89: At Ease

At Ease

The dojo was silent as the pitter patter of footsteps became more and more distant, Augusta's blurred vision slowly recognizing the fine details within the environment again as he pushed himself up off the hardwood floor. A concerning amount of blood trickled down the man's sharp jawline as he grunted in pain before rising back up to his feet, stumbling the first couple of steps forward with an unstable balance. However, none of that mattered as he continued to reflect back on what had occurred just a few minutes prior.2

The bokken that snapped in two against Dante's body with ease, as well as the horrific wound that had been inflicted upon him by the boy left Augusta's mind buzzing with questions that never received any answers. The constant stinging pains that were coursing through his face only worsened the massive headache that he was currently feeling.

Making his way out of the dojo, not caring for the fact that his blood was leaving a trail behind him, Augusta eventually found the kitchen and made himself a drink that held some sort of alcohol.

Pulling out a seat at the dining table, he plopped down onto it as the lack of blood was starting to make him feel heavy-eyed, but that didn't stop the man from taking periodic sips from the bloody cup in his hand. It would take a lot more than a little bit of blood loss to knock him out for good.

Not even thinking about his daughter's condition, Augusta's mind lingered on the thought of Dante for the rest of the night, and used that time to figure out his plans for the future with a near-imperceptible smirk etched into his face.

While he knew that Dante always seemed a little strange, the man was finally beginning to realize just how much raw potential that boy held inside of him.

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When Lilia opened her eyes the next day, the first thing that she noticed was a mop of black hair lying on the side of her bed. Eyebrows scrunching together in confusion, there was a metaphoric lightbulb above the girl's head that lit up after a couple seconds of pondering the situation.

She wasn't able to immediately remember what had occurred just a few hours prior, but it eventually came back when her distinctly purple eyes lowered to a sight that she caught in her peripheral vision. Propped up on pillows for an elevated position, her wrist gave off a dull ache that seemed to increase whenever she tried moving a finger.

The more she began to remember about what happened, the more her headache seemed to become prominent, and it was starting to really hurt.

Unable to hold herself back from letting out a whimper of pain, the faint sound caused Dante's head to snap up as his eyes immediately opened. It nearly made the girl exclaim in surprise, but the boy was already running out the door after realizing that she was finally awake.

Even as the pains running through her body made life feel horrible, a small smile crawled onto the redhead's face as she mused over Dante's thoughtful consideration. The fact that he appeared to be sleeping by her side before waking up meant that he had obviously been thinking about her.

It made her pain feel all the more bearable to deal with.

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When Flute saw Dante running towards her, she quit tending to her garden located in the backyard as a wave of anxiety washed over the stressed woman. However, it was all for naught, which was due to the fact that the boy's following words immediately set her at ease.

"She just woke up!" He uttered, a smile on his face.

Shoulders sagging in relief, Flute affectionately pat the boy on the head as the duo proceeded to start walking back towards the house. "Thank goodness..." The purple-eyed lady whispered to herself. Even though he didn't voice a reply, Dante still heard it, and silently nodded in agreement.

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After looking over her daughter once more, Flute sunk back into a leather chair placed next to the young girl's bed. She had applied a bit more healing magic to Lilia's broken wrist, lessening as much of the pain as possible with the limited amount of knowledge and skill that she possessed with it.

There was a point in time where she had been quite the archer within a relatively short-lived party back in her earlier days as an adventurer, eventually obtaining the C rank before they sadly disbanded over a verbal dispute that nearly got physical. However, while it was still alive and well, the woman had also decided to learn a bit of healing magic just in case their actual healer wasn't available during a potentially life-threatening situation.

Her mastery over it was just enough to take care of injuries at the level of broken bones, which is exactly what had been needed when her daughter got hurt. Unfortunately, she wasn't capable of healing the wound instantly, and it was most likely going to take around three days for it to completely heal up. Only a day had passed. The head injury was gone, and a small scar was left behind on the back of her scalp, but it wasn't visible unless someone actually looked for it by messing with her hair.

After a while, the woman's mind shifted to the person who had made all of this happen in the first place, and couldn't help but feel a surge of anger bubble up inside of her. Once Dante had finished explaining the circumstances behind the situation, the fact that she eventually found a trail of blood leading to the man's location dissipated her seething fit enough to the point that it was able to be concealed behind a mask of stoicism.

However, following the clean up that needed to occur in order for the red splotches on the floor to go away, Flute made sure that she used the absolute bare minimum to repair the man's gash when he demanded her to use healing magic on his bleeding orifice.

Internally, she felt proud of Dante for getting a bit of revenge for Lilia in the end.

Purposefully disregarding the option to scream at the man that she's built up a hatred for over the years due to a variety of reasons, Flute silently did as she was told until Augusta pushed her away before walking out of the house without saying another word. The gruesome cut had only healed to the point where it finally stopped bleeding, slowly resulting in a scab that was forming over it, which honestly made the wound appear even worse.

Deciding to get some rest, Flute reclined further back into her leather chair and proceeded to shut her purple eyes, firmly accepting that she was finally going to act on a decision in the next two days that had been in the works for at least three years now.

It had finally reached a point where she needed to get rid of Augusta for good. Making sure that Lilia was safe and free from his suffocating authority was now her number one priority after what had transpired.

She was already feeling an immense amount of regret for not taking any action sooner, but doing so now was much better than doing nothing at all, especially since her daughter actually survived that time around.

Flute wasn't going to allow for another situation like that one to happen again. Ever.

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