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Chapter 214: [Side Story] Barren Lands of Winter Surgence (3)

"...u-um, u-um..." her words fumbled out as she saw the looks of confusion on Sanke. "T-These are all from those big bad wolves..." she replied with a hesitant voice.

"..." Sanke's mouth shut closed as his hands that held onto the red potions and bandages silently moved towards the child. "Drink this and then turn around, I'll begin treating it now."

"A-Alright..." The kid took a deep breath as if still hesitant as she turned around to allow for Sanke to place the bandages onto her body. 

...

Bareth's Plain, Pinewood ForestCampsite [ Evening ].

"...hah, that took much longer than I expected..." Exiting out of his tent, Sanke uttered out with a tired yawn as he turned to glance around the surrounding area of the campsite. "To think she had that many wounds... Was it really all those twilight monsters that did that to her?"

"Sanke?" Whilst the man in question was deep in thought, a female's voice protruded out. "What are you doing just standing by at the tent? Where's the child?"

"Huh?" Snapping back into reality, Sanke averted his gaze over towards the distance where he noted that Lier was slowly making her way towards him. "...oh Lier. The kid's asleep, her mind calmed down after all those wounds were treated."

"Phew, that's a relieve!" Lier smiled. "Anyhow... Sorry about leaving the caretaking job abruptly to you, Sanke. If I hadn't had to cook, I would've been the one to treat her wounds."

"Eh... It's no problem," Sanke nonchalantly shrugged. "Neither of us knows how to cook so even if you ended up taking care of the kiddinner would be charcoaled meat."

"Aha! That's true. You're both horrible cooks," Lier chuckled. "Even back when in the village we Ahem... Sorry."

"...it's fine," Sanke calmly closed his eyes. "We were helpless that time. Even your apprentice..."

"Hah... Although I know him for about a good year or so? He felt like some younger brother, y'know?" Lier solemnly looked up towards the evening skies. "I hope he's safe and sound, we were separated at the end."

"He should in any case. He's an adventurer after all," Sanke nodded his head. "Though... You really do get attached to people that easily, huh?"

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Lier coughed. "I'm attached to my apprentice because I knew him for a year or so... What do you mean 'that easily'?"

"No..." Sanke sighed. "It was just that... How you both met with each other, it was a funny sight. Especially when a few of his companions had tried to stop himthough it was inevitable."

"E-Enough of that..." she coughed. "Let's get to a different topic. How are the wounds of the child?"

"...ah. About that," Sanke's voice slightly stuttered. "...those wounds... How many monsters were you fighting against when you found her?"

"About 12 to 16? There were quite a number of them, that's for sure," Lier stated. "What about it?"

"12 to 16...?" Sanke raised his brow. "That amount isn't enough for wounds to be inflicted like that..."

"Sanke...?" Lier questioned as she saw the sight of his worried face. "Is something the matter?"

"...the number of wounds that were on the child's body," he took a deep breath. "it was inhumane. Bruises, scars, all of them were seen on the kid," he explained. "Though... From the looks of it, the only wounds that appeared to be inflicted by typical twilight monsters would be her around her bottom area. Whilst the rest... It seemed to be from abuse."

"...abuse?" Lier's eyes shook. "That is..." unable to speak of the matter, Lier quickly turned to another question. "What did she say about the wounds?"

"The wounds?" Soon shaking his head helplessly, he replied. "She said that a 'big bad wolf' did that to her... And she had been repeating that same word over the few conversations I've had with her."

"Hmm... I see," Lier nodded her head. "Maybe it's not just the twilight"

"Hey, Lier!" As she was about to continue her sentence, a loud shout protruded out by the distance. "Are you trying to make the food burnt or something?!"

"A-Ack! I've stayed for too long," Lier coughed. "Ahem... We can talk about this later! I need to hurry back to set up the food for us." Moments after she had said so, her legs began moving through the campsitehurriedly making their way over to Renryth.

"Hah..." Sanke pinched the bridge of his nose. "For someone older than me to be like that... Sigh..." With a helpless sigh, Sanke soon heard a voice from behind him.

"Mister...?" The kid's voice softly rang out. "I-is something wrong?"

"...ah?" Taken aback by the sudden voice, Sanke turned around as he noted that the child had woken up. "...you're awake? Did our conversation wake you up? Sorry."

"M-Mister..." she mumbled out as she fidgeted with her fingers. "Y-You're not going to abandon me, are you...? Please don't... Please..." With tears suddenly falling down from her eyes, Sanke was suddenly stumped with what to do.

"...h-hey! Kid... What the?" Sanke uttered out with confusion. Even though he was speaking with Lier in regards to the topic of the kid, there wasn't any sort of room for a misunderstanding of leaving her. "It's nothing of that sort... So why?"

"...sniff, R-Really...?" The child looked at Sanke with a solemn look. "Is it really...?"

"E-Err..." Sanke muttered out with unsureness as he only walked up towards her. In the next moment, his head gently patted on the girl's head. "Yes... So, just... Calm down will you?"

"I-Is it...?" The kid slowly calmed down with every pat on her head. 

Unbeknowst to him on what had gone on within the kid's head. However, with her manner of attitude, it was obvious that she had gone through a lot. Perhaps she had a sudden nightmare or perhaps not. But, Sanke by instinct went to comfort her.

"There, there..." Sanke gently caressed her head. "Ahem... The food should be ready... So why don't we head there, now?"

"M-Mama's done with the food?" Upon hearing the word 'food' from Sanke, her stomach growled. "Mm... W-Would it really be alright...? To eat..."

"Don't worry about it, let's go," Sanke gestured over to the child as he turned around towards the direction of where Lier left. "Just follow behind me."

...

As the two slowly made their way over to Lier and Renryth who were by the corner of the campsite, the two noted that Lier was frantically struggling to get the food ready whilst seemingly maintaining the fire that was flaring out of control.

"E-Eeek! How did the fire get this out of control?!" Lier cried out. "Renryth!"

"W-What do you mean?! I just set the fire and the usual limiter for meat!" Renryth cried out. "How was I supposed to know you'd leave the food cooking alone like that??"

"R-Renryth! We're cooking out in the wild!" she shouted out. "That amount of fire without any sort of magic control technology... We might as well start a forest fire!"

"Ack... Lier... You should've specified!"

"Ahh!"

"U-Ugh... You guys..." Sanke helplessly glanced at the chaotic situation before him. With a step forward over to the flaring flame, he muttered out a chant. "Sigh... Before me, I wished for tranquillityarts of calmness, the breath of water."

[ Meister Arts - Breath of Water ]

With a flow of water gently releasing from the palm of his hands, the water surrounded the flaring flame. In turn, the fire calmed down.

"A-Ah... It's calmed down..." Lier coughed. "It's great having mages on the team, huh...?"

"Lier..." Sanke glared at the out of breath woman. "You should've called me, you know that right?"

"Look, everything was in a jumble of mess, alright?" Lier pouted. "I-In any case... The foods ready..." moving her hands over to the burnt meat, she sighed. "...w-well... perhaps... We should just eat the berries I prepared?"

"All my hunting efforts... For nothing," Sanke blinked in a tired manner.

"S-Sorry about that..." Lier slowly walked over towards the bowl of berries that she had prepared earlier whilst cooking the meat. "...anyway let's just dig in."

...

After a while of fumbling around, the group finally settled in a corner as they had the food in front of them. Burnt boar meat, berry sauce and a bowl of unused berries. That was the dinner for them tonight.

"...yikes, it's really burnt," Sanke blinked in a dumbfounded manner. "That's just a shame..."

"Argh! Just eat the meat will you?!" Lier pouted. "You have no right to complain when our food source is scarce as it is!"

"Hah..." Sanke sighed as he took a bite out of the meat. "You're right... I've no right to complain."

"Mm..." Hesitant to take a bite out of the charcoaled meat, the kid slowly placed the small bit of meat cut off by Lier into her mouth. With a single chew, the kid's eyes brightened. "D-Delicious...!"

"D-Delicious...?" Renryth coughed at the kid's reaction. "Well... Whatever. Hey, kid. I haven't asked this earlier, but... What's your name?"

"H-Huh?" Turning towards Renryth in a confused manner, she tilted her head whilst stuffing the meat into her mouth like a squirrel. "It's N-Nicole..."

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