New Arrangements

When Des set out today, hoping to finally repay Tiger for his generosity back then, he never expected that he would actually end up in Tiger's home!

Only Tiger, Des, Flora and the unconscious Fauna remained.

Des looked around curiously, wondering where Tiger's young son 'Bear' was right now. Flora, seemingly able to read his thoughts, explained that her brother was currently accompanying the border guard hunting party on their patrol around the nearby forest area.

Bear was only eight years old, but it was common for the village's future hunters to accompany the border guard hunting parties when they reached a certain age. It was the safest way to introduce these young future hunters to the dangers outside of the village.

Unfortunately, Tiger's wife died whilst giving birth to Bear, their third and final child. Tiger didn't blame Bear for this, not at all, and he made sure to shower his only son with love, as well as the proper teachings that any good hunter would give his son.

Des found himself kneeling down in the training hall, facing the kneeling Tiger, who was holding the unconscious Fauna. Meanwhile, Flora continued to stare at him with a strange expression.

"Des…thank you. If it wasn't for you, I don't know what we would have done…" Tiger finally spoke. Des could hear the earnest gratitude in his voice, but his tone also sounded very complicated…

"I know what would have happened - sister would have died if it wasn't for Des." Flora immediately said something that caused her father to glare at her.

"You girl, speak less brutishly! Don't talk about your sister's brush with death as if it's something trivial!"

Flora rolled her eyes. She faced Des and suddenly smiled, then turned back to her father and said:

"With this, Des's debt can definitely be considered paid off, right? And the deal I made with you, and my punishment-"

"What does Des's merit have to do with your punishment?" Tiger snorted. "Of course, I will clear Des's debt, but-"

"Sorry to interrupt, Tiger, but that's not necessary. Actually, before I bumped into you earlier, I was looking for you so that I could finally pay you back."

After saying this, Des smiled, then casually took out three golden plates from inside his robe. These plates were made from gold, a very rare metal in the village, and each represented 10,000 Origin Berries!

Tiger and Flora stared at the three plates in shock.

Calming himself, Tiger shook his head seriously.

"This is not necessary. Des, you saved my beloved daughter's life, how could I still take your money?"

Des chuckled, then shrugged helplessly.

"I'm sorry you feel that way, but you'll just have to put up with it." After saying this, Des actually threw the three plates directly at Tiger. Tiger naturally reached out and caught them, feeling surprised that Des could actually throw so accurately.

Tiger's expression became even more bitter, despite receiving a large sum of money unexpectedly.

"You saved my daughter by sacrificing your arm, and now I'm taking your hard earned money…Des, don't turn me down, I absolutely must repay you for this. Speak, what do you want? A larger loan? No, in fact, I can just give you the money if that's what you want."

Hearing this, Des's heart became filled with expectation.

"I'd like it if you could be more lenient on Flora…I know that she can be a bit troublesome, but wouldn't it be fine to let her go out and visit me now and then? And if not, could I visit her instead?"

Tiger didn't immediately answer Des's question, but instead asked a question of his own.

"Why are the two of you are so dead-set on spending time together? You can't have exchanged more than a few sentences between yourselves in total, yet you act as if you're close friends…"

Whenever Tiger asked his daughter this question, she gave a different answer every time, but none of them truly made sense. Tiger still remembered how she had even claimed that she and Des were 'kindred spirits' due to their shared interest in philosophical conversations…

Fortunately, Des had a more straight forward answer.

"Flora saved my life and brought me to the village. Besides, my earliest memory is of looking up at her from that crater in the forest, so it feels like I've known her for longer than anyone else."

Des paused, then smiled as he turned his hazy eyes towards Flora and added:

"But really, the main reason is simply because we get along."

Hearing this, Flora smiled brightly. It was a smile so bright that Tiger was left feeling dazed for a moment. His daughter…never smiled like this…

As they continued to talk, they kept an eye on Fauna, treating her with medicines periodically.

Tiger also kept stealing glances at Des's arm. Des was acting as if this was only a minor injury, but half of his left arm had been removed! If not for Des's insistence on remaining here until Fauna woke up, Tiger would definitely force him to go receive some proper medical treatment immediately.

Tiger felt complex whenever he looked at Des. He didn't hate the boy…in fact, he had never even disliked him! It was just that Flora's interest in Des worried him. If she just wanted to be his friend, that would be fine, but what if her obsession turned to love, and love to marriage?

Tiger refused to allow his daughter to marry into a family which would significantly lower her status, living conditions and wealth. As a hunter captain, there were very few men whom Tiger considered suitable candidates to be his daughter's marriage partner…and Des was not one of them.

To begin with, hunter families preferred to marry into other hunter families.

At this point, it was common knowledge that Des had been adopted by Doctor Leah and his wife, both as their family member, and as the doctor's new protege. Honestly, Des's status actually wasn't too bad.

Even so, Tiger would still prefer to see his daughters marry hunters.

Hunters were all warriors, men with great strength. They were men with the ability to protect their families.

But Des?

He was practically blind, his hearing was also a bit poor, his body's constitution made it such that he was frail and susceptible to illness, and now….he only had one arm. Just taking one look at the boy was enough for anyone to tell that he would not do well in a battle.

Tiger felt endless gratitude towards Des, and he was even starting to admire the boy for various reasons, the latest of which being his incredible resolution and tolerance to pain. However, he did not want Flora to marry Des. For the sake of his daughter's future happiness and safety, he believed that keeping her away from Des was the safest course of action.

Despite all this, in the end, Tiger no longer had it in him to refuse Des's request. Were it not for Des, then his youngest daughter Fauna would probably be dead right now.

"Fine, the two of you can meet, but Flora still needs to accept her punishment for going against my commands."

After pausing briefly, Tiger sighed and went on.

"Flora, we can go through your punishment later. I won't try to prevent the two of you from meeting any longer, however…Flora, I don't want you to become distracted. You need to continue studying properly, so that you can improve your proficiency as a gatherer. Only like this will you be able to find a good husband."

Flora pouted and Des smiled wryly. He knew that she didn't like this way of thinking. But, for now, they both held their silence.

"Des, you may visit our manor once each week. Is this acceptable?"

"Only once each week? That's-"

"That's perfectly acceptable." Des interrupted Flora, smiling towards Tiger and nodding. "Thank you, Tiger."

"No…I should be thanking you, Des…" Tiger spoke with a sigh, again looking down at Des's bloody arm with a complicated expression.

Anyone else would be screaming in agony right now, Tiger was all too aware of that. If it wasn't for the fact that Des had treated his own wound expertly and stopped the bleeding, Tiger would have rushed the boy back to the hospital. Even so, he still urged Des to quickly return home.

Des returned home with a smile on his face, escorted by the concerned Tiger. His pleased expression did not match his bloody stump for an arm, which drew many shocked gasps from everyone they passed by.

Both Doctor Leah and Cujie cried out in shock and horror when they saw Des's grievous injury. Cujie was so pale that she looked like she might pass out, whilst Leah found himself feeling dumbstruck. He was unable to take his eyes away from Des, who was acting as if it wasn't a big deal.

After getting over their shock, the couple ushered Des into the hospital.

In the end, there wasn't much they could do, other than cleaning the wound and changing his bandages. They made sure that Des was eating well and taking the highest quality medicines to promote good health, but other than that, they could only pray that the wound didn't become infected.

Infection was a big cause of death in Namuh Village. Their treatment of infections was rudimentary, so every serious infection was a life and death ordeal.

Fortunately, because Des had applied his own sanitary bandages with his polished medical skills, he did not develop an infection. After resting for a couple of weeks under Leah and Cujie's insistence, Des was back on his feet, going about his business as usual.

No, there was one difference to his usual routine…he was now able to visit Flora once each week!

One month had passed since that incident.

"How is your arm? Does it hurt?" Flora looked at Des with a hint of softness. Hearing her tone of voice made him smile, but he shook his head in response.

"Not anymore, not significantly anyway."

"So it really did hurt before? You didn't seem too bothered by it." Flora looked up at Des's face curiously. There was a strange look in her eyes when she gazed at him, as if she was able to see something in Des that others could not see. Des could not see her expression, but he could feel the strangeness in her gaze. Perhaps this was why he felt so attracted towards her…

"Of course it hurt, but…it's just pain. Or maybe the pain just wasn't bad enough?" Des pondered aloud.

"I can't imagine what sort of pain could be so much worse than losing an arm…really…I can't imagine it…" Flora shook her head gently, casting Des a brief look of understanding.

When Flora looked at him in this way, Des again felt strange. He felt as if she was able to see something within him that even he could not see. Or perhaps, she knew something that he had forgotten…

Des shook his head with a smile, deciding not to dwell on it. He sometimes wondered why he had no memories of his life before he was found by Flora in the forest, but at other times, he actually felt like he didn't want to know. His life in Namuh Village was peaceful and fulfilling, but what if recovering the memories of his past changed this life of his? What if recovering his memories drove him to leave the village, in search of his hidden past…?

Des didn't even want to think about such a thing. If the memories of his past truly changed him to such an extent that he was driven to leave the village, then perhaps, at that point, he could no longer be considered the same person…