Under The Emperor's Eye

Selena begins to walk after the Viscount. She slowly thinks to herself,

"Now that my mana has been restored, There is something I can still do for the success of this campaign. There is no point in standing here and doing nothing on this battlefield".

With her newfound confidence, She walks down the path with extra vigor and expectation.

As she follows behind the Viscount, she looks over his profile one more time. He looks very stressed and is far too accommodating to her. She may be a daughter of a ducal house but that's not enough to make a Viscount this subservient towards her, At most he should just be respectful and polite.

She figured there must be a conspiracy behind the scenes but she is unsure how it relates to herself. Nobles with a bloodline below the level of a Count usually have very little magic. They can't use their offensive magic over long distances and they have limited amounts of mana but magic is still magic so they maintain their noble status regardless. 

"So what's the situation with the lake? All I know is that poison was poured in but..." Selena starts to say.

"We are unsure what poison was used. Since we couldn't cure it anyway, no one bothered to waste resources in finding out. All we know is that there was a huge amount of poison and the water became undrinkable. We, in the military faction, can barely secure enough funds for this huge campaign so being able to save so many supplies by using the lake was a godsend for us. But alas, good things don't last forever", The viscount said in a disheartening tone.

"Don't worry, I may have a solution..." Selena says in a firm tone.

The viscount looked at her a bit strangely and muttered, "Does she also know non-offensive magic?" 

Selena paused, "Also?" She questioned.

The Viscount realized his wording and quickly looked away. "We're almost there ma'am, it should be right past these trees".

Before Selena can question him further, she sees the big lake. Although the color was dark and muddy, it is easy to tell that this was once a beautiful lake. She slowly walks forward and stands by the lake.

The size of this lake is so big that even if she were to use all her mana, it would be impossible to completely purify and clean the lake. It would take at least two different versions of herself to pull off a complete healing. She sighed deeply, after all that boastful talk, she couldn't even solve the problem completely. The only thing she can do now is at least try her best.

She pours her mana into the lake and gets ready to purify the lake and then she realizes something is wrong. The color may be a bit murky but outside of that, the lake is completely cured. Her eyes widened in shock, She was sure the military wouldn't lie about the poisoning of the lake, so why was the lake fine? 

Did the poison disappear over time? Did the southern tribe use a cure? Did someone else purify the lake? Selena racked her brain as she tried to figure out the most likely option until she sensed the movements of the Viscount and remembered that it was more important to heal the lake rather than look for answers.

She breathed a sigh of relief because it would normally take a while to find out the type of poison it was and use the appropriate cure magic but if it's just purifying the color of the water, she wouldn't have much of a problem. 

She pours her mana into the lake and quietly chants a long spell. After a while, the lake starts to glow with a bright color. The mana in her body drains quickly as the glow spreads to every corner of the lake. The lake returns to its original color and looks even better than before. 

Selena takes a step back and looks at the bright and flowing lake with a sense of pride. "With this, the campaign should be much easier," she said with a calm tone.

The Viscount stared in shock and said, "You guys really are monsters... with this, we might clear this campaign much earlier than planned.

He then looked at Selena with new eyes of amazement. He secretly thought to himself, "At first, I thought following the boss would eventually lead to my demise but given how powerful this woman is, she might mean more to him than just some girl he took a fancy to... If I can score some points with her, maybe I can save my life!" he secretly calculated in his heart.

"Madame, I sincerely thank you on behalf of the military for this accomplishment, If you ever need anything in the future, be free to ask me. Your wish will be my command" The viscount said while kneeling down.

"Please stand up Sir Parson, don't embarrass me. I'm just a student and I actually did not do much. And besides, the lake was already cured, I just helped clear the water" Selena explains.

"Already cured? So did the boss cure it" Viscount said while thinking to himself and then he realized it had nothing to do with him and ignored his thoughts completely.

"Even if it's just clearing the water, people would be too scared to drink if the water looked dirty. You have calmed all our hearts and made it possible for us to access this water outside of desperate times. we still owe you a lot!" Parson says in an insistent tone.

"Alright alright, enough with the flattery," Selena said in a bit of a shy tone. This is the first time for her using her powers outside of school and she is slowly gaining confidence in the worth of her non-offensive magic. Joyous feelings continue to flow in her heart. 

"Let's head back to the camp and let everyone know, hopefully, the battle is over. Recuperating after the battle will be much easier if they have access to the lake" Selena says while slowly heading over to the old path.

The Viscount follows behind her while keeping his eyes on his surroundings. 

The duo slowed down as they heard some strange noises come from the distance far away from the path.

They look at each other with a bit of worry and tense up and they get ready to face whatever is coming from the direction of that sound.

Soon, dozens of people show up, they all look like Southern tribe warriors. Their clothes are dirtied with leaves and dirt, seeming like they kept running and falling into things.

Selena froze as memories from last night resurfaced in her head. Pitfalls weren't enough to reduce the enemy numbers by a lot so she also planned to put many spells which promote dizziness and alter one's perception.

Under these conditions, many soldiers will be stalled and not be fit for battle for at least 24 hours which will give their army more than enough time to deal with the enemy.

"How is this possible? They are supposed to stay dizzy for at least another few hours" Selena whispers to herself.

The Viscount heard what she said and answered, "Wait, you were the one who did this? And you may not know but the people of the Southern tribe, or at least its warriors, are resistant to a lot of natural poisons and negative bodily effects. They aren't necessarily immune but they do heal a lot faster than we from the Kadence empire".

Selena lightly slaps her forehead in frustration, Magic that affects one's body works similar to poison or drugs, if the body is naturally prone or resistant to the effect, the magic would work better or worse, respectively. 

The soldiers eventually saw the two people in front of them and their eyes turned bloodshot red. They were aware that their failed ambush had something to do with one of the people of the enemy team which caused them to lose many of their fellow brothers and sisters. In their eyes, everyone is guilty.

The soldiers put down the people who are still struggling with dizziness and dash towards the viscount and Selena. 

The viscount took out his sword and started clashing with the leader of the group. The sound of the swords parrying each other rang in Selena's ears. Clash after clash, wounds slowly started to fill the Viscount's body.

"Parson!" Selena yells as she puts her hands up and gives Parson some healing and then a small spell which slightly boosts his adrenaline.

She noticed that Parson and the leader were very close in combat ability but the leader seemed to be slightly ahead, this small gap allowed her adrenaline spell to turn the tides otherwise it would be useless if the gap was big enough.

Parson looks over Selena in shock, he did not expect that she also knew healing magic. Healing magic is only slightly better than getting treated by their military doctors and it is far more complicated to learn so it is generally left out of the curriculum in the magic academy. The natural barrier magic that mages all know is seen as "enough" in the eyes of offensive mages but no matter what reason they use, getting convenient healing for free will feel great.

"Thank you, Madame, I won't let you down", Parson says as a new fire gets lit under his eyes.

Selena flinched once more at the continuous use of that name to her but she still decided to ignore it, now isn't the time to ask.

Parson starts to fight back with new vigor. His swings got heavier and compact, he also seems to dodge a lot easier too. The leader seemed confused at the sudden change and his eyes drifted towards Selena. As if receiving an epiphany, he then points toward Selena and yells at his fellow tribesmen. The tribesmen who are all waiting for the result of the match, also understand their leader's meaning and quickly rush to surround Selena.

Selena knew she couldn't stay here any longer and quickly put her hands on the floor and a huge amount of smoke appeared from where she stood. She quickly ran in the opposite direction and the tribesmen ran into the smoke to chase after her.

Screams were heard and as Parson was panicked, thinking he would be dead if anything happened to Selena, he slowly adjusted his face when he realized the screams were far too masculine. The smoke dispersed and at least half the tribesmen disappeared, he also noticed that some pitfalls appeared out of nowhere.

He breathed a sigh of relief, knowing his life was temporarily saved as long as Selena did not die. He turns back to the leader of the bandits and his eyes turn cold. He grabbed his sword with both hands and swung horizontally at the Leader's waste. The leader positioned his sword to block it and then he noticed that Parson's sword glowed red right before they clashed. 

The leader of the group felt an immense heat radiating from the sword and it only got hotter. Parson turned up the heat with his magic and pushed his sword even harder. The leader couldn't exert his full force due to the heat and eventually got overwhelmed, his sword dropped and he felt immense pain puncture the side of his body. He fell down in a daze and slowly looked up at Parson with eyes full of hatred. Parson looked at the man who was slowly dying and dropped his word to put him out of his misery. 

He then quickly ran in the direction where Selena disappeared.

Four people were chasing after Selena, on one hand, she was happy the numbers were far lower than before due to her trick but her mana was now very low and she did not have the means to deal with this many trained soldiers.

She quickly ran and as she turned her head backward to look at her enemies, she saw a sword an inch away from her face.

Her eyes widened and she couldn't react in time to put her barrier up. She closes her eyes while waiting for death but then an extremely powerful barrier appears and reflects the sword right back toward the man.

The man couldn't react in time and the sword pierced him fatally as he fell. Selena, in shock at how quickly the event turned, looked once more at her bracelet and an indescribable feeling arose in her heart.

She knew this was not the time to feel thankful and continued to run forward. Due to what just happened, the enemy soldiers were extra careful when approaching Selena which gave her a higher degree of safety, at least until they fully caught up with her. She kept running and running, there was no way her stamina would match those soldiers but she knew all would be lost if she were to stop here. 

She was unsure how long it had been but she was slowly getting tired, she was unwilling to fall here but she didn't really have a choice. As her body gradually became weaker due to fatigue, Selena began to make prayers in her heart. She apologizes to her mother for not fulfilling her wish, she apologizes to her friend for dying so early and then she apologizes to the dean for not living up to her expectations. 

She finally collapses on the floor and the soldiers slowly approach. She looks at them and then at the sky, slowly waiting for death to come.

Another figure flashed through her mind, "Oh yeah, I also apologize to you, my fiancé, for dying in the same campaign where I met you. Selena says slowly as tears begin to fall down her face.

The soldiers approached and took his sword to swing, then a huge clash happened which stopped the sword from reaching Selena.

Shocked, she looked up, and the same figure she was thinking about appeared in front of her.

"Sorry I'm late, Miss Selena, But everything will be fine now. I'm here!" The figure says.

A sense of security fills Selena's heart. "Lance!" She yells with emotion.

He smiles and turns back to the group of enemies. "There is no need to scare the lady, if you want to fight, come at me instead!" he says in a powerful tone while exuding an aura that forces them to shrink backward and fall to the floor.