Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Bring your coat, please! part

“Why doesn’t he wake up?”

Anne asked pleading with her eyes.

“It’s all my fault, I wanted to hit Luke and I didn’t even notice I hit the boss by mistake”

“It’s not your fault Dylan, now both of you, if you’re not going to be quiet I’ll ask you to leave me alone so I can focus”

Everyone at the Silver goddess tavern was on the first floor watching Helena while she was trying to heal Ryu. The potion Anne gave him was not enough and heal turned out to be useless. Claire and Sera were hugging each other crying silently, while Dylan was so embarrassed that he was sitting in the corner. They all seemed to be worried about Ryu, his bleeding stopped but after two hours he still hasn’t woken up.

“Why are you so calm Rina!? is it because if Ryu dies you’ll win the bet and keep the tavern? how can you be so cold!”

Anne didn’t know what to do, the only thing that would calm her was to vent her frustration on someone. She thought that maybe Rina was somehow relieved, since she was the only one who kept busy.

.....

Instead of standing next to Ryu, she was cleaning the tavern and picking up the pieces of furniture that were left lying on the ground.

What Anne failed to notice was that Rina, just like everybody else, was on the verge of tears.

The mood on the tavern was so gloomy that it looked just like a funeral.

“What if we give him more medicine?”

Dylan asked

“Impossible, that was the last bottle we had left”

Anne shook her head.

“Can’t you make more?”

“I have some medicine left!”

Sera was so excited she almost yelled.

“That won’t work, I don’t know if what Ryu gave to you was the same medicine he gave us before”

Helena replied, her head was spinning thinking on the same thing everyone else was thinking ‘what can I possibly do to help Ryu?’.

They all had different reasons to be grateful to him and they were worried sick for him, still, there was nothing they could do.

Helena knew that, because she was a priest class, that Anne expected her to somehow save Ryu. but she wasn’t a medic, before they arrived she was even scared of blood.

She tried to focus desperately, but her mana wasn’t even channeling. Whenever she healed someone she could feel a portion of the pain of that person, not enough to suffer, but it allowed her to know what was wrong in the other person. After activating her skill she would see a bright light coming out from her hands and into the injured person, followed by a stream of warm pleasure accompanied by the relief she felt herself after dissipating the pain.

Now the only thing she could feel was hunger.

“I know this may sound weird, but I’m hungry”

Helena said, a rainbow of emotions filled Anne when she heard that, the situation was so dire and yet Helena had the guts to ask for food, she didn’t know wether to laugh or to cry.

“I’m ahead of you, while you were all moping and sitting in your butts, I cleaned the place and heated up some stew”

Rina said prideful as she poured a bowl of hot soup and handed it to Helena, but when she received it she realized that she couldn’t eat. And then it hit her.

“Maybe it’s not my hunger what I’m feeling but Ryu’s!”

She said excitedly as she tried to spoon feed him, but he was still unconscious and was unable to eat. Everyone was intrigued watching the scene of Helena making a mess with the food while sloppily trying to feed Ryu.

Even if they wanted to protest, there was nothing of help they could say, so they just kept quiet and watched until the bowl was empty and the soup was everywhere except for Ryu’s mouth.

“That’s not going to work, maybe you need to pass it on using your mouth”

Dylan said, but before Helena could even give it a try, Anne brought a bowl and a funnel. After placing the funnel in his mouth she proceeded to, very carefully, pour the whole bowl of soup into Ryu’s throat at once.

Helena was still placing her hands over Ryu and she could feel the discomfort that Ryu was feeling, it felt horrible, but at the same time her mana was starting to flow inside Ryu heading straight into his head.

Ryu started coughing compulsively and tried to stand up but fell right after, hitting his head again. It happened so fast that nobody could do anything to stop him from hurting himself, and everyone was so shocked but what they just saw.

“It seems that it worked, now his head is only a bit bruised, he just needs to rest”

Helena declared after a sigh of relief, then she attempted to pick up Ryu by herself, when Dylan saw this he quickly grabbed Ryu by his feet and helped carry him up to his room.

Everyone was so tired that they went straight to their rooms, except for Helena who stayed at Ryu’s room.

“You can go now Dylan, I’ll stay by Ryu’s side until he wakes up”

Helena nodded and Dylan went to his bedroom.

There were no windows on the room, it was quite spacious but it only had a bed, a night stand and a hanger. There was a pile of stuff on the corner, most of it were tools and materials, but on top of everything lied the obsidian knife Ryu crafted by hitting a shard of obsidian against a rock repeatedly.

After seeing the mess Helena chuckled and looked at Ryu caressing his forehead ever so gently.

“You’re such a hoarder, I hope this doesn’t get out of hands”

Helena has liked Ryu since the moment she met him. She had some past experiences in love affairs, but she never felt something so strong as what she felt whenever she looked at him.

At first she was just attracted to him, it wasn’t his appearance but his wits. He was handsome, but not as handsome as Luke was, but something on his face made her think that he was reliable. The first night they spent together, when they were forced to sleep in the same tent, she was ecstatic.

She never slept with someone of the opposite sex. Back then, when she ‘mistakenly’ put her hands on Ryu’s thigh she realized that she wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation. She made her best effort to make it look like an accident, but she made sure to rub all the right places trying to arouse Ryu, expecting that he would take the initiative, but he never did.

Every night they spent together she tried over and over to seduce him, at first it was genuine attraction, but then it became the need to prove herself. It hurt her so bad that Anne got so close to Ryu after their ‘escapade’ that she couldn’t bear it anymore. Her self esteem was hurt over and over.

Now she had him all to herself, with the perfect excuse that she needed to take care of him, her silky dress slipped down through her body and fell on the floor.

She got into Ryu’s bed completely naked with a naughty giggle and embraced him while he was asleep. She let her hand roam free, just like she used to do back at the settlement when they slept together.

Helena was as kind and caring as she seemed to be but she was a woman too. Ryu was a bit on the thin side but his skin was smooth and he was fit too, he wasn’t the muscular type, but on her mind he was just perfect. Her delicate fingers ran through his abdomen, but she wouldn’t dare move her hand below.

The situation was so perfect on Helena’s mind she could barely hold the nose bleeding, her face flushed red and her breathing intensified. She was, indeed, desperate for body contact and ever since they came to Ironwoods she has slept alone.

Time passed and she kept herself occupied on Ryu’s body, it was as if she was sculpting him on soft clay with her bare fingers.

Before she wanted to realize it, it was morning already and the sudden movement in the next room brought her back to her senses and she jumped out of the bed and got dressed in the blink of an eye.

A knock on the door later and she stood up and opened the door.

“How is Ryu doing?”

Anne said with bags under her eyes, she couldn’t sleep at all during the night because she was still worried about Ryu.

“He’s fine, he’s been sleeping the whole time, a part of me hoped he would wake up at dawn as always”

Helena sighed disappointedly

“Is that drool on your your face!?”

Anne looked at Helena with a disgusted expression.

“I may have fallen asleep a little”

Helena said as she brushed off the saliva on her cheek. She was so focused on her touch that she failed to notice the stream running down her mouth, but at least she was glad that no one will ever know the true reason.