Chapter 45 - Another broken girl joins the party

Chapter 45: Chapter 45 - Another broken girl joins the party PoV: Aurea Annes I wake up feeling a bit groggy. There’s something soft and warm on my side, but I’m on a cold and hard surface. Where am I? There is a ceiling over me. A stone ceiling. I’m not in the Barrens, then... The Barrens... Ah, yeah... We went to a dungeon. This is the ceiling of the dungeon. The scorpion! Wait, how am I not dead? I can smell the scent of blood. Lots of blood. I raise my left hand so I can see it. As I suspected, it’s completely soaked in blood. But the blood is dried already, so it’s like a crust over my skin and clothes. Wait, why am I not feeling pain? I remember, my foot... I try to move my feet, and they are both there. I am even able to feel one foot with the other. The left foot is just without its boot. Was it all a dream, after all? No, but the blood is here and very real. And the boot is not there. What happened? Where is the scorpion? Did I kill it with that last aria? I make some effort to sit up, but there’s something over my chest. I reach my hand to it, and it’s... soft? I turn my face to the right, and to my shock, there’s a girl there. She seems to be unconscious, and she is the one pinning me down with a protective hug. What is she doing here? Is she Cailleach? With extreme care, I take her arm from over me and manage to free myself and sit up. Now I can take a good look around us. We are still in the same chamber, the barrier is still there, and nothing seems to have changed at all. Except for the fact that the scorpion is nowhere to be seen. And instead of the scorpion, there’s this gorgeous naked young woman who looks too much like the depictions of Cailleach I spent so many hours analyzing yesterday. Was she the scorpion, after all? I activate the Creature Analysis skill and focus on her. ---------- Name: Cailleach Race: ??? Level: 9999 HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? FP: ???/??? ---------- So, she is the scorpion, after all. I’ll ignore the absurd level for now. If she’s the one who created the system, it’s no surprise she would add some cheats for herself. Oh, now that description on the barrier makes sense. ’A barrier that seals a monster-type creature.’ The monster-type creature is Cailleach, and the scorpion wasn’t a guard or anything. It’s understandable, now, how mad and hungry that scorpion was. But... how did it recover from its mental state? Should I use ’she’ and ’her’ instead of ’it’ and ’its’ now? Did she eat some part of me, and did the hunger subside? I take a look at my own stats... My HP is full, but my MP is almost completely spent. I have only barely the amount I would need to recover after passing out from mana exhaustion. Did she feed on my mana? Was that how she returned to her senses? Was it her who healed me, then? I see my boot a few meters away, exactly where I saw it fall during the battle. A quick glance is enough to tell me everything I needed to know about its contents. I don’t think I’ll want to recover that boot anymore. I look back at the girl again, making my best to ignore the fact she is naked. She most probably is the one who healed me. Now I feel bad for all those nasty attacks I unleashed on the scorpion. Even after such a deadly battle, she went and saved me. She doesn’t seem like a bad person. And knowing what the goddess did to her, she is a victim as much as myself, my mother, Yaci, and everyone else. I’m too small to carry her in my arms, even with the strength given by the level up and the strengthening aria, so I decide to just stay with her until she wakes up. I just go retrieve the backpack I left on the other side of the barrier before the fight. As soon as I get back, the crystal rod with the automatic cleaning magic activates. In an instant, all the blood and gore and every other telltale of our battle disappeared. Including my boot. But at that moment I hear a yawn. The girl is stirring and seems to be waking up, so I sit at her side. "Good morning." "Huh?" The girl snaps completely awake as soon as she hears my voice and sits up, fully guarded. "Hey, don’t worry. You’re the one who saved me, right?" "Ohhhh, right. I remember now. I’m so relieved that you are well now. I’m so, so, so, so sorry for what I did to you." "No problem. You didn’t do it on purpose, did you?" "N-no... But I’m sorry nonetheless. You came here just to save me, and I treated you like that." Wait, what? How does she know about that? "I’m sorry about that as well. During the healing process I might have... connected to your soul. I had to do it because you were almost dying." "So... that means you saw my memories?" "Yes. I’m sorry." "How much...?" "A lot. About Earth and everything." "So you know... About the reason why I came to save you as well." "I do. And I will help you. I have a score to settle, after all." The second half of her phrase carried a bloodlust so strong it made me tremble. I try to shift the focus of conversation by opening my backpack and handing her a coat I have so she can cover herself. I also take some food and water for us. "My friends are upstairs, but we need to recover a bit before going. I think that they will have some spare clothing for you." "Thank you." We eat in silence for some time, until she speaks again. "My own memories from the time before the sealing are very fragmented and all focused on that woman. I think that she did something to me to store my memories about the system so she can use them for reference." I nod silently, unsure about what to say to her. "Knowing her, those things are probably in the underground of some of her churches, with barriers like this one." "Our silver lining is that she left some loopholes here for her followers to enter, which I exploited." I say. "Yeah, that is very in character for her. She was always too relaxed with security. I was the one too... unghhhh." She grimaced, as if assaulted by a very strong headache. "Cailleach? Are you okay?" She raises her palm for me to wait, which I heed. After some moments she returns to normal, her voice a bit somber. "It seems that when I try to access some of my memories, I get that headache. It’s probably the parts she stole." "Then we need to recover them for you." She nods thoughtfully, then asks me something. "Just one thing, please... I would prefer if you stopped using that name to address me." "No problem. Would you mind telling me why? It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it." "Ah, nothing too big. When I met her, I didn’t have a name. So she gave me that one. I don’t want to use anything that came from her." "I... understand. I’m sorry for everything you’ve suffered." "It’s okay. You have nothing to apologize for. You’re not the one who used me for years and then betrayed me." I have nothing to say to that. It pains me that she suffered so much. We stay in an awkward silence for some time, until I finally speak. "If you want to rebuild a new life for yourself, I will help you. If you want revenge, I will hold her in place while you make her suffer as much as you want. You may count on me."