43 Chapter 43 - Gone

Snow POV:

Slowly my consciousness returns. Stiffening my body for just an instant on reflex, I relax myself and pretend to still be unconscious.

Where am I? Have I been captured?

Straining my senses, I listen, smell, and feel the environment around me. There aren't any immediate presences that I can feel. No noises like breathing or movement. I can however smell a familiar scent in the air. Princess?

Deciding it's safe to open my eyes, I take a look around me.

I'm currently laid down on a white bed in a medium sized unfamiliar room. Stone walls, stone floor, and stone ceiling. There are no windows, but there are two wooden doors on the wall to my left and one wooden door directly across from the bed.

Taking stock of the situation, I don't seem to be in any immediate danger. Checking over my body, I can see that the arrows have been removed and bandages placed over the wounds. I need not be delicate. Using my teeth and tongue, I tear away the bandages covering my wounds. There is a slight bit of pain, but I need to see what I'm dealing with.

The wounds are ghastly. Blackened flesh surrounds each arrow wound. The tips must have been poisoned. Stretching to my full height, I topple over and fall off the bed sideways.

With a resounding thump, I groan in pain. I'm in quite the weakened state. Waving my tail, I attempt to take out some healing herbs from my ring, but nothing happens. Looking at my tail, my ring is gone. Who took it?!

In a slight panic, I scramble to my feet and look around the room again. There's nothing in here except the bed I laid upon and an empty table off to the side. The ring would be useless to anyone else unless I died. Perhaps I really am some kind of prisoner here?

While imagining different scenarios, the door across from the bed opens and in walks Aisha with hurried footsteps. "Are you ok? I heard a crash?" She immediately asks when she sees me out of bed.

Was it her? Did she take my ring? I'm too weak right now, I couldn't harm a fly. My soul attacks should be relatively unaffected, but if I were to be attacked by multiple enemies at the same time, I doubt I'd survive.

She came in alone. I have no method to properly communicate with her other than charades and I'm in no mood for that. I settle for simply staring and waiting for her to figure it out instead.

"You've been unconscious for nearly a full 2 days. What's wrong? Are you ok? Where does it... right," she starts asking questions again but seems to realize I can't reply mid-way.

"Can you get back on the bed? This is a private underground room in my courtyard. No one other than myself and the guards who brought you in here know that it exists." she informs me.

Finding no harm in the matter, I painfully climb back onto the bed. I don't have my usual grace and end up leaving large gashes in the bedding material with my claws. Comfortable with my position, I curl up while watching the girl.

Satisfied with my compliance, she continues while standing a few meters from the bedside, "We found you unconscious in my courtyard. There were assassins after you and my guards helped defeat them... Many of my guards fell and if not for the reinforcements, I doubt either of us would still be here. Those assassins were truly vicious."

That's unfortunate for her guards, but it doesn't bother me. I'm still alive and that's all that matters.

Suddenly she seems to get a little nervous and can't maintain eye contact. She seems like she has something difficult she wants to say, but won't just spit it out. Normally I'd have lost my patience and beat it out of her, but I'm tired. Too tired to deal with it.

Eventually she seems to gather the courage and slowly informs me, "After the battle concluded, I had the palace physicians attend to you. The toughness of Magical Beasts is truly incredible. Any normal human would have died from your injuries, but the physicians said that disregarding the poison, you would recover on your own."

That's it? What was hard about that? "After your safety was confirmed and treatment administered, we went to investigate your courtyard to look for clues," she continued, interrupting my thoughts.

Right my courtyard. Ah that heavenly chair must have been destroyed in the explosion. Maybe I'll have Lana get me another one before I leave the castle.

Taking a deep breath, Aisha slowly says, "When we arrived, your courtyard was in ruins. The mansion was nothing but a pile of burning ash and we couldn't find any clues about the assassins."

Wait.

"Unfortunately... your maid... "

No.

"Lana Bellrose was... "

Not again.

"Unable to escape the attack. It seems that she... died in the explosion." Aisha finishes after a few pauses in her speech.

I'm fine. I can deal with this. She was just a maid. We'd only been together a few weeks. I wasn't attached. She was a disobedient maid who often had to be taught how to serve me better. My plans to take her with me in the future were just a whim. I... I didn't actually care about her. I'm fine.

The Princess starts talking again, but I ignore her. I'm tired. My storage ring is nowhere to be found. That's fine. My beautiful scales will be most likely scarred due to the poison without proper treatment. I don't mind. My favorite chair was destroyed. No problem, that's replaceable. Lana's dead. That's. Lana's dead. I'm fine.

I'm going to sleep.

.

..

...

Waking up, I find myself still in bed. My body is sore and in pain, but there's a dull ache in my chest. I'm not sure what's causing it. There's no wound. I'm fine

Picking myself up from the bed, I see that Aisha is gone and nothing has changed in the room. Glancing around again, I find that not to be true. My interspatial ring is laying on the table beside my bed.

Ignoring the oddity of the matter, I slip it onto my tail. With a wave, I pull out medicines and herbs for treating my wounds. The royal physicians didn't seem to do much in the way of actual treatment. I assume they treated the poison and bandaged my wounds only. There's no trace of ointment or accelerated healing on my wounds.

Creating a rough paste using my claws, I wipe my wounds with a mixture of healing herbs. I had a lot of time in the forest to learn which herbs did what.

Finished with the herbs, turn to the medicines leftover from my father. In the time right before mother took me away, he gave me a few more medicines. He claimed some were so precious, that even Saints would fight over them.

Whether or not Saints would fight over them doesn't matter to me. Picking out anti-poison and healing medicines, I consume them without much thought. There may still be lingering traces of poison in my body.

Feeling the familiar itch of healing wounds, I get into a meditative posture and begin focusing on gathering Fate essences and healing my wounds manually in conjunction with the medicines.

Hours pass in this manner and I'm not sure as to what time of day or even which day it is. Feeling acute hunger pains, I realize that I'm actually starving. I was so used to being fed on a schedule, that it's been a while since I've had to remember to feed myself.

Pulling out a chunk of 6th Rank beast meat, I eat in silence. The next time the Princess comes, I'll have her escort me out of the city. I don't want to be here any longer.