Alex woke up feeling like shit. His whole body felt weak and his breath felt constricted. Looking around, he half expected to find himself on Hell, Skorn's underground, so he sighed in relief when he saw that he was in the same room as his mother, laying in his usual spot.

He hissed in pain while he was trying to sit, his abdomen injury was wrapped with a proper bandage. It was a black-ish red, meaning that his injury had probably closed up.

Even though the injury would open up again if he started moving around, Alex didn't care, he had to know what was going on.

Using the wall as an aid, Alex climbed to his feet. He swayed in his place, yet he still tried to walk, yet he found himself unable to steady himself enough to walk properly. So he used momentum to jump from wall to wall.

When he exited his mother's room, he saw that the hall was empty. The body and head of the guy he had...killed were gone. Thank gods for that, he couldn't handle staring into those eyes again.

The bloodstains were still there though, along with a trail of dried blood heading outside through the front door. He groaned at that, whoever had taken the body out was not considering the extra work he had put on his shoulders.

He was going to go outside when he remembered something. Jumping from wall to wall, he reached his father's room, the entry point of the man.

This room had no windows, and the walls were not broken, so where could he have come from?

Alex thought and sent his gaze up, to the skylight. Of course, he had climbed the wooden wall, then jumped into his father's room.

The landing is what caused the thump that B heard. He looked at the door and remembered the position where B was dying. The man must have hidden beside the door, and when B came in, he surprised him by slashing his throat and throwing him towards C.

If B and C didn't talk, the man would have not expected another person since he was watching the house since Eve, after all he only saw Alex and not his clones. It was also the reason he could tackle the man, Alex hadn't made a single sound since he was trying to sleep.

His eyes found Veleya and Venma on the wooden rack, the person who had cleaned up had fortunately not stolen the two rapiers. That meant that he knew exactly which person had done this; no ordinary slum resident would resist taking easy loot.

Opening the door outside, Alex found Father Orkon and another man wearing a guard uniform in a heated debate. They were quite far down the street, near the house of the widow.

Alex closed in on them, grasping the walls and clothes drying strings. When he neared them, he heard the end of the argument.

“You should Orkon, the Zeretta family are nomads. The fuckers are already half way to the next city, they do this on the regular and with the clients they serve, they are untouchable. It's good that only two women from the neighborhood were kidnapped today, the widow and her daughter.” The guard said as he sighed in exhaustion.

“Can’t you just send the guard after them, I’m sure your fastest rangers can catch up to them.” Father Orkon pleaded.

"Seriously Orkon, it's impossible to help you. I've told you numerous times that the guard is desperately trying to reorganise because something got the nobles worrying." The man straightened up and gave Father Orkon a salute. "It's good meeting you old friend, but we all know that the widow and daughter are already lost."

Father Orkon slumped his shoulders as the guard walked away. The old priest slumped against the wall and held his own head in his hands.

Alex stayed silent, now knowing why the man had attacked his house. They wanted to kidnap his mom, to use her in...he shuddered.

"Are you doing good son?" The old priest said, his eyes down and back hunched.

"I'm alright." Alex said.

"Good job, you are a brave man." Father Orkon then stood up. "Let's get you back to your bed, we don't want your wound to open up."

They silently walked back to his house, Alex broke that silence by asking a question thats been nagging his mind.

“Where is the body? And who was it?” Alex tittered and briefly closed his eyes to banish the eyes.

“I took it out, don’t worry about it. As far as Jacob could tell me, he was just a local hired hand, the Zeretta family never use their own men.” Father Orkon said and opened the door to the house.

Father Orkon helped Alex walk back to the room. Alex sat down on the bed and the priest prepared dinner in the small corner kitchen.

He had thought about getting revenge, but now the pimps had ran away and the guy that attacked him was dead. Still, the event left him with scars, scars that he doesn’t have enough time to deal with right now.

Alex looked at the back of the priest, of the Father as he made a stew. So many words he wanted to say, of the terror he felt and the pain.

The thoughts he had that night. No, Orkon would see him as a monster if he ever said aloud what he had thought about his mother.

No loyal son would have their resolve break like his had.

He quietly ate the stew with the company of Father Orkon. Alex also fed his mother, only now noticing that half of the medicines were destroyed and her blanket was different.

"I will be coming back in the afternoon with supper." Father told him while gathering the bowls. "Don't move, just rest and soon you will be back on your feet."

"Wait Father, weren't you a paladin a long time ago?" Alex said hopefully. "Don't you have a healing spell?"

"Yes I do." The old man chuckled then turned serious. "But I'm afraid my type of spell will kill you rather than heal because you are cursed."

Alex nodded and watched as the old man left him alone with himself and his mother. With so much time, he was left thinking.

Although he hated himself for thinking this, he needed to free himself from the prison his mother had unwillingly chained him to. And the way for that to happen short term was for him to task someone else with taking care of mom.

Though with recent events, he was hesitant to do that. He could task a clone to take care of her, but to properly defend her he needed at least three clones. That would cripple his ability to do anything, the clones would train yes, but he couldn't use them for anything else other than staying at home.

He wanted to go out and see the world, he wanted to make friends and have hobbies. Yet he was stuck here. He couldn't live the life he wanted through his clones, none of their memories transferred to him.

The only option open to him is to cure the disease his mother had. His father tried for a decade, yet he had not succeeded. But he was a single man, Alex was many.

He remembered the time before he had awakened, when he visited Doctor Wo, the old man was ranting about a crazy alchemist in the Empress's employ.

Apparently the alchemist claimed he had devised a recipe for a Panacea and only needed the ingredients to craft it. Doctor Wo was hysterical that the Empress would even entertain such a charlatan, claiming that the alchemist's salary was better suited to be distributed to the real healers.

If what the alchemist said was true, then if he got the ingredients and contacted him, he could ask him to create the Panacea? Maybe the alchemist wouldn't want to create the panacea, but if he works for the Empress then that means Alex only needs to ask the Empress to do it.

A tall task, but not impossible.

Just need to know what the fucking ingredients are.