All for a book

While Sylvia was silently drowning in her thoughts, her stomach loudly grumbled in hunger.

She realized that she hadn't eaten anything since early morning.

Sylvia quickly wiped her tears and changed out of her ripped dress.

She needed her strength.

She needed to take care of herself because this would not be the end of her life.

Sylvia stubbornly refused to accept such a pathetic fate.

As the woman absentmindedly walked over to the castle kitchens, she heard loud clattering noises inside and hurried over to see if Jane was back.

She was now more than curious about the Prince of this castle and she needed to gather all the information that she could.

Her life depended on it.

And there was no one better than Jane for this job.

She had worked in this castle for a long time, maybe even since Mikel was a young boy and the woman loved gossiping more than anything.

So Sylvia rushed into the kitchen quarters as fast as she could.

However, when she got there, she neither saw Jane nor any of the other maids.

Instead, she saw the person whom she least wanted to see right now.

And more importantly, that person had collapsed on the ground, completely unconscious.

Sylvia's footsteps froze and she stumbled in shock, supporting herself on a wooden shelf nearby.

"This… This… What am I supposed to do now?"

Sylvia's mind was racing a mile a minute.

Was this her chance? Could she use this opportunity to run away and escape?

But if something happened to one of the Princes of Kalindor, then how could she really escape?

Considering that she was the only person in the castle other than Nicolas, wouldn't this mishap be pinned on her?

Wouldn't everything be blamed on her?

If that happened, it was only a matter of seconds. They could trace her easily wherever she fled to and then she will no doubt be executed in the gallows in a very brutal and public way.

So no. There was no way that she could leave now.

Sylvia didn't waste any more time thinking and quickly approached the unconscious man laying on the floor helplessly.

He looked much less intimidating this way.

She used her hands to scoop up some water from a bowl nearby and sprinkled it on his face.

But unfortunately, the man didn't respond.

"What am I supposed to do now?" Sylvia fidgeted with her hands nervously as her eyes trailed the man's well-toned body.

Every inch of his being was perfection.

Sylvia couldn't help but wonder how long it will take to build muscles like this?

Could she ever do it?

Since she was not magically gifted, could she ever possibly become a skilled warrior?

As a woman, that too someone with exceptional beauty, Sylvia had never thought that her life would come to this.

She was supposed to wed a nice man from a nice family and lead a simple happy life.

But now that her supposed future had collapsed and shattered to smithereens, she had no other choice but to learn to protect herself.

Maybe if she had done this from the beginning, she would have never been in this position.

As Sylvia's mind wandered, her eyes lingered on a particular spot on Mikel's body, the place where she had impaled him with that arrow.

Suddenly a thought popped into her mind and she quickly knelt down on the floor right next to Mikel.

Hesitantly, Sylvia then used her small hands to undo the buttons on the man's shirt one by one.

Every button revealed more of his perfect muscles, and she gulped nervously.

Before long she finished unbuttoning that simple white dress shirt.

She moved the clothing aside gently and carefully, very unlike how he had roughly torn hers apart.

She then nervously looked at his right chest where she had attacked him.

She was indeed correct. The man had apparently bandaged the wound but it was not enough.

There was some blood and some sort of puss leaking from it, not to mention a faint bluish-purple coloring.

Sylvia didn't have to think hard about what this meant.

She was not a trained physician or a healer but from her vast knowledge about several things she knew that this was a clear telltale sign of the skin being poisoned.

Most probably from the arrow that she had pierced him with.

Shit. Shit. Shit. Sylvia started panicking.

Most of the poisons were relatively fast-acting. Why did this man not treat it immediately? Did he underestimate the poison?

She then remembered the conversation between Mikel and Nicolas about the Grimoire, her wager counterpart.

She recollected Nicolas mentioning that Mikel only had time until dusk to peruse it.

This man… Did he risk his life for reading a damn book? Sylvia was speechless.

But that was not important right now.

All that mattered now was that she needed to save this man or at least get the necessary help.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be too long before she herself met the maker and joined Mikel on the other side.