Stepping off the train, I glanced back at Lucy and Cana, both of whom had several bandages wrapped around their body, as they listlessly disembarked. "What's wrong with you guys? Still exhausted?" Yawning, I slowly walked out of the train station, ensuring they could keep up with me.
"No, not exhausted, well, physically at least." "So you guys are mentally tired? How?" Glancing at Cana, I scratched my head in confusion; after completing the SS-quest, they've been doing nothing but sleeping basically.
"Well, I don't know. Maybe it was because we spent roughly 72 hours, or three days, continuously fighting?" Lucy didn't even have the energy to aggressively fire back as she blankly looked at me. "But you guys didn't do that; I fought continuously for three days. You guys would take some breaks in between when you reached your limit."
The SS-quest to deal with a mutated magical beast in Bosco took roughly three days; during those three days, we confronted the mutated magical beast and the horde it had gathered, which numbered thousands, enough to ravage an entire forest in a day.
Obviously, to complete the quest, we needed to kill the mutated magical beast, as that would cause the beasts to disperse, but since it had awakened intellect, it had the beasts attack us. Since the horde was massive, it took three days of continuous effort to dwindle their numbers until there were fewer than a hundred, at which point I finally fought the mutated magical beast.
The mutated magical beast wasn't nearly as strong as me, but I'd been worn down and exhausted for three days straight, so it was a very grueling fight, but boy, was it exhilarating. Honestly, I kind of wanted to rewind time just to experience it again.
"Cana? Is this man being serious right now?" Tilting her head, Lucy glanced at Cana to her right, prompting her to slowly nod. "Yes. Yes, he is." "Big bro, we'd fight, rest, fight, rest, fight, rest, fight, rest, and fight; from the moment we closed our eyes until we opened them an hour or two later. Does that not count as continuous fighting to you?"
"You see, Lucy, the definition of continuous is 'Forming an unbroken whole; without interruption.' So no, that doesn't count as continuous fighting." I gently shook my head while Lucy silently stared at me in bafflement.
"Why do you even know that?" At Cana's question, I opened my mouth, only to furrow my brows before shrugging my shoulders; I couldn't find a good response, as I also didn't know why I knew that. "Anyway, even if you guys didn't fight continuously, I'm still proud of how much you guys participated; you guys may hate it, but you'll realize the benefit to pushing yourselves to the brink."
Smiling, I gently rubbed their heads, messing up their hair, which they'd typically get annoyed at, though currently, they didn't have the energy. "Thanks. I guess." "Whatever, Lucy said." "Oh, the reward was also 5.5 million jewels. Since you guys did exceptionally, you will each get a quarter."
While Cana seemed unbothered by my words as she simply grunted, Lucy's eyes finally seemed to spark to life as her slumped posture straightened a little. "S-So I get roughly 1.3 million jewels?" "Yep." "I guess that's not so bad."
Chuckling lightly, we continued walking down the street of Magnolia, stopping by my kebab spot before continuing toward the guild. Tossing the kebab sticks into the trash, I raised my leg and kicked open the doors. "We're back, you fools." "Yeah, and you look and smell like absolute shit." "Tch, you can't even smell me from there." "I don't need to be able to smell you to know that, just one look at you is enough."
Scoffing at Macao, I stretched while approaching the bar, causing him, Wakaba, Gramps, and Mira to scrunch their face in disgust. "Ugh, see, I was right; smells like shit, iron, piss, and something else." "Hmph, when you tear apart the bodies of thousands of beasts with your bare hands, you're bound to get shit and piss on you." "That's understandable, but you know what else is? A SHOWER!"
Glaring at Wakaba, I faintly smirked and outstretched my hand to him, causing him to fall out of his chair onto the ground. "G-Get that hand away from me!" "Oh, c'mon, Wakaba, why are you running? You just have something on your cheek." "You think I'm falling for that!? Disgusting bastard."
Controlling the smoke from his pipe, Wakaba surrounded himself, causing him to float to the ceiling; chuckling, I turned around, though Macao and Gramps had already vanished, causing me to direct my focus to Mira. "D-Do you need a drink, big bro?" "How about a hug, Mira?"
Opening my arms, I approached Mira, who gulped before sprinting away. "S-Stay away, big bro!" "Haha, c'mon Mira, it's just a harmless hug, I'm not going to do anything!" Laughing, I chased Mira throughout the guild.
"Haa, the beauty and the beast, to think a story could come to life." "Heh, more like the beauty and the smelly." "Hehe, even a dung beetle would probably be disgusted."
After doing a few laps through the guild, I finally got Mira stuck in a corner as she tried to hold me back using a chair. "Hehe, you're breaking my heart, Mira, just a little hug." "N-No, you'll defile my innocence!"
Just when I was about to touch her, Wendy approached me from behind. "U-Um big bro, c-can I heal you?" Glancing down at Wendy, who was standing beside with a nervous and disgusted expression, I shook my head. "You should heal Cana and Lucy." "I-I already did. Y-You should let me heal you, y-your wounds could get infected." "Huh, sure then. Let me just take a shower… Heh, you've got lucky this time, Mira."
Shooting Mira a regrettable look, I backed away, heading to the showers. "T-Thank you, Wendy. You're an angel."
Entering the showers, I thoroughly washed myself four times to rid myself of the smell, then followed up with my outfit, spending close to an hour in total. While doing so, I was interrupted.
"Big bro, there is someone here for you." Glancing up at Evergreen, I grumbled. "Tch, I'll be out in a few." "Uh, I think you should come right now, Wendy's healing the guy, but she says he doesn't have much to live." "Tsk, a man can't even wash himself in peace? Alright, I'm coming."
Grunting, I put my wet pants on my damp body and exited the bathroom, following Evergreen into the guild hall, where everyone was huddled in the middle. "Alright, get out of the way, move, I'm here." Forcing a path through the huddle, I arrived at the center, where I saw Wendy desperately trying to heal a man on the ground, who was missing an arm.
"H-He's lost too much blood, I-I can't heal him." With teary eyes, Wendy bit her lip, pouring as much of her magic power into her healing spell, but nothing she did was working. "Then stop wasting her magic power." Pushing Wendy aside, I pressed my hand against his shoulder, filling him with my magic power, revitalizing him as his gaze finally found focus.
"Big bro, isn't that the guy you grabbed at Sabertooth?" Glancing at Lucy, I furrowed my brows and looked down at the man, noticing his pink ponytail, large frame, and familiar outfit. "Hmm, it is. I didn't recognize him because of his face." Unlike last time, no bandages were covering his face.
'I see why he wore bandages.' His face was greatly disfigured, as if it had been burnt. "Sabertooth? What were you guys doing at Sabertooth?" "It's. It's a bit of a long story, Master."
"Oi, fool, can you hear me? Why the hell are you here? Did something happen to Minerva?" Slapping his face, the man slowly regained his bearings and looked at me. "C-Cooper?" "Yeah, that's me. Anyway, answer my earlier questions. Also, if you haven't realized it yet, you're basically dead."
If his life was like a candle and the flame was his inevitable death, I had merely extended the length of the candle; eventually, the candle would run out.
"J-Jiemma, I-I'm here about h-him." I just looked at him in confusion. "Okay, whose that?" "Jiemma? Jiemma Orland?" The dude nodded at Gramps' question, prompting us all to look at him. "Jiemma Orland is the new guild Master of Sabertooth after SOMEONE decided to pay them a visit a while back." Ignoring Gramps' innuendo, I looked back down at the man.
"What about him?" "H-He's th-the one, t-that d-did t-that to Mi-Minerva." I furrowed my brows in confusion, only to widen my eyes, and it seemed Cana and Lucy realized it just as well." "B-But J-Jiemma Orland, t-that's Minerva's father!" I faintly nodded in agreement with Cana before punching the ground beside him.
"Explain!" At my command, he nodded and explained how the new Sabertooth operated under Jiemma.