Chapter 43: The Aftermath

Five days later...

[Fiore's castle - Late morning]

Five days had passed since that incident and everyone was healing well. Ben managed to have his arm reattached and Beck had his demon sealed back with a much stronger and proper seal by the king. Both Yukiko and Lavi had their wounds treated as well. Those five days were pretty calm, but their Princess had not woken up yet. She had been sleeping for the few days and her energy seem to be not replenishing, which was strange. Not a single medic could answer why her body was in that sort of condition. Not even her parents could.

A sigh escaped Mary's lips as she was checking on Lavi's wound, "Ah, I missed Emily already."

"Hey, you're not the one." Lavi replied as he sat up so that it was easier for her to check on him.

"I wonder when will she wake up?" Mary paused as her expression saddened.

He patted her shoulder comfortingly, in attempt to cheer her up. "Hey, at least we know that she will wake up someday, right? I think that's pretty good."

"Yeah, I guess that is true." She forced out a smile, "But, there is one thing that kept bothering me. I have no idea why she had a necklace and weird cube thing on her after she got... Um, 'possessed'-- You know what I mean. That was pretty strange."

"Well, we don't know anything, unless we hear her side of the story. So, let's just wait."

[Emily's room - Late morning]

Yukiko sat on the settee as she had some tea in Emily's room. She blew a puff of air to cool her piping hot tea, before eyeing at the unconscious girl, behind her teacup.

"Still asleep, huh."

Irritated, she laid the cup abruptly onto its saucer, making a clink sound.

She shot daggers at Emily, even though she knew she would not see it, "You're really slacking off, aren't you?"

"I'll make sure to give you hell once you wake up, seeing how you're being so lazy this few days." Yukiko warned as she angrily picked up her cup to take a sip of her tea.

"...Where am I?"

Emily thought as she struggled to open her eyes. She squeezed them shut for a second, before opening them. She stared at the ceiling for a good few seconds, figuring out where was she at. She pushed herself up to take a better look at her surroundings. She turned right and saw Yukiko just about three metres away from her.

"...Yukiko?" She called out.

Yukiko looked up and stared at her for a whole second or two before choking on her tea. She clenched onto her chest and coughed repeatedly, until she could steadied herself, "You're awake?!"

Before Emily could answer, she asked another question, "When?!"

"...Just." She replied in her weak voice, "What happe--"

"Hold on, I'll go get Mary." Yukiko flustered as she grabbed her clutches and left her in the room, alone.

All of the sudden, images of the what happened flashed through her mind, just like a videotape.

She turned to her side table to see the necklace and the weird cube that Erica had left for her. She then remembered clearly about everyone who came to get her and Beck.

"Is everyone okay? I hope they ar--"

Suddenly, a creak from the her door pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Emily!" Mary yelled as ran to her side, while the others followed behind her.

She forced out a weak smile and greeted, "...Hey."

"Don't 'hey' me! You scared the crap out of us, do you know that?!" Mary chided while she was at the verge of tears.

"Well, I'm fine now, right?" Emily tried to comfort while still retaining her smile, "Or at least, I think I'm fine."

"We can't be sure if you're fine, since your energy had stopped replenishing for the past five days." Yukiko informed sternly as she folded her arms coldly, even though, she was freaking out a few minutes ago.

"However, they seemed to be replenishing now." Jai stated, "Not that quickly, but it seems to be doing it slowly."

"That's true." Ben came up behind Jai and leaned against her bed frame, "You are sure strange, Emily. But, I don't hate it." He winked charmingly, but yet its effects did not work whatsoever on Emily.

The only thing that Emily noticed was that Ben had his arm back. Quietly, she asked, "...Your arm?"

"Yeah, it's back." Ben grinned as he moved it around to show her that he was fine.

"All of you are fine, right?" Emily questioned as she took a quick glance at her members, who were circling around her.

"Yeah, we are fine." Lavi reassured with a smile, "It takes much more to bring us down, so there's nothing to worry about."

Suddenly, another two visitors came in her room.

Her parents.

"Are you feeling okay, sweetie?" Her mother's chirping voice filled the room.

"Yeah, I am." She replied as her mother pulled her in for a tight hug.

Her dad cleared his throat and spoke strictly and monotonously, "I'm sure you all are feeling much better now, but you all should not forget about your punishments."

"Wait, what... punishments?" Emily asked as she was released by her mother.

"Well, they went against your father's order. They weren't supposed to rescue you and Beck, we told them not too. It was too dangerous, they could have easily lose their lives there. However, they secretly did it. So, they needed to face the consequences." Her mother explained.

"That's not fair." Emily argued back, "I think I should be the one responsible. If I didn't follow Beck, this might not happen. Also, they went against their orders because that wanted to save us, isn't that supposed to be something good?"

Lavi scratched the back of his head, while retaining his smile, "Relax, Emily. You don't have to stand up for us, it's natural for us to take punishments like this. After all, we are just your pawns, you should not care too much about us."

"No." Emily disagreed, "If you all are my pawns and I'm your leader, what kind of leader am I? Leaving my pawns to get these treatments."

Emily planted her feet to the ground and stood up. But once she did, she stumbled and fell onto the ground because her legs were pretty weak since they remained stationary for the past few days.

"...Emily." Her mother huffed as she helped her Daughter up, but Emily seemed to be oblivious that she had just fell. Her eyes were still fixated on her father, "...I'll want to take full responsibility."

Her dad narrowed his cold eyes at her, but that did not faze her, "Aren't you afraid how harsh the punishment is going to be?"

Determined, Emily shook her head decisively, "No, I'm more afraid of being a bad leader."

She had no idea where all of this sense of leadership and courage came from, but it just happened to be there. Or maybe, she really did not want her friends to get punished because of her.

Her father looked away and walked towards the door, "...I'll let this incident slide. However, I will not do the same next time."

Those words made hit Emily with overwhelming happiness. Just as her father was about to leave, she shouted across the room happily, "Thanks, dad!"

He jolted up a little and paused to acknowledge that, before leaving.

"You just made your dad's day." Her mother grinned, "He secretly likes it a lot when you call him 'dad'. Don't tell him that I told you this."

"Well, you should get some more rest." She continued as she asked the rest of the group to leave her alone.

Lavi waved as they were about to leave, "We will see you later then."

"Oh yeah, thanks for helping us." Mary added on.

Upon hearing that, her heart skipped a beat as her face flushed a shade of pink, "It's fine. I'll see you guys later too."

Once she was alone in the room, she just fell back onto the soft bed.

She did not know why... Even though many things had happened that literally threatened her life, but somehow, she did not regret coming here. This is the first time in her whole sixteen years she actually felt so determined to do something.

"...Maybe coming here wasn't such a bad idea after all."