༺ Visiting The Patient and Hassan’s Club (1) ༻
In life, there would always be some days when you don’t even want to lift a finger.
It was the kind of day when you didn’t feel like doing anything and just lay around all day long.
Was this similar to something like burnout symptoms?
An experience that made you feel like you were losing your momentum in life, drained of all of your focus and energy and eventually collapsed into a state of utter lethargy.
That was exactly what I was feeling right now.
Of course, in my case, it was more due to a physical condition that I was now left in a state where I couldn’t even lift a finger.
“Hassan, here’s the water.”
“Ah, uhh—”
Now laying on the deerskin on the second floor of Luna’s house, I was only barely able to take in the medicine she was spoon-feeding me.
“Gurrrrrrr—”
“Why are you spitting it out? You know, this is extremely beneficial for your body—!”
“No, I didn’t mean to spit it out on purpose. My mouth was simply not able to swallow it. What the hell is this even made of?”
“… It’s better for you to take the medicine without knowing the details. Anyways, take this again.
Whoosh—!”
“Gurrrrr— Eheup—!”
“Don’t taste it. Just swallow it whole.”
Luna blocked my mouth with her palm, so I had no choice but to swallow down the liquid that had been pushed into my mouth.
Gulp— Gulp—
It was an excruciating experience as the taste reminded me of licking an animal’s raw gallbladder with my tongue. The taste was extremely bitter and terrible.
However, Luna, as though oblivious to my suffering, spoke in a bright tone after stirring the spoon inside of the small wooden bottle.
“All right, you have had enough for the morning portion! What do you think? Do you feel better now?”
“Uh, no. It’s the same.”
“Did I make a mistake in controlling the amount of ingredients? Then I’ll put in some new medicinal ingredients and some other things! Experiment whenever you have a chance— No, ahem…”
“W-What do you mean by experimenting?”
“Nothing! Anyways, I need to head out to the market.”
Saying those words, Luna moved her bare feet and disappeared who knows where.
“I’ll be back later, so be a good boy and just stay here!”
Soon, the sound of the door being opened came from the first floor with a metallic clang and soon everything quieted down. There was no more sound of other humans inside the cabin and a quiet silence settled in the air.
“Luna, have you left?”
No answer came back when I asked while gazing toward the first floor. Did she really leave? Still, I shouted loudly, just in case.
“G-Give me some water before you go!”
I had just taken a bitter medicine and really needed to rinse my mouth with some water. However, Luna did not return to bring water to me as she was already gone from the house.
“Ughhhh—”
I had no choice but to move my body to reach for the water bottle near my feet.
Throb—
Due to extreme pain coursing through my muscles, even lifting a finger felt almost impossible to me, so getting up and drinking water was definitely an impossible task.
Today was the second day since the fight against the great shaman, Somnia.
Aside from the overpowering pungent taste that ravaged my mouth, the aftermath of eating Ideope’s cannabis berserker plant raw was now hampering my daily life.
I felt like my body had become a prison that was locking up my soul.
I felt so weak on the first day that I could barely even speak. I thought I was going to die!
Maybe it was because of the elixir that Luna had forced me to take or perhaps due to my natural healing power, but I could at least move my lips, tongue, and eyelids now.
I wasn’t sure how many more hours or days it would take for my entire body to be able to move freely again. I’d be dead if it weren’t for Luna acting as my caretaker.
Rattle—
Was I able to successfully deliver my inner thoughts to her somehow? I sensed some movements coming from the first floor. Someone had opened the door and entered the workshop.
“L-Luna, can you give me some water?”
I desperately wanted to relieve my thirst by asking for Luna’s help. At that time, along with the noise of something moving at a swift pace, a shadow fell on my face. It was a shadow formed by someone’s face.
“Hassan of Samaria. I’m not Luna.”
“M-Miss Hippolyte!”
I was so surprised by the sudden appearance of a person that I didn’t even think would come right now that I almost jerked up like a shrimp that had accidentally come up to the land.
But I could not jerk or even move because I had no strength in my body to do that.
“Ugh.”
“Didn’t I tell you to come to the guild because we have to talk about those cultists? Ignoring my words like that, you’ve really grown some balls these days, haven’t you?”
Only now was I able to remember that, after I handed over Somnia— the cultist great shaman, Hippolyte had told me to return to the guild to give her a detailed explanation of what happened in the underground waterway.
Looking at the date, I should have visited the barracks— the temporary building of the guild, yesterday.
“No, it’s not that I didn’t go because I didn’t want to go, but the situation is a little—”
“Yes, I can see what happened now. You must be suffering from the aftereffects of taking a drug, right?”
“Something like that.”
“That’s what happens when you seek power in an unjustified way. Drugs, elixir, and alchemy… The power sought within such things is only temporary, leaving you with only terrible pain in the end.”
Thud—
Hippolyte sat beside me and spoke as if she was about to give me a lecture. She didn’t wear her usual armor today. Instead, she was now wearing a comfortable-looking outfit that looked like a loose training attire consisting of a sports bra and sweatpants.
Above all, the shape of those large breasts of hers looked quite impressive when viewed from below. Perhaps due to the design that had ventilation holes cut out beneath the chest of her sports bra, the lower part of her breast looked really prominent and was peeking out all for me to see.
I could see that there was even a mole under the left side of her breast. How daring!
Throb— Throb—
“Ugh—”
All of a sudden, I felt a sudden pain coming from my lower body, so I had no choice but to turn my eyes to quickly check what happened there. Holy shit! I was actually feeling pain due to an erection? The aftereffects of illegal doping were really horrendous.
I would never partake in any kind of doping anymore! Fuck this shit, I’m out!
Just as I made that decision with utmost determination, Hippolyte, who was sitting beside me with her arms crossed below her sumptuous melons suddenly spoke up.
“Nevertheless, thanks to that action of yours, you were able to capture the cultist called Somnia. Originally, you wouldn’t even have had a chance against her with your meager skills.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Hippolyte’s words sounded quite reasonable to me. If there had been no illegal doping involved, would we have been able to subdue Somnia in the underground waterway that day?
Definitely not. Perhaps we would have been floundering as part of Somnia’s collection of zombies right about now. I was pretty sure that was the future waiting for us if I didn’t do what I did back then.
“So, what brings you here—?”
“I have something to talk about related to the cultist issue, besides, I have also come here to talk to Knoxdotty about the procedures of promoting her elixir. She must have left the house as I can’t sense her.”
“If her work is completed swiftly, then she would probably return in ten minutes, otherwise it would take at most an hour for her to return.”
“If it only takes her that long, then I can surely wait for her arrival.”
After speaking that line, Hippolyte directly sat next to me and kept her mouth shut tight from then on.
Only the chirping of the birds on the outside world and the boisterous voices of the slum dwellers could be heard amidst this silence. Unable to move, paired with the awkwardness I felt from the current atmosphere, it felt so suffocating that it made me want to die here and now.
Was she really not even going to say a word?
While I was thinking along those lines—
“The cultist you captured recently, Somnia and Schizo— Pluto’s Holy Warrior, have been successfully transferred to the prison city of Dorgent.”
Hippolyte was the first to break the unsettling silence.
“Prison city?”
“I originally wanted to torture them and then interrogate them slowly to uncover their plans… However, those cowards from the Minerva Guild didn’t want to take the risk. They think that if we keep these cultists in this city for any longer, we will continue being targets of those insufferable cultists.”
I had also heard about the prison city while living my life as a slave. In the cold edges of the north of this continent, there was a large prison about the size of a small city.
It must be an exceedingly terrible place!
“Anyways, even though we didn’t expect you to do something like this, you have still played a big part in capturing the cultists that plagued these lands. Those cultists are not the type of guys who easily reveal their true identities to others.”
Slide—
Hippolyte’s brown eyes narrowed after saying those words. There was a sense of doubt and vigilance in that gaze of hers, so I couldn’t help but feel a chill run down my spine.
“Was it a mere coincidence that you encountered that cultist?”
“I-I suppose so. Actually, we don’t really know either.”
“Well, I don’t really know about you for sure, but I don’t believe that Knoxdotty has had any contact with the cultists. By the way, you seem to be twitching uncomfortably since earlier. Do you have something you want to say to me?”
“Uh, that, can you get me some water from that leather bottle down there—”
“Ah—”
Only then did Hippolyte pick up the water bottle that was placed near my feet as she understood what I tried to convey to her from the start. Soon, she took the cap off the bottle and tactfully put it near my mouth.
Splash—
However, Hippolyte was not good at nursing or feeding others, and the water in the leather bottle overflowed out of my mouth and trailed down my face, drenching it in the process.
Damn it! I was all wet now. She gave away most of the water in the bottle to my skin rather than my mouth.
But Hippolyte started scolding me instead, as though I was the one in the wrong.
“You can’t even lie down and drink water properly, Samaritan? You really don’t have any sort of talent in you, I swear…”
“What!? Fucking damn it! Just now, I don’t think I’m the problem—”
“Hmph.”
Hippolyte snorted and turned her head away. Soon her eyes flashed as if she had seen something interesting.
“Ho, what’s that—?”
Sneak—
The thing that made Hippolyte get up from her seat, move a few steps, and pick something up was none other than my new weapon— Fear Smasher. The 50-centimeter-long club was leaning on the wall in an upright posture.
“This is a living weapon, right? God, I can’t really believe it! They gave you such a precious reward…”
After saying that, Hippolyte swung the club here and there with such force that even loud noises of surging wind were produced in the air. As she swung the club inside the room, I couldn’t help but suddenly feel nervous.
Even if a single invisible sword slash came out of the club in her hands, then it would be enough to make the whole cabin collapse in its entirety. And if that happened, Luna would be really sad and heartbroken… and angry, really, really angry!
Clank—
“Huh, hmm—!”
“What? I just heard something breaking there.”
“You heard it wrong, Samaritan. Are your ears now broken too? I feel so sorry for you.”
“No, I just heard something breaking—”
I wanted to turn my head around to check, but my body showed no signs of moving. Actually, just what the hell did she break just now? There were only things that held significance to Luna on the second floor of the cabin.
“Damn it! How could you be so reckless in someone else’s house and destroy things like that!?”
Slide—
All of a sudden, she pushed the edge of the club toward my head, stopping it mere centimeters away from me.
“I must have misheard it…”
“Yes, you must be out of your mind because you’re sick right now. I’ll let you go this time. Anyways, this is a great weapon. Simple and rough. It would suit you who doesn’t have the knack or skill to wield a more precise weapon. The person who recommended it has a good eye for these things.”
Stroke— Stroke—
Hippolyte continued to stroke or touch the club.
How she looked at the club reminded me of the bullies who wanted to snatch away a loser’s belongings. The sight really brought up the old and painful memories from a long time ago. Damn it! I had saved up my allowance to buy those shoes!
“Honestly, I want this weapon. It’s a waste to give something like this to you.”
“Well, that’s—”
What should I do if Hippolyte suddenly wanted to borrow my weapon?
Could I say no to that request of hers?
If I asked her to return it, would she even do it?
While my mind was full of such ominous thoughts, Hippolyte placed the club back to lean against the wall on the corner.
“I want it, but I have a bad association with wooden clubs like these. Honestly, I don’t even want to look at it anymore. I remember being severely beaten by a warrior who handles a similar weapon.”
Hippolyte also had a hard time…? One where she had been beaten by someone before? Come to think of it, didn’t Actaeon say that one of his friends was a skilled warrior who used the same kind of club as mine?
Speaking of Actaeon, suddenly, a memory came up to my mind.
“Miss Hippolyte. Mr. Actaeon wanted me to send you a message.”
“That punk? To me?”
Hippolyte was sitting cross-legged next to me again while folding her arms. She frowned as if she didn’t understand what I was suddenly talking about.
“What kind of useless words did he ask you to deliver to me? Tell him I’ll kill him if he asks me to lend him money.”
“Uhm, he said something like the warrior’s task is not over yet—”
“This is driving me crazy! I’d rather have him ask me to lend him some money…”
Before I could even finish speaking, Hippolyte clicked her tongue in frustration as though there was serious trouble she had to face now after I delivered those words.
“Is there a problem?”
“Hassan of Samaria… Do you know about the rumors surrounding the Samaritans that are spreading throughout the world?”
I couldn’t understand what Hippolyte was suddenly trying to say to me by mentioning that.
Still, I was bored lying alone waiting for Luna to come back, and I hated being in a state of awkward silence with Hippolyte, so I just decided to respond to her with what I knew.
Hippolyte must have brought that topic out because waiting for Luna alone with me was awkward for her as well.
Anyways, she talked about rumors surrounding the Samaritans.
“Are you talking about the Samaritans being barbaric?”
“Yes, the rumors depict that the Samaritans would skin the face of the opponents they killed. Also, stories about forcing the opposite sex they like into marriage or being able to engage in three-day battles without rest are also widespread.”
Honestly, was there anyone who knew the characteristics of Samaritans as much as I do? Damn it! I’d gone through all kinds of trouble because of that misunderstanding.
I was captured as a slave because of the perception that “Samarians are born warriors, strong enough to work for days without feeding!” Fuck! It made me so fucking angry just thinking about it. Give me food before you ask me to work, you accursed motherfuckers!
“Yes, I know it well. Almost too well…”
“Some stories are true, but many are mixed with fiction and exaggeration. That’s what the rumors of the world are like. However, there’s no smoke without fire. There’s a Samaritan who is really like that. It’s all because of that punk that the Samaritans’ notoriety has spread around the world.”
Holy fucking shit! There really was a jerk out there who caused the start of racism against Samaritans? That bastard was no better than an enemy for me!
“What did that punk do?”
Ssk—
Rolling my eyes, I looked at Hippolyte’s waist and saw something tightly wrapped around her extremely well-toned body without any signs of fat.
That was a belt that Hippolyte was very proud of; it was akin to the symbol of her pride.
Did she say that there were a lot of people who were after that belt? It seemed like an extraordinary item.
“Honestly, even if it’s me, I want to avoid fighting with that punk again.”
“That fucking bastard is really strong, huh…”
Hearing Hippolyte speak in such a weak voice, it was hard to imagine how terrifying of a person that guy really was. That asinine punk must really be a Samarian who would skin off people’s faces. Damn it, that was so fucking terrifying!
The fucker must be a terrible bastard since the bitch was treated as a barbarian and ostracized even in an already barbaric world such as this.
While I was thinking about the savage warrior who wielded an axe and a club and chewed on human flesh, Hippolyte added a few more words with a very serious expression on her face.
“That punk is the strongest among Kairos’ disciples and the bastard is not just targeting me… So you should be wary of that too, Hassan of Samaria. Yes, you, in particular, should be extra careful and vigilant.”
“M-me—?”
“Yes.”
Why though—?
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