Chapter 226 - Awake

It took Cecil over half a month to wake up from his coma. It was odd that considering all the blessings that he acquired from the World Tree that something like this happened to him.

His injuries weren't anything too severe as well. There was only a disorder in his mana flow, but that surely couldn't have caused him to stay unconscious for that long, right?

The problem was likely the miasma that Silver had exuded from his body. Anna and some other physicians had noticed that Cecil was seemingly poisoned by something very potent and judging from the reports that people gave about the situation, it was because of the black miasma that was proliferating during the battle between the beastmen and Silver.

Only the Little Kings knew about the origin of the miasma, but none of them wanted to disclose that information. It might cause problems not only for Silver, but for Cecil as well.

That Black-form of Silver's was something new to them and no one knew what it meant. It was only until Yuna explained the exact species of what Silver was that everyone finally understood.

Silver was a Fenrir, a legendary, ancient-level monster that was thought to be extinct. Moreover, he was a variant that had both the light and dark sides of the legendary Fenrir.

Once the Little Kings heard about this tidbit of info from Yuna, they all decided to keep silent about Silver. They could now affirm that the wolf was indeed the cause of the monster tide, but his transformation was induced by the beastmen's assault on Cecil, his master.

So in a way, it was still the beastmen's fault that any of this happened. So Eli's 'fortunate' misunderstanding when she declared that the beastmen were the cause of the monster tide was not wrong.

*****

"Muhhh..." A rabbitkin girl grumbled in annoyance as she struck down a monster.

"Something wrong, Serilla?" Zephyr asked when she noticed the girl's annoyed expression.

"...why am I here?"

Zephyr looked around at the battlefield full of monsters and soldiers, he awkwardly scratched his head and answered.

"Well...isn't it obvious that you're here to help the Kingdom with the monster extermination?"

"Tsk..."

His reply only earned him an annoyed response.

"...look, I know you want to be by your beloved's side...but this also takes priority, right?"

"I heard...that he was almost abducted..."

"Y-yeah, but—"

"Cheh!" Serilla very audibly expressed her dissatisfaction. She was here in the field exterminating monsters, while Cecil was still in a coma. She wanted to rush over to his side right away and take care of the boy.

She did receive news from Eli who was also out in the field exterminating monsters that Lucia was currently taking care of the boy so Serilla thought that it was unfair that only Lucia was there next to him.

Serilla went back to monotonously striking down the monsters around her. The Kingdom's soldiers were all around doing the extermination as well, but the Headmaster had called for an immediate mobilization of the Academy's students.

It was a good chance for everyone to finally experience some combat and with the army being there, the students' safety were all but ensured.

Zephyr could only scratch his head when he saw the way Serilla was acting. He decided to open his mouth to help out his longtime friend.

"Y'know what, I'll take care of this area...why don't you move over to the Darkfang Territory and take care of the situation there, Seri?"

Serilla's deflated rabbit ears immediately perked up when she heard this.

"Really, Zeph?! I can go?!"

"S-sure..." Seeing the enthusiasm the girl expressed, Zephyr could no longer take back his words.

"Alright! I'm off then!!!"

"...and there she goes..." Zephyr saw off his friend. It wasn't even a minute after he gave his approval, but the girl was already disappearing off into the distance on horseback.

"Phew...let's go and clean this place up...this'll help my image as the future King...but to think that the beastmen actually did all this just to abduct Cecil? What are they even thinking?"

"You said it...they should at least be satisfied that we even bothered to open trade relations with them~" A young boy's voice echoed from behind Zephyr.

"Oh! It's you Alex, you done already?"

"More or less, since I happened to see our President give permission to a certain someone to leave this place to him, I thought I'd come and help out~" The tigerkin smiled in response.

"Let's clear this place up then."

"Ouh!"

*****

Back in the Darkfang Territory, Cecil had finally awoken from his long sleep. He felt a little lethargic, but after a full cycle of his mana and ki, it quickly disappeared.

"Shit...what happened?"

He felt like he had a long dream... but he couldn't remember what it was about though. Cecil checked his body's condition and couldn't help but notice that he was wrapped up in gauze and bandages.

"The mana disorder in my body has disappeared...but who have thought it'd be enough to make me faint...I should stay more wary of the weird inventions those beastmen created..."

It turns out that Mana Disorder was much more severe for him. For normal people, having a Mana Disorder would only cause the person to have trouble circulating their mana and they'd have a slight discomfort biting at their minds.

But for Cecil whose mana permeated his entire being, it caused severe effects on him. He felt faint throughout his entire fight against the black clothed beastmen and he couldn't even control his body properly. His senses were also disorientated and he felt his very own mana injuring him as it rampaged around inside his body.

With his mana flow disrupted, even his Ki flow was disrupted as well and that further injured his body. Most of the injuries during his fight weren't even caused by the beastmen's attacks, but it was due to his own mana and ki.

"Shit...this is scary...to think that the power I desperately cultivated for so long actually came to bite me in the ass..."

'Good thing I discovered this beforehand...if this happened during a fight...I'd probably die, I bet those beastmen didn't think the potency of whatever drug they created against me would be so effective.'

Cecil got out of the bed and began moving his body around.

"...I should hurry and leave the continent...it's getting too dangerous for me to hang around now with people targeting me..." He mumbled.

*CRASH*

"Huh?!"

Cecil immediately turned around when he heard the sounds of something breaking. He saw Lucia standing there by the bedside with a dropped tray on the floor in front of her. He walked over to the girl and began picking up the shattered cups and bowls that she had dropped alongside the tray.

"Geez, please be a little more careful! These look pretty expensive..." Cecil said as he cleaned them up.

"C-Cel...you're awake!"

"Huh? Well, obviously?"

Lucia immediately threw herself onto the boy and Cecil caught her.

"W-woah! Careful! I'm still holding onto these broken shards!"

"You're finally awake!"

Hearing her words, Cecil felt a little odd. 'Finally, awake?'

"H-hey...Lulu...how long was I out?"

"O-over half a month, it would have been the 18th day today if you still didn't wake up!"

"...what?"

"A-after the beastmen attacked you and Silver stepped up to defend you, you fell unconscious after that...a-a monster wave attacked the city so we had to—"

"W-woah, woah, explain it to me slowly...what happened after I was knocked out?"

Lucia immediately began explaining what had transpired after Cecil fell unconscious. Silver became big and he also transformed into black furred Silver and repelled the beastmen abductors, then about the monster tide and the Kingdom and Empire's response.

"Th-that much happened?!"

"Yeah..."

"Phew...I missed out on so much interesting stuff..."

"I-interesting?! INTERESTING?!" Lucia immediately began roaring when she heard Cecil's response.

"W-woah, calm down, Lulu..."

"Interesting, huh?! Interesting how you almost got abducted?! Interesting that we all nearly died because of the monster tide?! Interesting that—"

"O-okay! Sorry, sorry..." Cecil immediately hugged the girl and she could only protest in her muffled voice after being pulled into Cecil's embrace.

"Sniff..."

"Lulu?"

"It's not interesting or funny at all...if something went wrong, then you'd probably be in the hands of the Empire right now..."

"Y-yeah...sorry about that...it was pretty thoughtless of me..."

"..."

"..."

The two stayed quiet like that for a bit. Until a small cough suddenly broke the silence.

"Ahem..."

"!"

"Woah!"

Cecil and Lucia immediately snapped their attention towards the door. The rest of Little Kings were standing there witnessing the two's intimate moment. Fina and Eli smirked meaningfully and began teasing.

"So, he's finally not chickening out~"

"Hihihi~ that's good for you, Lulu!"

"No Cecil...th-that's hell you're walking into!" Ainz said jokingly.

"Shut up, Ainz!"

Ainz was launched away by a kick to the gut from both Eli and Fina. Everyone was glad to see that their party leader was finally awake. Silver came up from behind the party and trotted over to Cecil's feet.

"Hey, Silv...thanks for the help!"

Cecil picked him up and placed him on top of his head. Silver only let out a small growl in response before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

His master was safe now, so all was good.

Yuna walked forward and said, "Cecil...I think we need to discuss about what we're going to do with...Silver..."

"Hm?"

"As I thought...you don't know what he actually is..."