Obsession

A few moments after Sia left the room, Achilles lay back in his old position as he thought about everything that happened before he blacked out.

'Something doesn't add up.'

According to his memory, a flash of lightning tore the damn Corrupted apart, then it disintegrated into dust. The lightning strike was a swift and precise motion that could only be done by a single individual.

Despite fighting a Corrupted, he was still paying attention to his surroundings and he would know it if there were people nearby.

Cohorts usually released their aura naturally so that they could attract and hunt more monsters easily, most of the time that was the case.

The only reason why he wasn't able to spot the Wendigos was because they used purely their physical abilities without leaking any aura out of their bodies.

So for whatever reason, there were two possibilities.

One was that Anastasia had lied to him, there was no cohort that rescued him from the Wendigo.

Two was that this "cohort" had probably hidden their aura to attract less Corrupted.

The second reason sounded more plausible and most likely to be the truth, but something inside him was inclining to the first reason.

'Forget it, it's better if I check my current condition before dealing with that.'

He wasn't really comfortable being lied to by anyone but as long as they don't cause him any harm, he could let go of that and considers bygones be bygones.

'My left arm is really messed up at the moment, it would take a while for it to get back to what it used to be.'

'The injuries on my bones and organs on the other hand, have healed up nicely for the most part. I wonder what kind of medicine is able to do that?'

"Wait, where are my equipments?" Achilles spoke up after the sudden realization.

He wanted to stand up and look around to find his necessities, but his body condition wasn't good enough to do such heavy work. Thus he could only lie down helplessly while looking at the white ceiling.

'I met that woman again, what kind of coincidence is this?'

He thought about his three meetings with Anastasia over the last three months. It was already weird that he met the woman twice while walking around the city, now it was just straight-up peculiar that she was also the person who saved him and apparently took care of him as well.

'Is there a deeper meaning to all of this?'

Before he could think any further, the door sprang open as a figure in white hood walked in. Inside her hands was a bowl of delicious porridge that she placed on the small table beside the bed. She sat down on the recliner next to it and looked at him with a smile.

"Let's let it cool down a little before you eat."

"...Thank you, Ms.Anas-"

"Sia." She cut him off with a cold voice.

Achilles wasn't sure what she meant and raised an eyebrow at what she had said.

"Pardon?"

"Call me Sia."

"...I don't think it's appropriate to-"

"Call. Me. Sia." She spoke with an even colder voice than before.

"...Fine. Thank you, Sia." Achilles shuddered for a moment before finally relented.

Sia's warm smile returned on her face as her cold expression vanished as if it was never there in the first place. She then spoke to him in a questioning tone:

"What were you doing at the south where there are few humans' strongholds, Stephen? It isn't safe for someone of your level to be there."

"...Well, most of the human's citadels are at the north so I thought it'd be easier to find Corrupted in the south." Achilles spoke after considering it wasn't risky to tell her about his reason.

"You don't need to put your life in danger like that, there are plenty of monsters in the north too." Sia reprimanded in a motherly tone.

"Understood?" She added after a moment.

'...I felt like I heard this before...' A hint of nostalgia flickered on Achilles' face, but outwardly he only spoke in a cold voice:"...You don't need to worry about me like that, I'll be fine."

"..."

Seeing Sia being silent, Achilles turned to her to see what was going on but was slightly taken aback and creeped out by her expression.

Her amiable smile was gone and replaced by an indifferent smile that had a hidden anger inside it.

"...What I mean is that — thank you for caring about me. I won't attempt such a dangerous thing again so I'll be fine." Achilles quickly added after seeing such a scary expression from Sia.

"...Is that so? Glad you understood." The latter's expression became happy again when she heard his words.

'So scary, is she one of those obsessive individuals?' Cold sweat started appearing on Achilles' back, he was a little nervous about what happened.

"Well, the porridge has become a little cooler. Do you want to eat now?" Sia spoke again in a caring voice.

Achilles nodded slightly in agreement, he was feeling pretty hungry after such a long time of not eating anything.