“What the heck?” Tessandra frowned. “Why?”
“To help His Majesty!” exclaimed the old lady. “This village was my ancestors’ home long before those bandits came here. I had to watch again and again as they robbed, killed, and raped every single person I have known. They killed my sons who tried to save me, and they raped my daughter-in-law and grandchild before murdering them! Each time more men came here, it wasn’t to save us, it was more bandits coming to take whatever was left!”
The old lady looked exhausted just from saying all that. In fact, she seemed to be out of energy overall. She was old, injured, and clearly very upset too. Her wrinkled hand was shaking on her cane, and tears were appearing in her small eyes. Cessilia felt her own throat tighten listening to all this. She could imagine that pain was the pain of each person hiding inside the houses. No wonder they had been terrified of them and their dragon now...
“Granny, I’m so sorry...” Nana cried, upset as well.
“I can’t take any more pity, young lady,” said the old woman. “Those men got what they deserved! They weren’t humans! I don’t know what you came here for, but the King served justice for my family!”
“Did you see the fight, old lady?” asked Tessandra, her hands on her hips.
“...From behind my window,” she nodded. “I would have helped, even!”
“There were sixty-six bandits here?”
“That’s what I said!”
“And you drugged them all to help the King?”
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.”
