What Happened

"What's going on?!" Joshua heard the commotion and was finally alerted to what was happening, after he got up he watched James stumble out of his tent holding his arm with blood running between his fingers down his arm.

"James, what happened, are you alright?!"

"She just shot me with a crossbow; you tell me if I'm alright."

James really wasn't happy that he had to take the hit, if the bolt had been made of wood then he could have potentially burned it away before it hit him.

Even if he moved its trajectory before it hit him, the course couldn't be changed much at the speed it was moving. Instead of getting caught somewhere potentially more dangerous he had to take the hit in his arm.

"Mary! Why would you shoot him?!"

"Hh-h-e, he wouldn't let me ss-s-stay in his room! It's his fault!"

"Are you okay in the head?! What bullshit logic is that! I don't let you sleep in the same room as me, so you shoot me?! I don't even know you!"

"James, please stay calm. You're not helping the situation."

"Are you seriously telling me to calm down, there's literally a piece of metal sticking out of my arm, and you're telling me to calm down?!"

"Okay, I understand your issue but you need to calm down, or you're going to pass out eventually."

James wasn't really all that mad; he knew that such an entitled kid would do something impulsive, he just didn't realise her reaction would be so over the top. Most of his fake anger was that he knew the girl was rich so if he could make her owe him something in the future, then it was worth putting on a show now.

After taking a deep breath and pretending to calm himself down James decided to attend to his wound, he should be screaming in pain right now, but with the pain nullification from the system, he was perfectly fine. Eventually, someone would notice something was wrong with the situation, and he couldn't just play it off as shock if he left it too long, so James started removing the bolt.

At this point, James was extremely thankful that he decided not to put a barb on the tips of the bolts, if he had done, this could be a completely different situation. Now blood was pouring out of his wound, so James took some clean linen he had and used it to pack his injury.

Next, he set to preparing the painkiller he had been able to make out of natural ingredients. It was a mix of curcumin from turmeric roots and the Stephania tetranda plant.

After taking his herbal painkiller, James figured he might as well test if it worked as he had never tested herbal remedies before.

'System, turn off the pain nullification module for 5 seconds then turn it back on.'

After James thought this, he felt a throbbing pain start on his arm, but it didn't seem to be as bad as it should have been for a hole in his arm.

'Damn, I should start looking into making some medicines as well, with my knowledge of herbal remedies I could make a killing, hell even making medicine at some point is a possibility I guess.'

"How are you feeling James, Is it going to be a problem?"

"It'll be fine; everyone just go to sleep, we'll see how it is in the morning."

....................................................

[Days Remaining: 75]

"It's time to get up!"

"Ugh, five more minutes!"

"Daniel, either you're coming with us now, or you're staying here."

"Fiiiiiine, I'm coming."

Joshua noticed Mary heading towards James' tent; he decided to let her as it was better for them to reconcile as soon as possible.

"James, how are you feeling?"

Mary pulled aside the flap of James' tent and realised there was no-one inside.

"James is gone! He's not in here!"

"What do you mean he's not in there? Where did he go?"

"I have no idea; there isn't a note or anything."

"I'm here; I was cleaning myself. I swear you guys can't go two seconds without me before you freak out."

"James! Would you PLEASE stop disappearing without telling anyone."

"I left while everyone was asleep, I've been gone for a while so didn't want to wake anyone up early."

"Then at least leave a note in the future before you go."

"With what, I don't have any paper on me."

"Look, just don't do it again." Joshua let out a long sigh, there just was no winning against James.

"What happened to your arm?" Daniel had noticed the makeshift bandage James had put on.

"Oh, nothing worth mentioning." Apparently, everyone else had slept through the shouting somehow.

"How does it feel now?" Mary approached James timidly. Clearly, she felt guilty for shooting him and thankful he didn't return the bolt towards her.

"It's fine, should heal pretty quickly at least." Leaving that sentence, James left her alone to go pack up his tent.

"James, let me do it for you, your arm must hurt."

"It's fine, not the worst I've felt." After he said it James wished he could take it back. What James said had changed the dynamic of their relationship and Mary was going to start pitying him.

In James' mind the most painful point in his life was being burnt alive and beat to death, a measly crossbow bolt to the arm couldn't match that, it didn't even come anywhere near the level of physical pain let alone the psychological. But for a 12-year-old boy to say he had experienced worse pain than being shot with a crossbow, then his life must have been terrible.

"You've felt worse, how could you have felt worse?"

"It's not exactly something I want to talk about, surely you understand that much."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

Mary was looking at James with a look he had seen many times in his past life, especially in the last few years. Pity. It was kind of annoying James though, while he knew it was his own fault it had gotten to this point he couldn't help feeling agitated seeing those eyes again.

He had hoped never to be looked upon with pity as long as he lived, he no longer needed peoples sympathy because he had taken control of his life.

"I don't need your pity; my life is what it is. It's already behind me, and now I'm living a life better than most people could ever dream of. So please stop looking at me like that."

James finished packing up everything and got ready to continue the trek to the Academy; it couldn't come quick enough for him.