The old lady suddenly seemed to calm down a bit, and averted her eyes, nodding.

“We did. The few of us they kept alive to serve them, cook them meals... We simply drugged them, to help His Majesty.”

“How did you know the King was coming?”

The old lady hesitated for a second, before shrugging.

“We had heard he was on his way.”

“From whom? If the bandits had known, they should have been prepared better than stupidly eating and drinking homemade drugs by a bunch of villagers?”

“Watch your tongue, foreigner!” exclaimed the elder.

“You’re the one not telling us the truth.”

“I’m not lying! We drugged them!”

“Who p-provided you the d-drugs?” asked Cessilia, frowning too. “Who t-told you the King was c-coming?”

“I told you, no one! We made it!”

“You d-don’t have the ingredients here t-to make such a p-potent and c-complicated drug,” she retorted. “Someone had t-to c-come beforehand and t-tell you this p-plan. The K-King had an easy fight against th-those bandits b-because you helped him. I just want t-to know who helped you.”

The old woman seemed to hesitate, her eyes going to Nana behind them. Seeing she still wasn’t talking, Naptunie took a deep breath and came forward.

“Granny, please? We are on His Majesty’s side too, we came from the Capital to understand what happened here. We will help you, I promise. ...I… I will ask my uncle to bring you some food, as soon as we can. Look! See? It’s a pass from my family, the Dorosef Tribe. We can help you, I promise.”

The old woman’s eyes lingered for a while on Naptunie’s papers, her lips pinched in a line. Then, she sighed.

“That woman... She asked us not to tell anyone about the drug, but since you already know... I don’t know more, anyway. She just snuck into the village the night before the King arrived, and gave us a huge bag that smelled like herbal medicine, asking us to put it in their food.”

“A woman?” Tessa frowned.

“Yes. She had strangely pale skin just like yours, and red hair too.”

Cessilia and Tessandra exchanged a look. The latter sighed.

“Oh well, that explains a couple of things... although it makes me mad too.”

“Why all the questions, what are you here for?!” the older woman exclaimed, frowning. “With that dragon, I thought you had come to attack us!”

“Why would we attack here, there’s literally nothing left we’d possibly want to steal...”

“Tessa!”

“My thoughts too!” scoffed the granny, not offended.

“We only c-came b-because we heard what ha-happened here,” sighed Cessilia. “...I a-am a healer. Are you sure you d-don’t want me t-to look at your wounds?”

“Oh, if that’s the case... There are a few more who need it more than me. The soldiers did their best, but those brave boys aren’t cut out to heal anything... If that’s alright with you, I’ll go back to the others now and explain to them. We’ll see if they want to be healed by a foreigner or not...”

“Th-thank you.” Cessilia nodded.

The old lady slowly went back, and Cessilia let out a long sigh, crossing her arms. Tessandra walked up to her, a sullen look also.

“What are you thinking? Are you mad that... the King had help?”

“...I don’t know.”

Cessilia was conflicted. Her eyes kept going back to the pile of bodies. Even though she now knew who they were and what they had done, she still felt something was terribly wrong about all of this. She didn’t like the idea that Jisel had cheated the battle in Ashen’s favor, either, but she knew this had probably spared him, and a lot of the soldiers, some wounds and effort. Perhaps it had even saved lives.

“This is too horrible,” muttered Naptunie, still upset. “To think those people were still under those bandits’ tyranny all this time! It makes me sick just thinking about what that granny had to go through...”

“Don’t think too much,” sighed Tessandra. “You getting sick won’t help them. Can your tribe really provide food here?”

“We can,” nodded Sabael. “I’ll make sure of it.”

“Great. But I doubt the Dorosef can feed all the other villages in the same situation...”

Cessilia felt the same. Even if the Dorosef provided some help, it would be temporary, not a long-term solution. She looked around. They had to help those people so they would get back on their feet by themselves.

First, as she had promised, Cessilia spent time looking at the wounds of the people the old woman brought forward to meet her. They were clearly lacking the proper medicine and supplies, so they had to make do with what they had, as well as explain to them how to tend to the most basic wounds, sterilize things, and create their own supplies. Not only her, but Tessandra, who had also learned some rudimentary medicine, helped too. There weren’t many people left to tend to, but they did their best. Even Naptunie was happy to run errands, distribute some snacks she had gotten earlier that day from her aunt, and learn what she could from Cessilia. It was clear her thirst for knowledge knew no bounds, and she even quickly got over her disgust of blood and exposed flesh to help out. Meanwhile, Sabael was recruited to help repair the damages, unplug the well, and gather what materials could still be useful. It was cute to see him run around, eager to help and eager to get out of a certain lady’s line of sight...

For a while, their little group stayed in the Muram Village, helping in every way they could. When she was done healing those who could use her help inside the houses, Cessilia took a walk around the village, showing the women which wild plants could be propagated and used for herbal medicine, or to make tea to warm everyone up. Some women were already knowledgeable, so it was a quick tour, and soon, it became clear she had done all she could. She sighed, the women going back to prepare a larger pot of tea for everyone.

Next to her, Nana stepped forward to hand her a little cup of water.

“You’re so talented,” she muttered. “I understand better what they said about your mother being a legendary healer...”

“My m-mom remembered the t-teaching of her ancestors and t-taught me and my siblings t-too. B-but it won’t be enough t-to help this village. We can heal th-their wounds, b-but th-they will need more food soon.”

“They should make a trip to the Capital!” exclaimed Nana. “Nowadays, they are trying to encourage the growth of more crops, like before... I can even ask one of my uncles who trades outside to come all the way here. If their lands can be farmed again, I’m sure they just need to buy new crops to start anew.”

“That would be nice, young lady,” said the old woman, appearing at their side. “However, our lands have been ravaged. We wouldn’t even know where to begin, between all the blood that has been spilled, and the soil that has to be dug... It will take us weeks until we can be ready to farm anything again!”

“Th-that, we c-can help with.” Cessilia smiled.

To their surprise, she walked out, and Tessandra, who was smiling as well, obviously knew exactly what her cousin was going for because she followed right after her. Cessilia walked away for a bit, leaving the line of houses to get to the lands. As the old lady had said, there was no ground to cultivate from... yet.

“K-Krai!” she called out. “Nana, d-do you still have s-some f-food with you?”

“I have a few more snacks, yes... Why?”

“C-can I have it?”

“Oh, is it for Sir Dragon? Of course!”

Cessilia took the little snacks, which were small and sweet versions of the beignets. Then, she walked up to the ravaged field, and dug as deep as she possibly could, with her hands, and buried one, before covering it back with the soil. She walked away, and did that again, until all six of the little snacks were hidden underground, around the same time Krai arrived, tilting its head.