The Wrong Hero

Chapter 55 - Interlude

The Strawberry Knight

Daylight poured in from the window of the bioplant mansion. Judging by the angle, there was still several hours of light left in the day. Plenty of time to train, go around the village, or go over combat strategies. It was the main reason Eclair was so frustrated to be confined to her room.

The reason didn't escape her. It was well over an hour ago that she fought the berserk Axe Hero. Her body needed time to heal properly. This fact couldn't be ignored.

That didn't mean she had to be happy about it.

Footsteps started coming toward the room. She quickly got up from the floor and sat on her bed. When the door opened, a raccoon woman stood there.

"Eclair!" Raphtalia quickly came in and wrapped her in a hug.

"Welcome back." She returned her lover's embrace. "That didn't take too long."

"Dante wanted to hurry back, and so did I." Raphtalia released Eclair from her hold. She had a stern look on her face as she checked Eclair's forehead. "You were working out."

Eclair winced. "Just a little..."

"Eclair!"

The lady knight had found that Raphtalia would exercise as much as her, sometimes even more. Of course, being this injured should have meant no exercise, but Eclair decided to anyway. It wasn't like she thought she could hide that from Raphtalia. She was quite observant.

"I'm mostly fine now." Eclair gave her wounded shoulder a rub.

"'Mostly' is not enough. Take that off and lie down." Raphtalia commanded, pulling a bottle from her belt. Both she and Rat had told her not to overdo it.

"Yes, Lady Hammer Hero." Eclair did as instructed.

Raphtalia spared a glance at the small hammer fitted under her belt before pulling out some cut cloth. In a wash basin that was prepared ahead of time, she poured out the holy water and began soaking the cloth.

"Honestly. Straining yourself like that while you're cursed?" Raphtalia brought the basin over.

"You know the curse is mostly gone now." Eclair reminded her.

That spell Dante cast, whatever it was, did a good job. Sadeena explained it while they were being looked at in Rat's lab. It would remove a curse from the target, like the holy spell cast on Dante's shoulder before, while also dissipating lesser curses in the area. It all depended on the amount and quality of holy water present. Eclair had received a fair amount of curse damage, but most of the instances were small enough. The cost was that all the holy water would become inert, which was one of the reasons they went to the church in the capital.

"How's everyone else doing?" Eclair asked as the bandages were wrapped around her wounded shoulder. After getting checked out, Rat allowed her to rest in her room. If she actually rested, that was.

"Sadeena was the most wounded, but Miss Rat says she'll make a full recovery." Raphtalia began. Dante had told Rat to give her a full physical, seeing as she was very proficient in medicine as well as alchemy. "Miss Fiadia's curse was stronger than the others, so she's going to be treated there for a while. Elvira..." Raphtalia paused.

Eclair understood. She saw the young vampire kneeling next to the body of the dead Projectile Hero. To learn that he was her cousin, and that he killed her family...

"Dante spoke with her when we got back. She asked to go home, but promised to return. Dante told her to take as much time as she needed and let her take one of the village's filolials to travel."