Vol. 7 Ch. 17

“That should do it. I bet the others are done too, I should go to them.”

He wasn’t far off from the village, so it didn’t take long to get back.

He saw Trif waiting for him by the well.

“Took you long enough,” Trif said.

“You’re done too.”

He glanced to the left and then to the right.

“Where are the others?” he asked Trif.

“Beats me,” Trif replied.

“How about the people of the village?”

“They’re just inside there,” he said as he pointed to the house on his right.”

“Well, why don’t you untie them? I’ll go find the other two.”

He grunted, “Fine.”

He went inside the house.

“Maybe I’ll go find Lili first, she was nearer to me, if I recall, she’s just over to the northeast,” Phize said.

He went to the northeast and walked for some time. After traveling a certain amount of meters, he saw Lili’s stabbed body, she was losing a lot of blood. He rushed to her aid.

“LILI, WHAT HAPPENED HE-”

He saw the tremendous amounts of blood, he saw the corpse of her opponent and his heart near Lili’s right hand. He was aghast, terrified, and nauseous.

He almost threw up.

He thought, “C-Crap, I’m starting to remember that scene again. Calm down. Breath in.”

He inhaled and exhaled.

“Never mind all that, my comrade is in trouble. I need to help her,” he figured.

He slowly walked through the drips of red, he was barely able to hold his breath.

He grabbed Lili and carried her on his back.

“Look at you, don’t worry, I got you,” he chanted, “HEAL!”

Her minor injuries disappeared, but her open wound in the knee and in the middle of her body remained. Upon carrying her, he saw that her hands and nails were soaked in blood. Her nails were considerably longer than usual and the nerves in her hands were standing out.

“Did she… take out the heart of someone?” he asked himself.

He shivered anxiously.

“L-Lili, just what are you?” he pondered.

He brought her near the well and saw that the villagers have been freed. They gathered before him.

From the crowd, the village head went ahead of the others.

He said to Phize, “Let me see her.”

Phize dropped her off near the ground. The village head examined her wounds.

“It’s pretty bad, but she can be fixed. Go on, find the other one, we’ll take care of things from here.”

“Thank you, sir,” Phize responded.

He went to the west and ran as fast as he could.

“What if Hazel ended up in the same situation as Lili? I need to hurry and save her,” he thought to himself.

After some walking, he saw Hazel, she had big injuries, and so he ran to her.

“I knew it, I had a hunch,” he thought.

He saw Bolt’s corpse and Flitz who was unconscious.

“I’ll come back for them, soon enough, right now my priority is her,” he surmised.

He carried her on his back.

He chanted, “Heal.”

She glowed with a light of faint gree and along with it, some of her minor injuries recovered, but not the major ones.

He was catching his breath.

“Geez, my party members really are troublesome,” he complained.

He brought her to the village and he handed her to them.

They carried her to a house.

“I bet that’s where Lili is, they should be in safe hands,” he figured.

He saw Trif sitting on the well and sat beside him.

Trif grunted, “Go away.”

“Did you get hurt?”

“What do you care?”

“I’ll take that as a no.”

…

..

.

Phize asked him, “What happened to your opponents?”

“…I killed one and I scared the crap outta the other.”

“I see.”

“Listen here, if you have a problem with killing, you should consider dropping out,” Trif told him.

Phize got agitated, stood up, and grabbed his collar, “What did you say…”

“This world is not an innocent one, murders happen everywhere, and it’ll come for you, if you keep living in that ever-so innocent world of yours. What did you train yourself for? Why the heck did you even practice swordsmanship? Did you expect to spar with people and expect both of you to leave uninjured?”

“A-Ah…”

Trif threw Phize’s hand.

He continued, “You might as well be holding a wooden sword with the durability of iron. If you don’t wanna kill anyone, focus on your safety precaution spells and go chop some trees. Let’s see if your pacifist mentality will go along with that. But if you’re willing to be strong, survive, and help others, then pick up your damn sword and slice with no mercy. You can’t expect a fight with swords without anyone getting stabbed.”

Phize kept quiet.

…

..

.

They waited patiently on that well.

Grrr.

Phize’s stomach grumbled.

“Hey, Trif, wanna go get som-”

“I’ll go eat by myself.”

“What’s his problem? I’m just trying to be nice,” Phize thought.

The village head approached them.

“I’m so sorry for making the both of you wait. Both of them have been properly treated.”

“Really?” Phize asked.

“Like they’re good as new,” he replied.

“Where are they?”

“Wait, our people are checking if there is internal bleeding, we’re just double checking if they’re truly fine, but overall, they’re doing fine. For now, I think it’s best to leave them alone and let them rest.”

“I see.”

“Ah, why don’t you head inside for now? You all have saved the village! You deserve a reward!”

Trif interfered in the conversation, “And what reward might you be referring to?”

The village head replied to Trif, “A feast! And any wish all of you would prefer.”

“Any?”

Phize bumped Trif’s shoulder.

Phize answered the head,  “I’m sorry, but there’s no need to grant our wishes, a feast is enough, thank you for the offer.”

“Ah, I understand,” the head replied.

Trif looked away, “Tsk.”

He mumbled, “Jerk”.

The village head instructed, “Come inside this house. My people have prepared lots of yummy food.”

He pointed to the house to the right and he escorted them until they opened the door.

” Come in. Come in.”

They were greeted by many people and lots of cooked dishes, there were roasted fish and vegetables and salads on wooden plates and some orange-colored soup with unknown ingredients in a cauldron.

Trif immediately sat down and ate as soon as he could, scuffing almost everything on a prepared wooden plate.

Phize whispered to him, “Where’s your manners?”

He ignored him and kept chomping down on his meal.

Phize sighed.

The head said to Phize, “Don’t worry about it sonny, just go ahead and eat.”

“Okay then.”

He sat down, grabbed a plate, a wooden fork, and a wooden spoon, and tried the roasted fish.

“Hmm, this is pretty good,” he thought.

He picked some of the salad and ate.

“This is pretty good too,” he thought.

He kept eating.

He recalled, “The rest of the day was spent with a feast, the villagers were partying, but me and Trif were down from eating so we slept almost instantly.”

END OF EPISODE 65