The Aftermath

"𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘬𝘺, 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦. 𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨."

The fool looks around looking for Novis, only to see him impaled with the sword stuck in him.

He quickly runs to him "NOVIS? ARE YOU OKAY NOVIS? WAKE UP."

He shakes him violently attempting to wake him up, Novis has a distressed and annoyed look on his face, his eyes barely open and all he can see is a very preoccupied fool screaming his name.

"L-Luce, I did it, I beat him... Are you proud of me?"

"OF COURSE I AM BUT DON'T YOU EVER DO ANYTHING RECKLESS LIKE THIS AGAIN OK? ARE YOU THERE NOVIS? SPEAK TO ME!"

Novis had fully passed out after that, the fool had then taken out the sword, closed the wound, and healed most of his injuries.

"𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦. 𝘔𝘺 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘦."

The fool may appear completely fine, but mentally he had suffered a lot, and seeing Novis in his state took quite a toll on him.

"I'm sure he will be fine, I'll just finish things up with Darius in the meantime."

Upon walking up to the now-fallen King of the Rock Kingdom, it was but a sad sight, although Luce may have almost died, he still had a lot of respect towards his opponent, not many can say that they have pushed the fool to use all of his strength, and his magic was extremely impressive, to be able to adapt and change right on the spot in a matter of seconds is almost as fast as the fool's adaptability, and he can't even use Light magic to process things faster.

Standing near the King, the fool says "You did great. You were always there for your Kingdom and you even accepted me for who I am, although you wanted to fight me, deep down you were probably curious if someone out there was even strong enough to beat you, and I don't blame you one bit if I were in your position, I would have likely done the same."

His hand lays upon his rocky chest, he heals the King just enough to stay conscious, he knows that if he did fully heal him, he would have seen it as pity and felt ridiculed.

"What..." He coughs out a bit of blood. "What do you want?"

"I know this may seem random, especially coming from who you just fought, but I need a big favor from you."

"Why should I do what you say."

"Your Kingdom is quite vulnerable right now, it would be a shame if-"

"Oh shut up, just say what you want already."

"That's more like it. I just need you to concentrate some of your Rock magic into this stone, and then eat it."

"Fine."

"No hesitation?"

"Why would I hesitate? Not only is it for my Kingdom, but I do also know the maker of these stones you speak of. How is that man doing?"

"He could be dead really, I'm not too sure but he was quite roughed up."

"Oh well, at least his creation may live on within me and you."

Darius does as the fool says, he puts as much magic as he can into the stone, and then ingests it, his throat feels as if it was full of blood, and the flesh itself was torn quite a bit, but he did not flinch or complain even once.

"Great, now let me put my glove here."

The fool laid a normal leather glove onto his chest, and it then started absorbing the magic from the King directly from his core, it kept stealing and absorbing until not even a drop was left within his core, this process does not kill Darius, it simply stops him from using his magic for a while.

"Did you pass out again? Well, thanks anyways."

He puts the glove on and stretches his fingers to get a feel for it.

"Perfect size as always, now time for a test."

With a swift motion of his hand, a pillar rises from the ground.

"Good enough. Time to wait for the others to recover then."

The fool sat on the throne, he looked down at the battlefield thinking of what had just happened, eventually, he got more comfortable whilst sitting and in doing so he slowly fell asleep dreaming about his final plan.

After about four hours, Novis eventually woke up with no wounds left on his body.

"What?"

He looked up at the throne seeing the fool asleep in a peculiar position, he had one leg on the armrest, whilst the other leg was on the floor, he rested his back towards the other armrest, and fell asleep staring straight.

"I'm surprised he even managed to fall asleep that way, it seems really uncomfortable."

Novis groans a bit in pain whilst getting up, his head felt like it was going to split in two for a couple of seconds until the pain dissipated.

"My whole body hurts after all that, I feel like I could eat a whole Dragon."

He walks up to the fool stumbling a bit, he starts shaking him a little slowly waking him up.

"Luce, can we go eat?"

"Huh? What?"

Upon looking at Novis a couple of tears run down his face, to which he quickly gets rid of.

"𝘋𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩?"

"O-Of course Novis, let us go to Vanessa's house, I'm sure she can cook well with that magic of hers."

"I kinda like that idea, let's go."

Novis held onto the fool whilst they walked away from everything.

"Oh wait just a minute, here sit down on that rock."

"What rock?"

The fool quickly creates a nice seat for Novis with his newfound power whilst he heads toward Darius.

"𝘐 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘴 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳."

As fast as he can he quickly inscribed the letter O on his chest since he didn't want to turn him around.

"Alright Novis, back to getting our food."

"Why did you do that to the King?"

"You'll find out soon don't worry."

"Can you really not tell me now?"

"Obviously I could, but it would ruin the surprise."

"If you say so."

"Also how hungry are you?"

"Well, if we don't get there soon I might just faint."

"Guess I'll carry you there."

"What? No, Luce, It's fin-!

The fool carries Novis either way, he could use his armor to get there faster, but moving at such speeds, especially after his head problem, it wouldn't be the wisest idea, nevertheless, they still arrive somewhat fast.

On the way there a couple of people see them, Novis gets a little red by this but the fool doesn't even bat an eye towards them, his mission right now is to help Novis regain all the nutrients he lost, and that's all that matters right now.

After exiting the school, the fool leaps from building to building until he finally spots Vanessa's house.

He knocks on the door with Novis still in his arms.

"Who is it? We're mourning right now and can't-"

After opening the door and seeing the only two people that helped her, she greets them eagerly.

"I didn't expect to see you here, how were the exams and everything?"

"No time for that, can you feed us?"

"I'm sorry what now?"

"You heard him can you cook?"

"Well, my mom mostly does the cooking and all."

"Good enough for me."

The fool barges in with no care in the world, he lets Novis down and shows him where the dining room is.

"THIS ISN'T YOUR HOUSE YOU KNOW?"

"Hey, I help you out you help me out, food, now."

"You two can be very irritable sometimes."

Vanessa asks her mother to cook for the two guests, at first she's reluctant about it and feels quite lazy about it, but after arriving downstairs and seeing two hungry guests, she thinks maybe they are homeless and can't afford anything.

"Are you two thieves or?"

"What? Hasn't your daughter told you who I am?"

"No? Why would she know either of you."

"You really can't recognize the man that saved you?"

"The man that did had white hair and-"

The fool quickly dons the armor onto himself for a quick second making his hair white and changing his appearance a little.

"Is that enough proof?"

"IT REALLY IS YOU, THANK YOU VERY MUCH GOOD SIR, HOW COULD I EVER REPAY-"

"JUST MAKE SOME FOOD ALREADY WE'RE STARVING."

"COULD YOU AT LEAST TELL ME WHAT YOU MAY LIKE?"

"JUST MAKE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN I DON'T CARE IF IT TASTES BAD."

The mother quickly hurries to the kitchen, she does exactly as the fool says and attempts to make as many dishes as she can.

She starts boiling water for pasta, cutting vegetables for a broth and sandwiches grabs all the meat she can, and cuts it all up into bite-sized pieces.

"Vanessa? Could you come down to help me?"

"Fine, I suppose."

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘭𝘭"