprawled on the ground in a pitiful state. He lay still with his eyes closed, his body completely limp.
“Canopus! Hang in there!”
He seemed to hear me because he opened his eyes and spoke in a faltering voice, “Princess…Serafina… What are…you…doing here…?”
His face was unusually pale, his breathing ragged, and his hand trembled violently as he reached out toward me.
“No!” I cried out. “Canopus! You’ve got to stay strong!”
I slumped down on the ground in front of him and took his trembling hand in mine. I was at a loss for what to do. He was having trouble breathing!
Though I was unable to bear seeing him in so much pain, all I could manage to do was grip his hand tightly. He began to murmur something again.
“Huh? What’s that?”
“Princess…Serafina… It’s too…noisy here… Go back…to your room…”
“Canopus…” Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that, even amid such suffering, my personal knight was still concerned for my welfare.
Canopus appeared to be almost paralyzed, and in addition to his limbs, his entire body seemed to be trembling faintly. His hand felt cold, making it clear that his body temperature was dropping, and with his breathing now erratic, it was likely he was struggling to focus—yet he was still worrying about me.
“That’s right…”
Just like a personal knight cared for his liege regardless of his own struggles, a saint was someone who healed the sick, no matter what others might say. Though I’d be going against what Sirius asked of me, I decided to fully heal all the members of the royal guard of their food poisoning, starting with Canopus.
Just then, the rest of the knights ran up to me.
“Princess Serafina!”
“Princess Serafina, what are you doing here?! There’s a bunch of knights rushing around! It’s very dangerous!”
“The knights are so distressed and distracted that they could accidentally hurt you! For your own safety, please go back to your room!”
It was three of my knights: Mirach, Fackt, and Scheat.
I looked up at them, my face streaked with tears, and pleaded in a somber voice.
“Canopus… Canopus is suffering…”
The three of them looked stunned for a moment before continuing in more cheerful tones.
“Ah, yes. I know you must be worried about him, but he’s still conscious, so he’s doing okay.”
“Even if someone loses consciousness, they can still breathe on their own for about thirty minutes. There aren’t enough saints to go around, so they’re prioritizing those who have lost consciousness first. It’ll be Canopus’s turn soon enough.”
“It may appear to you like he’s suffering, but this is generally the state most knights are in after they’ve trained with the vice-commander. He’s used to the pain, so he’ll be fine.”
“What…?”
I was so shocked by what the three of them were saying that my tears dried up in an instant.
I dropped my gaze back to Canopus as he started speaking between labored breaths, “Honestly…training with the vice-commander…is far worse than this…”
Of course, he was probably just making a joke, but the calm demeanor of the surrounding knights helped steady my shaken nerves. Now that I had a moment to take in my surroundings, I could see that many of the knights were in just as bad, if not worse, shape than Canopus.
That’s right, it’s not just Canopus. Many of the knights are suffering, I thought to myself, biting my lip.
“Princess,” Scheat said as he extended his hand to me, “it’s like a field hospital in here. This isn’t the kind of place you want to stay for a long time. Let’s get you back to your room, okay?”
His hand wasn’t trembling, and his complexion looked the same as always. Mirach and Fackt were also acting as if this was business as usual. It was only then that it dawned on me that the three of them were fine.
“Thank goodness.” I murmured, “You didn’t eat the cockatrice meat, did you?”
Normally the three of them were the type to dive headfirst into a pile of meat. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief, thinking it was a small blessing amid everything else that was going on. But for some reason, the three of them shook their heads.
“Of course I ate it.”
“I probably ate twice as much as the other knights.”
“I ate three times as much.”
“What?!” My eyes flew wide open at the unexpected responses. I cocked my head to the side, wondering if they’d somehow been fortunate enough to just consume the non-poisonous parts.
But Scheat gave me a little nod as if he knew what I was thinking. “It’s a bit strange, but of all the knights who ate the meat, the only ones who weren’t affected were the three of us! In my case, I think my muscles are so efficient that they squeezed the poison right out of my body!”
I tilted my head even further to the side, wondering if that was really possible.
But next, it was Mirach who cleverly interjected, “Those who weren’t affected just so happened to have attended your recent tea party, Princess. Perhaps we somehow received your blessing.”
“Oh!” I exclaimed, his words striking a chord within me.
“It’s just as Mirach said. Because we had your blessing, we were fortunate enough to only eat the non-poisonous parts of the cockatrice,” Fackt concluded with a grin.
“No, that can’t be it.”
It’s because of the Galle Gold Leaf, I thought. But Fackt continued as if to reassure me.
“The saints will take care of Canopus in due time, so don’t worry about him. There are more than ten others in worse condition, so their treatment must be prioritized. Rest assured, there have been no fatalities so far.”
His words did make me feel better. I looked around the canteen again and saw that there were five saints tending to various knights. Maybe it was one of the Saint Knight rules, but they were only healing one person at a time. It would take a while for them to reach Canopus, and he’d have to suffer during the painful wait. And, as Sirius said before, the saints were performing “lifesaving magic” not “full healing” or “ending suffering.”
I let go of Canopus’s hand and quickly stood up. I had promised myself earlier that I wouldn’t just stand by and watch the knights in distress—I was going to heal them myself. Even if it was part of the knights’ code, I couldn’t just leave them in such a state. Besides, it’s not like I was a member of the knight brigade. I didn’t have to follow their rules.
“Mirach, Fackt, Scheat, would you mind closing your eyes for a moment?” I asked the three knights who were looking down at me with worried expressions.
I realized that if I healed the knights in front of them, they might be considered my accomplices and get in trouble for breaking the rules with me. But if they didn’t see anything, they could argue that they didn’t know what was going on. It was true anyway; it’s not like the three of them had any idea what I was about to do. If anyone was going to face consequences for a breach of conduct, it would be me—and me alone.
With that in mind, I looked up and made sure they were closing their eyes tightly. Relieved to see that they’d complied, I shifted my gaze to the knights sprawled across the ground.
As Sirius had mentioned earlier, detoxification was a little different than other types of healing magic. True, it was a bit difficult, but I’d practiced a lot and was confident I could detoxify all the knights here in one go.
Sirius had told me, “You don’t need to fully heal them—just prioritize saving their lives.” But for me, stopping halfway in that gray area was impossible. So, no matter what, I wasn’t going to be able to follow his request. With that thought, I raised both my hands and began an incantation.
“O maleficent substances gathered within the knights’ bodies, be purified and dispelled completely—Detoxify!”
This was the first time I’d ever cast such a large-scale detoxification spell, so I was uncertain whether it would work. However, as soon as I completed the incantation, my magic spread throughout the canteen, cascading over one knight after another.
It was over in an instant, no longer than the blink of an eye. But that was all it took for the poison to vanish completely from the bodies of all the knights present.