Algernon Black

(Chapter 83) Deep Bruises

The end of Lucy's first week of training had her waking up with no idea what amount of pain her feet would be in as every step she took was on a fresh bruise that covered almost the entirety of her foot.

She guessed it was to be expected since she was bursting bouts of energy under her feet a hundred times over, but she wasn't prepared for the intense pain she felt as she stood up and put the full pressure of her weight onto her feet. They were swollen past their usual size and Lucy had to force her shoes on.

She could bear the pain just enough by balancing most of her weight on her heels to walk to the practice hall, but each step felt like it landed on shards of glass. On Saturday they were allowed the room in the later afternoon and it took Lucy half an hour to reach due to her failing feet.

As soon as she showed up Luke took one look at her flushed parlor and ordered her off to the nurse's room.

It took another half hour to reach, but no staff worked on the weekends, so Lucy had to help herself to the medical supplies room where she couldn't figure out which bottles would help with pain as the labels were all Emora based medicines and Lucy had only learned the basic medicinal cures of other countries.

If she wanted to figure out which to use she'd have to get a textbook or ask for the help of someone who knew a lot about plants. She grimaced thinking about the only person she knew who had a good sense of them. Lucy debated if the pain was more bearable than asking Algernon for help.

Luke carried on with the rest of his team's training with only slight guilt over Lucy's condition. He hadn't monitored her carefully enough to make sure she wasn't over-extending herself, but he figured the pain was a good learning lesson. Still, he had the rest of his team to oversee and was doing so up until Orenza's started to file in. And upon seeing Algernon, hatched a brilliant idea.

"Lucy's been able to pick up on things very quickly," Luke loudly articulated, and noticed at the mere mention of her name Algernon's ears perked.

"Where is Lucy?" Rowland asked, wiping up his sweat with a towel. "Weren't you supposed to work on speed propulsion with her?"

Algernon's jaw clenched. That was a risky and dumb thing to teach someone as inexperienced as her. It could cause a lot of nerve damage to the feet and legs if not used correctly, and even when used right, calluses and muscles needed to slowly build over time or the user essentially was just battering their feet to bruised pulps.

"We were supposed to but she was in so much pain today I couldn't make her work through it," Luke said louder than he usually would speak to someone standing right beside him. "The bottoms of her feet were black and blown up like two eggplants. I can't believe she even had the endurance to walk on them. So I sent her to the nurse so she can bandage herself up. Hopefully, she knows the right potions to use. I don't want her making those injuries any worse when we get back to practice Monday."

Luke heard someone shout Algernon's name but it was too late, he was already nowhere to be seen. He smirked to himself.

"I thought I told you not to bully the underclass men," Rowland growled.

Luke gestured to half of his recruits wrapped in bandages from their sparring matches with his second in command. "You're one to talk."

"I'm helping them!"

"Me too," Luke said, and in a softer voice that no one but him could hear added, "And at least I made sure someone was going to help her."

Lucy was reading over the bottle of medicines, trying to decipher what the prefixes and suffixes could mean in the closet of the infirmary. Closet, wasn't completely accurate though when really it was just a white partition sheet separating the supplies from the rest of the room. She was considering risking it all and just going with the best smelling medicine in hopes to elevate some of the pain when the doors swung open. Lucy's mood dropped with the sudden entrance of Algernon Black more than it did waking up in throbbing pain.