Alice and Sofia both looked at her in surprise while Cain sighed, and Selena looked between them in confusion.
Gracie didn’t show any change in her expression as usual. Sofia wondered what was going on under her never-changing face. Alice on the other hand looked at the exhausted Cain, he seemed to have an explanation for this mess.
“Listen, you don’t have to do that. Those three are more than enough to care for me.” Cain said as he ran his palm over his face. “This isn’t your duty as a maid. I have to start with you from the scratch.” Cain could feel that her emotionless was a deeper problem than he ever thought.
“Which do you prefer, Doing it or not. Answer with what you think.” Cain asked as he looked her in the eyes.
“I would not. But if…” Before she could finish Cain cut her off. “No buts. That first thought, the rejection, those are your feelings. Make sure to state those to any of us before you accept any order.” Cain tried to get the idea into her head.
Alice and Sofia finally caught on to how Gracie’s problem was. She still had emotions but was unable to understand and locate them. If you didn’t understand fear then you will not be afraid, if you didn’t understand sadness then you won’t be sad.
With this, and what he learned before, Cain was able to piece together her condition. Her mind wasn’t able to delete her emotions as they were born with her, so it resorted to deleting the function by which she interpreted them.
From what he saw in his past life in the dragon lord laboratory. The dragons have been experimenting on madness, trying to understand that condition in humans. All the subjects that regained their sanity described something similar. They all heard a snapping sound in their heads before blacking out.
“Gracie, did you by any chance heard a snapping sound in the past?” Cain asked.
“I heard a lot.” She replied and Cain understood that he should rephrase his question.
“Just right before you became like this, unable to express yourself, did you hear a snapping sound?”
“I did hear one inside my head. After it, I got a sharp headache for a couple of days.” She replied, Cain didn’t expect the headache but he did expect the snapping sound.
‘She did bust a vein or at least something in her mind couldn’t take it and gave up.’ Cain thought, there wasn’t much he could do in that case but try to teach her how to understand herself more. It’s just like when someone sustained memory loss due to trauma, the nerve damage is permanent and the lost memory can’t be regained. However, the person will live and experience new memories.
What Gracie needs now is to learn how to handle her emotions, what they mean, and what their consequences are. What harm would fall on you if you ignore your fear, what you will miss if you tossed your happiness, what discomfort you will go through if you put up with your disgust, and how hard it will be for others to deal with you if you can’t express yourself.
“Cain what are you thinking about?” Sofia asked as she saw him drowning in his thoughts, his minds wandering away alongside his quivering eyes. Cain was going through all the memories of his past life looking for a good way to get Gracie back on track.
After Zaleria, the forest witch who enslaved him was killed by her sister. That sister sold him to the dragons. There where he was experimented on. Those memories he didn’t want to recall as they were far too horrific to be bearable. They were holding the key to Gracie’s recovery as the dragons were researching madness and insanity, all kinds of mental illnesses were studied there.
After several moments he solidified his thoughts, “Damn, this is going to be harder than what Dolrig is going through.” A faint whisper came from his lips.
“I got this.” He said as he lifted his head, the girls looked at him with puzzled faces as they couldn’t comprehend what was going on in his mind.
“What are you going on about?” Alice looked at him.
“I don’t have a solution besides telling you to level up to level 20, and then you might be able to recover. For the time being, just think before you accept or do anything, just like how you don’t want to be seen naked.” Cain didn’t specify but he was talking about the evolution to go beyond the limit. Gracie already has the Succubus blood, she should be able to evolve into one easily at that level.
They left the conversation at that as Gracie nodded in understanding. It was decided that she would not be joining them.
Cain was still weak so the girls had to help him in the changing room. Selena carried him up while the other two peeled him like a banana.
*********************************************************
In the shower, Sofia was the one to help Cain wash while Alice and Selena helped each other. Each time Sofia ran her hands across Cain’s back she got itching in her chest feeling his ribs. The curse did drain him a lot, the thought that the succubus ran because she was hit was hunting her mind.
“Sofia, be a bit gentler. I still haven’t recovered my constitution.” As she looked down, she had scrubbed his back too hard that it started to turn red.
“Ah! Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” She panicked and Cain started laughing. [Lesser Healing] “It isn’t a problem so don’t worry, just try to be gentler!” Sofia regained her and continued to clean him off.
Cain turned his head to the side and looked toward Alice. “Alice, would you mind flexing your thighs a bit?” His question came a bit weird but Alice did what he said anyway with a blush. Cain smiled and said, “You seem to be recovering well, there is more meat than before.” Alice smiled when she knew he was inspecting her recovery, now that she thought about it, he was now in similar satiation to her.
“What about you? You weren’t muscular from the start but you now look like a mantis!” she giggled and Cain bent his arms and hissed to look like a mantis.
“Eat meat to put on meat-nya!” Said Selena as if it was a fact, Cain inspected her body. She was built like a rock. When she is relaxed, she looks to have a smooth curvy body, but when she flexes her muscles explode.
Cain signaled to her to come close to him and she did just that, and then casually grabbed her butt, she didn’t seem to mind but Alice gave him a suspicious look.
That elasticity! She was like rubber in a good way, her butt was firm but not too hard. Jiggling it was satisfying to the point he did it a bit too much. “Tighten a bit if you can,” Cain asked and Selena flexed her butt as hard as she could. Bruh! It got too hard, Cain knocked on it and it made a sound similar to knocking on wood.
“Damn it hard!” Cain’s surprise made even Alice and Sofia curious, they got shocked by how hard Selena’s muscles got under stress. They both remembered her dragging the basilisk up the tree and snapping the hydra’s jaw.
“NyA!” Selena meowed as Cain gently bit her tail, it seemed to be her weak point. The moment he started rubbing it her butt lost all strength. Seeing that reaction, Cain got after her ears and she wiggled around. Cain quickly stopped before something could come out, it wasn’t time for that.
Now he turned his gaze toward Alice, she blushed and tried to run away but was caught. Cain caressed her whole body, inspecting every corner and appreciating how well she recovered. “You’re getting nice and plump, look at your chest slowly feeling up.” She was already caught on top of his lap feeling something poke her back.
He then inspected her jet-black wings, just as he expected they weren’t that sensitive, on the other hand, they felt quite numb to her. To be more specific the membrane felt numb and the frame felt just like her hands. In his past life, he saw powerful devils block massive attacks with their wings, which this explained.
He then played with her tail, which seemed to be too sensitive as she moaned the moment he grabbed it. “Say, can I be a bit rough with you today?” Cain asked as he saw her wiggle in his hands. She slowly replied under her heavy breath.
“Do…what you want!” Just as she replied, she could feel a sharp slap on her lower side, sending jolts through her whole body, with him teasing her tail she was quickly reaching her limit. Cain noticed and stooped just a bit short.
“No way…” She cried but Cain stopped her, “Bear with it until I finish with Sofia, don’t touch yourself!” The last part was an order so she had no choice but to sit there and feel the burning heat in her underside.
Sofia seeing the fate of the other two tried to think of a way out but was surprised when she felt Cain’s fingers grabbing her chest from behind. ‘He was in front of me a moment ago.’ She thought.
“AHH!” Sofia moaned as Cain started caressing her.