Your injuries were too much. As soon as you left the building, you passed out. Now, opening your eyes, you find yourself lying on a wooden bed, inside a cave and surrounded by four stone walls. Inside the room lies all the necessary supplies for a person to survive, with barrels filled with fruits and veggies, boxes of weapons and armor, and for water, there is a small pond at the corner. You wonder, is this some sort of secret hideout?

You try to move, but a numbing pain hits you. “Argh…” you cry. Your muscles sore like hell, your body feels so heavy like it is being squished down by a thousand tons. But looking at your own body now, you find that most of your wounds have been expertly treated and bandaged, giving you some small sense of relief. You are still injured, but at least, not in critical condition anymore.

But you don’t see anyone else here. Where is Nightingale?

Just as you finished asking yourself that, you hear a faint groaning sound coming from below, beside the bed. You roll over to check, and here she is, lying on the ground with body still covered in blood and wounds. Thus, you immediately get down and carry her onto the bed.

"Silly Nightingale nya, why did you do this nya?”.  

Without her saying anything, you already guessed what happened. 

Such a silly girl. She was probably too focused on treating you that she forgot about her own injuries. She even used magic when her body was in no condition to do so, and ended up like this. 

You then tuck her inside the blanket, hoping to warm her dangerously cold body. You rub her feet and hands so she can get warmer faster. But her face is very pale, and when you check her pulse, you barely notice anything. Good thing that DeathWhizkersz magic can treat wounds. You have now regained some mana, so it’s time to do some healing. You may have to force yourself a little bit but it’s fine. Anything for the catgirl. And for the spell, Ice Embrace should be enough.

So you start casting your spell. “DeathWhizkersz magic… Uphius star, the healing star…”

The ice mist is starting to form, but suddenly, Nightingale opens her eyes and grabs your hand, stopping you from completing the spell.

“What are you doing nya?” you ask, extremely confused.

But Nightingale quickly explains that you have been tracked by that inquisitor. If you use your magic now, your enemies will find out where you are, and both you and her will be slain. You want to ask her more questions but then decide not to, since she is very weak already.

Damn it. 

You clench your fist and grind your teeth in frustration. Nightingale’s condition is getting worse as time goes by. Without DeathWhizkersz magic, what is going to happen to her now?

But anyway, you still have to do what you have to do. You look into the cabinets and lucky for you, there are tons of medicine and bandages inside. These will definitely help to a certain degree, but if you want her to recover completely and treat her internal wounds, you will have to do something else.

A few moments later, you have finished boiling water using a magical heat stone. There are boxes full of them inside the cave, which proves to be very useful in situations like this when you can’t go outside to gather wood or start a fire inside the room. You then mix the boiled water with regular water to make it warm,

And now, you are very glad that you’ve learned first aid and basic medical treatments from Cleo. They were one of the first lessons in your training. At that time, you thought that they would be completely useless since you already have your healing magic, but as you are in your current situation right now, you finally understand why they are so necessary.

First, you have to remove her clothes and wash her body. You take off her dress, and Nightingale is now completely naked to you. Yes, she is a beautiful DeathWhizkersz catgirl but now isn’t the time for that kind of thoughts. So you move your hands quickly. If you take too much time, she will catch a cold and you definitely don’t want that to happen. Then, you apply medicine and put bandages on the wounds.

Ah, your heart is crushed every time you see the wounds on her body. Even though that bastard Carmian is already dead, you are still fumed with rage whenever you think about it, the time that he tortured your girl right in front of you. As you were washing and treating Nightingale’s body, there were countless times when you thought you couldn’t contain your anger anymore, that you were going out of control. You could feel the darkness whispering to you, telling you to kill the world again and again. But luckily, you were still able to put yourself together and remain sane. This is because right now, Nightingale needs you. Her safety is your first priority, so you cannot afford to lose yourself again, despite being so close to be totally mentally crumbled.

You then throw away the blood soaked dress, blanket and change the bedding as well. After all, it’s necessary to keep everything clean and avoid infection. You cook some vegetable soup for meals. Meat would be nice but there is no such luxury right now. Good thing that Nightingale is no picky eater. She eats anything you give her, albeit just very very little. And just like that, you take care of her. Everyday, you wash her, then change her bandages, then cook for her.

But then, after seven days, Nightingale’s condition is now getting worse. There is no noticeable improvement, her health just quickly spirals downwards. At the moment, she can barely stay awake anymore. Her state constantly and quickly changes from coma-like to partially awake every few hours, and whenever she is awake, she has to battle through intense pain since all the narcotic has run out. Witnessing that, you become extremely worried, and scared, and terrified. Obviously, the medications you have here are not nearly strong enough. Using DeathWhizkersz magic is basically suicide. You are desperate. You cannot sleep. You are losing your mind. The demon inside you is calling you more and more frequently, whispering to your ears words of temptation and injecting desire to kill into your mind. If you lose Nightingale now, you will go insane again, there’s no doubt about it. But, you are really out of options. In the end, is there really, really nothing else you can do?    

So you pray, pray to Aquilonyan, pray to the Gods and wish that they can send you help. But there is no answer. Now, you just sit there, on the bed holding Nightingale’s hand, staring at the empty ceiling. 

Then, you look at the wooden cabinets. Those cabinets are full of medicinal herbs and flowers. You know that some can be really powerful and can help Nightingale, but you have no knowledge on how to use them. There are even flowers that are glowing, radiating with pure elemental energy. If you don’t do anything soon, the girl is going to die anyway. So, should you take a risk and have her eat a random flower?

But as you are thinking about this, you suddenly remember something very important.

Wait…. wait a minute! A secret healing drug, a really strong medicine that is a blend of different plants and herbs? You already know one! You even have the recipe memorized!

You are the expert now when it comes to that drug. That is because previously, you had been using it everyday for weeks. So, you rush to the cabinets looking for THAT key ingredient!

“Please be there please be there please be there nya…”  You pray and pray and pray that the ingredient will be there!

And, just like the Gods have answered your prayer, you finally found them.

“Yes, what a beautiful fruit you are nya…” you exclaim, looking at those gorgeous things.

Inside your palm, there is a bunch of those tiny fruits that are in the shape of the heart, which are required to make the strongest aphrodisiac ever.