World: MSS - Loading...

  “M-mister, Sis Aurora, her back… and Darwin…” Stole walked towards the two, each step dragging on the floor as if she was being dragged forward by something unseen.

  “Stole, get back.” I pushed past her.

  My heart was pounding and it made my head hurt.

  I’d made the right choice, hadn’t I?

  I did. But sometimes, the right choice leaves you feeling like shit.

  Walking past Stole, I kneeled next to Aurora. Usually in a situation like this, one would imagine that their heart would be threatening to beat right out of their chest. It was the opposite. My heart grew cold and steady, the beats dying down to the barest minimum in the stillness of my decision.

  This was bound to happen eventually. There was no way I could keep everyone alive till the end.

  Even still, I couldn’t help but pray as I leaned down to put my ear on Aurora’s chest to try and listen for her heartbeat.

  ‘Please, please, please, please, please, I’ll do anything, please please please.’

  Nothing.

  Nothing but the hollow ring of metal accompanied by something struggling, a rasping sort of sound that was fighting to get out.

  She was still breathing.

  Oh god, Aurora was still breathing.

  “Wake that priest up, now!” I thundered and took out my sword, channeling aura into it.

  “H-he’s unconscious, and all his arms and legs look all weird and-” Stole stammered, in shock.

  “Sssstill yourssself, Whelp! Right now, every ssssecond countssss!”

  I had wanted to turn around and reprimand Stole. She was panicking, allowing despair and the overwhelming weight of the situation to crush her decision making. Luckily, I wasn’t alone. Skaris stepped in to get her back into gear while Kyrian went over to Darwin, rummaging around his bag and bringing out health potions.

  While they were doing that, I cut into Aurora’s armor.

  “Come on, come on, FUCK!” I struggled a bit and cursed, even my Aura struggling to find a good angle to cut her armor off. It looked like someone took a soda can and crushed it in their palm, and every sharp edge had found themselves into Aurora’s innards, if not crushing them from within.

  “I ssshall help, Sssslaveborn.” Skaris walked over and grabbing the edges of the armor, began to heave.

  “Stole, pour these health potions on her wounds!”

  “But they’re covered by her armor!”

  “Wherever it’s covered in blood! Now!”

  And began the excruciating battle of keeping Aurora alive while ripping that armor off.

  With a stomach-churning sound of flesh being torn asunder, it came free.

  Stole turned away from the scene with a sob.

  It wasn’t pretty.

  Her intestines had come free with the momentum and I didn’t bother with things like disinfectant. If bacteria was a real thing in this world, everyone would be dead by now. Either they’re fake or the potions take care of them. I grabbed her intestines and began shoving them back into her stomach, fighting not to look too close at the concave cavity of her chest.

  “Ssssshe’s not breathing!” Skaris hissed alarmingly.

  “Her heart’s still beating! Keep pouring those health potions, don’t stop moving goddamit!” Everything was said in a harsh whisper, as if somehow yelling too loud might affect Aurora somehow.

  “I’ve heard about this, when someone’s heart is beating but they stop breathing; they end up in this vegetable like state. W-we have to get her to breathe somehow!” Stole cried out.

  Fuck, I wans’t a doctor. I was way too ill-equipped to deal with something like this. Was there an actual difference between not breathing and the heart stopping its beat? How the hell was I supposed to know?

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “Lock, the Priest is awake!”

  “Get him over here!”

  Darwin came over, shivering like a frightened rabbit.

  I could understand. A boy whose mind was not entirely right, having to face the horrors of this world not to mention coming face to face with it and feeling the brush of Death’s lips upon his own. His eyes were unfocused and I fought not to slap him into focus, with someone like him it might prove to be harmful more than helpful.

  Instead I grabbed his forearms. He struggled, whimpering but I was stronger than him and I dragged him palms over Aurora’s chest cavity.

  “Start healing, now.”

  “UH, I- i-i-i-”

  “Heal!” I cried out and practically threw him at her.

  Then putting my lip to hers, I started giving Aurora mouth-to-mouth CPR.

  I was clutching at straws now. I had seen Tanya do it for Coum back in the Scavenger’s Hideout. Would it work? What if Aurora had brain damage already? Was it too late? Was I even doing it correctly?

  And with a sudden body-wracking cough, she vomited blood into my mouth.

  I leaned away from her, spitting out the mess of phlegm and blood that was expunged into my mouth. There was no disgust, there was no time to wipe my mouth clean.

  I just looked at her chest, rising and falling steadily, with Darwin’s glowing hand hovering over.

  “Oh thank the gods. Oh thanks the gods.” I kept saying.

  Kyrian knelt down, taking over Stole’s duty and pouring health potions all over the extra scrapes and bruises she had. Skaris put Aurora’s head to the side so that she wouldn’t choke on her own blood.

  Health potions are worth hundreds of gold. But none of us cared about that right now.

  All the wounds closed up eventually. The only thing that remained were the crusted remains of blood, sticking to her skin like ugly scars. Still, she continued breathing. It was an eerie look, a combination of Aurora’s naturally marble-complexion, a skin free of any marrings and her statuesque beauty made me afraid that this was how she was going to look for the rest of her life.

  Just still.

  “She’s not waking up.” Stole whispered.

  “She will.” I said. “She has to.” It came out harsher than I wanted it to.

  Kyrian sat down next to me. “Lock, you saved all of us.”

  “...I know.”

  “If it wassss anyone’ssss, it was mine. I overreached. I… I sssshould not have been in that possssition. Vetilian wassss trying to defend me.”

  “It’s not your fault either, Skaris.” Kyrian muttered and there was heat in those words. “It’s her job as the tank to defend the rest of us and she was… she risked her life doing fulfilling her responsibilities.”

  Stole remained silent, kneeling next to Aurora. She dabbed at the woman’s face with a piece of wet cloth. Darwin hid behind her, continuing to shoot me furtive glances.

  Another few minutes passed.

  “Mister, she’s going to be alright… right?”

  “Let’s wait a bit longer.”

  How long had her breathing stopped for? Before the Samsoogook decided to stomp on her or after? Maybe if I could calculate how long the oxygen supply to her brain had been cut off, there was a Priest out there who could help. Or maybe a doctor from my own world who got isekai’d into MSS, similar to me.

  We waited in silence, only the ragged breathing of Aurora keeping us company.

  “It’s my fault.” Kyrian said at last.

  “It’s no one’s fault.” I said automatically. “You said it, she was simply fulfilling her role as the party’s Shielder. I don’t want anyone to start playing this blame game.”

  Because in the end, the responsibility for this fell to me. I said it too, that I’d take responsibility for everything. In the heat of the battle, I made the call as the Party Leader.

  But Kyrian continued.

  “I’ve been suspecting her of being a Turinan Spy.”

  “...What?” I looked away from Aurora, trying to search Kyrian’s expression.

  Skaris hissed in surprise. Stole and Darwin were the only ones to not react.

  “I’ve been jabbing at her with my words. Trying to catch her in the act. Trying to see if she was communicating with any of the other Scions of the Bastards of the Great Houses.” Kyrian was barely old enough to have graduated college. He brought his knees closer to himself, hugging them together. “She never said a thing about it. She just took it all… like…”

  “Like a Sssshielder.” Skaris chimed in.

  Kyrian let out a short laugh, void of mirth. It was one of disbelief, mostly at himself and at the situation before us. “Perhaps she moved in the way to prove me wrong.”

  “Kyrian, don’t be a fool.” I said.

  He stopped talking, his lips pressed together in a thin line.

  “Don’t disrespect her sacrifice like that. A Shielder takes the hits meant for their party members. End of story.” I looked at him.

  The young mage just stared at Aurora’s body.

  “Aurora’s not the type to be shaken by things like that. We both know that.” Gods, he looked so young. She looked so young, even Skaris. And Stole… don’t even get me started on her. Granted, my body is around the same age but my mind was in its 30s.

  What could I say here?

  “I think she understood why you acted the way you did, Kyrian.” I said at last.

  Kyrian looked at me, eyes reddening from his robes. “She understood?”

  “You’ve been betrayed by one of the Great Houses. Hell, you were basically thrown aside by your own Noble family.” He winced at my words, but I continued. “I wasn’t there, but it doesn’t look like the Akka Xaluds were big on creating a party through things like trust. Only through sheer ability and politics. Bloodlines.” I pursed my lips, thinking of what to say next. “You were hurt by them… and our of all of us, don’t you think Aurora would understand that pain the most?”

  A Bastard Mage born to a Maid of a Minor Noble Family. A Mage whose mother’s head was delivered on a platter by his young half-brother who was the legitimate successor of his family.

  And Aurora, the bastard of a Great House of Turina. Trained from a young age to be nothing but a weapon to be wielded for the House, and then for the Nation.

  It wasn’t hard to imagine the similarities between the two fates. A younger version of Kyrian, studying in the Mage Towers, sending letters back to his mother. His lineage as a Bastard must have been a sore spot among the other humans, especially those who came from Nobility. He might have found his place among the other bastards, just like him, but Kyrian chose to lend his services to the Akka Xaluds. It wasn’t farfetched to imagine him losing all his friends after that.

  Aurora, born out of wedlock in an illegitimate relationship. Growing up inside the Great House where Bastards seemed to be common… well, just because there were many of them didn’t mean they were all treated the same as the other legitimate children. There would have been a clear hierarchy between them and the official Heirs. And no matter how talented Aurora was, that social barrier was one she couldn’t overcome.

  Both of them growing up alone, without a single soul to trust as they trained to become adventurers. Aurora never spoke about her mother, and I doubted that there was a sweet story buried there somewhere.

  No.

  These two… were utterly alone.

  They had no one else left in their lives.

  Except…

  “We’re a Party.” I said at last. “We stick up for each other. Aurora didn’t stick up for you, to get you to trust you, Kyrian. She stuck up for Skaris because that’s who she is. And I’m sure she would’ve done the same for you, regardless of your feelings towards her.”

  Kyrian buried himself deeper into his robes.

  “...I’m sorry, Lock.”

  “Don’t be sorry to me, be sorry to her.”

  “And if she never wakes?”

  “Perhaps I chose the wrong time to wake then. Should I fall asleep once more?”

  “!!!!”

  “Aurora!”

  “Vetilian!”

  “Sis!!!!!”

  Her voice was weak, barely above the thin thread of a whisper but it had been there. Aurora was awake.

  “Quiet down,” I said to the others and Stole made space for me as I kneeled next to her. “Aurora, how do you feel?”

  “Can you stand?” Stole asked.

  “No, don’t try standing.” I gave a disproving at Stole but didn’t keep it up, Stole’s question came from worry tempered by inexperience. Aurora knew better anyways. “Tell me how much you remember.”

  “This isn’t my first time waking up after an injury such as this.” Aurora looked down at her body and winced while trying to lift her head. I reached out gently, placing a hand under her neck and head. “Though, I must admit that the wounds are usually not as…. Bad.”

  There was a huge mess of red-welt flesh that pulsed around her chest. And without her armor, Aurora was dressed only in her undergarmets. Bandages wrapped around her chest which kept them in place during battle had been loosened while Stole cleaned her. Now, they simply draped around the important bits to give her a sense of decency.

  And Aurora’s face reddened like a tomato in embarassment.

  “Er… perhaps…”

  “If you’re well enough to be embarrassed about this, you’re well enough to get dressed.” I said, turning to Skaris and Kyrian. “Come on, let’s give her some decency.”

  No one spoke. There was no need to. We all were experiencing the same thing.

  Relief that our comrade was alive and well. The adrenaline from our own close brush with death returned in full force now that Aurora’s wounds which overshadowed them were receding. The fact that we had succeeded in our mission for the Dwarves.

  And last of all…

  “Lock.”

  “I see it.”

  Loot.

  Always taking my notebook around to write down ideas or inspirations.