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“Gracie, would you mind bringing a mortar and pestle, three of them. Alongside the five unallocated girls.”
“As you order.” Gracie bowed slightly, glancing at Miko who was sitting in the corner of the room chanting her magic. “I shall get back quickly!” She declared as she rushed out. A few minutes later she returned with what Cain asked. The five girls looked at him nervously as they saw him lying in the bed as if he is at death’s door.
“We don’t have that much time so let’s start.
You there start crushing the roots.
You there go bring me some hot water, boiling, if you can’t then we will use the fireplace.
You there take the needle from that drawer and poke my finger, drip it into that vial over there (Cain pointed at the vial that was on the desk, the same one he used to test if Alice was a human before).
You bring me some towels and start heating them in the fireplace, make sure they don’t get burned.
You there start taking what she crushed and add some hot water and mix slowly, stay close to me so I can see what you’re doing.
Lastly, Gracie. Use the heated towels to slowly heat my bed, don’t stop until I say so.”
The instruction flew quickly from his mouth, the girls almost panicked but Gracie’s glare kept them in line. Can couldn’t help them now, he could only watch and speak instructions. He was divided between teaching Miko and making sure they do a good job.
As soon as Amaya Bennett finished crushing the roots into a fine powder, Cain gave her a second instruction. “Finished, good. Now go bring me some olive oil, hurry.” She quickly trailed out as she heard him, they weren’t given even a moment to rest as with each passing second the ingredients are losing their effects, just like how spices will lose their scent after a while.
In the meantime, another one called to him, “Master the water is boiling!”
“Keep it that way, make sure it doesn’t cool down.”
Amaya has returned with the olive oil, Cain quickly gave her a weird order. “Drip some into the boiling water, and use some apply some to my arms.” Cain didn’t like the smell of olive oil but it was necessary, it had the special property of easing the Mana circulation on the skin. Its role was to protect his skin from getting Mana-burns since it’s too weak now.
The process has taken some time but soon another one called out, “Master, I finished mixing!” Her name was Scarlett Holmes, she was good with her hands from how she handled the ingredients.
“I can see that, leave the mixture sitting in a bowl of hot water and come apply olive oil to my legs, go up to my knees.” Cain then turned toward the one that was keeping the water boing, “Make sure the water doesn’t cool down!” She was named Lucy Brooks and she quickly nodded.
…
It’s almost lunchtime, “You two, go bring lunch and a lot of water and sugar.” Cain told the two girls who were applying olive oil to him. They quickly hurried downstairs to the kitchen. After that, they had to feed him as he couldn’t move.
“Now, give me that mixture to drink!” Cain asked, “Master but it’s boiling, you will get burned!” And it had a disgusting brown look to it.
“I don’t care, hurry up and bring it here!” Even though it was hot, Cain gulped it down in one go and saw his HP drop by one as he felt his throat burn.
“Damn that’s hurt! Now all five of you get out to have Lunch, Miko you also go with them and don’t return until Gracie calls you back!” They all left leaving Gracie and Cain alone.
“I promise to compensate you later but can you apply olive oil all around my body? Make sure to not leave any spot!” Gracie nodded, “As you say!” She quickly stripped him and started applying the oil. It did feel a bit weird when she got to some delicate spots but she silently finished her work.
“Now for the most annoying part, I have to swallow these!” Cain pulled the spirit stones, they were a bit big for his liking, almost the size of a whole egg.
With Gracie’s help, Cain managed to push them down his throat without choking, it was a bit hard since he didn’t have that much strength.
When he felt comfortable he called Miko back, there was no need for the five girls to be here.
Just shortly after, It wasn’t even enough for Miko to sit again when they heard a knocking on the door. “Master, I would like to speak with you!” It was Sebas, this might be the first time he asked to enter his room, it must be urgent.
“Get in, what is it?” Cain asked as he signaled to Gracie to stand beside the bed.
“I have bad news, the mistresses have returned and the guards were after them. Something bad must have happened!” Cain quickly started feeling head ach, what did they do now? Like it was their first quest without him, right?
“Call them here, I would like to hear what they have to say. For the guards…Send someone to Call Leon here.”
“The guards are at the door, what should we do?” Sebas asked with a worried face.
“Tell them that I’m bathing and have them wait in the guest room, even if they have an order of arrest they shouldn’t try to force it when dealing with nobles.” The mansion looked fancy, there were a lot of hot maids and a cool old butler, if this didn’t scream noble Cain would be disappointed.
Sebas quickly what he was ordered and the girls entered the room with their heads down. They looked guilty and Cain could feel they did something wrong.
“Care to explain why the guards are chasing you? You didn’t kill anyone, right?” The last part was a joke but Cain quickly got pale when they shuddered at his words. ‘Don’t tell me they did it?!’
They all looked at each other and they pushed Sofia ahead to speak, she was shaking and looking down, unable to meet Cain’s eyes she slowly opened her mouth.
“It’s Selena’s fault.” She said…”I don’t care whose fault it is, just tell me what happened.” Throwing blame around wouldn’t take them anywhere.
“Our quest was chasing down kidnappers, they were located outside the city and specialized in kidnapping tamed monsters to sell on the black market.”
“The quest went fine, we managed to take down the whole organization and release the tamed monsters so they can go back to their tamers.” Alice finished what Sofia was saying.
“I felt tired-nya…” Selena was the most scared of them all.
“So…Selena decided to go on a walk outside the base,” Sofia said “We quickly heard screams and when we got out she has mauled down a battalion of guards.”
“They attacked first-nya!” Selena screamed, her tail spiking up.
“Tell your part,” Cain told her to keep speaking.
“I was tired so I wanted to stretch a bit-nya. When I was on my peaceful walk I got hit with a crossbow bolt in my leg-nya!” Selena looked both angry and scared.
“I screamed asking them who they were but they didn’t listen and kept shooting-gaw! I did have to fight back-nya!”
With that Coin could get a picture of what happened, it was likely a misunderstanding.
“I understand, did any of them die?” Cain asked, “Selena thought about it for a moment, “I avoided the necks so they should be alive-nya!” She replied with a slightly proud face.
“I wouldn’t count on that, they were mauled badly, I could swear they all were covered in blood!” Sofia added and Alice nodded. “I did heal as much as I could but in the end, I didn’t have enough MP and they had to be administered to the church.”
“To be honest, I would have killed the one who shot you so don’t feel down. They most likely were there for the same reason as you, to capture the kidnappers. They simply thought Selena was one of them!” Cain tried to calm them down.
“Don’t ever go on walks alone again!” Cain warned Selena.
“Just wait here for Leon to come, he will deal with it even if there were deaths. The blame is on the guild who gave a mission already taken by the guards, or the reverse, the general officer’s problem as he gave his soldiers a mission already taken by the guild.” Cain explained. He asked the girls to go wash up and look like proper ladies, they were drenched in blood and sweat.