(SA) Chapter 18: Rest and Recovery (Patreon)

Sybil Jehkall

Sybil slammed the blade into the monster's neck. Hickory had told her to wait until the last possible second, but she refused to lose her idiot to hesitation. She was attached by now, and she wouldn't let that slip away, not for anything.

It was quite strange to her. She'd never really had a friend before, just family members, most of which were either stuck up or acted subservient to her. Both attitudes just rubbed her the wrong way. It was hard to make friends in that kind of environment, and the humans were just weird around her. The ones from the village just wouldn't shut up about how great her dad was, and the other girls would always act all careful near her, and apologize way too much. The boys acted like she was some kind of divine artifact.

This human was different, and in a good way. He didn't seem to have even a basic grasp on manners, politics, or even really know what nobility was. He seemed pretty clueless about most things, actually. He could get away with it due to his strength, but many things about him were just curious in a way she couldn't fully describe. He wasn't just her ticket out of the walls she'd spent most of her life in, he was also just a good conversational partner, and someone she could imagine spending a lot of time with.

Letting some monster in humanoid skin slay her shiny new friend was just out of the question.

A few thrusts into his spine coated her blade in sticky red fluid and sent viscera and bone fragments flying everywhere. She'd hit him as hard as she could, and with her Backstab Minor Skill, as well as her raw Fitness, she could deal a lot of damage. If Abel hadn't already weakened him so severely, then her strikes wouldn't have been nearly as effective, but as it stood, Killion was basically dead before she'd thrown the first attack. The second was enough to end him, as confirmed by the System after a moment. The other five... Well, those were just her venting.

Leaving her shortsword in the old bastard's body, she walked over to where Abel rested. She looked him over for a moment, taking off parts of his armor as gently as she could. Luckily, he was out cold, and didn't wake from her jostling. The damage made her wince. She thanked the gods when she saw that the hole in his stomach was already mending. It would take time, certainly, and at least some of his wounds were likely to form scars, but those would eventually be dealt with by his Vitality.

She finished removing his armor, piece by piece, until all the metal had been stowed away in her bag. Sybil knew that it would be good for his armor to absorb the blood, but she was worried that the blood magic would interfere with his healing somehow. It was entirely irrational, but at the moment, she didn't particularly care.

The vampiress heard a clattering off to her side, and her gaze snapped over to find that Killion's body had faded into smoke, and her blade had clattered to the ground. She knew he was dead, though. It was very difficult to get the System to lie for you, and even if he'd been primarily built around lying and manipulating others, a mere Tier 3 wouldn't have been able to manage the feat. No, whatever Ability, Skill, or Feature allowed that, it was in the realms of the Gods. After staring for a moment, she turned her attention back to Abel.

She sat for a moment, just looking him over to make sure that there weren't any immediately life-threatening wounds that would have to be dealt with right away. Once she was sure that she wouldn't hurt him more by doing so, she lifted him off the ground and held him against herself. She wanted to make sure that he was safe and away from where any townsfolk might get to him. She understood that there were still kids to save, and that the job wasn't done just yet, but she wasn't going to leave her partner to the wolves.

With Abel in her arms, she made her way into the house, where she knew Hickory would be searching for the children. She followed the "scent" of his blood, and found a few other trails, stronger than his was. She found herself standing before a stairwell that was dimly lit by magelight. The walls were splattered with blood, and several corpses were strewn across the stairs. Each wore the same tight black outfit, and had a symbol tattooed across their forehead in red. The symbol resembled a sword suspended within a pentagram, crackling with lightning. The corpses looked crushed and mangled, as though they'd been struck with small cannonballs.

She gently set Abel down before making her way down the stairs.

At the bottom, as she'd expected, was a dungeon. The more that was left unspoken about the room itself, as well as its contents, the better. The two things that stood out the most were the children, who seemed a mix between fearful and excited, and Hickory, who was silently clutching a sobbing girl. The expression on his face was unreadable.

She glanced around at the kids, who looked at her with varying amounts of fear. She put on a brave expression, and gave them her most confident smile. Her pointed teeth elicited a few whimpers and shrieks, so she quickly hid them back within her mouth and fixed her expression to make it a bit more comforting.

"Come now, let's get you kids somewhere safe."

---

Abel Halloran

I heard a soft humming in the background. Its musical tone tickled at my ears, and I smile, letting out a small huff as a hand ran through my hair. Light streamed into the room, and the soft pillows cradled my head. My nose was stimulated by a hint of rosemary, emanating from the figure beside me.

"Abel. I know you're awake. It's time for you to wake up." The humming voice said. It was comforting, even as it urged me awake.

"Just another minute..." I mumbled into my pillow.

She chuckled, and I felt her hand, as cold as ice, against my face. "Sorry, but you've slept for long enough. It's been half a day, Abel. I was letting you sleep in a bit, since you did such a good job, but it really is time to get up."

I opened my eyes and stared for a moment before I realized that this was not my mother. My mom's hair was golden, and she had green eyes, as well as a light spattering of freckles. The woman before me instead had black hair, red eyes, and as much paler skin, though it seemed a bit more colorful today than I was used to. Her smile, though a bit pointy by the canines, did still remind me of her voice. I pondered briefly upon how I'd never noticed that similarity before.

I jerked into a seated position, and her hand fell from my face to rest in her lap. "Ah, Sybil, sorry, I'm awake." The blankets fell off me to reveal my bare chest. It had been a while since I'd really looked at myself. I looked muscular, toned. More in shape than I'd ever been. Sadly, though, it was hard to focus on that when there was a massive scar marring my side.

I stared at it for a moment. It felt... weird. Looking at it, that is. The hand came back out, and one of its well-trimmed nails poked at the scar tissue I'd been looking at.

"It'll heal up, don't worry. Your Vitality's shockingly high. Just give it a few months." Her smiled was renewed, and she poked me in the face. "If you think that's bad, you should see your face."

I wanted to jump up and find a mirror to look into, but I was feeling a bit self conscious, already so exposed. Sure, I was ripped now, but still, I wasn't used to showing my chest to pretty ladies all the time. I blushed when I noticed that I wasn't wearing anything down there either, and realized that someone must have taken my clothes off while I was sleeping. Suddenly, I found it very difficult to meet Sybil's gaze.

She made an amused noise at my embarrassment. Her laugh was somewhere between a giggle and a sigh. It suited her well.

"There are some clothes by the door. Get dressed quickly; the kids want to meet the hero who slew the big bad monster." She ran a hand through my hair once more, and then left the room, taking the scent of rosemary with her.

I waited in my bed for a moment after she'd left, closing my eyes to think. I hadn't done too great in that fight. I'd thought I was pretty strong, but without Sybil, I'd have lost my life in that battle. While I wasn't against relying on my companion, I was the stronger of us. It felt to me as though I should be the one protecting her, and not the other way around.

Just as Sybil had said, there was a set of clothing folded on a chair by the door. I worked my way through the buttons and weird folds of this world's clothing, and stepped out the door.

---

Of all the things that I'd expected, the sheer adulation I'd received had not been on my mind. The kids all loved me! I hadn't even really done anything. I hadn't been the one who set them free, nor had I been the one who really put Killion down. Still, they loved me. I'd expected fear, or respect, probably a bit of wariness. Not this.

The moment I'd entered the room, I'd been swarmed by the tiny bodies of children. They all wanted to hug me or say hi, just get a fraction of my attention somehow. I looked over at Sybil in panic, but she just smirked at me as she lounged on a couch.

Very suspicious.

One girl stood by Hickory with a worshiping expression on her face. She was a bit older than the others, but what really caught my notice was that Hickory was actually smiling at me.

All these emotions were swimming around inside me, and I felt like I had to sit down. The kids followed with me as I moved to sit next to Sybil. She moved a bit closer to me, causing me to take a deep breath. Now that I was more awake, I could see that she was actually wearing makeup to give her skin more color, and smiling very carefully, probably so she wouldn't scare the kids.

The kids started fighting to sit closer to me, but eventually the girl who had stood with Hickory came to take the spot. The other kids let her have it without much complaint.

"Mr. Adventurer? What's your name?" The little girl asked me.

I didn't really know what to say, other than the obvious, "Uh, the name's Abel. What's your name?"

She responded with a warm smile. "My name's Lily. Thank you for helping my dad save me. That nice lady over there was telling us all about how you killed the monster that was pretending to be Mr. Killion, and you sounded so cool. I've decided I'm going to be just like you when I grow up!"

A chill ran down my spine, and I looked up to see Hickory giving me a death glare. I turned to give Sybil another panicked look, but she could barely contain her laughter. Damn traitor, convincing these kids to worship me! Why couldn't she understand that Hickory was going to beat me to death if Lily became an adventurer?!

"Now, Lily, I'm not sure that's the best idea..." I said nervously.

Her smile grew. "You're right, maybe I won't use that scary blood magic," her eyes widened, as if she'd just stumbled upon the meaning of life, "do you think there's a fairy magic?"

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. I couldn't exactly tell her that there wasn't fairy magic. For all I knew, there might actually be fairy magic, and I didn't want to lie to a little girl. That'd make me feel bad.

Hickory noticed my struggle, and spoke up, saying, "C'mon kids, you've all got families waiting for ya, and Abel's clearly still tired. Lily-poo, we can talk about this later." He gave me one last appraising glance before marching the kids out the door.

A couple went in for hugs, which made me feel awkward, and embarrassed. Did my hands go on their shoulders, or their necks? And should I bend over, or let them go on their tiptoes and hug my legs?

I looked helplessly over at Sybil, who started openly laughing at me.

Being loved is really hard.