Cassian slowly woke up, clutching her head.
A dull pain throbbed behind her temples.
She had only had nightmares.
Horrible, vivid nightmares.
Hiro appearing in every single one of them.
“I’ve seen horrors…”
She shook her head to dispel the images.
She suddenly looked around in confusion.
She was in a bed.
An extremely comfortable large bed with silk sheets.
But she didn’t recognize the place at all.
The walls were adorned with ancient tapestries. The furniture looked expensive. Nothing felt familiar.
“Where am I?”
Looking to the side, she noticed Hiro sitting calmly on the edge of the bed.
He was watching her.
Before she could jolt violently in fear, Hiro abruptly pulled her into his arms.
“CASSIAN!”
He hugged her tightly.
“I was so worried! You weren’t waking up! It’s been weeks!”
Cassian froze completely for a second, arms pinned against her body.
What the hell is this?
Then it hit her all at once.
The memories came back like a violent flash.
Haloy. His arm piercing straight through her stomach.
The excruciating pain. Hot blood pouring out.
She immediately placed her trembling hands on her abdomen.
Nothing.
No hole. No pain.
Her clothes weren’t even damaged.
Not a single tear. Not a single bloodstain.
“How long was I out?” she asked, voice a little hoarse.
“Almost three weeks.”
“WHAT?! THREE WEEKS?!”
Cassian was deeply stunned.
Is it even possible to sleep that long? This is the first time this has ever happened to me.
Did someone feed me? Hydrate me? Change me?
She preferred not to think about it.
Anyway, she immediately thought of Haloy again.
And it instantly pissed her off.
A cold fury rose inside her.
“Did you kill him?” she asked coldly, eyes narrowed.
Internally, she was absolutely furious at Haloy.
How dare he do that to me? To ME? Me, Cassian? No one does that to me.
Hiro visibly hesitated.
“I did win… but not exactly the way you’re thinking.”
“What? What does that mean?”
“The fight against Haloy was really tough at first. Extremely tough. He was incredibly powerful. But at one specific moment, I started seriously gaining the upper hand.”
He awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“Then Haloy suddenly started clutching his ass in pain and saying—I quote—that dumping everything all at once had been a terrible mistake.”
Cassian blinked several times.
“Wait. What?”
“He literally said the adrenaline had worn off.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Cassian processed it very slowly.
Her brain refused to accept the information.
“Haloy… shit himself?”
Hiro nodded with extreme embarrassment, slightly averting his gaze.
“Yeah. But that was before our main confrontation. I was pretty shocked too when I heard it straight from his mouth.”
“WHAT?!”
Cassian had absolutely no idea whether she should laugh hysterically or cry from sheer frustration.
That asshole who ran me through literally shat himself?
“Anyway,” Hiro continued quickly, clearly uncomfortable with the topic, “Haloy, seeing he was in serious trouble and was definitely going to lose the fight, suddenly took back every last drop of mana he had originally given to the villagers of Lapithathon.”
“And then what happened?”
“The fight got extremely intense after that.” Hiro looked thoughtfully out the window. “He became terrifying. But at a critical moment, Haloy’s body started seriously malfunctioning. Like it was completely unable to handle that massive amount of power dumped into him all at once.”
He clenched his fist.
“He was casting absolutely horrifying magic. Completely destroying the region with his overwhelming power. Explosions everywhere. The whole forest was on fire.”
Hiro shook his head.
“But his body literally said no. It refused to keep up.”
“No? What do you mean?”
“Yeah. He was shaking violently. Coughing up huge amounts of blood. His eyes were changing color in completely uncontrolled, chaotic ways. His movements became clumsy.”
Hiro let out a deep sigh.
“Haloy, clearly seeing that things were getting way too physically difficult for him, finally decided to flee like a coward.”
“FLEE?! HE FLED?!”
Cassian suddenly leaned toward Hiro, utterly shocked and outraged.
“Yeah. He shouted that it wasn’t fair,” Hiro continued with frustration. “That he deserved to be in peak condition. To be in the best possible shape to fight. As if something or someone was deliberately trying to weaken him so he would ultimately be defeated.”
Hiro gritted his teeth.
“And you just let him go like that?!”
“He literally catapulted himself extremely far away while screaming that he would get his revenge one day. I tried to chase him, but he was already gone. Vanished.”
Cassian clenched her teeth in pure rage.
Haloy escaped. He absolutely should have died. Paid horribly for his atrocious crimes.
Internally, she was mostly intensely furious about what Haloy had personally done to HER.
Not really about the other people in the village.
That bastard ran me through and he just gets away with it?
Hiro, internally, was deeply disappointed that he hadn’t been able to completely eliminate Haloy.
He could have gotten so many more excellent rewards.
But the main system quest had still been officially a total success.
[QUEST COMPLETED: LIBERATE THE VILLAGE OF LAPITHATHON FROM HALOY’S TYRANNICAL RULE]
[REWARD: +5 LEVELS, TITLE: LIBERATOR OF THE OPPRESSED]
[BONUS: +1500 EXPERIENCE POINTS]
He had gained a massive number of levels in one go.
No villager had Haloy’s mana inside them anymore.
They were all free.
On the other hand, he unfortunately hadn’t been able to find the unknown adventurer to politely return the borrowed sword.
He had still actively searched for a full thirty long seconds.
Really.
He didn’t even know the guy’s name. His face was blurry in his memory.
After a moment of hesitation, he had finally given up completely and kept the sword for himself.
The system had automatically counted it as a legitimate quest-completion reward.
[ITEM ACQUIRED: INCANDESCENT LAVA SWORD (QUALITY: RARE)]
[DESCRIPTION: A SWORD FORGED IN VOLCANIC DEPTHS. DEALS ADDITIONAL FIRE DAMAGE. ACTIVE SKILL: LAVA ERUPTION (COOLDOWN: 60 SECONDS)]
This sword was objectively far better than Hiro’s old cracked and broken one.
By some incredible, providential coincidence, it perfectly matched his current level.
Level 157.
Moreover, it came with its own magical abilities.
It was a genuine rare magic weapon.
Hiro was secretly thrilled.
“Haloy absolutely should have paid dearly for all his horrible crimes,” Hiro said in a serious tone.
He looked directly into Cassian’s eyes.
“But as soon as the group finally made it safely back to town, we immediately informed the adventurers’ guild about every single detail of the Lapithathon quest and the atrocities committed.”
“And? What did they say?”
“The guild is now actively and seriously searching intensively for Haloy. They’ve updated his bounty. It’s huge now.”
Hiro sighed in frustration.
“But honestly, I’m really not sure how effective they’ll actually be. After all, Haloy already had a substantial bounty on his head for years and was never caught or even approached.”
Cassian desperately tried to calm down.
Breathe. Deep breaths. Calm down.
She absolutely could not appear too aggressive or suspicious.
She sincerely tried to reach inner peace.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
It didn’t work at all.
She couldn’t do it.
The rage was still boiling.
“Where are we, anyway?” she finally asked, looking around.
“Ah! It’s an incredible story!” Hiro visibly lit up. “After finally defeating Haloy and leaving Lapithathon, on the way back, I saved an elegant young noblewoman from aggressive wild beasts that were violently attacking her on an isolated road.”
“And? What’s the connection?”
“She generously rewarded me by giving me this entire manor!”
Cassian slowly blinked, incredulous.
“What? She gave you a manor? Just like that?”
“Yeah! Incredible, right? Apparently it’s a manor that has never been used or lived in for mysterious reasons she carefully avoided explaining clearly. But she gave it to me for free! A gift!”
Hiro was smiling like a child.
Cassian was deeply stunned.
Who literally gives away entire manors just to thank complete strangers?
She stared intensely at Hiro in silence.
This is clearly the kind of absurd event that only happens to protagonists in novels.
Hiro is literally drowning in providential good opportunities.
It’s ridiculous.
“Speaking of clothes, by the way,” Cassian said suddenly.
“What? What clothes?”
“My clothes. The ones I’m wearing right now.” She pointed at her stomach. “I got brutally impaled through the gut. How exactly is my outfit perfectly fine now? No hole. No tear.”
“Oh! That!” Hiro awkwardly scratched his head. “Lena just carefully sewed up the damaged part with thread. She’s good at sewing.”
Cassian slowly understood.
But…
She was literally only wearing that one outfit.
Still the same oversized black clothes.
“Wait. No one seriously thought to completely change my clothes? Or buy me entirely new decent ones?”
Hiro blinked innocently.
“Uh… now that you explicitly mention it… we absolutely didn’t think of it at all.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”
Cassian let out an extremely deep, almost theatrical sigh.
“I honestly feel like I’m literally cursed to wear these same clothes forever. Like a permanent curse.”
Hiro found her oddly funny.
He grinned widely.
“I’m really glad to see you’re okay. That you’re finally awake. I honestly didn’t expect you to wake up today specifically.”
“Huh? Why today?”
“I was just coming to check on you one last time before leaving for a quick guild quest with Lena and Lucia. We’re leaving in an hour.”
He calmly stood up from the bed.
“Even though you’re awake now, you absolutely need to rest more. Stay in bed. We won’t be gone long at all. Just a few days. Maximum one week.”
Cassian suddenly grabbed his sleeve.
“Thank you,” she murmured, visibly embarrassed.
Hiro looked at her, clearly surprised and touched.
His eyes widened slightly.
“You should really thank Lucia for healing you.”
He shyly scratched the back of his head, clearly not expecting a sincere thank-you from Cassian at all.
“I… yeah. Okay.”
Cassian thought intensely to herself:
As long as I’m stuck in this shitty world, keeping Hiro close to me is clearly and objectively the absolute best way to survive.
Anyway, the entire world is actively conspiring to keep me trapped in this frustrating position.
Hiro perfectly proved my theory back in Lapithathon.
As long as I stay obediently inside Hiro’s protective circle, I’m absolutely guaranteed to survive.
But obviously, that comes with extremely painful social constraints.
It hurts horribly to openly admit it, but I clearly have to force myself to play the role of one of Hiro’s many love interests.
Currently, the distant girl who isn’t very emotionally open, slowly and awkwardly opening up to the protagonist after being dramatically saved.
It’s so awkward.
I honestly feel like I’m doing it really badly.
She discreetly raised her eyes to carefully observe Hiro’s reaction, firmly believing he had probably noticed her clumsy, forced act.
Hiro was intensely staring at the ceiling, carefully avoiding looking directly at Cassian.
Cassian was genuinely surprised.
She had absolutely no idea how to correctly interpret this strange reaction.
She couldn’t clearly see his full facial expression.
Why is he looking away like that? What’s with this weird behavior?
Lucia suddenly burst into the room without knocking.
“HIRO, HAVE YOU SEEN MY BOOTS—”
She froze completely.
Seeing Cassian fully awake and sitting up, she shouted so loudly and hysterically that Lena immediately came running too.
“CASSIAN IS AWAKE?! SHE’S AWAKE?!”
“WHAT?! CASSIAN?!”
Lena rushed in.
Both of them were absolutely and incredibly happy about Cassian’s miraculous awakening.
They were practically jumping for joy.
“WE SERIOUSLY THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO SLEEP FOR AT LEAST ANOTHER WHOLE MONTH!”
“HOW DO YOU FEEL EXACTLY?!”
“ARE YOU HUNGRY?! DO YOU WANT SOMETHING TO EAT?!”
“DO YOU WANT FRESH WATER?!”
“CAN YOU MOVE PROPERLY?!”
Cassian was completely overwhelmed by the rapid-fire questions.
After a very long time filled with conversations, detailed explanations, and check-ups, they finally left for their important quest.
Leaving Cassian completely alone in the enormous manor.
Cassian looked much more carefully at the manor around her.
The extremely dark and eerie corridors. The large dusty windows. The ancient furniture covered in ghostly white sheets.
Now that she was completely alone here in absolute silence…
“This place is really creepy,” she joked out loud to break the silence.
But obviously no one answered.
The silence was absolutely deafening.
She nervously looked around.
Then sighed deeply.
“Great. Really great.”
She slowly got out of bed.
Her legs trembled slightly.
Three weeks bedridden.
She walked to the window and looked outside.
The manor was surrounded by dense forest.
No other houses visible.
Completely isolated.
“Why didn’t anyone use this manor?” she murmured.
She shivered slightly.
“Okay. I’m going to explore. Find the kitchen. Eat something. Yes. That’s the plan.”
She left the room.
The corridor was long.
Very long.
And dark.
