Its a thief

Aric, after taking him home, laid him on an uneven couch. He pulled up his ragged jacket, only to see the wound bleeding and the face of the man pale enough to make Aric think that this guy wouldn't even last a few minutes.

He went to the wardrobe and opened the secure box. There were 3 or 4 health packs, along with some gold coins. These were his emergency stack, in case one day he would need it. He took one health pack out and administered it to the boy.

The fire burnt on the side as Aric could see that his wounds had started healing. But the pale face of his didn't leave as he had lost too much blood. The health pack could heal any external or internal wound, but it couldn't regenerate the blood. It could only accelerate blood formation faster.

Now the boy's fate was in the hands of Gods if they existed here. Aric took a thick blanket and put it on him. He didn't need to stay here and left for his home.

----

1000 hours

The sun was shining brightly through the glass windows, its strength slowly rising but not enough to make the snow outside melt, but enough to make Alden, who was lying on the couch, very uncomfortable. The fire had already subsided in the fireplace and he was wrapped up in a warm blanket that made his sleep very comfortable.

Only the sun forced him to open his eyes. At first, he was all groggy and couldn't understand where he was and what was going on. Then everything came rushing back to him. The betrayal at the forest, the wound, the hospital.

He could only remember losing his consciousness in the harsh snow and the next thing he knew, he was here. He instantly checked his wound and was blown away by the fact that there was not an inch of scratch or kind of scar on his wounds. There were multiple wounds on his body but now there was none.

He had heard this was possible only by Acolyte and higher healers. Once he saw that there were no wounds, he jumped up from his couch.

"Hello... Is anyone there? I ask for forgiveness that I barged into your house. Thank you for healing me," Alden spoke out loud. He awaited a response but there was none.

"I am grateful for healing, esteemed Acolyte," Alden spoke out again. He was puzzled by why there was no response but he sat patiently for more than 15 minutes, calling out every minute. Finally, he decided to look around. He tiptoed around the house and realized that there was no one.

This stumped him as he didn't know what he should do. He could only think of waiting for the esteemed Acolyte. He wanted to go back to his home but he at least needed to meet his savior before he could leave.

And thus he decided to help the Acolyte the best way he could, and that was by cleaning the entire house. The house was clean but, as a boy who had worked odd jobs including cleaning houses of rich individuals, he could see the dust and cobwebs in some places. And just like an efficient house help, he cleaned the entire place and made things crystal clear.

But one thing did stump him was the fact that there was no food in the kitchen and this Acolyte didn't even have a magical refrigerator either to keep his/her food. He didn't have any coins with him but while cleaning he found some 100 copper coins lying around.

100 copper coins was a huge amount for him. That was almost his entire food supply for the month for two people and he just found 100 copper coins lying around. So he did the most sensible thing. He took 10 coins with him and went out in the chilly winter to buy some ingredients and some meat to cook.

He was also the cook of his own home and had learned from his late mother. He wasn't an accomplished chef but he liked to think that he was a good cook. Vegetables were more costly in the winter and thus he could only go for meat and some salt.

After coming back, he started his cooking preparation and by afternoon he had finished his cooking. He eagerly waited for the esteemed Acolyte to show up.

"Maybe he has gone for a mission. I will wait until he returns," Alden thought. He couldn't help but devour his own food after he waited till late afternoon. He was hungry and yesterday's wounds had left a sense of hunger in his body.

He hadn't touched the food before because it was not his money and the Acolyte had healed him, it would be very ungrateful to use the money of others but he just couldn't stop himself.

"I will compensate the full amount after he comes back," Alden promised himself as he ate through the food like a wolf hungry after catching the prey and had been starving for a few days now. After finishing the food, he also made the fire in the fireplace.

He could only wait.

2200 hours.

Alden had already had his dinner from the meal he had made in the afternoon and made some more for the Acolyte to come for dinner but he hadn't shown even after 9 pm. It had started to snow heavily and thus he was sure that the Acolyte wouldn't show up for the night.

He was lying on the couch thinking of what he should do tomorrow and almost dozing off when he heard a small noise coming from the kitchen. This made his drowsiness vanish and adrenaline pumped through his veins. At first, he thought the Acolyte was back, but the small noise came from the kitchen.

This made him super alert.

He had always carried a knife with himself for his own safety. He pulled out the knife from his waist and sneaked slowly towards the kitchen.

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Read 14 chapters ahead on my p@treon.com/thelightedghost