Recluse

I tried not to… But I couldn't help myself from looking, scanning over his body, and tracing the numerous bite marks my fangs had left. 'Oh… oh no…'

He let out a soft muffled growl, his jaw staying stern as he spoke. "I'll take that as a yes… It seems you're back to your senses…" He grabbed my waist, but let go instantly when I let out a sudden squeak. Hesitating, he followed through and lifted me off of him, placing me on the ground as he sat up. My body was still numb though, so my knees buckled and I ended up sitting on the ground instead, like a timid cat waiting for punishment. Rather than receiving any though, he didn't so much as look at me.

Taking off what was left of the rags of his shirt he walked across the room to find a new one and quickly put it on. "You should leave now…"

I was sure it was dark for him to see… But somehow that knowledge didn't make his eyes seem any less cold as they stared off into the darkness to the side, instead of back at me. My head was so empty I almost didn't even hear his words at all, unable to process anything.

"GET!" He took a deep breath, closing his eyes entirely. "Get out… Now."

I flinched at his yell and tried my best. My legs shook as I tried to stand, unable to hold my weight, barely letting me turn around. "I can't move…" I muttered, feeling so embarrassed I started to cry. I thought for sure he was going to lose it. In the end, his face went completely cold and he slowly walked outside, taking the alternative of leaving himself instead…

Sometime after, Izy came in and carried me back to her tent, laying in bed next to me and holding onto me so tightly it felt like she was trying to stop me from escaping…

Everything after that felt hazy. Apparently, I spent the whole night silently crying into Isy's arms, shifting around like I was covered in ants… But I don't remember any of it. She said my whole body was covered in slime too. But apparently, she washed me off at some point or another because when I woke up it certainly wasn't… Ironically I was practically glowing, though my mind of course was anything but.

All that aside… I still remember waking up on top of Kal… And… although I don't remember what happened before that… I can still guess… It made it impossible to look him in the eye… And even harder to bear him looking even in my direction. Fritz felt it too and took off ahead of everyone else so I wouldn't have to ride in the same group as him as we returned…

It might have just been because I read too many… romance… novels, in my past life, or because of my interactions with him immediately prior, but regardless of the reason I couldn't stop thinking about the situation in a certain way… Though… from his perspective it was much more likely he was afraid for his life, considering how much he ended up bleeding… Then again, none of the bite marks were that deep…

 I spent the next three days locked in my room thinking about such things. Finally, at the end of the third day, Mo returned from her estate.

Isy had been intentionally giving me space, but Mo didn't even know anything was wrong. Because she acted normal, it helped me to finally start getting over myself… At least enough to take a shower… When I got out I sat back down on my bed with a heavy sigh.

"I took care of everything just as you said, it was surprisingly easy, and everyone seemed rather cooperative, even if they were… Well, never mind. What's our next move?"

'Next move? Yeah… The end goal was always to become king, not waste time in school attending classes…' I lifted my thumb up to my teeth and pressed it against my fangs. 'They're starting to ache again… That's not good. I already bruised my arm from gnawing on it, it's been like this ever since that night…' I glanced down at my left arm. I never used magic to heal myself, so I could still see marks from where I had bit myself. 'Well… if nothing else it's comforting to know I was just teething instead of trying…' I shook my head violently, letting out a sharp breath of air as my face started to heat up and putting a stop to my own thoughts.

"First we tie me up with chains so I can force a chat with the dragon sharing my soul… Or at least properly lock it up again… After that, I need to finish developing a specific skill, and then I need to find and kill the demon that rules over this region in the abyssal plain… Let's see, honestly by the time I do that I'm sure some other crazy thing will have happened… So let's just start there."

"Ok. I'll go get the chains." She quickly left.

'I love how she never asks questions… But… I really just want to stay tucked away here a while longer… It's not that I'm scared of the dragon… But…' letting out a heavy sigh I fell onto my bed and hugged my pillow. 'Would it be awkward if I asked for a hug? Er… Yeah, the least it would do is make everyone worried…'

Isy hesitantly entered smiling brightly when she saw my wet hair and the towel around my neck. "Oh, you're up. Does that mean–"

"It doesn't mean anything… It's just easier to control your thoughts when your body is clean…"

She sighed. "Well, I ran into the teacher while I was picking up some food. He said if you didn't show up to class tomorrow he would have to come check up on you in person."

"But he said!" I froze stiff, calming my voice. "So much for not coming by my room anymore…" 'Well… It makes sense… Guess there's no more avoiding him unless I run away. Well… I could go hang out at Bear's house, but there's no point… Logically, facing the music is the best option… Even if…' I looked down to see my left leg shaking. 'Even if I really don't want to…' I sighed trying to release some of my pent-up tension before taking time to eat with her, despite really not being hungry. By the Time Mo got back with the chains I had lost all motivation to do anything, and went back to bed. Before I knew it, it was morning, and I was being woken up by Isy of all people to get ready for morning training. I was slightly confused by her having more energy than me, just enough to wake up my mind for a moment before wanting to go back to sleep.

I just sighed, rolling over on my bed. "I'm skipping…" I muttered, turning towards the wall and closing my eyes again.

"What? But you can't! The teacher said he'd–"

"As long as I go to class after training it should be fine, and if it's not… Whatever, screw him. I'm not going…"

I heard her slowly try to laugh, only making her confused nervousness audible. 

"Isy… Just let her be. We will just say she's still recovering, so she's holding back from anything physical… She got stabbed twice, severely burned, and who knows what else."

I sighed again as they opened the door and quickly left. 'Thanks, Mo…' I was already awake though, and I had slept so much over the past several days that there was no way I was going to get back to sleep, so it felt like a waste to stay in bed… Not that said feeling actually stopped me from doing so for the first half hour before I actually got up…

'All things considered, even though I feel like trash I'm fairly healthy right now… So I might as well test out that manna soul-merging technique again… Total rest was actually really good for my body, soul, and manna circuits, so I'm in good shape physically… Even if my hands feel weak I think that's just a mental thing…

I sighed again, staring out the window. 'what kind of magic should I use to test it?' I walked into the bathroom and grabbed the shower head sending my soul out slightly around the water pipes and then flooding my manna into it on the inside. Unironically it was the perfect metaphor for what I was doing. I heated up the pipes until they were like a smoking gun barrel and then tried to pull it all back in but it still didn't work. 'Well… At least I can take a hot shower now…'

By the time I was done with that another 20 minutes had gone by, longer if you counted me taking time to dry my hair. 'Now I feel like I melted my brain… Well, let's try it again, this time I'll create a sheet of ice. The problem before was that I was simply encasing my manna. I managed to invert the layers from how they are naturally in my body with the soul underneath, but I need to combine them…' I walked back to the main room and opened the window to feel a cool breeze. 'Ok, let's try it.'