After treating Luna in the Ashborn Pack, Alia strolled through the flea market of the werewolf kingdom.
This ti, she hadn’t called Uncle Harrison or King Cyrus. She wanted to be alone for so ti and get through her thoughts, but most importantly, she wanted to enjoy the freedom that wasn’t bestowed on her by anyone.
After everything that had been going around her, she longed for sothing real, sothing unfiltered, where she wasn’t Alia Everleigh, the targeted girl, but just a normal custor at anything.
With this thought, she walked to a stall selling wooden pendants. She grabbed one pendant and placed it near her neck to see how it would look on her face. However, as she saw her reflection in the mirror, she saw soone drifting into the woods.
That small flicker of movent caught her eye.
It was a man, limping heavily, moving between the trees.
He didn’t catch her attention because she suddenly felt pity for him or because he was another broken soul in this unfair world that doesn’t help the weak, but because she thought he was familiar.
Alia placed the wooden pendant back on the stall and walked to the woods, where she saw him entering.
"Sir?" She called to the man.
"Do I know you?" She asked gently.
The man turned around slowly, his movents slow and unsteady due to his half-paralysed state. His beard was coarse and unkempt, his clothes tattered, and his face dejected and defeated from years of failure.
But his eyes... Alia felt her heart move at those eyes.
She knew those eyes. Her eyes welled with tears at the recognition.
In her last life, he was the sa man who had helped her out of the brothel when she was sold there. No one from her family, Alpha Killian, or anyone she begged for rcy had co to help her.
This man had fought the guards even with his limping body and saved her.
"I don’t think so," the man said, trying to hobble away.
However, Alia wouldn’t let go of him after what he did for her. He restored her faith in humanity and good people and made her believe that not everyone was bad. She just happened to have bad luck when it ca to encountering people.
"You fought alongside King Sebastian. You were once a royal guard, right?" Alia asked what the man was proud of, which caught his attention.
His lips trembled at the words, and for a fleeting mont, his stance showed a sense of pride before he sighed.
"That was a long ti ago," he said with exhaustion that seed deep in his bones.
Alia used this mont to grab his calloused hand and feel his energy quickly.
"I can help you," She looked at him hopefully, hoping to repay the debt of last life.
However, the man probably thought she was just making fun of him, like the people he t, and tried to snatch his hand back from her grip.
When he couldn’t do it because of his low energy and half-paralysed state, he looked at her with defiant tears in his eyes.
"Don’t mock . Do you think I didn’t show my condition to the doctors? I can’t move my leg or arm. They said it’s permanent and I can never–" The man closed his eyes briefly at the thought of everything he lost.
Alia pursed her lips.
For her to be able to help him, she needed to make him believe in her abilities, but how was she supposed to do it...
Her pupils dilated as she rembered she still had the sample dicine that she had tested on Ryan’s mother. The dicine was for paralysis only. So even if the man was half paralysed, it should work wonders on him.
With this thought, she pulled the sachet from her bag and grabbed the little vial.
"This isn’t a cure, but it helps build the connection between the neurons and makes the body rember what it forgot. Also, I would never joke about anyone’s pain. I have been there, on the receiving end," Alia smiled sadly before extending her hand towards the man.
The man looked at the small pill in Alia’s hands, his jaws clenched. It was a gimmick for all he cared. How could a little girl claim to cure him when those high-end doctors couldn’t? When he had lost his fortune and his family to it?
He wanted to walk away, but a voice inside him urged him to do it, to take the pill, just by seeing the confidence in the girl’s eyes, and for once, he wanted to go against his principles. He took a deep breath.
"I have got nothing to lose anymore," The man whispered to himself before he took the pill and ate it.
Nothing happened. He just stood there feeling nothing.
Alia felt dejected. Maybe she couldn’t cure just everyone in this world. She would’ve had to think of another way to repay that debt from her last life. She sighed.
"I am sorry for wasting your ti, sir. Forgive ," Alia whispered and turned around, walking.
The man stood there in silence, the girl’s defeated face making him sad, before his eyes widened. For the first ti in years, he felt a sensation in his body, a shivering sensation that traveled into the paralysed part of his body, and then, like a miracle, his fingers twitched.
The man gulped, his heart overwheld with emotions.
"Hey! Little girl!" he called out to Alia.
Alia turned around with furrowed brows.
"Little girl, you were right. I felt that. I felt... that," His voice choked with emotions.
Alia, however, didn’t smile. That might just be a minuscule overreaction to the high-power pill. The pill was supposed to take effect within five seconds, and it didn’t. It was a useless pill.
"I overestimated myself, sir. Your condition is probably not sothing I can cure. I am afraid that if I beco deliberate, it’ll turn dangerous. As a practitioner, I can’t risk your life," Alia whispered, disappointed in herself.
The man shook his head. He looked around, unsure of what to do before he fell on his right knee with great effort.
He bowed to her, his forehead touching the ground, shocking Alia.
"You don’t know what it’s like, little girl. I watched them—those monsters who ripped away my wife while I stood helpless, unable to protect her. I watched them take away my daughter to the brothel and make her into sothing I wanted to kill myself for," The man cried.
Alia’s gaze widened. So that was what he was doing at the brothel. He was there to save his daughter. But she didn’t see anyone with him. Was he able to save her?
"You are soone’s daughter too." She rembered his words, and realization dawned upon her. He had sacrificed his daughter for her life.
"She scread for . She said, ’Please help , Dad. I want to be a teacher, not a—’. I was a soldier. More than that, I was her father, and I couldn’t help her. Please, I beg you," The man cried, his hands extended before himself as if he were begging before his god.
Alia’s chest tightened at his words and her realization.
"There is a risk, sir. This isn’t magic. I am no mage. I am just a rookie in this field and still practicing. This is... experintal, and it will be painful. It might fall, sir," Alia laid down her insecurities, and the man nodded.
He raised his head and wiped his tears.
"I’ll take it. All the pain, everything, I’ll bear it. Just don’t lose hope on . I don’t have money for now, but I’ll earn it. Trust , I can do a lot of work–"
"I don’t need your money," Alia cut him mid-sentence.
"Not money?" he asked.
"Not money," Alia said before taking a deep breath.
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