Chapter 27: Lilia
The wheels crushed gravel, producing a monotonous bumping sound.
Lilia's consciousness was shaken awake from chaos.
She opened her eyes, seeing first the rocking carriage roof.
The air was filled with dust and the unfamiliar smell of a woman's sweat mixed with leather.
This wasn't Iron Fortress.
She sat up abruptly, turning to look out the window.
Desolate fields were retreating rapidly; the familiar outline of the city walls was no longer visible in the distance.
The surroundings were empty, save for their lonely carriage speeding on the dirt road.
A woman's back appeared in her vision.
The woman held the reins, her figure lithe and fit, her short hair swinging in the wind.
Fragments of memory flooded her mind.
The last image was Hamus touching her face and knocking her out.
Lilia's lips moved.
"Did Hamus do this?"
The woman in front didn't turn back, her voice drifting over with the wind.
"Yeah. Didn't expect that coward to have such a tough side. Tch, really misjudged him."
There was no sadness in the woman's tone, only a kind of surprised teasing.
Lilia said nothing, merely casting her gaze toward the direction of Iron Fortress Territory, where now only a grey sky remained.
"Where are we going?"
"To the Imperial Capital. He said it's safest there."
The woman answered with a hint of confusion in her tone.
"He also left you a sum of money. A full one hundred gold coins."
"I really can't figure out where a poor guard like him got so much money."
"This money is enough for you to live comfortably in the Capital for a lifetime."
One hundred gold coins.
Lilia knew what that meant.
That was wealth an ordinary family couldn't accumulate in several generations.
Hamus... he had arranged everything for her.
"Relax."
The woman seemed to guess what she was thinking.
"Although he said to split half with me, escorting you to the Capital isn't worth fifty gold coins."
"My name is Kayla. I'm an adventurer, and I have my own rules."
"I'll take at most two gold coins as a fee for my trouble; the rest is yours."
Lilia didn't refuse.
She needed this money.
She needed to survive.
Then, return here to avenge Hamus and Iron Fortress.
"Can you teach me how to fight?"
Lilia looked at the woman named Kayla and asked, word by word.
Kayla's hands paused upon hearing this.
She seemed to find it somewhat funny.
"Hah? You? A woman who's never even touched a sword? Forget it."
"Fighting isn't playing house. People die."
Lilia countered.
"Aren't you a woman too?"
"I'm different."
Kayla's voice turned cold.
"I walked this path because I had no other path to walk. But you have better choices."
"Take that money, find a good family in the Capital to marry into, and forget everything here."
"Teach me."
Lilia's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a determination that allowed no refusal.
"Please."
The carriage fell into silence, save for the rolling of wheels.
After a long time, Kayla spoke again, a hint of helplessness in her tone.
"Fine. But let's be clear first. I'm just an Iron Rank adventurer, strength only at Tier 1."
"What I can teach you is very limited. Don't expect to learn any profound swordsmanship."
"It doesn't matter."
"I will pay you a salary."
Lilia added.
"No need."
Kayla waved her hand.
"You'll have plenty of uses for that money in the future."
"Consider it... the last troublesome favor that guy Hamus asked of me."
Her tone softened a bit.
"However, in exchange, you have to tell me about Hamus's embarrassing stories from the past."
"I've always been curious how a guy like him survived until now, haha."
Lilia looked at Kayla's back, her eyes feeling hot.
She said in a voice only she could hear:
"I will remember this kindness."
When night fell, Kayla drove the carriage into a secluded grove.
"We rest here tonight."
Kayla jumped off the carriage and began skillfully unharnessing and feeding the horse.
Lilia followed her down.
The forest at night was quiet, with only the chirping of insects and the rustling of wind through leaves.
Kayla took some dry rations and a waterskin from the carriage and handed a portion to Lilia.
"Eat. You need strength."
Lilia took the rations but didn't eat.
She looked at Kayla and spoke again.
"When do we start?"
Kayla was gnawing on a piece of hard black bread. Hearing this, she raised an eyebrow.
"In such a hurry?"
"I don't have time."
Lilia looked into Kayla's eyes.
In those originally clear eyes, something Kayla was very familiar with was burning.
Hatred.
"Fine."
Kayla swallowed the last bite of bread and stood up.
She pulled out a spare hardwood stick, about a meter long, from the carriage and threw it to Lilia.
"Hold it."
Lilia caught the stick. It was heavy, heavier than she expected.
"You want to learn to fight. The first lesson isn't learning how to kill, but learning how to stand."
Kayla walked up to her and kicked her legs.
"Spread apart, shoulder width. Knees bent, lower your center of gravity. Yes, just like that."
Lilia followed her instructions, assuming an awkward posture.
"Now, raise the stick in your hand and point it at me."
Lilia did so.
"Too high. Don't lock your elbows, relax. Your target is my throat, not the moon in the sky."
Kayla impatiently corrected her movements.
Just maintaining this posture, Lilia felt her arms starting to ache and her legs trembling.
"Just stand like that."
Kayla said, then ignored her, walking aside to lay out sleeping blankets.
"Stand until when?" Lilia couldn't help but ask.
"Stand until you can't stand anymore."
Kayla answered without looking back.
Time passed bit by bit.
Sweat slid down Lilia's forehead into her eyes, stinging them.
Her arms were so sore she could barely lift them, and her leg muscles spasmed uncontrollably.
The stick in her hands felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
She wanted to give up several times, but as soon as she closed her eyes, the image of Hamus being torn apart by the undead would appear.
Cannot fall.
She gritted her teeth, focusing all her strength on maintaining this posture.
Unknown time passed. Just when she felt she was really going to faint, Kayla's voice rang out again.
"Alright, that's it for today."
Hearing this, Lilia went limp, collapsing to the ground. The stick fell with a thud.
She gasped for air, feeling like every bone in her body had fallen apart.
Kayla walked over, squatted down, and handed her a waterskin.
"How do you feel?"
"Very... tired..."
Lilia's voice was hoarse.
"This is just the beginning."
Kayla said.
"To become a warrior, you need a tough body and an even tougher will."
"You did pretty well today. At least you didn't cry and scream about giving up."
She paused, then continued.
"Your body is too weak, no foundation at all."
"Starting tomorrow, wake up before dawn every day. Run twenty laps around the camp, then practice swinging the stick five hundred times."
"Only after finishing these can you eat breakfast."
Lilia looked at Kayla, saying nothing, just silently taking the waterskin and drinking a large mouthful.
The water was cold, flowing down her throat into her stomach, clearing her chaotic mind a little.
"Why... help me?"
Lilia asked the doubt in her heart.
Kayla withdrew her gaze, looking at the dark forest in the distance.
"I said, it's for the sake of that guy Hamus."
"He was a coward, but in the end, he acted like a man."
"And..."
A different emotion entered Kayla's tone.
"I see my past self in you."
"Only, back then, no one was willing to teach me. I crawled out of a pile of dead bodies holding a rusted dagger."
"I don't want to see you walk my old path."
"Since you insist on choosing this path, then at least... let you die less uglily."
Saying that, she stood up and walked to her sleeping blanket.
"Sleep early. You'll suffer tomorrow."
Lilia lay on the cold ground, looking at the night sky fragmented by tree branches above.
Every part of her body was screaming in pain, but her heart was calm as never before.
She knew that from today on, the carefree Lilia of Iron Fortress was dead.
What survived was a shell existing only for revenge.
She closed her eyes, and her mind began repeating that simple stick-holding posture again and again.
Center of gravity, arms, target.
She wanted to turn all of this into the instinctive reaction of this body.