70 Chapter 70: Melting

Caesar felt as though his head was resting on something very soft, he suddenly remembered his bout with Joe and tried to force his eyes open.

*mmhmm*

Caesar groaned in pain and barely lifted his torso a few inches, he opened his eyes and Ahri's worried face came into his line of sight.

"Don't get up, you still need to rest" She said softly and placed Caesar's head back on her lap.

Caesar didn't resist and let her do as she pleased, they laid there in a pleasant silence for a few minutes.

"What happened to Joe?" Caesar broke the silence and asked quietly.

"He's still unconscious, you have both been out cold for the past hour or so" Ahri replied.

"I see, I'm glad he's still alive…" Caesar said with a deep sigh.

Ahri gently brushed Caesar's long white hair and looked at him slightly anxiously.

"You could have died in that battle… I-I know you wanted to save Joe, b-but I don't know what I would do if I lost you. Please don't risk your life so easily like that again" Ahri choked on her words as droplets of tears fell on Caesar's face.

"It may sound selfish, but I don't want to lose you… I-I want to get married and have kids in the future, I want to see Elizabeth grow up and I want to see my grandfather's happy smile when he sees his grandchildren. This fight made me realize that none of that may happen and I'm scared" Ahri continued spewing out words and streams of tears kept flowing from her eyes.

Caesar's heart slightly warmed, in his past life, many people feared, hated, lusted, envied, and wanted to use him, however, none had truly loved him… They wanted to use him for their self-interest or because he had money and good looks. But for the first time, someone wanted to be with him, not the CEO, billionaire, or crown prince.

Caesar slowly raised his left hand and wiped the tears of Ahri's beautiful face, he slightly raised his upper body and hugged her tightly.

"I have walked alone for nearly all my life, never had anyone truly cared about my well-being… I apologize for not taking your feelings into consideration" Caesar apologized while hugging Ahri tightly.

"You did the right thing, not many people would sacrifice their life to save a friend… It should be me that apologizes" Ahri replied in an apologetic tone.

Caesar shook his head and pecked Ahri on the lips, he slowly stood up and stretched his limbs… he had an excruciating headache but he just dealt with it.

Ahri stood up soon after Caesar and rubbed her eyes, she smiled sweetly and that sad expression she had earlier was nowhere to be seen.

This scene would have been quite romantic if it were not for the thousands of bodies surrounding them, Caesar reached into his pocket and pulled out the eyepatch he had looted from the bandit's body. He placed the eyepatch over his right eye and his headache immediately stopped hurting as much.

"Where did you get that?" Ahri asked curiously and moved her face closer to his.

"You remember those bandits that attacked us yesterday? Well, they gifted me this eyepatch after I defeated them" Caesar laughed gently and replied teasingly.

Ahri rolled her eyes and chuckled, "you look like a villain with that on, you know?" Ahri teased back.

Caesar put his hands through his hair and straightened it, his right arm was still sore but no longer broken… A vampires regeneration was indeed extraordinary.

"Are you trying to seduce me again?" Ahri asked with a wide smile.

"Oh, you know me so well darling," Caesar said casually and scanned his surroundings, seeing Caesar's serious expression, Ahri also stopped joking around and looked around warily.

Caesar walked atop the many dwarven bodies and examined their wounds, "their armors, weapons, and other things seem to have been looted from their corpse" Caesar said.

Ahri bent down and examined the remains closely, "many of these bodies seem to have… burn marks?" she spoke in a baffled tone.

"Burn mark…? Magicians, or maybe a different race entirely?" Caesar started brainstorming out ideas.

Ahri just shook her head in confusion, "There aren't many races that can unleash flames of this proportion…The only possible explanation would be a very powerful magician or a dragon, however, a dragon would not be able to fit in this mountain" Ahri imitated Caesar and stroked her chin with a contemplating look.

Caesar stood up from his crouched position and walked over to Joe, "Once we return to Rahvin kingdom I will use my connections and find out which kingdom or faction gained dwarven armor and weapons recently… That was clearly their purpose" Caesar replied.

Ahri nodded her head solemnly and shifted her attention to Joe, "are you sure it's okay to wake him up here? He may go berserk again" She said slightly worried.

Caesar soon approached Joe's unconscious body and flashed a smile at Ahri, "don't worry, I will just break his legs and arms before waking him up" Caesar said extremely coldly and glanced at Joe's 'sleeping' figure.

Joe opened one of his eyes and looked at Caesar fearfully, he hopped on his two feet and kowtowed on the ground.

"I APOLOGIZE!!!" He roared loudly…

Silence erupted in the entire hall and Joe peeked at both Caesar and Ahri's faces to make sure they weren't angry.

Both Caesar and Ahri were hardly angry, in fact, they were quite happy that Joe seemed to be back to normal.

Relief spread through Joe's body when he realized that Ceasar and Ahri were not angry at him…

"I am really, really, sorry, I can normally control my anger, but yesterday was too much of a shock for me," Joe said apologetically, sorrow was still evident in his voice.

"It's understandable, anyone would get angry if they saw their own kin massacred…" Caesar tried to comfort Joe as best he could, he was not an expert at soothing other people.

"Thank you for understanding, Caesar… I have never had someone capable of stopping me before, and even if my rampage was stopped, the others would just look at me as if I was a monster" Joe choked on his tears and thanked Caesar heartfully.

Caesar smiled wryly and scratched his head, "I have also never had a real friend before, it feels good not traveling alone and having someone to laugh and banter with" he replied and shook Joe's hand.

Joe laughed happily and hugged Caesar tightly, Joe subtly peeked at Ahri and made sure she wouldn't be able to read his lips.

"Since we are considered friends now I'm going to warn you as a friend… You need to be careful of who you show your abilities too… I didn't really notice it before, but you are a vampire right…? With high noble blood at the very least" Joe whispered into Caesar's ear.

Caesar just slightly smiled back, "Don't worry, Ahri already knows what I am"

Joe shook his head, "I'm not talking about Ahri, I am referring to her family and her clansmen" Joe sighed loudly and decided to stop talking about such troublesome matters, he walked towards the far end of the dwarven halls.

Caesar tilted his head in confusion as his eyes followed Joe's movements, Joe moved to the wall and crouched down. He started moving his hands around as if he was searching for something.

*cacha*

Suddenly the wall split open and a doorway appeared in front of them, Joe turned towards Caesar and Ahri with a wide smile.

"Whoever invaded this place didn't know about the secret treasury… hehe," he laughed wildly and rushed inside.

Caesar's interest was piqued so he followed after him, Ahri also wanted to know what would be inside the dwarven 'secret' treasury so she followed behind Caesar with high expectations.