After journeying to the point that Audrey’s mouth felt like sawdust, the carriage finally stopped moving.
This time, she didn’t wait for Damien to help her down.
As soon as Damien got down from the carriage, Audrey followed behind, steadying her feet so as not to fall.
She could also see Mia and the crown prince coming down with the commanders, also using the other carriages.
After the monster attack, it seemed no one was comfortable waiting in the carriage while they were still in the monsters’ territory.
“We are almost out of the monsters’ territory. We can’t just keep going without paying respect to the dead and treating the injured.” Damien explained.
Audrey nodded.
The soldiers started digging the ground to bury the dead.
There were five dead soldiers, but some of the soldiers burst into tears in respect for their colleagues, while the women who had followed were not allowed anywhere close to the dead.
The injured soldiers were placed in the opposite direction.
Audrey moved with Damien towards the injured soldiers.
There was no way she was staying alone without protection; what if the monsters came from nowhere again?
She knew next to nothing about monsters, their rankings, or how they came into existence.
Her father had sheltered her when it came to things like this, but her husband seemed to think exposing her to them would make her more knowledgeable or something.
She watched Damien lift a soldier’s leg, carefully examining it before helping him stretch it strangely.
Greyson, Ivan, Simeon, and Toto were also helping the injured soldier.
Some of the women were helping with things that were applied to the soldier’s leg.
It was a pity that no one had the magic of healing here.
Audrey wished she had the gift to heal and help others, but the few healers who had followed them did their best treating the injured.
They passed instructions to the rest, helping them.
Audrey also knelt beside Damien, picking a soldier’s leg and following the instructions the healers gave her.
The soldiers had helped her when the soldier attacked.
It was the least she could do in return for their help.
The soldier screamed, making Audrey drop the leg.
Only to pick it up again after taking deep breaths.
“Sorry,” she apologized to the soldier while following Damien’s instruction.
“You lift it carefully, so as not to open the wound more than it was before.”
She nodded.
“Then apply the leaves carefully on it. The leaves would dry up the place, preventing more blood from oozing out of its face.”
She did exactly as he said.
The soldier screamed, and Audrey dropped the leg again, feeling like all the energy in her had been drained off.
“I don’t think I can do this.” She said to no one in particular, but Damien heard.
“You don’t need to exhaust yourself if you can’t do it.” He looked towards where Mia and the crown prince were seated as if they had no care in the world.
“You can just relax like my brother and his concubine,” he said as if the mention of their name irritated her.
Audrey nodded, even though the last thing she wanted to do was rest, but the small task she did made her feel like all of her energy had been drained out of her.
“Okay.”
Damien nodded at her as he continued the task like it was nothing.
Sometimes Audrey found it hard to believe Damien was a prince, if not for the fact that she had seen him in royal attire.
He rarely dressed as one and, more importantly, he rarely acted like one too.
She didn’t move closer to Mia and the crown prince, but she stayed in a safe place where she could see the things happening.
The soldiers had lowered the body of the dead soldier into the ground.
Some of the commanders were with them, paying their last respect to the soldiers that had sacrificed themselves for the good of their country.
Audrey wanted to pay her respect too.
Anytime she remembered how they had saved her from the monster’s attack, she couldn’t help but be grateful for their help.
She was lost in what she was looking at that she hadn’t noticed Alexandra slipping to sit beside her.
Damien had just finished wrapping another soldier’s wound when his eyes drifted across the camp.
His movements froze.
Alex was sitting beside Audrey.
“You don’t look well.” Alex started.
“This place doesn’t suit someone like you.”
“My brother is thoughtless.” He commented, getting Audrey attention in the process.
For some reason, the crown prince didn’t look as good as he usually did in her presence.
What had attracted her to him in the first place?
Then he moved the hair that was in front of her eyes.
The gesture made Audrey want to move back from his presence.
Damien warning to stay away from his presence resounded in her head.
Her husband wouldn’t like this.
When she didn’t say a word, the crown prince continued.
“Well, it’s not too late to spoil you. My brother stole you from me, but I assure you I can take care of you better.”
Audrey stared at him in disbelief.
True, maybe Damien had stolen her from him, but she was married to Damien in front of the gods.
There was no way she was going to cheat on her husband.
“Don’t tell me you have fallen for my brother?” He asked with wide eyes.
Audrey’s cheeks burn red.
“Of course not.” She responded in a haste.
Why was everyone asking whether she had fallen for Damien?
She had only started seeing him differently.
There was no way she could have fallen for that hard head.
She just couldn’t bear it to cheat on her husband for no reason.
Her response brought a smile to Alex’s lips.
“Great. If so, you can come to my carriage later. I would show you something fun.”
Again, he tried to touch her hair, but before he could, someone stopped him.
Damien’s fingers clamped around Alex’s wrist so suddenly that even the crown prince’s smile faltered for a heartbeat.
“What did I tell you about staying away from my wife?” His voice was low, but every word sent shivers through Audrey’s body.
Most of the soldiers were quiet as if they could sense something strange was happening.
They didn’t dare stare directly at the princes but they couldn’t help stealing glances their way.
Alex chuckled, trying to pull his hand off his brother, but Damien didn’t let go.
“Next time you come this close to my wife, it won’t end with just a warning.”
Alex laughed at him.
“Why do I have to be scared of a powerless pawn like you?” Then he leaned in to whisper in a voice only Audrey and Damien could hear.
“Everything you have was supposed to belong to me.”
His smile widened.
“I’ll be taking it back.”
Damien didn’t let go of his head, but held it tighter.
Alex groaned.
The last thing he wanted to do was come off as weak in the presence of everyone.
“Do you realize I am still your crown prince and that makes me of higher authority than you ever would be, brother?” He asked, his voice dropping to a degree Audrey didn’t like at all.
But who was she to interfere in an argument between two princes?
Damien chuckled, unbothered.
“Being the crown prince doesn’t give you the right to flirt with someone else’s wife.”
Then he let go of Alex’s hand.
Alex covered the wrist with his other hand.
“Protect her while you still can.” He said, but his gaze moved to Audrey, staying on her for a while before he stalked back to where Mia was waiting with a frown on her face.
Mia couldn’t believe that though Audrey was married to the cursed prince, he was still a hindrance to her achieving her goal.
She needs to do something about it.
After Alex was gone, Damien moved closer to his wife.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded, averting her gaze from him.
He had warned her not to get close to the crown prince, but she had no idea how to tell him that she wasn’t the one that had gone to meet him, but otherwise.
“I’m glad you are fine.” He continued.
“The soldier you treated is completely fine now, which made me wonder how you had done it.”
Audrey gasped, her eyes moved in search of the said soldier, but they already left the seat.
She thought she had made him worse with how constantly she had dropped his leg while treating him.
It was one of the reasons she had claimed she couldn’t treat him anymore and demanded rest.
“Are you sure?” She asked.
“Of course. Immediately after you left, the soldier claimed he couldn’t feel the pain anymore. The healers couldn’t explain why. It may have been the herbs… or perhaps you handled the wound better than you think.”
Audrey, who had looked into his face to see if he was telling the truth or joking with her, moved backwards with a wide smile on her face.
She had done it.
She had actually treated someone, and to think she did it without magic.
The rest of the camp continued their activities oblivious to what was happening between them.
They were done burying the dead, and most of the injured soldiers had been treated.
Most of them were now walking a bit better in camp, helping with those that hadn’t been treated at all.
“Where’s the knife I gave you?” Damien asked her.
She brought the knife out right from where she kept it.
Damien nodded in approval.
“Since we have a little time before departure, I think I will put you through some steps on how to use this.”
Audrey’s eyes moved to the knife as if it was now a different object.
“Do I have to?”
He nodded.
“Those monsters we met are just feral monsters. They are the lowest of the monsters. You should at least be able to defend yourself in case we come across them again.”
Though Audrey refused to admit it, her hand shook lightly as she held the knife tighter in her hand.
“Do you mean we can still encounter those things again?”
“The monsters are migrating everywhere and no one knows where or how they are migrating. It was one of the reasons this war started. The neighboring kingdoms are taking advantage of this attack to besiege our kingdom. It’s our duty as nobles to protect our kingdom both against the enemy’s attack and the monster attack.”
Audrey swallowed.
It was hard for her to comprehend all he had said at a go.
The life she knew and had heard about was totally different from what was happening in front of her now.
Yet, she nodded at Damien as if she understood.
If whatever he was able to teach her would help her protect herself a bit, she was ready to do it.
She didn’t want to rely fully on someone else in the case of another attack.
Damien helped her place the knife carefully in her hand, avoiding the part that would hurt her in case she gripped it too tight.
“Always be sure you’re careful, so you won’t end up hurting yourself instead of the enemy.”
She nodded.
Then he stood right behind her.
Audrey froze.
This was the first time they were too close to each other.
At that moment, it felt like she couldn’t think of something else.
“Move your hands. If you stay like this, you’re dead.”
She swings her hand in the direction Damien showed her while wondering how he was all composed, when it felt like she was about to explode within.
After assisting her for a while, Damien stood back and asked her to continue doing what he had explained to her.
Audrey continued moving as if she was a professional in this sort of thing, and after swinging for a while, she was able to cut a branch of a tree with her first swing.
Damien swallowed.
” Not bad.” He commented.
Audrey heaved heavily with a smile.
At least, it was a progress.
Before they started this, she could hardly hold the knife properly, but here she was handling it like she had been using a knife since.
Just as she continued showing off her skill, one of the soldiers ran towards them, breathing heavily.
“Your highness, the fortress.”?
“Where?” Damien asked.
The soldier pointed into nothing.
“There sir. I was trying to find a source of water when I saw the smoke from the fortress.”
Audrey sheathed her knife.
“Does that mean we have finally left monster territory?”
The soldier nodded.
“I think so, your Highnesses.”
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