Lady to Queen

Patrizia was barely wearing anything besides her underwear and stared at Lucio by her side, who was still. She first identified the area where he had been hit by the arrow. The blood was relentlessly not stopping, and the color of the blood was strange as if he had been hit with a poisoned arrow.     

"Sh*t!"     

Patrizia murmured harsh curses. If she kept it like this, he would steadily die. In that case, even if she was alive and managed to return, there was a high possibility that she would be framed for murdering the Emperor. Maybe that was what Rosemond wanted the most.     

She would rather die here, together, as she wouldn't let that happen. Once Patrizia pulled him out of the water, she laid him down on a warm stone, heated under the sun. If he kept wearing his wet clothes, he was more likely to die due to a drop in body temperature, so she took off his clothes without hesitation. She didn't even think about how he was the opposite sex, Emperor of an empire, and her husband. Right now she had absolutely no interest in him, and the only thought in her mind was how to survive and return safely to the kingdom.     

Once Patrizia had taken off Lucio's clothes, she once again looked closely at his wounds. It was possible that the poison had already spread because of all the running, but it was necessary to extract the poison as much as possible to prevent further injury. Without hesitation, she put her face to his chest and sucked out the poison from the wound. Being careful not to swallow the poison, she spits out the poison all in one area. After 10 minutes of sucking the poison, Patrizia felt a slight dizziness. Even if the poison hadn't been swallowed, it seemed due to holding it in her mouth for long periods of time, it had been absorbed into the body to a certain extent     

.     

Patrizia staggered, touching her forehead, and opened her eyes willfully as if trying to wake up her mind again. If she even collapsed here, it was over for this man, and even herself. No one could protect her here. She was the only one that could guard and protect herself.     

The important thing was time. Either way, Patrizia had to return with Lucio to the Imperial Palace within 24 hours, or at most 48 hours.     

The best option was to return to the Imperial Palace tonight. If it were past that time, the nobles would be eager to raise a new Emperor, worrying about the vacancy of state affairs. A situation such as this had to be prevented. Not only for him but also for her.     

Since the Emperor and Empress disappeared at the same time, it was clear that the newer nobles would stomp their feet and dispatch people to find them. It wasn't ideal, but they had to be discovered by them at least. In order to do that, the first thing she had to do was to save this man. Patrizia looked at Lucio with a determined expression, who was still in a fainted state. First, maintaining body temperature was the priority. She led her weak body to the unconscious Lucio and hugged him towards her. Then something stopped her. Patrizia's expression was colored with surprise when she confirmed the identity.     

"You… how did you…"     

Sally walked towards Patrizia who maintained a dazed look. Patrizia had never been as happy to see Sally at this moment. My goodness, what a smart horse she was! She gently stroked Sally's mane and asked the horse, "You did not die! What a relief. How did you find me here anyways?"     

As if trying to answer, Sally made a motion with her face towards Patrizia's head, as if trying to smell her hair. During that short time, she had smelled Patrizia's scent and found her. At first, she was a horse that couldn't be trained and even bit her hand, but she had grown better so much in a short time. Patrizia praised and hugged her with a touched expression.     

"Thank you, Sally. I am really glad you are here."     

Patrizia kissed the horse's forehead, and then lifted the collapsed Lucio onto Sally's back. Considering that Sally might be tired, she decided not to also ride on top of her. She had to think about the horse's stamina first.     

After walking for some time, she saw a cave located in a secluded place. Patrizia first went in there, put Lucio on a flat rock, and looked more closely at his condition. Fortunately, there was no fever, but his body was very cold. Patrizia looked for something to keep warm, and soon found a bale of straw in the corner of the cave, and brought over a pile. Before long, Patrizia laid a lot of straw on the floor to prevent the cold seeping up from below, laid Lucio on top of that, and then again scattered the straw on top of him. At least, this was the most basic first aid, and after a while, she would try to look for more herbs and things like that. Anyways, the urgent fire was out, so she had time to look around.     

Patrizia took Sally out of the cave to take care of her, knowing she must have been exhausted in her search for her. Before taking the last step out of the cave, Patrizia turned back and gave one last glance towards Lucio who was asleep, and carried on. Thoughts were for later. Right now was reality.