"I see that you have taken a liking to getting weak, dearest A.G." My knees are still on the floor sitting on my lower legs. The speaker of that word sat on the chair in front of me, dropping the contract right in front of me. I could ask for anybody's advice but his, but this man really annoyed me something you can call a thorn to my own pride. Even though he is annoying, he definitely can point out flaws about my decision-making skills. "You fall so easily with this contract, as always. What should I even do to you?" Upon rising on the chair, he breathed a throaty breath, and I felt the swift gush of wind towards the side of my face. "Should I tie you up with red ropes and flowers all over you, and hang you? Let you walk naked for days?"
"Get you ashamed of not spawning of good ideas."
Ah. He intends to deliver a resounding kick in my direction.
I kept my face down, permitting him to execute his intentions.
The impact of his foot on my jaw sent my temple crashing to the ground.
"Ah… I should beat you more up." He stopped on my face, adn punched my guts. I could name of all the attacks he did and every single one of them was intended to make me bleed out as if I'll get all my organs into a point of iredeemable disrepair.
Ah, this is trully how Nana deals with me.
I got beaten by him if I did something worse in my decision making skills. It's a bizarre thing that we had agreed upon.
"I wanna kick you."
"Hah? Isn't that too much?!" The swordsman crossed his hands and waved as if telling no. "You can't do that!!! She's a she!!!"
"Do it looked like it mattered to me." He takes a seat just right in front of me as he playin' on my neck with his shiv. "Aside from that I need to vent out my anger and give her something to think about. She likes it. Ask her myself."
"When during a war it doesn't matter if you are a man, a woman or anything you identify with." the blade glazed under my chin cutting it off feeling the pain from the tiny cut. It was even more hurting than the one on my spine.
"Hah?! What?!" Sliver shook my shoulders. "You're really into men who's hurting you???!! Why didn't you tell me?!" I pushed his hands away. It's not like I like it though. It was this agreement I had with him alone. He'll hit me when I do choices that the answers aren't closed doors or one why. He said it'll knock out of sense out of me.
"Hey! Tell me you really like men who hurt you?! Are you a sort of pain junkie?"
"Aren't you the same too?" HE pulled my hair.
"I'm different." Sliver answered back.
"Hey, only hurt me when I make wrong decisions and you can see other ways to do it. Not hurt me whenever you want, stupid archer."
"Tch. Until when you're gonna call me 'archer.' I have a name A.G.. The name is-"
"Orsetto Schulte! What the heck are you doing?" The blairing sound of the morning reprimanding isn't a good thing to hear when after the blasts after the blasts from the war, the guild master walked down the stairs. "You're in my guild, you know. Anything you do reflects my guild members. If you've written a contract to hurt each other then do it at the backside of the guild or better yet the grounds of Sacred Heart." His eyes sharpened while looking at him. He always gets like this. Over protective in different ways. I've always admired that side of him.
I plan to be like him.
"Tch. Hey, you musky devil. Do you plan to act righteous now huh?"
"Respect should now be ingrained in your brain you know. In this world-"
"-Play pretending to be an angel even you've already landed your feet on the ground."
"-You… nasty ba-"
"Okay, one balled man."
Well, if I have balls, not really though.
"Can we stop talking about my balls? That's not the issue here."
"Technically, it is… in some way." Ors lifted my chin with his shoes, "Hey, get up and heal your wounds now. Torentino wants you to clean those up." He then hands out a bouquet of flowers towards me as I reach my hand towards it, every nerve of my body moving as if anticipating the plant itself. The absorption of contents that was needed for healing the body. It goes like that for the healer and a few of the people I know. There wasn't an exact call for that name nor the origins of why some healers can't heal using the external application of these plants. In this wold though, the healing ability can be learned but to some degree or point but up to what, or is it limitless. It is an unsure and indefinite one as long as the people who looked about it knows. But as far as I know, healing can be done in three ways: internal, external and the last one was through some sort of related to elemental or belief. The last one was just a mere speculation of mine.
As I stretched out my arms slowly healing, I shuffled on the pockets of my shirt and pants to find the small glass jar filled with a compressed plants, as I took some of those out I found the one I'm searching for. It was labeled.
For Everything
"What's with that label?" Guild Master Rorentino leans in, his eyebrows meeting in the middle and eyes squinting.
"I got tired of having all the medicine in tiny jars."
"That is what you use to yourself?" He inhaled sharply. "Should I just monitor you for the next quest huh? Especially with this guy." He's being too worried for a healer.
"Tch." Orse rolled his eyes drinking the wine he mixed with some animal meat he picked up from somewhere.
"You gotta stop influencing Avante." That's what Sliver said before after seeing Orse drinking full bodied geko on his own wine. He said it was a cure for his illness, his shortness of breath when we run or walk, any streghnous moves and sensitivity to dust. It was a hindrance during the time we teamed up before. There was an ongoing belief in his country that it helps those people who have the same illness as him. This was the reason why he becamed an archer than having to force himself to face hand to hand combat. "No sad back story?" Sliver commented once about it and all Setto said was just a shaking on his head. It was enough at least for Sliver.
I don't want to know about Setto and where his eagerness to punch me came from.
"I should have just came home with you." Setto exhales. "So that you wont do any idiotic decisions."
"I'm sorry."
"Your "sorry" won't heal anything nor fix anything, especially your decision." he rubbed his face with his palm, obviously dissatisfied.
He scares me sometimes. I couldn't seem to know what was in his mind.
Torentino cupped my face and messed with my cheeks by pinching it as my wounds started to heal, then looking at my arms looking for wounds.
"Stop," I muttered, "I'm still healing."
"Hah, what is even this kind of deal? This sucks, you know. This van got you killed, my lady!" He kept his hands on my cheek massaging it. "My lady, stop this. He's obviously enjoying this! A goddamned sadist."
"Sadist?"
"People who like to harm people." Hr leaned towards me whispering, "They get off with that."
"Tch. Where do you even get that definition? Who brought that wrong idea into your head?"
"I read it to the library at the gardens of Sacred Heart."
"You read it?" Setto scoffed and rolled his eyes shoving the empty cup farther away from the table. "You're even more moronic than I thought."
"They said it was from Sir Sade's writing—"
"You should have read better. You see, only five of his works were sadistic and he did it as a marketing strategy. Aside from that a sadist can enjoy something without getting off of it."
"You made it sound so worse you know."
Guildmaster Torentino leaned down. "He must have a preference for that."
"You can go ask him right now. I've heard he is urgently residing in the north of the town. Or better yet I bring him in." Setto grinned wickedly as he walked to the counter pushing his glass as he filled it with beer. I shuddered at what the beer could taste like after he's been drinking medicine with lizard on his drinks for the past few days.
"Wanna bet on it?" Although they calmly paced their way out of the guild, their excitement seemed to radiate off of both of them. I couldn't just help but just think how they were like kids. It doesn't matter to me if he was that kind of person. What matters to me is for someone to knock me out of my senses.
I grabbed a few carpentry tools and went out to buy supplies from the carpentry shop downtown. It's from the money that the governor gave me the last time we had a conversation. He told me I was good at servicing him and attending to his needs so he had given me a big amount. This was an easy job to do after all that I went through as an adventurer. In this job, the pleasure and pain comes together much like adventuring but no more deaths, injuries nor the pressure of not bringing any results. This was slightly better.
"I don't know why you liked pain so much." The governor grunted as I settled on his leg. "You know you could have lived a happy life with me back when my family proposed for you to be my wife." His rough fingers untied my braids. "I've wanted to hold you ever since I met you and pull you out from that job of yours. It took me quite a surprise that you now wanted me to take you in as a wife." I place my hand on his chest.
"Cause it's from here that calls me to do greater things for the orphanage where I was placed in life."
"I wanted to keep you from what you've said." He placed a hand on my cheeks and his fingers squeezed it tenderly. "I don't want to use you because of your needs."
"Use me for your needs. Be rough." Men in my life back in the orphanage were rough about me. I don't see why not to do it. This man was one of them. He was one of those people who assaulted me before he was adopted. "I hate that I ingrained that thing inside your head, now you look like a bitch that needs some scolding. I was hoping that I could be sweeter to you this day but I can't help but fall for your sweet words." He grips my leg and pulls me closer, feeling his chest on mine. "I think I need to get you wounded from the inside since you liked it so much. Tell me Ava," he aside from his friends called me that. I don't mind it really but it placed some bad taste on my tongue as he called me that as he assaulted me before. "Do you still hate me?"
"I still do."
"If I give you money for the rebuilding of the orphanage, will you still loathe me?"
"I still do." I admittedly muttered.
"I'm so glad you still loathe me. You see, love doesn't last a long time but hate does. I want you to engrave my name in your heart as someone you hate so you can think of me more than I can think of you." His hand glided toward my back and mave its way underneath my dirty shirt, which made me shiver. He burrows his head on the crook of my neck.
"I love you so much but you can't reciprocate that because of the stupid shit I did back when I was influenced to do horrible things to you. I'm beyond irredeemable." He whispered.
"Yeah, you are." I answered back without loathe or hate but just the feeling that I've observed.
"Yet you wanted me to rebuild that orphanage where I took advantage of you? How cruel."
"Elijah. I plan it to be a house for the academy I'll build."
"You still wanted that after all the adventuring you did?"
"I do. Much like how you wanted me."
"You've got to stop torturing me like this." he groaned as he said those words.
"I want to rebuild your burned room too and recreate what you did to me before."
"Hah. Stop saying that. I always know you have a soft heart not to do that." Elijah, the governor and the one who assaulted me before kisses my knuckles. "You always do."
As I went towards the old orphanage I could see that it almost looked like it's abandoned. Time to work once again, I suppose. I brought out my tools and started reparing the woodworking.
"You came back." The girl that I was talking to through letters in the battle looked at me. "I always knew you'd come back." She mailed me her own illustration Of her once, she said she wore pigtails and had some green laces on it all the time. I scolded her once for using some old green lace she found. I told her it might have some deadly chemicals like those old people use on fabric and things they sold out in the market. So I bought her a new one with much safer pigment.
"Annie."
"I'm glad you remembered me even just from the letters." She sighed as she picked up a few of the wood and helped me out.
"Why wouldn't I? You were the one who told me some of the news here in the orphanage."
"You are a legendary nurse here. You're a hero who meets almost all people and visits all places in the world that's so much better than this place. You're gonna forget about this place surely."
I laughed. Am I supposed to feel pity? Am I supposed to feel sad? "No, I won't."
As we continued the work the airbetween us grew a little silent. Maybe she's not much of a talker than in the mail.
"You're not gonna say because this is where I was born bullshit?" She said.
"No."