After four hours of the doctors, Ren was released by the doctors and sent to his and Lucilia's room to recover, where Lucilia attempted to lock everyone outside of it so they could be alone but that didn't work out as Scarlet, Lily and Ashastha rushed into the room with her.
Ren was still lying down on the bed, hazy from all of the pain medicine he got from the doctors.
Ren barely managed to open his eyes which made the girls in the room light up with smiles.
"Ren your awake!" Scarlet said immediately laying down next to him hugging him. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm...still a bit hazy but I'm fine for the most part." Ren replied.
Lucilia, Ashastha, and Lily all sat down on the bed around him.
Lucilia had tears roll down her cheek as she grabbed his hand and asked him "What do you remember Ren?"
Ren did his best to sit up and put his head back on the back of his bed. "I remember fighting that big blue guy and not really winning. After that, I don't remember much."
Lucilia sighed before explaining how everything happened, what happened in his fight against Zaiga, how Eleonora was nearly killed or worse, how Ren managed to save them both, and the fact that he needed life-or-death surgery. When explaining this, Ren didn't even remember saving Eleonora and sprinting with her to the evac ship; he had blacked out by then.
Ren readjusted his seating position before asking Lucilia what was next.
Lucilia explained that next they were going to meet up with Tsukiko and deliver her daughters safely to her, and they were already heading to the target.
"How are her daughters, by the way?" Ren asked.
"Fine, they are currently exploring the ship. They are in a rather positive mood...which is odd considering they were captives..." Scarlet said.
"People deal with things differently; could be that they aren't that affected by it?" Lily commentated.
"Maybe..." Scarlet replied.
"Fated One...are you okay?" Ashastha said asking Ren.
Ren had been trying to gather his thoughts about what had happened and was trying his best to think about any future possibilities, but all of these things had started giving him a headache.
"Yeah, just...my head is starting to hurt." Ren said, putting his hand up to his head.
"Do you need something? We can ask medical for some medicine." Lucilia said with a concerned expression on his face.
Ren sighed before laying his head back down. "Its fine...just need some rest."
Scarlet then chimed in "Do you want me to stay with you?
Then Ashastha interrupted them "No, you don't, you red-haired witch. It should be his fated one that stays with him."
Then Lily chimed in "Uhm...I want to stay with him too."
Lucilia suddenly had a very proud look on her face "All of you are wrong; it's obvious it should be me who rests with him."
"Do I have a say in this?" Ren asked with his eyes closed.
"Sure Ren. You decide which of us rests with you." Lucilia said with a proud smile, almost as if she were guaranteed to be picked.
Ren took a deep breath before saying "None of you."
All four girls jumped back in suprise.
"But Ren..." Scarlet said while pouting.
Ren opened his eyes before saying "I appreciate the fact that all of you want to be here, but each of you has important responsibilities you have to take care of. Scarlet, Lily, you two have to be ready at a moment's notice in case we're attacked, especially since I'm out of commission. Asha, you have to make sure your clan is ready for whatever next step you take. Lucilia, you are running this entire operation; you are needed on the bridge. I'll be fine, girls, just going to take a nap."
The girls all looked at each other and nodded "Fine, but one of us is coming every hour to check on you." Lucilia said.
"Deal." Ren said before closing his eyes again.
The four girls reluctantly left the room after saying bye to Ren, and in the meantime, Ren fell asleep to rest his head, but that didn't stop some people from entering his room.
*A few minutes later*
"We really shouldn't be doing this, Rin..." Rei said in a worried voice.
"It's fine, Rei...after all, they did say we were free to explore the ship." Rin replied with a smile.
The two fox girls had been exploring around the ship and meeting various members of the crew. They had just finished talking with Mae down in engineering, and they learned about the knights and how they worked. Neither of them had seen them in action before and were curious about them.
After learning a bit about the knights, the two once again continued their exploration around the ship, but that was when they reached a closed door in the hallway.
"What room is this?" Rin asked her sister.
"How am I supposed to know?" Rei replied.
Rin then smirked and opened the door, which was left unlocked.
The two were surprised to see the man who saved them from the rebels sleeping peacefully on the bed.
"Rin, we should let him rest." Rei pleaded with her sister quietly,
But Rin was too curious about Ren to listen to her sister. Rin stealthily walked further into the bedroom and wound up right next to the side of his bed that Ren was sleeping on.
"He's handsome..." Rin sounded, with a slight blush on her cheeks.
Rei, who had been standing by the door this entire time, walked over to where her sister was, looked at Ren too, and also developed a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Rin..." Rei said before looking at Ren's sleeping face one more time "We really need to go."
Rin, however, didn't listen to her sister and grabbed the sleeping Ren's hands very gently.
"Thank you...for saving us." Rin whispered.
After thanking him, Rin left the room with Rei still inside. Rei, in a moment filled with hesitation, also touched Ren's hand gently and thanked him before following her sister out of the door.
The two left the hallway together, keeping the fact that they had just seen Ren sleeping a secret to themselves.
"He was so handsome..." Rei said under her breath.
"He was...but don't get any funny ideas, Rei; I had my eyes on him first." Rin said with a proud smile.
"It doesn't even matter...he's betrothed to Princess Lucilia anyway..." Rei said it with a disappointed look on her face.
"Life isn't fair..." Rin commented, nodding in agreement with Rei.
*A few hours later*
Ren had woken up from his nap, looked at his chest, and noticed that he didn't even have a scar. His chest was unblemished; if you looked at him, you wouldn't even be able to tell he had a procedure done.
Ren then realized that he had more energy than he should, and he decided to try and get out of bed.
He placed his feet on the ground and stood up almost without issue; it was almost as if nothing had happened. He then tried to walk, and there was no issue—no lethargy at all. In fact, Ren was almost sure he could do jumping jacks at the moment and be perfectly fine doing so.
"How..."
That was when the door to his room opened, and it was Lily standing there with some food on a silver tray.
"Ren your up?" Lily asked in a surprised voice. She didn't expect Ren to already be up and moving.
"Hey Lily...yeah I feel as good as new...somehow." Ren replied, still trying to figure out why he feels fine.
"Maybe they gave you some special medicine or something?" Lily said as she put the tray of food down.
"Yeah, maybe..." Ren replied.
It was then that Ren noticed the food she carried had two plates of the same meal on them.
"Is that for us?" Ren asked.
Lily blushed immediately before saying to Ren "I was thinking...maybe we have a dinner date between us?"
Ren could see Lily fidgeting with her hands, as she seemed nervous. Ren smiled at Lily before telling her sure, which then led to Lily giving Ren the brightest smile, making Ren's heart melt at the sight.
The two went over to a small table in the room and sat on opposite ends of it.
"Wait...this food...is it what I think it is?" Ren asked with a smile on his face.
"Yup, rib eye steak." Lily replied with a small laugh.
Ren was surprised and asked her how she got this; after all, there's no cow in space.
Lily chucked at Ren's little joke before saying "I described the animal to one of the chefs on the ship, and they said they had a similar animal on Volaria called Brahna. I saw a picture of it, and really the only difference compared to our cows is the color of its skin and the fact that it had two tails. So I asked them if I could make some with the meat they had in storage, and they agreed."
It was then that Ren cut a small piece off the steak with his knife and ate a piece. His face showed no emotion before asking Lily "You made this?"
Lily then got scared, and thoughts flooded through her head "What if it isn't good? Will he be disappointed? What am I going to do?"
During Lily's panic, Ren had a smile on her face, which Lily noticed during her internal breakdown. Ren looked up at Lily and said "It's really good." with a giant smile on his face as he started to cut up a second piece before eating it.
Seeing this made Lily's heart melt before she joined him in eating, both of them smiling while eating it.
During their meal, the two exchanged some small talk, some laughs, and even some stories from their time back on Earth. It was like a real date between them.
After their meal, Ren said he wanted to take a quick shower, and maybe afterwards the two could watch a movie or something together.
Lily nodded with a blush on her face, and Ren entered the bathroom.
"That was a fun date." Ren said as he turned on the shower faucet.
As Ren was washing his hair, he heard the door to the shower open and saw such a glorious sight that his face blushed as red as a tomato.
"Lily?"
AN: You already know a 18+ chapter is going up on Patreon for the Chapter 69(Nice.)
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