I opened my eyes and found myself in an unknown room with an elegant facade, sleeping in the center of a king-size bed.
’Is this... the Kalusia castle?’ I wondered as I recognized the architecture from my fight with Zagor.
My clothing had been switched, and I was wearing baggy silk pants with no shirt. Still, my abdon was wrapped with white gauze that covered most of it.
Right at that mont, the door opened, and Gina entered the room holding a tray with a teapot and cups.
*gasp* "Ichiro, you are awake!" The battle-maid exclaid, halting right at the door.
Yoru quickly ran inside the room when he heard Gina’s shout, and Vespera materialized beside my bed after teleporting to my location.
I groaned and held my head as I felt a bit groggy from my nap, pondering how long I had slept.
"Five days," Vespera replied casually.
"Huh!? I was out for that long!?" I asked, feeling perplexed.
"No wonder I feel so dazed..." I continued, rembering everything that had happened the last ti I was awake.
"How is the ritual? Is Acalan okay?" I asked my companions.
However, before they could respond, I heard the voice of a man approaching the entrance to the room.
"I’m feeling better than ever!" said Acalan, who was standing right at the door with a bright smile.
He looked a bit younger than when I first t him. The first ti I saw him, I would have guessed he looked like a man in his mid-30s, but now, he looked closer to a 21-year-old.
The resurrected phoenix approached , still sitting on my bed, and his eyes began watering as he hung his head down.
"Thank you... Truly..." He said with a breaking voice as the tears rolled down his cheeks.
I let out a chuckle of happiness and relief and plopped back down into the bed with my arms extended to the side.
"Don’t ntion it. Your blessing helped out a lot, so it’s not like I could have done it without you..." I replied.
Suddenly, I felt a brief but sharp pain in my ribs in the area where the gauze had been wrapped around.
"Ouch. Did I not heal my injuries?" I pondered out loud, rembering how I doused myself with a healing potion right after defeating the devil.
Vespera explained that after I fell unconscious, she carried back to the surface from the phoenix’s altar room and discovered that I was still hurting from the side.
It was from one of the first strikes that I received from Zagor after he hit with his morning star and sent flying out of the castle hall.
It seed like that attack was fused with his magic-nullifying effect. Thus, the healing potion had almost no effect on it.
The potion only alleviated the pain montarily, which was why I was able to keep walking for a bit longer after the battle.
My companions tried using more healing potions and a holy panacea to seal the wound, but after noticing that the injury wasn’t closing, they went with the traditional operation, and Vespera used her weaving skills to make a thread and stitch the wound.
*sigh* " I see. It’s no big deal then. It will just heal over ti..." I said to my companions with a smile.
"Ichirooooo!" a woman yelled from outside the room, her shout echoing throughout the chambers.
It was Empress Lysandra, who had rushed to my room after hearing that I had woken up.
"Lysandra! How did things go on your end?" I asked the blonde woman, who stood at the door’s fra looking serious.
The empress approached with a somber expression, making think that she was mad at for sothing.
I gulped with a bit of nervousness as Lysandra stood right beside my bed, frowning her brow and grabbing by the shoulders.
"Don’t you ever make us worry like that again, you hear!?" she said, shaking lightly by the shoulders.
"Heh, my bad..." I replied while she was still shaking .
After a few minutes, I stood up from the bed and dressed up with my usual t-shirt and my poncho, which Vespera had completely fixed while I was sleeping.
I was feeling pretty hungry, so I took out so food from my void pocket and had my fill before I decided to go outside to check how the capital was doing.
Before I could leave the castle, Gina guided to a eting room where King Leon, Sultan Harun, and King Dente were talking, saying that they wanted to speak to .
When I got there, the three kings were having a laugh as they talked casually with each other, turning around with a smile to greet as I entered the room.
"The man of the hour!" King Leon exclaid, raising his glass.
"Isn’t it a bit early to be drinking?" I asked playfully with a smile.
The kings laughed out loud, saying that in Kalusia, their most important celebrations always lasted seven days, and what better event to celebrate than their freedom?
Even though the three monarchs were quite tipsy from their celebration, they still managed to talk to about serious matters.
After Zagor took control of the small towns that surrounded the capital, their food supplies decreased significantly since the devil had nobody working on the farms.
In fact, they told that the devil had burned down most farms in the country as a way to reduce the food intake on purpose.
The old farrs were back to their lands, but they had been spending all their ti fixing it up to the best of their abilities in hopes of being able to plant sothing.
At the mont, Kalusia was receiving aid from all the other countries in the continent, but King Dente didn’t want that to last for too long as he already felt wholly indebted to every nation that helped retake his country.
In a way, I wanted to help them regrow their farms, but I also wanted to leave quickly and visit lina.
"I’ll take a look at it..." I replied, determined to help the beastkins as fast as possible so I could return to lina sooner.
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