Chapter 58: ... be careful not to draw the wolves

When Clara heard a single, sudden knock come from the door, she immediately knew that it was Tobias. He tended to only knock once, and if it was unanswered, then he would knock another time after five seconds or so.

And when she opened the door, the first thing she found was – his hair was incredibly wild and untamed. As in, his hair strands were sticking out in various places and defied gravity, as if something was holding each one in place.

She giggled at the sight, but the moment her gaze fell downwards... her amusement halted.

Because his left arm’s coat sleeve was scorched. The blue cloth sleeve had terrible black patterns which resembled tree branches, and it looked as if it caught fire at some point. She hastily grabbed the arm, and her action caused Tobias to let out a small hiss of pain.

“A-are you alright?” She asked, flinching back when her touch caused him pain.

“I’m alright.” He replied, without a single ounce of annoyance. With his right arm, he carefully peeled back the scorched sleeve, and it revealed his left arm; terribly raw, and terribly burned. It was almost as if it was submerged in some flaming pit. “Still in one piece, surprisingly.”

“What... what happened?”

“I fought a Drakos.” He said, and she felt her eyes widen. “I won.”

While a Drakos wasn’t quite a Dragon, it was something that was distantly related to one. And he really did go off and fight one, didn’t he...?

Her Adventurer instincts were telling her that singlehandedly slaying a Drakos was something amazing, and that she should be praising him for doing so with relatively minimal injuries. But on the other hand, her heart was telling her to be worried about him, and to tend to him.

She obviously cared about the latter.

“Let’s go inside, then.” Clara said, pulling on his right hand so that he could step inside the room. When he did, she closed the door behind him gently. “I’ll patch up your left arm.”

“Can’t I just drink a healing potion and get it over with?” Tobias asked, as she dipped a cloth into the basin of water.

“Of course not.” She shook her head. “You know that it’s only used during emergencies. As long as you don’t need it in particular, then healing potions are only for last resort.” She carefully touched the soaked rag against his left arm, and he winced at the coldness, before letting out a sigh of relief. “And besides, don’t you already heal fast enough? Something like this would disappear after a couple hours of rest, right?”

“Yeah...” He admitted, as he watched her work on his arm. His gaze focused on the cloth, then her hand, before finally flicking elsewhere behind her. His eyes sparked with a certain recognition. “So... what did you find out about Sistine?”

“Well...” She trailed off, and slowly turned around to look at the sleeping white-haired girl. She really was defenseless as of this very moment, and she seemed like she was resting as much as she could. “It’s something you shouldn’t tell other people... not that you probably would, anyways... But Sistine, she is without her memories.”

Tobias blinked. “Without memories...?”

“Mhm.” She nodded. “She doesn’t remember anything about her past. Remember Bastille’s lessons? Something about Say... Sai... Psycho...?”

“Psychology.” He offered, without even getting his tongue twisted.

“Yeah, that one.” She sighed. “I think that she’s suffered through something that made her lose her memories. We did find her in the middle of a monster-infested forest, right?”

He kept quiet to himself after she was done talking. His gaze idly flicked around the room as he reflected to himself, and after a short while, he let out a small nod. “That makes sense. Anyways –”

“S-so!” She blurted out, interrupting him. He looked at her with a questioning gaze, and once again, she found herself thanking that Tobias seemed to have either limitless patience, or he thought she had something important to say. “I decided recently... that maybe I should take care of her for a while.”

Tobias slowly blinked. And then, a (very subtle) pleased expression washed over his face. “I see. I think that’s a step in the right direction.” He said.

“Y-you think so?”

Hearing his words like this gave her relief. Mostly because if he decided that it headed to the right direction, then maybe she wasn’t wrong, after all. His words cleared away the doubt she had been feeling in the past few hours.

“Yeah.” He nodded. “Anyways, now that you decided on that... I guess I have nothing to worry about anymore.”

“Mhm!” Once again, hearing his feelings on the matter like that made her feel relieved. So with a certain pleased bounce in her step, she retrieved a roll of cloth, before she knelt down in front of his left arm. “I’m going to wrap your arm now, alright?”

“Thank you.”

That was the best confirmation she could ever get from him. So with dexterous fingers befitting of an Archer such as herself, she wrapped the red, burnt arm with bandages carefully. Her wrapping was snug and comfortable so it wasn’t painful, yet it was still tight enough so it wouldn’t come undone after a few simple arm movements.

“There you go.” Clara said, as she secured the bandages with a small ribbon that can be pulled on to easily undo her wrapping. “This also means that you’re going to rest now, right?”

“Hmm...” Tobias hummed to himself, before he shrugged. He stood up from the wooden chair, before making his way to his bed. “I guess so. It’s almost night, and there’s nothing for me to do anymore.”

She froze. That was... certainly new from him. Especially since he usually liked to maximize his time out there even though it was already night.

Some part of her thought that maybe he subconsciously realized that he wasn’t alone now, and that he had some place to call home.

It was the subtle, easily missed personality changes like these where it made her feel like she mattered to him.

And right when she was about to speak, a single knock came out of the door. Tobias looked at the door with some semblance of confusion, as if silently asking to himself who would ever bother to disturb them at this hour.

“I’ll get it.” She said, when she noticed that he was trying to stand up. “You should stay there and rest. It’ll be real quick, alright?”

“... Alright.” He replied, and sighed to himself. She gave him a small smile to ease his tension, before he nodded back at her.

So she stood up, and walked towards the door. She carefully opened the door, and when she did, she came face-to-face with a black hooded, full-masked person.

“Analysis.”

Her instincts were screaming at her that the person was dangerous, so she tried to close the door. But a gloved hand reached out, stopping the door right in its tracks. And in that moment, faster than her eyes could track, she found a dagger in her abdomen.

“...”

The pain hit her when she finally looked at the blood which trailed from such a wound. She immediately crumpled to the ground clutching her stomach, and when she tried to scream for help, she only found that breathing hurt so much.

“Clara?!”

Ah... She had never heard Tobias so panicked before...

***

The moment Clara collapsed to the ground, Tobias instantly sprung into action. He leapt over Clara, and drew his longsword with an intent to decapitate the hooded man in front of him.

The man raised his dagger to deflect the attack off course. Against any normal man, this tactic would have worked.

But Tobias wasn’t a normal man. And right now, he was angry – terribly focused.

So his sword strike that was supposed to be already deflected off course – a subtle twist of his wrist allowed him to redirect it into a strike that would reach his target.

His longsword struck his target, but the hooded man only leapt backwards. As a result, his sword only cleaved through a part of his hood, and the white-mask he wore had a large diagonal gash on it. But because it wasn’t even enough to split the mask in half, the chances of such attack splitting his enemy’s head open was non existent.

How annoying...!

So he rushed forwards again, his sword raised to pierce through his opponent’s chest. His opponent quickly – far too quickly, stepped to his left.

...!

And while his longsword was still overextended with all of his momentum and force applied behind such a thrust, the enemy raised his dagger, intending to plunge it. It was impossible to raise his longsword in time to block the incoming attack.

... But that’s why he had two hands, right?

In the fraction of a moment – right when the enemy’s dagger was only a few centimeters away from his head, his left hand unsheathed his own dagger.

“...Ghrk!”

And in that instant, a dagger plunged into a body part, drawing spurts of crimson, warm blood.

Tobias’ dagger was deep within his opponent’s right arm. A dagger hung above him – just a hair’s width away from touching his head. And that was the only reason why his head didn’t have a hole in it yet.

Tobias quickly swung his sword sidewards – intended to slice his opponent in half horizontally.

But miraculously, despite the pain his enemy should have been feeling with sharpened steel digging through their forearm, his opponent quickly jumped backwards, even if such movement caused the dagger in his left arm to draw a large, bloodied line of mutilated flesh and muscle.

... Tobias had to admit; Even with his supposedly amazing pain tolerance, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to bring himself to do what this enemy in front of him just did.

What kind of person leapt backwards while a dagger was stuck in their left forearm, anyways? But then again, maybe such an option was better than certain death.

And now, broken-masked person and Tobias stared at each other.

“You...” The masked person spoke, the voice instantly revealing that it was male of an age roughly similar to Tobias. “... Your level does not match your combat power...”

“What are you even talking about?” Tobias replied, as he raised both longsword and dagger to his natural stance.

“... Doesn’t matter. My objective here is done.” The masked man spoke, before he slipped his dagger into his dark, black coat. “Next time, I will come for her.” Despite his warning, his words were toneless, as he turned around and began to sprint away.

As if Tobias would let him get away!

He quickly held his longsword with his left hand, while his right arm quickly fished for his throwing knife. And with an expert throw, the knife soared and curved through the air, before landing on the masked man’s hind leg.

But even then, his sprinting speed never faltered, and before Tobias could throw another knife, he already turned around the corner.

When he was about to sprint to give chase, a cough suddenly rang out. He paused, and turned around. Clara was still on the floor, crumpled, and in pain.

And on the other side... was a trail of blood which he could follow. For the longest while, his instincts demanded retribution, and for him to chase the man who hurt her.

... But there was no guarantee that he would ever catch the man. And besides, right in front of him was Clara, who was in pain.

... The decision he should make was obvious.

He immediately rushed over to her, and knelt down to check on her. She was barely breathing, and her hands were placed against her abdomen – the part in between her stomach and her rib cage. Her green dress in that same region was stained with blood.

But she was still conscious.

“Hah...” She breathed out – her breath dangerously shallow. “T-Toby...”

“Please don’t talk right now.” He whispered back to her, mostly so that she wouldn’t strain herself anymore.

So he carefully, but swiftly carried her in his arms, before heading back inside their room. He placed her on the bed, before he rushed towards his leather belt, and towards one of the pouches which contained those healing potions.

And with that, he opened the vial, and made her drink it.

For the longest moment, he watched with bated breath as her wound began to close, before finally, only a scar remained. A deeply red, yet small line which blemished her light skin tone was something that he thought was a bitter shame, but then again... That was alright.

Because she was still alive, and that would be a reminder of such.

Tobias let out a sigh of relief. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m... alright...” Clara weakly replied, and she gasped in air deeply.

He thought that her injury must have made it hard for her to breath earlier, so it was only natural for her do this now. So he moved closer towards her, and opening both of his arms, he wrapped her into an embrace.

“... Toby?”

He didn’t say anything, even if she called out his name. Because right now, all that mattered was the fact that she was alright. But after a while, she slowly returned the gesture, and he felt her hands rub circles on his back.

She smelled of blood, and her hands were stained red as she tried to prevent herself from bleeding out too much. But that didn’t matter. Even if his clothes were being stained with blood from getting close to her, he didn’t stop.

Since he was this close... He could see that her hair had a certain, distinct waviness to them. Some parts were curled into ringlets, while others were just content to be normally wavy. He noticed that she tended to spend quite a lot of time brushing her hair, really. Because of him, lately, she wasn’t able to do so, and her hair seemed to curl up in protest...

And she was warm... really warm. Embracing her like this felt good. Not just because of her warmth against the arid, late-autumn winds, but because her warmth meant that she was still alive.

...

He didn’t know what he was thinking about at this point. His thoughts jumped from one to another without any pattern, and all of them were centered around this girl in front of him.

After the longest time, he slowly pulled back. Clara’s eyes were closed at some point, and his slow retreat caused her to open her eyes. He stared at her abyss-colored eyes for the longest while, and he knew that right now, his eyes were probably the warmest, most caring they had ever been.

“... Be careful, alright?” He said.

She blinked, before her lips turned into a small smile. “... Of course.”

“Mhm.”

And finally, Tobias left to close the door. He really forgot to close it. In his defense, he thought that anyone would; especially after someone dear to them gets stabbed, then anyone would prioritize their safety first, would they not...?

...

After finally removing his scorched coat, and helping Clara change her clothes (which she insisted she could do alone, but as expected, while her injury was healed, she was weaker than usual), they had finally prepared to go to sleep.

And this time, Tobias made sure to lock the door with the bar of wood. Who knew if that man would ever come back here. Why exactly did attack Clara, anyways?

Well... such things wouldn’t be answered by fruitless thinking. So then, he lied down, and began to sleep.

“... Toby?”

“Yeah?”

“... Why are you sleeping in my bed?”

“...”

No comment. In response to her question, he only scooted slightly closer to her, and draped his arm over her stomach protectively.

“Good night, Clara.”

“... G-good night...”

***

Tobias carefully set the soaked, cold cloth on Clara’s forehead. She was currently burning-hot, and was incredibly weak to the point even her voice came out in whispers.

Thankfully, because Tobias slept next to her, he immediately knew that she was running a fever. So he quickly decided that today wasn’t a day that he should go out to slay monsters and farm for Experience.

“Is she going to be alright?” Sistine asked, as she sat in the space next to Clara.

“I think.” He admitted, answering the white-haired girl’s question.

... And even if she didn’t have a fever, he would still definitely leave this town as fast as possible, anyways. That person definitely warned that he will come back, so it was only natural to leave as fast as possible when Clara would be alright.

Now, the nature of her fever to begin with...

Healing potions were amazing at healing injuries, but that was the extent of their usefulness. They couldn’t heal illnesses of any degree. And if he recalled correctly, the same worked for many kinds of healing magic. And if he remembered right, then the only thing that could get rid of illnesses was a certain purifying spell, and he wasn’t sure if the local churches would be able to provide such services for them.

... How troublesome.

So now, the only thing to do would be to wait for Clara to get better. And until she does, they would keep themselves in their room, while he would occasionally go out to purchase and prepare some food.

Speaking of which...

“Sistine.” He called out, and the white-haired girl quickly turned around to look at him. “Stay in this room, and lock the room. Do not open it until you hear my voice from the other side, alright?”

“A-alright.” She nervously nodded, and he let out a sigh.

It seemed like she was still somewhat scared of him. Well, it didn’t matter. She was probably attached to Clara already, and she would most definitely take care of her while he was gone.

So with that in mind, he wore his leather belt, sheathed his sword and dagger, and set off. When he closed the door behind him, he heard the faint sounds of the wooden bar being set in place, and after he gave the door a firm push, he could feel that the door was locked in place.

It was time to go, then.