The Day Lya Stood Up in the Trampled Herb Patch
The scent of the swamp was a mixture of iron and crushed grass.
With every step, the waterlogged moss let out a low, squelching groan.
Dorman walked on the left, carrying his shield.
His empty backpack swayed lightly against his shoulders.
Lya glanced at him but didn't smile.
Instead, her eyes drifted to Ronan's wrist.
"If we go just a bit further, we should find the Silverleaf Herb," she said.
As Ronan went to rotate his wrist, Lya's gaze snapped to it instantly.
"I told you not to twist it."
"Just checking. Seeing if it's still attached."
"Your wrist isn't a spare part."
Cerise let out a low chuckle from the front.
"I'll have to remember that line. It sounds like it'll come in handy."
Neris immediately looked up.
"I'm the one who does the recording."
"You record too much."
Ronan didn't join in the banter.
He suppressed the smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
The team felt steadier now, less fractured than before.
Dorman was no longer carrying everyone else's baggage, and Neris had tucked her black envelope securely inside her pack.
Instead, they kept their eyes on their surroundings.
The direction of the damp soil.
The spacing of the crushed blades of grass.
And the reason Lya suddenly froze in her tracks.
"There it is," Lya whispered.
At the edge of the swamp, beneath a low-hanging shroud of mist, several silver leaves sprouted from the earth.
At the tip of each slender stem hung a leaf no larger than a fingernail.
Even without direct sunlight, their veins glowed with a faint, ethereal light.
Lya caught her breath.
Her expression was different from when she unraveled bandages in the infirmary.
It was careful, almost desperate.
"With this much, I can make a poultice to draw out fever. It'll work on Ronan's wrist and Dorman's palms."
"Then let's harvest it carefully," Ronan said.
It happened the moment he spoke.
Squelch.
A boot stepped down from the bushes on the opposite side.
Two stems of Silverleaf Herb were crushed flat beneath it.
The warmth drained from Lya's face.
A healing cadet wearing red sleeves stood right in the middle of the herb patch.
Behind her, three other cadets from her team followed, snickering.
"Too late."
The red-sleeved cadet drove a stake-like marker into the grass.
The string tied to its end dragged across the wet leaves.
"Our team found this spot first. See? We put down our marker."
Lya took a step forward.
"Take your foot off them."
"Why? I thought you said they were precious herbs."
The red-sleeved cadet deliberately ground her toe into the dirt.
A silver leaf was buried in the mud.
"If they're so precious, you should've put down a marker sooner. You're a healing cadet, you should know that much."
Dorman's shield rose slightly.
Ben held his breath right behind him.
Cerise planted the tip of her scabbard into the swampy ground.
"Take one more step."
There was something colder than a steel blade in her voice.
But Lya raised her hand.
She was holding Cerise back.
"Not yet."
Ronan looked at Lya's fingertips.
They were trembling.
It wasn't just out of anger.
She desperately wanted those Silverleaf Herbs.
Because she wanted to use them on Ronan.
And because that desire had been exposed, she was growing even angrier.
The red-sleeved cadet sneered.
"Look at nice little Lya getting angry. Are you trying to hog the whole patch just for that one wrist?"
Lya's shoulders stiffened.
Those words cut deeper than the swamp mud.
Ronan started to step forward, then stopped.
This stage belonged to Lya.
When Lya spoke, her voice didn't tremble.
In that moment, Ronan realized something.
A healer wasn't someone who was only gentle in the face of wounds.
They were the first to rage against the hands that sought to inflict them.
Instead, Ronan subtly curled his fingers.
So low that no one could see, a single fractured silver blade swept across the mud.
He didn't cut anything.
He merely sought out the tiny air pockets rising from beneath the swamp bed.
Neris bent her knees.
She examined the marker the red-sleeved cadet had planted.
"That's not royal academy standard."
The red-sleeved cadet's smirk faltered.
"What?"
"A royal harvesting marker has three knots in the string. Yours has two. The wood isn't from the academy storehouse either; it's a cheap imitation of a private marker."
Ben narrowed his eyes.
"So it's not proof that you found it first. It's just a stick you planted to steal it."
The cadets in the back began to whisper.
The red-sleeved cadet bit her lip.
Then, she stomped her heel hard against the edge of the swamp.
The water swelled.
The ground where the Silverleaf Herbs grew began to sink to one side.
"Proof? Then I'll just destroy it."
Lya gasped.
The grassy patch slowly tilted.
The silver leaves were about to slide into the water.
At that moment, Lya's hand flew to her waist.
Her herb knife was drawn halfway.
Cerise inhaled sharply.
Dorman also thrust his shield forward.
But Lya didn't point the blade at the cadets.
She stared into the mud.
Beneath the falling leaves, the slender roots were tangled together.
And there was the wet string tied to the red marker.
Lya's eyes shifted.
"Ronan."
"Yeah."
"Can you hold that string in place without cutting it?"
The playfulness vanished from Ronan's face.
"If you pull it."
Lya nodded.
The red-sleeved cadet scoffed at the brief exchange.
"Do you think pretending to do something will stop the ground from sinking?"
Lya didn't answer.
She sliced shallowly into the mud with her herb knife.
A channel opened up above the roots of the Silverleaf Herbs.
Neris realized what she was doing immediately.
"She's creating a path to save the roots."
Cerise used her scabbard to block one of the rival cadets who tried to lung forward.
"Just watch. Watch how the place you ruined with your own feet is restored."
Lya grabbed the marker's string.
Mud stained her fingers.
The red-sleeved cadet reached out.
"Let go of that!"
Dorman's shield slammed down between them.
Thud.
This time, no one was hiding behind the shield.
Lya pulled the string.
At the same time, Ronan's Phantom Sword slipped beneath the swamp bed.
The blade was invisible.
However, the air pockets trapped beneath the mud were compressed.
Pfft.
A low, muffled sound echoed.
Then, the entire swamp seemed to exhale.
Only the ground where the red-sleeved cadet stood collapsed downward.
"Ah!"
Both of her legs sank up to her knees in the mud.
Two of her teammates also lost their balance and tumbled to the ground.
Ronan angled the tip of his blade to prevent the final air pocket from bursting.
So they wouldn't sink any deeper.
So they wouldn't get hurt.
But just enough to make escaping incredibly humiliating.
A small leather pouch floated up from the red-sleeved cadet's waist.
The mouth of the pouch fell open.
Several bundles of harvested Silverleaf Herbs and dried roots spilled out, scattering across the water.
The only sound left was the quiet breathing of the cadets.
Ben spoke in a low voice.
"They didn't find it first. They just hid it first."
Neris nodded.
"And the marker was fake."
Dorman added his own thoughts from behind his shield.
"It seems there are many people who prefer other people's luggage and herbs."
Laughter erupted at his remark.
A few cadets from Marc's team looked away in the distance.
They seemed to remember the incident from yesterday when they had tried to take Dorman's pot.
The red-sleeved cadet flushed red in the mud.
"Get me out! How dare you do this to a healing cadet!"
Lya scooped up the floating Silverleaf Herbs one by one.
Her voice was quiet.
"The healing cadet was the one who stepped on them first."
She gently washed the muddy leaves in the water.
"The healing cadet was the one who hid them first."
The red-sleeved cadet opened her mouth, but no words came out.
Lya didn't stuff all the herbs into her own pouch.
She laid out the surviving Silverleaf Herbs on a damp cloth.
The ones with broken stems were set aside for poultices.
The ones with intact roots were pressed back into the mud.
Her movements weren't fast.
Yet, no one dared to rush her.
Lya handed the first bundle to Dorman.
"We'll use this batch for your palms."
Dorman accepted it carefully.
"Thank you."
Next, she gave Cerise three small leaves.
"Use these if you sprain your ankle. Swordsmen always wait too long to say they're in pain."
Cerise cleared her throat.
"I do not wait to speak up."
Neris chimed in immediately.
"You were thirty-seven minutes late after the last spar."
"I believe I told you not to record that."
A brief wave of laughter spread through the group.
Finally, Lya picked up the freshest handful of Silverleaf Herbs.
She stood in front of Ronan.
"This is for your wrist, Ronan."
Her voice was clear.
The eyes of everyone around them gathered on her.
Lya didn't shrink back.
"The rule that herbs go to the injured first doesn't change. But it's also a fact that you are hurt, Ronan. I won't pretend otherwise."
Ronan was silent for a moment.
Mud was smeared across the back of Lya's hand.
Even the undersides of her nails were black.
Yet, the hand holding the Silverleaf Herbs didn't tremble in the slightest.
Ronan pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
It was the same cloth Lya had practically thrown at him in the infirmary before.
Lya's eyes widened.
"You still have that?"
"I just never found the right time to return it."
"Are you going to use it to wipe off mud?"
"No."
Ronan gently supported the back of her hand.
He didn't grip it tightly.
He simply wiped away the mud on her fingertips, slowly and carefully.
"Today, I'm wiping away what you protected."
Lya's ears flushed red.
Cerise looked away.
Neris pursed her lips, starting to write something down before stopping herself.
Dorman fiddled with the leather strap of his shield for no reason.
Lya didn't pull her hand away.
"I was being greedy."
"I know."
"Because your wrist needed it, I wanted to have more."
"But you didn't take it all."
Lya looked at the Silverleaf Herbs replanted in the water.
A single small leaf stood tilted in the mud.
"Because I want to be a healer."
"You looked like one today."
Ronan's reply was brief.
And because of that, it lingered longer.
The red-sleeved cadet was finally pulled out of the mud with the help of her teammates.
Her boots were filled to the brim with mud, and the fake marker floated broken on the water.
Neris fished it out.
"Evidence remains, even when wet."
The red-sleeved cadet couldn't say a word.
Someone among the cadets in the back whispered.
"If you mess with Ronan's team, they hit back."
"And this time, they bring the mud with them."
Lya didn't smile even after hearing that.
She wrapped the Silverleaf Herbs in the damp cloth and placed them carefully inside her shirt.
Ben divided the remaining stems into small bundles and hung them inside Dorman's empty backpack.
Where someone else's baggage had once been, the herbs the team had protected together now hung.
Then, she looked at Ronan's wrist again.
"Don't twist it."
"I won't twist it right now."
"Only right now?"
"Until the treatment is finished."
"Then that means until I say it's finished."
Ronan nodded.
"Understood, healer."
Lya smiled faintly at the title.
This time, she didn't hide it.
Upon the swamp, trampled grass and revived leaves remained together.
The mud was still cold, and the forest grew deeper.
But Lya was no longer someone who would back down from an herb patch.
With the hand that held the Silverleaf Herbs, she stayed close to Ronan's wrist.
And with that hand leading the way, Ronan's team made their way out of the swamp.