Chapter 551: Sickly Rebeller

A panicked Sera was a funny Sera.

Able to soar the boundless skies huddled on the spines of rotting dragon corpses, this without even a seatbelt keeling her steady – and yet somehow it was the vroom vroom of bloody gears and wheels strapped together with some chain that did her in into submission.

Seriously... I was even driving like a good ten miles below the speed limit. She either flies like a snail given wings or she’s simply just a fraud with a magical green screen. The latter sounds more realistic.

By the time we reached the driveway of the house, using just my bare feet as momentum for the homestretch, her hold around me was still firm as stone.

This girl’s got mad grip. I guarantee if I’m ever able to pry her loose... I’m gonna be seeing some marks like I just wrapped a noose over my waist.

“We’re here.”

I killed the engine, pulled down the stand, and promptly began to try and unbuckle my seatbelt.

.....

“You should let me go now before people start getting the wrong idea,” I advised her, throwing a corner glance back. “Or I start getting the wrong idea...”

I’ve heard groaning, I’ve heard growling, I don’t think I’ve ever heard whining – and as she loosened her arms around me, I wondered if I might have heard wrong.

My diaphragm now unrestrained, I made sure to take in a deep breath to celebrate my freedom. Muscle memory had me reflexively trying to remove a helmet that wasn’t there, I spent a good second confused before the realization struck.

“Oh, right,” I got off the bike, turning towards the purple astronaut trailing my every step. “Let me help you with that.”

With a loosening click, I popped the helmet off, and what do I find harboring beneath but the usual sight of her silent illustrious gaze wishing and desiring nothing but grim thoughts about me.

historical

Question – is it really a good thing if I’m used to that by now?

“My bad,” I said, giving a small apologetic smile. “Would you rather have walked? You didn’t say anything.”

For my cheek, I got a solid whack in the gut wholeheartedly deserved.

Sera landed on the ground wobbling and staggering, startled noises emerging from deep under her hood, and from punching bag, I quickly became her crutch, as she reflexively grabbed hold of my arm with almost enough force to squeeze my bone like a sponge... which obviously, did not feel very good.

Guess that’s karma.

“Mmm!” That was me forcing down the screams building and swelling, ignoring it, and just wordlessly helping her through the first few steps up onto the front door before she decided to pull out any more of my limbs.

I unlocked the door, and with Sera hovering closely behind, I took the first few steps into the warmth and refuge from the bitter chill of the harsh outdoors.

Whoever invented the thermostat and indoor heating is now my God and Religion.

Praise be to the thermo-Jesus.

“Master!” came a voice, a nasally, stuffy, and brazenly rebelling voice. “Ah, you’ve... you’ve returned.”

“Ah,” I responded back, stepping into the living room, and scouring around for the force. “You’re not in bed.”

Slowly, an impish little figure shambled into view emerging from the entrance of the kitchen with all the grace and elegance of a Sera on a bike.

Ash looked exactly as I left her this morning – a mess. From her paper pale complexion down to the raw redness of her nose, and especially her ears, slumping weak and limp... much like the bland green of her dazed gaze.

She’s a mess, as I said – and why shouldn’t she be?

Sick people always looked terrible.

When both our eyes met, I blew a long sigh. The guilt was obvious in her expression. I didn’t even need to hear an explanation. The spick-span polish of every surface had pretty much incriminated her of her crimes.

“Y’know...” I began. “It’s pretty hypocritical to tell me to do nothing when I’m sick, and then proceed to spring clean the entire house while you are.”

Ash struggled to inhale deep through a stuffy nose, absentmindedly wiping the sweat from her brow, as she croaked limply, “Indeed...”

“You’re relieved of duty until your fit for duty,” I said, crossing my arms. “Wasn’t that what you agreed to?”

She narrowed her lips. “Indeed...”

“Wasn’t Adalia supposed to be keeping an eye on you too? Where did she – ?”

A scraping sound from the dining table briefly attracted my focus, and there a huddled figure sat, blind and deaf to her surroundings, wolfing down a plate with fangs and claws doused and dripping with honey.

“Pancakes...” I muttered, nodding with genuine amazement. “Not a bad bribe, clever.”

“Truly, Master, I insist you needn’t fret,” Ash squeakily spoke, burying her face in a napkin she had stashed in the sleeve of her grey sweater. “The winter seasons, hibernation... it is all merely...”

“Your biology,” I interjected, taking the napkin from her hands, and wiping her runny nose for her. “If you’re not gonna sleep the winter away, at least learn to take it easy on yourself. And if you’re gonna insist on wanting to spend the winter with me, shouldn’t you at least have the energy for it first? I want you better, y’know?”

She didn’t argue my point, instead keeping a silence that didn’t last long, as her eyes widened in response to spotting something of great surprise over my shoulder.

“S-Sera?” She spoke, her surprise stifled beneath the fabric, before steeping sideways past me, and forward towards the cloaked figure looming silently all this while. “You came? Why have you come?”

From my perspective, I could hear nothing but just more scraping from the dining table, but Ash whirled around back at me again, having heard a lot more than that.

“Master, you... you invited her?” Ash asked, evidently baffled by the prospect. “Why?”

Sera gazed at me too, seemingly interested to hear me repeat my stance once again.

“Park’s full, and it’s cold outside,” I explained, keeping it brief and casual, as I spurred towards the upstairs to change. “Besides, I think we could use an extra person to keep an eye on you... ‘specially one that’s not so easily swayed.”

On the way, I passed by Adalia, who, through bulging cheeks, attempted to explain her case, “I was... hungry...”

Never said she’d explain it well.

“Were you?” I said, raising a brow at a second plate of pancaked stacked high by her side. “Could hardly even tell.”

When I reached the top of the stairs, I leaned over the railway, spotting Sera now tethered to Ash’s every move, and called to her from above, “There’s an extra room for you upstairs already prepared. Feel free to use it, Ash will show it to you, alright?”

When I finally got to my bedroom, I practically collapsed onto my bed out of sheer exhaustion. The cold had worn me down, and it didn’t help that I walked an entire marathon and a half around a shopping mall only to come out of it empty-handed.

I raised my head, peering forward at the door of my closet, where a bizarre victorian-like outfit complete with buttons, coattails, and frills in the dozen hung on one of the knobs.

Chester the Suave, huh?

Tomorrow’s my debut into filming stardom, and yet somehow I still have no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing once I’m there. It’s not as if I was intentionally slacking, it’s just... what...

I took my phone out, tabbing over to the PDF viewer where I still have Amanda’s script kept open from two days prior.

<> was the working title of the film production.

From what I could make out of the plot, it was supposed to be an expansion and reimagining of one of the more popular sidequests in Asteria, in which Leonardo the Hero had been somehow whisked away to a land unknown to the realm, and separated from his usual companions, and thus must go on an odyssey in order to find his way back to his friends and to Asteria in order to slay the Demon Queen Terestra once and for all.

But along the way, he would discover an entirely new region diffrent from what he has known, with new customs, enviroments, and people... interesting, bizzare people.

And that’s were I come in. Chester the Suave, that’s me. Except I haven’t a faintest clue what role I was supposed to play in all this, and if you’re wondering why – well, that’s because the bloody director seemingly has no idea either.

Simply put – I had barely any lines written, barely any actions given. Hell, most of the scenes forgot to even include my character in it.

Almost as if I was hastily written in last minute or something – but that shouldn’t be the case, right? I mean it’s not like something had thrown me into the role last minute either, right?

I’m sure it’s all planned, all under control. All In the capable hands of a competent up-and-coming director that I haven’t even met yet. It’ll be fine, I’m sure.

Right?

Guess I know what exactly I’ll be in for tomorrow.

Suddenly, I heard a click, my door handle swinging open – and I rose up from the bed with a start, staring ahead.

“Yeah?” I called out. “Ash?”

Not Ash. The door swung open a bit , revealing a violet flutter slinking through the gap, even wider, and I found myself staring at a familiar pair of golden lights.

“Sera...” I blinked, confused, and a little caught off-guard. Seeing her wandering the halls of the house wasn’t something I’m used to.

She just stood there beneath the doorway, what little of her expression visible giving nothing away. Leaving me to simply guess.

“Wrong room...” I muttered, pointing a finger forward. “Your room is – ”

She grunted, cutting me off immediately. She knows.

“Okay,” I lowerd my hand back down. “Then you’re here for...?”

That’s when I saw it, heard it. Her usual cold hard stare softening, her usual raspy voice going soft, gentle – together at once – her head slightly falling forward. It almost looked like a bow.

It almost sounded like a thank you.

Then before I could realize too early, Sera hurriedly swung the door back close, leaving me back alone with the fading echoes of her slamming force.

I just smiled, chuckled.

“You’re welcome,” I whispered to the silence.

Her silence.