6: Who are you?

The man slowly stood up, holding onto his shoulder with a pained expression, "Cleathean?" He turned to Tiana, "Alivi hmh csy jmrh e Cleathean jsv e fshckyevh?!"

Tiana waved her arms around, "M'pp ibtpemr qsvi pexiv!" She quickly made her way to the screaming men while dragging me with her, "These people need medical treatment as soon as possible. They'll die if they keep bleeding out."

I look at her, conflicted, "They tried to steal your stuff. They're most likely the one that caused the explosion and the destruction of your stall."

"I told you to get the metal, not dismember these people!" Tiana looked angry now.

"You... can't seriously be sympathetic for these people..?"

"Please! I don't know what life you've led until now, but they were just following orders. The metal is safe right?"

I roll my eyes, offended at such question to even rise. How dare she doubt me? "If another one of these bastards even have the intention to step toward the stall, I would have already cut their heads off."

"Could you please not say that so casually?!" Tiana screamed at me.

After that, she started to ignore me in favor of treating the injured as much as she could. It hurt a little bit, being blatantly ignored despite saving her livelihood. Those who cross the line shall pay the price, right? I did what was the best thing to do in the moment so why is she so mad at me for it?

With a few more moments of just standing there, I sigh heavily. This wasn't going to go anywhere if I keep being stubborn. I came for her help, if she continued to hate me for this I would be left alone in the middle of this city.

I knelt beside her, taking reigns over whatever it was that she was doing.

Still angry, she tried to take the bandages and aid kit from me but I was firm. She didn't even affect what I was trying to do for the screaming bastard. I sighed again, they were so fucking noisy. If they showed this kind of behavior in the tower, the wouldn't last a day. "So noisy..."

Tiana watched my hands do the work for a moment before asking, "What are you doing?"

"You're doing it all wrong. You don't want to cut off the circulation when you want to put their legs back together." I undo the knots that she did easily, "There needs to be open blood vessels for—"

"What do you mean 'put their legs back together'?"

Black tendrils crawled out of the skin of my wrists as I grabbed the legs this guy left behind. He stopped screaming now, thank God. "I meant put their legs back together. You want to heal them right?"

When I looked up at Tiana to see the weird look she had for me, "You can do that..?"

"What do you mean by that? Of course I can, if I didn't I would just be a floating head by now." I tried to laugh but the dark look that loomed over Tiana's face told me to stop. The whole situation started to not feel right and I opted to just continue on untying the knots on the other leg of the guy.

With that done, I focused on my task. Magic gathered in my hand turning it black before it morphed into a bright green. The man whimpered when I stuffed the dismembered leg to where it belonged and after a few seconds of making sure that it was in the right place, I started drawing stitches where the cut was effectively closing the wound. I did the same for the other leg before moving on to the next thief.

"Are you alright?" I heard Tiana hesitantly ask behind me before she corrected herself to the language that these people spoke. 

The man whimpered pathetically again before he started laughing out of nowhere. It was a weird feeling to feel your leg again after being cut off, I can understand the insanity that comes with it being attached again.

"This is... amazing..."

I wouldn't say that it was amazing. There are plenty other spells I know that is more impressive than that.

I hear Tiana approach me as I finish up with this guy. She continued to watch over my shoulder as I made my way through the injured. A little annoyed about her silence that I didn't pay attention which leg I grabbed and stitched together.

The man was quick to let me know in broken Cleathean, "Wrong leg, fuck! You stupid?"

"Do you want to die?"

"Hey! Quit it, give him back his leg."

I roll my eyes, "I don't want to."

"You can't just do that."

"Yes I can."

"Why are you being so difficult right now-"

"Why are you helping these scumbags?!"

"Why am I helping you?"

I sigh harshly. This was going nowhere. "I'll give his fucking leg back.." Without another word, I cut off the leg that I had already given him, blood and a gut-wrenching scream splattered all across the market soil.

I heard Tiana barf but still manage to mutter a small, "Thank you."

No more arguments or complications followed after that. Tiana made sure that everyone in the venue was alright as well as pack up the last items that she had on the wagon. The man that had tried to apprehend me earlier helped Tiana with the whole thing, I would have done so if I wasn't busy making sure that there were no further assholes that tried anything.

Which meant that I stood around menacingly and glared at anyone that walked a little to close.

Tiana dismissed the man for his help and with nothing else to do, he walked toward me. I can already tell that it was going to be a headache of a conversation just by the look on his face.

"Who are you?"

So he can speak Cleathean, "A bit rude to be asking me about my name when I don't even know yours. Don't tell me you people have lost basic etiquette in the time I've been gone?"

He was confused for a moment, no doubt storing whatever I said at the back of his head. The change in him was instantaneous as he smiled so brightly and brought a hand to his chest before bowing, " My apologies," He started, "My name is Arni Bakalov. A-Rank chef of the Mist Science Guild."

The way his face immediately turned smug as soon as he finished introducing himself made me want to punch his face. "What are you smiling about? Am I supposed to be impressed by your occupation?"

I took great amusement when his smugness faded and a look of disbelief appeared on his face, "Forgive me for asking this but have you been living in a cave?"

"I don't know why I would forgive you for asking about the truth."

Arni turned to Tiana who was approaching them, the wagon now secured and ready to go, "Tee where the actual fuck did you find this creature?"

Tiana gave me an uneasy look. For a moment we just stared at each other and I thought that she was going to tell me that I can't accompany her anymore. There were a lot of emotions behind her eyes. Emotions that were unfairly familiar and then it disappeared and she was looking back at Arni.

"Don't be rude, Arni. We don't want anyone to get hurt after what happened."

On cue, I gave Arni a little smile. He didn't appreciate it one bit. "Who are you?" He asked again, looking all the more snobby with his chin held high.

I don't know what he was trying to accomplish when I was a head taller than him, "My name is Azar. I used to live under a rock. Nice to meet you."

"Azar?"

"YOU DIDN'T KNOW!??!"

Tiana turned red all over, looking away in embarrassment. Her voice could be barely heard as she mumbled, "Well... I forgot to ask since she looked in such a bad shape... I didn't want to pressure her into revealing anything for my own curiosity..."

I am yet again blown away by this woman's selflessness. Let's hope that it won't be the cause of her misfortune.