Chương 52: Chapter 48

Sobelle washed herself clean and waited for Chael to do the same thing. The merchant occasionally shot her a strange look, as though she expected Sobelle to do something. Whatever it was, Sobelle did not know. So she instead focused on reading through the teachings of the Gods; this time around was something called division. And it worked as the opposite of multiplication, much like how subtraction was to addition. Whereas you add things together when you multiply, division means you start to cut them.

With how similar it was to multiplication, Sobelle found herself enjoying the process of learning this new lesson. It wasn't easy, per se, it was just hard enough that it made things interesting without stressing Sobelle out.

"You're staring at the air." The blue boxes were hastily dismissed and behind them, Chael stood naked in front of Sobelle. She hadn't noticed the merchant until now. Chael smirked when she noticed that Sobelle finally looked at her, "why are you staring so hard?"

"Your chest is pretty big." Her father said that she'd probably inherit the physical traits her mother once had but Sobelle waited to be the same size as Somie and it never came. Efree was much the same.

"How did you get to that point?"

"I don't know?" Chael grabbed the bottom of her breasts and squeezed them slightly. She tilted her head.

"Maybe I just ate a lot or something? I was fairly large as a kid, the complete opposite of my mother according to her."

"Hm. Maybe I should have eaten a lot too?" Then again, maybe it was a blessing that Sobelle had a decently sized chest. They were larger than Efree's but not as big as Chael's, the latter would have hindered her during fights.

"Or maybe not. I don't think I'll be able to fight well if I had a large chest."

"Do you hate them?" Chael sat down.

"The size?"

"No? I think they're pretty good." Though Sobelle never got the appeal of them, men like them for some reason.

"A guy would have said different things than me; however, I'm pretty sure they'll say they love them."

"I don't care about what guys want to say!" Chael huffed, and Sobelle was confused as for why she suddenly started acting aggressively.

"I want to hear your thoughts on this! Not—not a guy's! Is that so difficult to understand?!"

"No, not really... I'm sorry." Sobelle apologized even though she wasn't sure what she did wrong.

"You already have my answer, so... I think we need to stop talking about this. There are clothes in the chest next to the bed, you can pick them up and use them."

"... Okay. And I'm sorry as well." Chael sighed, stood up, then stopped. She stood immobile for a moment before adding something Sobelle didn't quite get, "I wasn't sure what came over me when I lashed out, I was just... I'm sorry, okay? I didn't think you'd say something like that."

"Mhmm." Sobelle only hummed. Even after she explained, Chael's words were so vague and indirect that Sobelle still wasn't sure what the merchant meant. She didn't comment when Chael bent down to open the chest, as she feared that it'd start another argument between them.

"Is there no underwear anywhere in here?" Chael lifted herself and showed a pair of pants to Sobelle.

"And I think these will rip apart if I wear them, my hips are far too wide for something this small. I need a dress, Sobelle. Not pants."

"Maybe we can modify one of the shirts?" Sobelle suggested and immediately realized that it was a stupid idea. She backtracked, "or maybe not? How about you wear my dress then? I cleaned it already so you won't have any problems with it."

"Your dress?" Chael looked around until her eyes caught something hiding under the darkness; next to the wall was the dress Sobelle wore when she first slept here.

"Oh. I never saw that there. I think that can work, yes."

"That's good." Sobelle muttered as Chael walked away from candlelight. Her pale white skin was still visible even when she was in the dark, and Sobelle saw every movement she did with a strange clarity. Chael had the dress draped over her body as she walked back to the bed.

"Yes, I think this will fit me quite well!" A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"It fits you, yes." Sobelle waited for the dress to rip as Chael threw it on but it didn't.

"Is it uncomfortable? I know hemp isn't the same as wool but it's fairly high quality, my father got it for Somie when she was young and it was handed down to me."

"Oh, so that's why my chest was accommodated." Chael had a look of awe as she tightened the clothes around her frame.

"Was it loose for you?"

"More often than not? Yes." Sobelle never felt comfortable when wearing dresses to begin with, so she was glad to be finally rid of the stupid thing.

"It took a while before I could even wear it properly, and even then, my height made the difference, not my curves."

"I-I think you're still pretty great despite that. Who cares about curves anyways?" Chael once again had a red face. She huffed, and Sobelle wondered if the merchant was jealous of her body. There was no way right? That didn't make sense.

"Okay, lay down, I am going to put poultices on your wounds and then wrap them in bandages. And we better get this over with quickly, I'm starting to feel drowsy."

"Let's do it quickly then." Sobelle laid down knowing full well that the speed in which this thing finished depended entirely on Chael. She also knew that it'd only make things harder for the merchant if she started to squirm.

"Please take care of me."

"T-that I-I will!" Chael said loudly enough to cause the words to echo two times. She lifted Sobelle's shirt and gulped.

"So ha- I mean- lay still. Lay still." Sobelle felt the heat of Chael's palm before the coldness of the poultice suffused her skin. She hissed as the herbs caused her raw flesh to be irritated, then her stomach contracted as the biting cold turned into heat. A piece of fabric came up and wiped the beads of sweat that formed on her neck and forehead before Chael went back to applying the poultice.

"W-what did you make this with?" Sobelle groaned in pain as her stomach flared.

"It hurts so much—""Bear through it! Your wounds are deep son of course they'd hurt you idiot! You should have thought better when you fought the damn boar!" Chael's kind demeanor was replaced by the harsh attitude carried by most Leeches.

"This is what it feels like to have your wounds treated well enough that you don't get sick or lose parts of your body so you better be thankful."

"I-I am!" Sobelle grunted past gritted teeth. She whined as Chael's finger entered both her wounds and tears flowed freely the moment the poultice entered the depths of her flesh. The biting cold turned into searing heat that made Sobelle feel like she was being cooked from the inside out. She inhaled deeply, this came out as a sharp hiss. Relief washed over Sobelle when Chael pulled her fingers out and finally layered the fish skin over her wounds.

Then she finished it off by tying bandages around Sobelle's freshly treated stomach.

"Stay here, I'll pick up the medicine I prepared for you." Medicine? Since when did Chael prepare medicine? Sobelle was sure she hadn't seen the merchant do anything like that earlier. They were together the whole time and not once did Chael mention it. Even if she wanted to, Sobelle couldn't realistically continue wondering about what Chael meant about medicine because her wounds were already starting to hurt.

The heat had died down considerably but that wasn't positive, as now Sobelle could feel her abdominal muscles throb. They ebbed like the waves of the sea, and each pulse sent an uncomfortable wave up Sobelle's spine. Goosebumps raised across her skin when a cold wind entered the room as Chael opened the door. The merchant sat next to Sobelle and the familiar earthen scent of maggots filled her nose. Animal fat and garlic too.

'So that's what she meant.' Standard medicine was something Sobelle did not mind drinking. However, if Chael brought something she didn't know about, then Sobelle would have said no. The familiarity and the disgusting taste of the medicine grounded Sobelle to the present and for a few seconds, she forgot about the pain in her stomach while she chewed. Then it all came crashing back and she wanted to puke.

"Don't." Chael warned. She placed the bowl down and cupped Sobelle's forehead.

"You don't have a fever, and the heat is coming from the poultice. You are fine. But the medicine will help you recover more quickly."

"Thank you." Sobelle fell down the moment the bile washed down her throat.

"Don't mind it." Chael went to the floor and prepared three candles as well as a bowl of blood. Was it from the boar? Sobelle was curious but Chael answered her before she could ask, "I'm putting up a recovery ritual. The totem will last most of the night, so it should allow you to recover."

"Mhmm." Sobelle managed to read the words Chael wrote on the ground using the blood.

'May the great spirits help my dear friend with her recovery and protect her from illnesses during the night.' That was what was written, and the three candles were placed in a rough triangle around the spell. This was followed by Chael circling the whole thing with blood and connecting everything together. [Ritual of Protection and Recovery activated! Duration: 7/59/54] Sobelle eyed the box.

The other numbers barely moved, the only one that did was the numbers on the left, which had gone from 54 to 48 in the span that Sobelle read it. Whether or not she got the answer for why that was, got lost to Sobelle as she started getting drowsy. She was just glad that the ritual worked in the end. Not that she doubted Chael's capabilities, she didn't. She just didn't expect the merchant to know about magic too.