Chapter 37: Boston Tea Party Again!

“Hey…” I closed my journal when I heard a voice. I saw Claire standing at the foot of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Good.” I said as I gave her a smile.

“Do you remember me?” She asked.

“No.” Claire gave me a puzzled look. “Just kidding.”

I laughed, but when I looked at her, she glared at me with her silvery glowing eyes and I stopped laughing. I was unaware about what happened to her, but she must be that serious.

“Of course, I remember you, Claire. Everybody’s been asking that, so I thought that it’d be funny to mess with you for a bit...”

There was a pause between us.

“…Anyway, how about you?” I said as I broke the silence.

“Better.” Claire smiled as she took the seat beside the bed. She still looked the same as I remembered her, but I felt that she changed a lot. “It’s been a while since we talked to each other, huh?”

I gulped as cold sweat dripped on my back. I wasn’t really afraid of her, but with my condition, I don’t think I can survive a punch. “Y-yeah… It’s been a while.”

Claire was staring at me. She could be angry, or perhaps she was happy to see me, but I couldn’t read her facial expression very well. Her stare made me uncomfortable as my heart raced. Even though I was no longer a virgin, the years of ‘no girlfriend since birth’ was still strong in me and I still wasn’t used to being stared at by a pretty woman.

Besides, my memory of having sex was strange. Whenever I think about it, it’s like seeing another you. I still can’t believe I actually had the guts to do it. Even more so, Claire consented.

“So what’s that?” Claire pointed at the notebook I was hiding behind my back.

“It’s my journal.” I pulled it out and showed it to her. “Schmidt told me to read it, so I could fill up some of my missing memories.”

“I see.” She nodded. “What did you learn?”

“About the Dark Lord?”

“Uhm-hmm.”

“Apparently, after I removed your curse, I met the Dark Lord in my dreams.”

“What did he look like?”

“According to my journal, he had seven horns and a spiked tail. He looked like Diablo. You know, the video game?”

Claire shook her head. “I don’t play video games.”

“Well, he looked like a typical devil. Red eyes, sharp teeth and claws.” I continued. “Anyway, he gave me nightmares. Terrible nightmares. And I even heard whispers in the shadow. Like evil whispers.”

“What kind of nightmares?”

“Do you remember the night when the others mutinied?” I asked and she nodded. “I had a dream that night after I told everyone to decide whether to stay with me or not and they can leave the next day. Everyone left including you.”

“Go on.”

“That’s when I started to hear whispers. I heard them every day since that first nightmare. It was driving me mad and every time I wake up, there were burnt marks on my bed. The second was worse, the apocalypse never happened, but the two of us got into an accident. I survived and you died. I even had dreams where I killed everyone around me.”

“Is that the reason you left us?” Claire asked. “Is that why you left me?”

“Yes…” I nodded. “I left because I was afraid that I would hurt you or worse.”

“Why didn’t you just tell us?” She asked again as her voice rose up. “Don’t you trust me?”

“You know that I do. I trust all of you. Besides, I don’t even remember anything about it. I just read it from my journal.”

“Fair enough.” Claire said as she glared at me. “But still that doesn’t explain why you kept it a secret.”

She was stubborn and I think that no excuse would satisfy her. I understood her because I left her after we did the act and didn’t even say a word to her. I think she was angry because it happened to her before with her ex. But I felt that my action was justified because I was afraid for her life.

I sighed. “I mean, would you even believe me if I just told you that I heard voices in my head? And that I saw the Devil in my dreams?”

“I will.”

“No, you won’t.” I gave a dismissive wave of my hand. “You just believed me, because God told you he existed. If I knew better, you’d probably laugh at me and think I’m crazy.”

“Oh, is that so? Do I look like I’m laughing?” Claire folded her arms. “I would’ve believed you. I even entrusted you with myself, didn’t I? You said you trust me, but you didn’t trust me enough to tell me what’s bothering you?”

“I told you. I was afraid! I was afraid that I’d kill you. I was afraid that the Dark Lord will go after you…”

“And he will go after us, regardless!” Claire yelled as she stood up from her seat.

“Are you blaming me? That’s not fair! I never wanted any of this to happen! Fuck! I don’t even remember a thing…”

There was even a longer pause. We seemed to run out of things to say to each other, but Claire clenched her fist into a ball and she was shaking in anger.

“Look, I…”

-13 HP!

Before I finish, Claire launched her fist into the air and her fist landed squarely onto my face. I wish I could tell you how it hurts when you’re in my condition, but it seemed that Claire didn’t care about it and lashed out her anger with me. I took the blow and I thought I broke my nose.

+13 HP!

I used [Heal] on myself as she got on top of me and curled her fist again. I sat up as I tried to retaliate with a punch.

-0 HP!

When my fist landed on her face, my hand bounced off like I hit a wall. I was too weak at that time and my punch couldn’t do much damage to her. Claire became enraged as she held both of my arms and locked them with her thighs. I tried my best to struggle and wriggled my way out, but she got me cornered and my back was leaning on the head of the bed. When I thought she was going to punch me again, I closed my eyes and prepared myself to get hit.

Instead of pain, I felt a warm touch on my lips. It was gentle and soft. Claire held my face and still not willing to letting me go as our lips were locked into what it seemed an eternal kiss. As we opened our eyes, she stared at me with tears in her eyes. She hugged me tightly, but gently. She sniveled in my chest and let out all of her frustrations.

“I was worried… I’m just worried about you.” Claire sniffled. “Don’t leave me again like that.”

“I’m sorry.” I said as I wiped the tears from her cheeks.

After that, Claire and I just continued to talk about the things we’ve missed. I told her about the side of my journey and how I lost my hand and my eye. On the other hand, she told me her side of the story about their misadventures in the slime dungeon and how they got their ass kicked by Asharra.

I asked her about how she restored my memories and revealed to me that I accidentally transferred her my memories when I removed her curse and restored it back to me through her skill [Charm].

“You were angry at me because I kept secrets, but you didn’t tell me that you actually had my memories all along?” I asked as I folded my arms.

“What am I supposed to tell you? ‘Hey Miguel, I got your memories and I know that you lusted after your half-sister and you jerked off at pictures of my legs’ Is that you what you want to hear?” Claire smirked and her voice had a tone of sarcasm.

I stared at her with wide eyes. “W-what else did you know?”

“Besides your creep attitude? Well, basically everything.”

“I don’t believe you.” I shook my head in denial. “20 years of memories? That’s a lot of information.”

“I know, but I can’t really remember every detail. I had help from Schmidt and I think it was because of the boost he gave me. You even had a barrier in your mind, which made the whole thing harder. That’s how I restored most of your memories.” She shrugged.

“Then what’s that punch for?!”

“You deserve that one for leaving me.” Claire snorted.

“You don’t think you should apologize?”

She shook her head. “I thought we were over that? Why are suddenly angry with me?”

“…”

“Alright.” Claire sighed. “I’m sorry for punching you in the face… even though you totally deserve it.”

This fucking bitch. She really gets into my nerves sometimes. Actually, most of the times. Sometimes, I was wondering how I fell for this stuck up bitch. I was fuming with anger and gritting my teeth. Claire held my arms and kissed me again, but this time more aggressively, which instantly quelled the anger inside me.

What else can I say what happened that night?

Well, I know this is embarrassing, but I felt that I should still write it down.

Last night, Claire got on top of me and she clearly expressed her love starvation, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, there was no sugar coating my condition. Whenever I thought about it, I appreciated my fat self as I missed those jiggling man boobs and ginormous belly. I was thin like a skeleton with little muscle and almost no body fat. What’s worse, I couldn’t get an erection.

Claire decided to sleep beside me on the bed and I hated it. I mean, sure, there was a horny chick in my bed, but I wasn’t used to have someone sleeping beside me. That and my dick was flaccid as a dead snake. Call me selfish, but I wanted all the bed for myself. Claire moves a lot when she sleeps and she even hogged the blanket stealing all the warmth.

The next morning, I woke up and I found that Claire was still beside me. She was snuggling in my arms with her arm wrapped around my chest. As stroke Claire’s hair, I was bothered by the last words on my journal. Who was I talking about? Who was the true enemy?

I dismissed the thought and it was probably because I was losing my mind at that moment and I was referring to the Dark Lord. From my insane ramble in the journal, I probably couldn’t recognize friends from foe. Then I remembered that I got a skill when I escaped from Camp Aguinaldo. I used it to restore my hand and my eye, but I was unsuccessful. I opened my Skill Screen and checked my skills.

Unique Skill(s): Quick Learner Lvl. 1 Max (100%) Active Skill(s): Fire Manipulation Lvl 8 Advanced (21.17%) Wind Manipulation Lvl 7 Advanced (17.11%) Earth Manipulation Lvl 2 Advanced (52.44%) Water Manipulation Lvl 6 Advanced (61.09%) Living Matter Manipulation Lvl 2 Beginner (3.78%) Bash Lvl. 8 Beginner (84.01%) Fool's Act Lvl. 1 Beginner (0.00%) Heal Lvl. 6 Intermediate (27.19%) Meditate Lvl. 5 Intermediate (92.57%) Observe Lvl. 3 Intermediate (81.92%) Power Kick Lvl. 1 Beginner (80.00%) Cure Disease Lvl. 1 Advanced (21.52%) Mana Transfer Lvl. 9 Beginner (1.74%) Passive Skill(s): Auto-Cast Lvl. 2 Advanced (93.22%) Mind Barrier Lvl 5 Intermediate (66.98%) Blunt Weapon Mastery Lvl. 10 Beginner (41.92%) Masochism Lvl. 5 Intermediate (45.45%) Muffled Steps Lvl 1 Intermediate (38.88%) Sword Mastery Lvl. 7 Beginner (5.49%)

Holy shit! I didn’t know that my arcane spells were already in an advanced stage. I accounted for every skill and there were two that I couldn’t remember. [Living Matter Manipulation] and [Mind Barrier]. I checked the skills to see more details.

Living Matter Manipulation[Active] Beginner Lvl. 2

Effect: The user can shape and manipulate everything and anything organic, both organisms and organic matter. This spell does not allow a user to bestow life or resurrect a dead organism nor it can create life out of nothing.

Requirements: The user must be in touch with the target.

MP Cost: ???

Mind Barrier [Passive] Intermediate Lvl. 5

Effect: Enables user to resist mind attacks and other illusions with a mind barrier. Each level adds 20 points of resistance. Each point of INT and WIS will add 10 and 5 points, respectively.

Current Resistance Points: 1,700

[Living Matter Manipulation] sounded OP, but it has a limit and I couldn’t just use it to restore my missing limb without turning myself into an abomination and my past self already warned me about that. Even with runes, the spell would take months before I could fully restore my hand, according to Schmidt. It didn’t make any sense since [Heal] could heal wounds in seconds without turning into an abomination. The journal mentioned something about my other idea like making a prosthetic hand and it can also manipulate organic matter like bones. I think I have an idea about how to make a prosthetic hand.

On the other hand, [Mind Barrier] was OP in a way, but I don’t remember reading anything about the skill. Claire mentioned something about a barrier in my mind and I remembered something that Schmidt said yesterday about God’s connection to me has been cut off. It could be that this skill was the reason, but God could probably remove this skill if he wanted to, so I don’t think this was the reason.

I woke up Claire as the sun has already risen. I also heard rustling noise and murmurs outside the room.

“What is it?” Claire groaned.

“It’s already morning.” I said as I shook her up. “Come on, wake up.”

Claire stood up from the bed and yawned as she stretched her arms. Meanwhile, I crawled and struggled as I tried to get off the bed.

“What are you doing?” Claire asked.

“What do you think?”

Claire offered her arms for assistance, but I gave her a dismissive wave of my hand. Even though I could feel my legs, when I tried to stand up, my legs were like jelly and I fell down to the floor. Claire tried to help me, but I shoved away her hands. The others heard the commotion and they tried to help me, but I refused their help too.

“I can walk. I’m not a cripple!” I yelled as I struggled to stand up.

Claire sighed. “Don’t be so stubborn, Miguel.”

“Come on, let me help you.” Dianne said as she offered her hand.

“I said I can do this!”

“Oh, here we are again. The lone wolf attitude. Why can’t you just depend on us just this once?” Claire folded her arms.

“I will walk.” I panted. “I’m not going to be a cripple.”

“But you’re not completely recovered.” Mark explained. “Schmidt assured us that you’ll be able to walk again after you recovered.”

“Are you sure?”

Mark nodded. “I’m sure of it.”

The others took a wheelchair as Claire lifted me. I felt bad about myself when I saw the wheelchair. It was like a life sentence and that wheelchair would be my prison. At least, Mark assured me that I will walk again and if I do, I promised to myself that I will never be lazy again and just sit around.

Eric pushed the wheelchair as they took me to a room beside the clinic. It used to be a school cafeteria and one thing I noticed was how messy it was. There were broken plates and garbage all over the place and dried blood on the walls and the floor.

“What happened here?” I asked.

“This school is just outside the undead dungeon. Everyone here turned into zombies.” Beth responded as she put the plates on the table.

“How about the dungeon? Aren’t we in danger or something?”

“Don’t worry. Schmidt already took care of it. He also put a barrier in this school.” Richard said. “By the way, can you teach me some of your tricks? We’ve been following your tracks for days and you burned almost everything!”

“Let him recover first.” Mark said. “We’ll have lots of time for that later.”

“What’s for breakfast?” Eric smiled as he looked at Melissa.

“Corned beef and sardines.” Melissa put the food on the table. “And some fried rice, of course.”

Before we ate our breakfast, Claire gave me a large serving of the food. She filled my whole plate, leaving little food for everyone.

“I can’t eat this much.” I complained. “I can only eat spoonfuls and that’s it. I couldn’t even finish half a bowl of noodles yesterday.”

“No. You need to eat this much” Claire shook her head as she placed several pills on the table. “You should drink those food supplements too. Schmidt said you’ll need it.”

“How about them?” I pointed at the others.

“Don’t worry about us. Here you can have mine too.” Dianne smiled as she pushed her plate to me. “I’m not even hungry.”

“Me neither.” Claire added.

“That’s ridiculous!” Eric gritted his teeth. “I’m hungry!”

“Yeah, that’s not fair. Besides, he can’t digest all of that!” Mark joined Eric in protest.

“How about you, Richard? Got any complaints?” Claire stood up as she glared at him.

“Honestly, I’m jealous of Miguel. I wish girls would do that to me.” Richard shrugged.

“It’s okay guys. It’s not like I’ll be fatter in just a day.” I pushed my plate towards the brothers. “Here, you can have some of mine.”

Eric, Richard, Mark and Beth then tried to shove the food into their plates, but Claire stopped them and thus, a loud verbal fight ensued. Fucks, shits, bitches and all the curses you can think of have been fired at each other. You may think that it was only Claire against everyone, but nope, it was all for their own.

“If I knew you’d fight. I would’ve cooked more.” Melissa sighed.

“There are like eight of us! So why didn’t you?” Beth asked, pounding her fist on the table.

Melissa slapped her forehead. “I don’t know? Maybe I was just trying to ration our food? Duh?”

“We had lots of food! We just looted two days ago!” Eric said.

“Well, if you didn’t ruin my frying pans, then I can cook easier!”

“Nobody gives a shit about your fucking frying pans!” Claire yelled.

“Fuck you, you big titted idiot!” Melissa turned to Claire and gave her a finger.

“Ha! I’m sorry if you’re as flat as a highway!”

“Don’t worry.” Dianne smiled as she gave me a tap on the back. “They’re always like this. It’ll be over soon.”

“I see…” I nodded.

I couldn’t help but laugh as I watched them fight like children over a plate of food. After a few minutes, they stopped and they finally agreed to divide the food on my plate evenly, leaving only a small amount that I could eat. They acted like nothing happened as we ate our breakfast. They even joked around and chatted casually. I still can’t believe to this day that these bunch of morons were the ones I called friends. After the breakfast, Claire stood up while everyone stopped talking as they listened to her.

“Ehem…” Claire cleared her throat and crossed her arms over her chest. “I just want to say that I know that most of you still feel sad about Gerry’s death as I am. But it’s okay. I’m sure wherever he is right now, he’ll be smiling on us if he can see us… Or facepalming, if he can see our petty fights.”

We all let out a chuckle as Beth sniffled and wiped her eyes. Mark rubbed her back as she waved her hands motioning that she’s okay.

“We learned our lesson and we learned it the hard way. I feel that I’m somewhat responsible for his death. I blame myself for it actually. I want to say I’m sorry that I wasn’t much of a good leader for you. I really tried my best.”

“It’s okay, Claire. You shouldn’t blame yourself. No one wanted for that to happen and you did a good job.” Melissa gave her a slight smile. “But you should do something about your bitchy attitude!”

Claire rolled her eyes as we laughed. “Anyway, Gerry’s death wasn’t in vain and Piper’s too. If it wasn’t for their sacrifice, we won’t even see Miguel alive. You’ve all worked hard and most of you don’t even have to come with us to rescue Miguel, but you still did. Thank you guys.”

The others clapped as Claire gave her speech. “Now that Miguel is here… Invite Party: Miguel Arevalo”

You are invited to join Boston Tea Party.

Everybody turned their heads toward me as they waited for my answer. “Accept Invite…”

You have joined Boston Tea Party.

“I hereby nominate Miguel Arevalo as leader of Boston Tea Party…” Claire lifted up her chin. “Those who agree, say Aye. Otherwise, say Nay.”

“Aye!”

The rest of them cast their vote one by one as they extended their hands. They wanted to do the fight team fight cliché again as they elected me as leader of Boston Tea Party. I admit, Claire was a better speaker than I ever was and perhaps a better leader. I didn’t know if I could do a better job than her, but seeing their trust in me, I’d say screw it. I will lead them and I will strive to be a better leader. Not just a leader, but as a better person. I will kill anyone who harms any of them.

Claire was the last one to vote. “Aye…”

You are elected as Party Leader of Boston Tea Party.

Finally, I placed my hand on the top of their hands. “Go Boston Tea Party!”

“Boston Tea Party!” We cheered.

“Now that’s settled...” Claire continued as she raised her fist. “Let’s distribute the loot!”

All of them cheered even louder.

Fuck me.