“May I take my leave now Ma’am?” Jason Ellen pleadingly. His wound was patched up and he’d changed to a clean shirt in the twenty minutes since the fight ended. Though the cut remained, Marina’s care and healing pill ensured he’d be fully healed in a couple days.

“Aw, don’t go mate, there’s so much I still have to learn from a great warrior like you.” Raul’s mocking voice called out from the couch.

He looked like a mummy due to all the wrapping to stop him from bleeding to death before the pills could close the cuts. His insides still burned like crazy and would take over three days of treatment to heal. His legs were also broken in a couple places due to that last momentum shift he’d done. He clearly took way more damage than Jason, but his face still held the undisguised pride of the victor.

“…” Jason trembled silently as his face turned red under Ellen’s pitying gaze.

Ellen pretty much got the gist of the bad blood between Raul and Jason by now and would usually feel that Jason was eating his just desserts, but this wasn’t the first time Raul had taken shots at him. Hell, they’d entered the double digits long ago.

“You may go. The reward for your service will be delivered later.” Ellen dismissed him.

He gratefully nodded to her and made to leave.

“Ah, you’re really heading out already? Here, I’ll walk you ba- ow ow ow!” The hands on his shoulder became blazing hot as Marina squeezed hard.

“Hold still.” Marina warned while continued to use fire qi.

‘I’m boned.’ Raul trembled as he fell back into the couch. A hint of true malice had tinged Marina’s voice just now, he knew she was really angry.

‘That bastard.’ Raul cursed as he saw the smug look on Jason’s face. He wanted to wipe the smirk off his face, but now that he’d drawn Marina’s ire, he only dared to shoot him the finger.

Marina saw it but didn’t react. She had no sympathy for Jason. Unlike Ellen, she’d seen how Jason almost killed Raul and only felt Raul was letting him off too light. The internal struggles of her own house were much more devious and bloody.

The only reason she stopped him from continuing to take his justice was his condition. As bad as the external injuries looked, they were easy to heal as no qi contaminated them. Only the wound on his arm from the bolt would take more than a day to fix. The internal injuries were a different matter.

The internal injury he’d received when he cancelled Winter’s Chill wasn’t originally serious, but the lightning qi from the bolt exacerbated the injury. It’d take almost a week for her to fully treat it now.  

That last stunt he pulled also left some damages on his bones. Most of it was just bruising that would heal quickly, but there were a couple fractures that she needed to deal with.

Skin and flesh were fairly simple to heal, provided there was no qi contamination, but muscle, bone, and organs were more complicated.

A cooling sensation flowed through Raul as water qi strings entered his body and moved towards his fractures.

He winced as she used her regular strings to set the bones before using the water strings to coat the broken areas and attach any small pieces of bone.

Once done, Raul could move around as easily as before the fight.

“Awesome, it’s like I never broke anything.” He hopped around in awe. He still had a burning sensation inside that hurt as he jumped around, but his legs felt totally healed.

“It might feel that way, but your fractures are still there. It’ll still take ten days to heal, so try not to do anything stupid. And stop jumping around, you may seriously die if all your cuts reopen.” Marina informed him while wiping the sweat from her face.

The water qi strings had a sticky quality to them that would last a while, but they didn’t have any healing ability. Aptitude for healing techniques were incredibly rare, and Marina didn’t have it.

“Either way, this is amazing. Thanks Marina!” A charming smile spread across his face, though it didn’t have the desired effect coming from a mummy.

Ellen stood up at that time. “Well, now that I know Raul’s good, I should probably get going now.” Seeing him jumping around finally put her heart at ease.

“See ya Ellen, make sure you tell Tai how I kicked Jason’s butt.”

“No doubt. Even if you didn’t ask, I’d be bragging about how awesome your fight was, it’s gonna drive him nuts.” Ellen snickered while thinking of Tai’s pouting face.

“I’ll walk you out Ellen.” Marina chimed in. Raul was about to suggest he do the same, but a look from Marina had him sit back down.

After they walked out, Ellen turned to Marina with a grief filled face. “I didn’t forget, this is yours now.” A package filled with ten jerky sticks appeared in her hand which she held out for Marina.

Marina eyebrows twitched as she froze in momentary surprise.

“You don’t have to hesitate, you won fair and square so just take it!” Ellen insisted with trembling hands.

‘I don’t want it!’ She cursed in her head while accepting the jerky with her poker face. “Thanks Ellen, but that wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.” Marina hastily told her as she saw the shadows gathering beneath Ellen’s feet.

“There was more?” Ellen stopped gathering shadows in surprise.

“I’m going to be honest Ellen, you were attempting to pull the match far too quickly. I get that You and Raul have been friends for a long time, but if you’re going to be a detriment to his training then I’ll find someone else to referee.” Marina spoke severely.

She wanted to have a good relationship with Ellen and grow her strength, but her priority would always be Raul’s training. If he couldn’t reach the heights she needed, then everything else would be pointless.

“Guh…” Marina’s words stung Ellen because she knew they were true. “I understand, I’ll make sure to not let my feelings get in the way of my judgement next time.”

She was unwilling to lose this role. It allowed her to fulfill the mission Tai assigned to her, watch over Raul’s safety, and skip paperwork all at the same time. Three birds, one stone.

“I’ll be holding you to that.” Marina nodded and saw her off.

“it’s too bad Ellen needed to go so soon, if she stuck around a bit longer we could’ve had dinner together.” Raul lamented after Marina returned. It was only after he turned around and saw her face that he remembered he was in trouble.

“…What was up with that fight? Injuring yourself more than your opponent did, I don’t remember teaching you such an idiotic way of battling.”

Raul shivered from the chill of her voice. “I know.” He looked away guiltily for a moment. 

He turned back to face her and said, “You warned me not to use attribute manipulation and I ignored you, and for that I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,” before bowing his head apologetically.

He truly felt bad about ignoring her good intentions, and he definitely felt embarrassed that he’d injured himself more than he’d injured his opponent.

But what he didn’t say was that if he could somehow do it all over, he absolutely would still do it. Anyone else and he could accept a loss, but he plain refused to lose to that bastard.

Marina glared at him sternly. His neck shivered as he felt her increasingly intense gaze. Finally, she sighed, and the feeling of danger lingering in the air dropped.

“I understand your sentiment, if it were me, I’d risk it too. But still, you could’ve killed yourself. Don’t use attribute manipulation in combat until you can control it.”

Raul’s eyes lit up at her phrasing. “Does that mean I can start practicing it?”

“Yes, your talent with it seems to be greater than I thought, and it’s not as dangerous for you since you don’t have a Qi Cultivation Method.”

Though ‘as’ was the operative word there, if he managed not to fatally wound himself while zipping around like that for so long, then it was worth exploring as an option.

Raul felt ecstatic with this news. Though he’d hurt himself a lot with it, attribute manipulation just felt right to him.

“That said, you’ll still mostly be focusing on learning the Four Seasonal Winds, and you won’t use attribute manipulation in combat until I give you permission. If you do, for any reason, the consequences will be worse than you can imagine.”

Raul shivered uncontrollably. He could tell with certainty that she wasn’t exaggerating. “I promise, I won’t use it in combat until you say so.”

“Good.” She nodded. The room descended into an awkward silence afterwards, with Raul fidgeting in uncertainty and Marina looking at him. He wanted to move but felt like he shouldn’t.

It’s not like these awkward moments never happened over the four months they’d been living together, but this was the first time Marina was looking at him so intensely during it.

“… How did it feel?” She finally couldn’t help asking the question that had been plaguing her in a low voice.

It took Raul a moment to realize what she meant, and then another moment of reflecting to realize his answer. “Amazing.” He answered with a truly refreshed smile.

“Amazing huh.” A look of longing overcame her frozen face. She recovered quickly, but Raul was staring at her the whole time.

He smiled again and instinctively pat her head. “Don’t worry, I’ll give it my all to make sure you can experience it too.”

If it wasn’t for her, he would still be the same person who would collapse the moment someone like Jason directed qi at him. She gave him this, and many future chances. He’d do everything he could to bring her peace.

The hand she was moving to stop him paused. “… Please do.” Her hands fell to her side as the heartfelt request barely squeezed past her lips.