18 Poison

The soft light of the sun wakes Geraldine from her sleep, she felt her body became lighter and the pain on her stomach vanished, "Ugh!" terrible headache attacks her as if someone is hammering a nail on her head.

Looking to the side, she saw Alexjin's head holding her hand as he sleeps peacefully. Sculpted face with long, thick lashes over his deep-set eyes and pinkish lips makes Geraldine stare at the perfect combination of a single boy's facial features.

Unknowingly, her other hand reaches on his hair, slowly caressing it, making Alexjin startle awake, "Master!" Azure blue colored eyes shine brightly on the morning light and his wide smiles warm Geraldine's heart.

"Master, you're finally awake," Alexjin's reaction was to hug his master but then he realizes how awkward might it be for the both of them. His open arms remained open as they both look at each other with wide eyes, "My apologies Master, I'm just happy that you finally opened your eyes after two days," Alexjin stepped back and put his hands on his back.

"Two days?" Geraldine was confused, she remembered that she's trying to combine the poison with her mana but then her stomach hurts so bad and she puked but can't remember the rest, "What happened? Tell me everything."

"Master, after you've stayed in your room for three days, I noticed that you didn't do well, so on the fourth day, I came into your room to see you're drenched in blood and vomit..... and you wake up two days after that," After he told her the details, he kneeled into the floor, "I know that I made a mistake, I didn't follow your instructions... I-I deserve punishment master!"

Geraldine looked at him as if he was crazy, "It's fine," she sighs and noticed that she's wearing different clothes, "Wa-wait... Alexjin!" She yelled with her face blushing in embarrassment.

"What is it, master?" He asked innocently and got confused at his master's sudden change of behavior.

"Yo-you.... my c-clothes.. they're different," Geraldine point at her new set of a clean white shirt, "did y-you change it?" Her face became redder as the thought of Alexjin seeing her body and she's ready to punch him as soon as he answered 'yes.'

"No, my mother changed your clothes and wipes your body, you stink master," Alexjin smiled as if he didn't just call his master stinky then hastily leave his master alone seeing her reddened face that was about to explode in embarrassment.

"I don't stink!" She yelled back at him but he was gone, she instantly raised her forearm to smell her armpits which smelled salty and even makes her gag, "Did she just wipe me ones?" Geraldine hurriedly stands up, making her feel dizzy, that's when she noticed that she wasn't in her own room but ALexjin's. It was clean and neat, neater than her room, making her think that maybe he's a clean freak. Going outside the room, she went to the bathroom and take a bath to freshen her up.

When Alexjin went back to his room with a tray of food in hand, he saw that his master is gone and was about to go into a panic mode but then heard the sound of water splashing, making him feel at ease that she's just taking a bath.

---

Hours pass by, Geraldine is sitting in front of Alexjin who looked nervous, "Have you manage to read the book I told you to study?" She said, referring to the book she gave weeks ago about plants.

"Yes master, I did my best to study but I cannot understand all of them so I just memorized it," He grabbed his book and gives it to Geraldine.

"Good, then that settled, prepare yourself, we'll be leaving for the forest in two days," she muttered and was about to go away but Alexjin called her out.

"Master, I know I'm just a lowly apprentice of yours but I wanted to know what caused the master to be sick for days, we're worried about your health," His eyes drooped down, the image of the day he saw his master full of blood scared him to death and he didn't want it to happen again.

"Ah, I just abuse my body too much, don't worry I'm fine and by the way, where's the Rambootan fruit I'm telling you to get for me," She asked as she hasn't seen a single fruit insight inside the house.

"Ah, about that master..."

----

Piles after piles of the red fruit stack like mountains outside their home, that can feed 20 people at once. Geraldine's mouth hangs open in surprise that she even rubbed her eyes to see if she's just seeing things but it's legit.

"Did you just depilated the Rambootan trees of their fruits?" She looked at him with wide eyes, "Because, it looks like you've taken all that fruit in the forest!"

"I just wanted to give master more than what she deserves," Alexjin said as if it's nothing and smiled innocently at her.

*Does he want me to die from poison!?*

Geraldine sighs and grabs a single fruit, pilled the skin, and ate it slowly, "This fruit is all mine, don't even dare to eat a tiny flesh from this fruit, especially your mother, understood?" She gives him a glare which Alexjin instantly nodded his head.

Within the next two days, Geraldine was eating the fruit one at a time and binding its poison with her mana and this also opened a door of knowledge to her as she finds out that she can cultivate her power using the poison she ingested within her body.

"Now, I just need to increase my dosage of poison intake to cultivate my mana circle and be able to use my powers to its full potential," She mumbled as she's sketching something on a piece of paper and when she's done, she pasted it on her wall, joining the rest of her drawings.