Chapter 27: It’ll only get better from here
After stepping off the last stone, Felyn set foot on the bank and then stood still in place for quite a while.
Her hand still held Erik’s tight, and on her face smudged with a bit of dirt was a smile that hadn’t fully faded. It seemed as though even now, she was still confirming that she had truly just crossed a stream on stepping stones in the middle of the current.
"I really didn’t fall?" Felyn turned her head slightly toward the back, her voice still carrying a hint of excitement.
Erik looked at the stream about five meters wide behind them and broke into a laugh. "Didn’t fall, clothes didn’t get wet either. Very good performance."
Felyn pressed her lips together, but the smile on her face only became more distinct.
It was just that the moment she took another step, Erik immediately noticed something was off.
Felyn’s right foot faltered slightly.
The movement was so small that it would be almost impossible to catch without paying attention, but Erik had been walking alongside her for a good stretch and picked up on it very quickly.
He knitted his brows and asked: "Does your foot hurt?"
"No." Felyn answered almost instantly, then seemed to realize she had reacted too quickly, and her voice immediately dropped. "It’s just a little uncomfortable."
Erik looked at her for a few seconds.
Felyn couldn’t see his expression, but the silence still made her feel a bit guilty.
"Really just a little."
"Sit down first."
Erik glanced around, then led her to a large flat rock sitting along the bank of the stream. The surface was relatively even, one half lying under the shade of a tree, and the front happened to be just close enough to the water.
Felyn obediently sat down.
Erik also squatted down in front of her and reached out to remove the shoe from her right foot.
Felyn startled and instinctively drew her foot back. "Erik, I’m fine."
"I know." Erik gently held her ankle, his voice still calm. "So I’m just checking."
The answer was so natural that Felyn couldn’t think of how to argue back.
Erik removed the soft shoes he had given her earlier, then also took out the fabric padding inside.
Back at the hut, he had only wiped away the dirt with a damp cloth since there wasn’t much time. Now, in the clear light beside the stream, the full extent of the wounds on Felyn’s feet became visible.
A great many scabbed-over scratches lay interspersed with old scars. On the sole there were also a few fairly deep cracks, and one spot near the little toe had swollen red, with something still seemingly lodged inside.
Erik knitted his brows.
’How long has she been walking barefoot in this forest?’
Perhaps that question never needed an answer.
Fifty years.
Even if Felyn didn’t walk far every day, that span of time was long enough that Erik didn’t want to think about it too carefully.
He rolled up his sleeves, sat down close to the water’s edge, then gently lifted her foot and lowered it into the stream.
The moment the cool water touched her skin, Felyn immediately pulled her foot back.
"Cold!"
"Bear with it a little."
Erik broke into a laugh, his hand still holding her ankle to keep her from unconsciously pulling away.
The crystal-clear water flowed over the feet full of wounds, carrying the remaining specks of dust and dirt downstream. Erik used his hand to gently wash each spot, his movements very careful so as not to dislodge the scabs that had just formed.
Felyn sat on the rock, her whole body nearly frozen still.
She could feel Erik’s hand very clearly.
Warm, slightly rough across the palm.
Each time his fingers brushed past her ankle, Felyn’s body would tense up faintly.
Ever since losing her eyes and sealing herself inside the seventh floor, she had almost forgotten what contact with another person felt like. Let alone that the person sitting before her was a man.
A man who had held her hand and led her through the forest, kicked stones out of the path, held branches so they wouldn’t brush her face, and even tucked a flower in her hair.
And now he was squatting by a stream, washing her dirty feet with his own hands.
Felyn’s heartbeat grew faster and faster.
Thump. Thump.
Her full chest beneath the old clothing rose and fell softly with each breath. She tried to draw in deep breaths to calm herself, but the harder she tried, the more vividly she felt the hand holding her ankle.
Felyn’s fingers tightened slightly on her knees.
’Is this really not a dream?’
Erik had absolutely no idea what the woman before him was thinking.
After washing the right foot clean, he lifted it up for one more inspection and very quickly found the small thorn lodged inside the wound.
"There’s a thorn."
Felyn tensed slightly. "Is it serious?"
"No, but it has to come out."
Erik took a small pair of tweezers from the space bracelet. It was only an ordinary tool, so the barrier from the sixth floor onward hadn’t sealed it.
He held Felyn’s foot and warned: "It’ll sting a bit. Bear with it."
"Mm."
Felyn bit her lip lightly.
Erik carefully gripped the tip of the thorn with the tweezers and pulled.
Felyn’s body flinched, and her hand immediately grabbed the edge of the rock, but she didn’t make a sound.
A second later, the small thorn, nearly a centimeter long, lay in the tweezers.
Erik looked at it, his expression turning a bit ugly.
"This thing has probably been in your foot for more than a day or two."
Felyn gave an embarrassed little laugh. "I can’t see, and sometimes the staff can’t catch everything either."
Erik set the thorn aside, then washed the wound once more before treating it with ordinary disinfectant.
"This is all I can do for now. Recovery Talismans and high-grade medicine are all sealed by the barrier." He said while rebandaging the wounded area. "Bear with it a bit longer. After we leave this place, I’ll get the wounds on your feet properly treated."
Felyn froze.
Erik was still bent over tending to the wound, completely unaware that her expression had changed.
"The old scars might take more time, but Elowen’s mother’s hospital is very good. If that’s still not enough, we’ll find another way."
The hand resting on Felyn’s knee began to tremble.
"After... leaving here?"
"Mm."
"You’ll really take me with you?"
This time Erik finally looked up.
He looked at Felyn with a puzzled expression. "Didn’t we already talk about this?"
Felyn’s lips parted slightly.
She wanted to answer, but her throat felt as though something had suddenly blocked it.
Over these fifty years, Felyn had imagined leaving this forest a great many times.
At first, she still held hope that someone would come.
One year passed.
Two years.
Ten years.
After that, she gradually stopped thinking about it.
Her life shrank down to the old hut, the staff, the forest, along with the paths that she’d had to trip and fall countless times to memorize.
Until today, when a strange man suddenly appeared.
He said he would take her with him.
Then he really did hold her hand.
And now he was calmly figuring out how to take her to get her feet treated after they got back, as though Felyn leaving this place were already a certainty.
A drop of water suddenly fell onto the back of Erik’s hand.
He was startled.
A second drop quickly followed.
Erik immediately looked up and found tears continuously spilling from beneath Felyn’s gauze bandage, tracing down her gaunt face before dripping down.
He knitted his brows, and the hand holding her foot immediately relaxed.
"Does it hurt?"
Felyn hurriedly shook her head, but that movement only made the tears flow even more.
Erik grew a bit flustered. "Is the wound still hurting? Or is the medicine making you uncomfortable?"
"It’s not that."
Felyn was crying and laughing at the same time, making her voice come out slightly choked. She raised a hand wanting to wipe her tears but didn’t know where to wipe since the bandage still covered her eyes.
"I’m just... really happy."
Erik was silent.
Felyn lowered her head, her shoulders trembling faintly.
"I’ve been here for too long. So long that sometimes I can’t even remember what my own face looks like, and I’ve almost forgotten what it feels like to have someone talking beside me."
She drew in a deep breath but her voice still shook.
"Then you suddenly appeared, held my hand, put shoes on me, led me through the forest... And now you’re even saying you’ll get my feet treated after we go back."
Felyn laughed, but the tears kept falling.
"Erik, if all of this is only a dream..."
She was quiet for a few seconds before continuing in a small voice:
"I really don’t want to wake up."
Erik looked at her for a long while.
Then he stood, stepped in front of Felyn, and gently placed his hand on her cheek.
Felyn instantly went silent.
Erik’s thumb slowly wiped away the trail of tears below the gauze bandage. Felyn’s face was much thinner than an ordinary Succubus’s, and her skin was also a bit dry from living in deprived conditions for so many years.
Erik didn’t say anything grandiose.
He only gently stroked her cheek and smiled.
"Then don’t think about waking up."
Felyn lifted her head slightly.
"Today is only the first day." Erik looked at her, his voice very soft. "It’ll only get better from here."
Felyn’s lips trembled faintly.
In the end she nodded.
"Mm."
Outside the Trial Space, the chat had been quiet for quite a while.
[Madam Ravia: I can’t take it.]
[The Sleepless Madam: Neither can I.]
[Madam Ysera: He even remembered to get her feet treated after they leave.]
[Madam Lilith: Felyn only said one sentence about her foot feeling a little uncomfortable.]
A stretch of silence appeared.
Then a new line of text came up.
[Madam Ravia: The man at my house gets a tiny scratch and calls three Healers over. Last time I was the one who got hurt, he told me to use the medicine myself.]
[The Sleepless Madam: Stop comparing.]
[The Sleepless Madam: I’m starting to feel like my life before this was pretty miserable.]
Meira looked at the screen without saying anything.
Because she was having similar thoughts.
Erik bent down to check the bandage on Felyn’s foot one more time, and only after confirming the wound had been properly taken care of did he start packing up the supplies.
But this time he didn’t rush to stand.
Erik looked at the crystal-clear water flowing right before them, then up at the sunlight streaming through the high canopy.
"Let’s rest here for a bit."
Felyn was a little surprised.
"What about the gate to the eighth floor?"
"It’s still there."
Erik put the supplies back into the space bracelet, then sat down beside her.
"The scenery here is quite nice. What’s the rush?"
Felyn was slightly stunned.
Then, on the face still marked with traces of tears, a smile slowly appeared.