Michael didn't want to wake up. He would rather lay in the attic for the next day, maybe even until next week. Everything in his body was sore after they took him to a nearby town's ward to assess his injuries.
The cuts on his head and back were stitched close which obviously wasn't a great sight. Maybe he should've left Evelyn in another room as they operated on his body. He wasn't there to feel any of it. Stefan said he slept through the entire thing.
Evelyn poked his back. She was distressed about how purple it had became, along with the stitches that ran across those spots. Michael's armor had broken apart when he held onto that root giant. So any force of damage he's taken, he endured all of that with only a cheap shirt protecting his bare skin.
Michael mumbled in his pillow. He was asking for her to stop picking at his stitches. The doctor stated he shouldn't itch or irritate his wounds any further, especially because of how his body was still developing. The doctor was even shocked he was an adventurer at such a young age as well.
Taking Michael to a mage with a healing spell would have cost a fortune and none of them didn't have any good connections for that either.
It's been three days since they've returned from the mana beast's nest. Michael was in no condition to fight along his party so they've been leaving him home alone with his girlfriend.
Evelyn slightly frowned, stepping over his body and climbing down the attic.
He didn't know what she could possibly be up to. He was too tired to figure it out anyways. It was at least good to know that he was exempted from his training with Mave in the mornings. Though she was the type to pummel him around even if his body threatened to break again.
The sunlight from the attic window was surprisingly warm. It's been getting cold all of a sudden and nights came faster. He wasn't sure if that was a bad thing since their quests mainly revolved around the uncharted though Ellis could find a way to make it work.
The hatch on the attic door opened. Evelyn climbed through and crawled her way back beside Michael.
Michael turned his head over. She was trying to feed him a handful of chocolate candy. He looked at her face. Did she understand human bodies worked completely differently than ego swords? He couldn't heal from his wounds with just processed sugars. They had a metabolism to worry about, not like ego swords cared about whatever they shoved into their body.
She shrugged, eating the chocolate for herself. And judging by her reaction, that was what she planned to do anyway.
He buried his face back into the pillow. In all of these three nights since the quest, he was strictly advised to sleep on his stomach. Not because it was painful but because he wouldn't screw up the healing process. That also meant Evelyn couldn't hold him anymore. She was clearly frustrated with that as well.
Evelyn laid beside him. "About your challenge…"
"No," he mumbled in his pillow. "I said it doesn't count."
"Oh, come on," she moaned. "You won't let me kiss you and now you won't let me touch you? Michael, seriously, are you trying to drive me crazy?"
"Don't you think I feel the same way?"
She pouted her face. "So, once you're better…we can kiss?"
"No."
"But, you won." she poked his cheek. "I thought you were done with that stupid challenge once you won."
"I didn't win anything."
"So killing that root giant didn't mean anything to you? That wasn't a win?"
"There were other people helping me."
"Other people helping?" she mocked. "You did everything yourself, and you almost died. Nobody was helping you with that."
He wanted to go back to sleep. She's been arguing about this same subject for the past few days, he's admittedly been tired about explaining the rules to his personal challenge to her. But knowing Evelyn and her persistence, she's trying to find a loophole around it.
"If it wasn't for you, they wouldn't have taken down that mana beast."
"I could say the same thing for you." he turned to face her golden eyes. "If I didn't have you, none of that was possible. Your magic saved all of us."
"You were the one holding the sword."
"You were the sword."
"You did all the work."
"You did all the—Evelyn, we're not going to do this again."
"Then kiss me and I'll stop."
Michael stuffed his face further in his pillow. "Evelyn, I can't…"
She sighed, sitting up from his bedding.
"I just—" he sat up along with her. "I just don't want everything to feel too easy. Kissing you should be earned, right?"
"You're my boyfriend, Michael, that's what you're supposed to do. However, not kissing me is a total violation to our agreement."
"When did kissing become a business deal?"
She let out a small giggle. He felt a smile form at the edge of his half-sleeping face. Maybe this challenge was stupid after all, because nobody in this world would have turned her away.
Michael slumped his face over her lap. This was infinitely times more effective than a pillow.
She played along with his hair. "On your next quest, are you going to find the fastest way to kill yourself?"
"Did I at least look cool?"
"You looked stupid."
He pinched her thigh. Evelyn squealed and jerked her legs away. All of a sudden, the pain magically vanished from his back. It was as if her laughter was healing him from the inside.
He ended up chasing her around the attic and then eventually the whole house became their playground. Though Michael heavily strayed away from the kitchen since she usually would turn the snacks in the cupboard as ammunition. He didn't feel like cleaning up wrappers of candy stuck against the wall today.
Someone came through the front door, stopping their little chase short. Michael peeked out of the living room.
Stefan looked around at the mess. "Having fun?"
"Sorry."
"I thought you were recovering," Stefan unstrapped his armor. "Last time I saw you, you couldn't even leave the attic."
Michael quietly picked up the pillows from the floor. He neatly rearranged them on the couch after Mave strictly reprimanded him about etiquette. Even after being tasked to do their chores, he still had to follow a standard on how the house should look when they returned.
Evelyn popped into the room, figuring out that Michael wasn't chasing her anymore.
Stefan noticed her. "Hello."
"Don't talk to me."
"Alright."
Michael sat along the couch. "Where's Mave and Ellis?"
"Ellis is at the guild trying to process our pay from the quest, hell if I know what Mave's been up to. What about you, kid, you have something in mind?"
"Could you…help me shop for new armor? Mine broke and I don't think I can quest without it."
Stefan crouched down. "Let me see your back."
Michael showed his skin. It was still riddled with stitches and long purple bruises, lingering with sharp pain whenever he would stretch too quickly. He was probably the only person in that quest to sustain the most amount of injuries. Yet he was the most valuable of them all.
Stefan pressed his thumb lightly against his wound. "You're getting better, just remember to eat what Mave cooks for you. You're also…strangely resilient. Ellis told me what happened. Do kids of your generation love to throw themselves at giant mana beasts?"
"It worked, didn't it?" he said. "I got us out."
"Sure," Stefan grimaced. "But what if, by some small chance, one of those walls could have protruded a root sharp enough…kid, you gotta be careful."
"And where were you?" Evelyn leaned by the archway. "There wasn't even any booze, how'd you manage to get knocked out on the quest?"
"Control your girlfriend." Stefan flicked one of his stitches.
"Ow!" Michael flinched away. "If that root giant was trying to stab me, it couldn't. Its magic was being stopped by my sword."
"You mean, by her."
They both turned to look at Evelyn.
"Seriously?" she said. "Do you two want to get punched?"
Stefan stood. "Let's get you a new set of armor. I could meet someone there anyways."
Michael wondered why he should be the one getting punched. He climbed back to the attic and wore some proper clothes, recalling the last time he and Stefan had gone to buy armor together.
Stefan turned back to him before opening the door.
Michael furrowed his brow. "What?"
"If I had enough mana left, that giant mana beast wouldn't have even lasted a minute."
"Okay."
"I would have blasted right through it. With my swordcast."
"I get it, can we go now?"
Stefan chuckled, leading both of them into the outside.