Chapter 73: A spar with the Hero (IV).

Kein's POV

Avery pulled up her pants and I saw that part of her legs were getting badly swollen, it had turned purple and with a faint mark of red. The metal armor that she was wearing inside was suffocating her skin.

"You- what in the- Doesn't that hurt?"

I held my shoulder to where she hit while I kneeled to take a look at her swollen legs. How can she handle this much pain?

"Oh right... You see I was traumatized when I almost got my leg amputated because of a scary goblin trying to bite my legs. It almost got infected, so I decided after it gets healed I'll wear some armor inside of my clothes."

"It saved me from a couple of bites too. For some reason they always aim at your legs, they don't show you that in the game so I had to learn things the hard way." She told me not to remove the smile she was wearing on her face.

Her legs were almost amputated?

"You could've just- worn the armor from the outside...-" I looked up at her looking so frustrated and worried seeing how in horrible condition her leg was in.

"Oh! I did! But they broke the leather strap, cheap armor back wasn't really doing me much. I think the King just gave a few orders on defeating the demon lord but he never really gave me much, let's say... decent equipment." (Avery) pulled down her pants ignoring the state of her leg and I stood up to face the stubborn hero.

"I do try to ignore some tingling pain whenever I need to. I didn't have to worry much because mana and healing potions are there to help me feel numb to the pain." she takes a bottle showing it to me, the glowing red liquid of the healing potion shone on the glass as she opens the cork.

I was holding the unopened bottle of potion and I sighed keeping it my [Storage Ring]. Before she could even drink the freshly opened healing potion, I grabbed her wrist and shook my head.

"No, don't drink that." I took the potion from her hands and pointed at my lovely girlfriend who was watching in the far distance. "What you need is proper healing. We literally have the light princess to take a look at your leg."

"Oh- I wouldn't want to trouble her... Besides, my legs feel fine at the moment." she insisted by even showing me how alright her legs were by giving a little fast kicking motion.

"Feel fine my ass." I took the bottle and drank the healing potion that I took from her, feeling the bitter minty taste of it.

Ugh... this is a little- not suited to my taste. "This is not good. I can't believe you drink this whenever you get hurt and not complain."

I tried feeling the shoulder that was hit before to see if the red mark would heal, or that the pain would at least go away.

"It's still there." I tried moving my shoulders without feeling the effect of the potion. I could still feel it tingling a little from the pain.

"The potion doesn't work. It feels like I wasted a good one here, guess if the healing potion doesn't work then the mana potion won't either." I kept the glass bottle into the [Storage Ring] and saw Avery waving her hand.

"It's not a waste, at least we know for sure they don't work on you... weirdly. In any case I have fifty more stored in my inventory. I never leave home without them." (Avery) takes out another floating window which I'm guessing showcases several of her items in boxes.

I could see the healing and mana potions all having x50 on it. There were other random things stored like food, water, weapons and clothes.

I stared at her like damn is she addicted to the horrible taste of it?

"One time when I ran out of water and healing potions were the only liquid thing I had. Even if I didn't need it to heal, I had to drink it for survival. The demon land is not an easy place to have free access to water." (Avery) tells me and I need to really store up on water when we even visit the demon lands.

"It's the same with mana potions, so I don't go anywhere without them. In games I would be well known as the hoarder in our party! Aren't I resourceful?" She tries her best to impress me with her collection of items but I was more concerned about the state of her leg.

After trying to get the taste of the healing potion out of my mouth.

I dragged Avery's arm going in the direction of where Rose was.

She was now sitting on a bench looking over us with a worried look but seeing we're doing nothing but fighting she waves her hand gently.

"Done already? The both of you have been keeping blows with one another and it hasn't even been that long since you've sparred." (Rose) stands up handing over my vest with a smile of relief seeing that I don't have any horrible cuts or bruises.

I grab a hold of my vest and then my hand sneaks its way around hers. I placed it on the right side of my cheek and sighed, the warmth of it was already healing my soul.

"Are the both of you alright?" she continues to see if she's missed any bruises that left her eye.

"Yeah I never felt better, your highness!" (Avery) answers Rose with a lie and I rolled my eyes picking her up from behind. I grabbed a hold of her collar and gently pushed her over at the benches to sit.

"What are you doing? Hey!" She tried struggling out of my hold but as if not wanting to hurt me I could see that she was being careful. Avery was being considerate of my shoulder and this I knew that she was a good kid.

A stubborn good kid who doesn't like getting herself checked up.

"Clearly you're not well- now, sit down and pull up your pants." I placed a hand on my waist asserting dominance as I instructed the tone of my voice was the same whenever I had to scold Vivienne.

Rose sees how I was treating the girl and asks, "What's wrong? Did something happen?" she looks over to me worriedly then to Avery who was puffing her cheeks angrily and I reply.

"Well I've tested if healing potions would work on me. The answer is it doesn't, besides someone else is in need of urgent healing more than me."

Avery rolls her eyes at me hearing my words and proceeds to cross her arms. "Hah! What are you, my mom? We're the same age so don't even think I'm going to budge! I don't like it."

"Actually... if we put it on a mental age I'm way much older than you." I gave her a smug smile and reminded her. "I'm old enough to be your mom so stay down and let my lovely girlfriend over here heal your leg."historical

"...Old hag." (Avery) mutters out looking away from my direction. I clenched my right fist raising it a little and I was about to bonk the child but thankfully someone else stopped me from doing that.

I could feel Rose grabbing my arm and she pleaded with me to not do what I was about to do. "Kein, don't be too rough on her. Usually I've never seen many cases of someone having to fear a healer but maybe she's had a bad experience with one, let me talk to her okay?"

Rose suggested talking to her first and that immediately won me over. I saw the state of my hand being balled up into a fist- thinking of bonking the hero... when she's not even someone of my responsibility made me feel guilty.

"I'm sorry I almost lost my cool. For some reason talking with Avery really pushes my buttons? I just... I don't know." I unclenched my fists and sighed. I guess it reminded me of how much I hated someone keeping something that's hurting them a secret.

"Seeing her leg must've awakened my protective motherly side. It was the same as my daughter. I don't like it seeing her being hurt and just- keeping it quiet when clearly something could've been done to make it better." Feeling a little insecure I made sure that my voice could only reach Rose's ears, my voice turning into a low whisper and my eyes furrowed in worry.

"Oh love..." (Rose) takes my hand and caresses many of its scars in the front. The princess would go on to console me that the hero would be in good hands and my heart trusted her words. "I'll handle it, don't worry. I'll be healing her so she'll be well. I'll make sure she understands where you're coming from too."

"You're worried about her aren't you?"

"..."

I decided not to answer, feeling a little shy to say yes and I just took the wooden weapons we used into a safe corner not too far away from where they were so I could hear some of their conversations going on.

"Apologies Miss Williams." (Rose) apologizes looking over to me with a smile before turning her attention to Avery. "Kein is rather sensitive to seeing wounds and bruises. Seeing that she has a history with not being able to heal with magic... such a thing is a serious matter. You could get many infections and other things if left untreated."

Avery's eyes showed some worry when she heard infection but was still adamant on not letting Rose check up on it covering it up with a smile. "Please, your girlfriend is just joking around with your highness. Nothing wrong with me and I even showed her how high I can kick a few moments ago."

The hero gave a pretty weak wink and Rose wasn't buying it.

"Miss Williams... if you're really not well you should let me take a look." (Rose) wasn't playing around now she doesn't look too happy. "Not to worry, my healing process will not give you any pain or discomfort I assure you, so please let me take a look."

"Um... This is really not that bad I promise..." (Avery) persuaded my girlfriend some more but oh Avery, trust me when it comes to healing and helping people. You'll have no escape from my lover.

She'll haunt you till you get better.

"I'll be the judge of it. May I roll your pants up?"