Chapter 89: Recovery

Chapter 89: Recovery

[Live! Damn it!]

Erec’s body convulsed—he took a deep breath. His lungs stung from the reflexive effort; the world around felt surreal. As if he didn’t quite belong to it. Not to mention his head was an absolute mess, and his chest felt like it’d been caved in.

“Fuck...” Erec said with a numb tongue; it was like a piece of clay in his mouth.

[Don’t do a thing! Just sit there and stay alive this time—after this, we’re going to have a long hard talk about limitations. I’ve never met such a foolish employee. Honestly, you’re a fleshy creature; why do you get such dumb thoughts in your head?]

Erec bit his tongue, trying to talk back, then gave up. It was impossible to focus on anything going on around him properly; even though he made out movements, everything was a blur. Wherever they’d put him, nothing made much sense, and all of it had a dim, muted feel.

Without a battle to fight and, that knowing in his heart, it was time to be at ease, Erec let go.

There were times to rest. He’d fought the White Stag without regard to the cost and pulled through by some miracle. It was time to rest and recover.

But that image of the Goddess haunted him. It’d seemed real—but given his state, it may very well have been a hallucination.

Erec forced his mind away from it; what little sense he could make of what he’d seen and experienced was confused with the damage to his head.

With nothing to do and unable to move his body, he eventually pulled up his Virtues.

Name: Erec of House Audentia

Health: 3%| Mana: 100% | Stamina: 7%

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Holy Virtues:

Strength: [Rank D] | [Tier 5]

Vigor: [Rank E] | [Tier 6]

Agility: [Rank E] | [Tier 4]

Perception: [Rank E] | [Tier 5]

Cognition: [Rank E] | [Tier 4]

Psyche: [Rank E] | [Tier 5]The initial instance of this chapter being available happened at N0v3l.Bin.

Mysticism: [Rank F] | [Tier 1]

Faith:

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The priest shifted, looking surprised at the sudden change on his face.

“Do you happen to know of a priest named Gregory?” Erec tried, catching the woman further off guard. The questions disarmed her as she looked left and right afterward.

“I do, a very kind man—the clergy is rather well acquainted with one another up here on the surface...” she trailed off, unsure of what he was driving at.

“If I can’t leave, could you do me a favor? Get Gregory here; I’d like to catch up. I won’t make any trouble if you do.” Erec met her eyes, taking in the woman’s silver irises. She gave him a slow nod, and they had an understanding. Without much else to go on, Erec returned to his bed.

Better to recover for longer. Particularly if this would end with him being tossed out of the Kingdom.

— -☢ - — - ☼ - — - ☢ - —

“They cannot see the flickers of your soul,” Gregory said hesitantly, setting a hand on Erec’s shoulder. “Neither can I—normally, it burns with the Goddess’ fire, making it visible to our eyes when we use our prayer to heal, yet yours isn’t present.”

“And so they’re holding me here because of that?” Erec asked, shaking his head. Gregory appeared to be doing well for himself, but that didn’t do much to change his current situation. The best Erec could manage was to suppress his anger and keep himself in check, but his nerves about everything weren’t making things better.

But Gregory confirmed his worst fear.

The church knew something was wrong with him now.

“Aye, if they could, they’d subject you to a more thorough examination. As it is, they’re getting push-back from your Order and the Kingdom itself. It seems the royal family wants to properly reward you for slaying the Stag.”

Erec glanced at the door—three priests were talking to one another and looking at him and Gregory.

Obviously, the man shouldn’t be telling him this much about the situation, but Gregory also covered for their gun use. Not all of the priests were lock-in-step with what the church wanted.

“So, what do you suggest?” Erec asked.

“My advice? Keep quiet. Be polite, but don’t give in to any of their requests. I’ll make some discreet confirmations to the people in your Order about your health. Right now, the church is using the excuse of you being injured to not allow you to walk free. We’ll shed some light on that and let nature take its course.”

“Thank you,” Erec nodded slowly. It’d been right to ask for Gregory. As long as he gave nothing away to these priests, then he’d walk free.

All he had to do was hide that his Faith virtue went terribly wrong.

“By the way, you should be prepared for things to move very quickly when you’re out—it might be like your life has been on pause. But things haven’t slowed in the Kingdom. I expect you to be summoned to the royal court almost immediately. Plenty of the nobility is curious about the initiate that slew a cataclysm-level threat, and the Royal family is eager to reward you for your service.”

“I—“ Yeah, that’d been one of the last things on his mind coming into this conversation. He wanted to see Bedwyr, talk to his friends, and see what Boldwick had to say to him.

Worrying about appearing in the highest court in the Kingdom to accept a reward wasn’t on his list of things to do. And so, he didn’t know what to think about it.

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

Gregory squeezed his shoulder and nodded. “You’ve done well, lad. Keep it together for a little while, and you’ll be out of here.”

With that, Gregory left. Just a couple of more days of keeping himself subdued. I can do that.