28 | Heat and Cold
Keen's eyes look for the carriage slowly departing from his reach.
With his speed, even the heavy snowstorm means nothing to him. The carriage is just about to turn to a corner where the heavy winds are not striking the coachman's seat directly. The horses are also evidently struggling to walk through the thick snow.
With almost no delay, he catches up to Vi. He appears right beside her with a different look in his eyes, which takes her by surprise.
Before he can even say anything, she sneezes and cowers inside the carriage using the sliding door. He follows quickly while leaving behind two bowls of hot ramen stock with grass for the horses to eat.
As he clicks the sliding door shut, Vi realizes he has followed her.
"What do you want? I'm not feeling well," she covers her face with the bearskin.
He sits beside her silently. After a few moments of total awkwardness, he breaks the ice. "I've upset my stomach as well. You should take responsibility."
She inhales deeply. His closeness is making her even more conscious than before. "I…may have put something unnecessary in the ingredients. I'm sorry."
He smiles, trying his best to be gentle. "Your cooking is great, though. Maybe we should have you train in
"Yeah. You have an adequate
"I may have been too excited to eat the food you made for me."
"It's for both of us, you know," she answers without looking at him.
He breaks into a laughter. "I know. I just have no memories of eating together with my parents or eating food that they made, because they were always away from home. But that may not be completely true due to Esprit's login requirement for me, after all. The food you made got me excited, somehow…"
"That so…," she starts raising her head, her eyes trying to measure the situation.
He is already walking back to the coachman's seat and waving a hand without looking back. "Gotta get out of here before the horses freeze."
She nods, feeling calmer than before.
'Maybe I haven't accidentally concocted an aphrodisiac, after all.' She smiles.
When the carriage reaches almost half of the valley, they see a small village composed of about twenty houses. All of those look deserted except for one with a faint light inside that can be seen from a thin, wooden window.
Keen puts the carriage in a stable barely filled with snow beside that house and knocks on Vi's door.
"There seems to be someone living in the nearby house. Maybe they know a shortcut," he slides the door open and sees Vi in a feverish state.
He rushes her to the faintly lit house and asks for help while carrying her in his arms. "I would like to inquire about a shortcut in getting out of this valley. And my subordinate is somehow sick."
His eyes widen. A man and a woman are lying beside each other on separate bed sheets while a single candle flickers sensitively with every blow of heavy wind from outside. Both of them are somehow skinny and pale.
The guy, although struggling with speech, manages to do so while pressing the hand of the woman. "We're sorry to not be of any significant help, lad. You see, we have not been able to eat for weeks now due to the intense snow and the Mad Hounds terrorizing our village.
"The others somehow managed to get away before the monsters started increasing in absurd numbers. However, my wife and I have lost one leg each due to our former…jobs."
Keen immediately inspects the two and notices neck collars on both of them.
"Transfers…," he says in a low voice.
As he remembers Vi's condition, he quickly searches for twigs and other kindling he can use. While he uses
He still has about two more servings of Vi's controversial meal but he cannot recklessly give it to them. It's weird side effect may take a toll on the villagers' frail bodies instead of improving them.
"Where are you going, Sir Traveling Adventurer?" the woman slowly shifts her eyes to his direction.
He explains that he is just traveling across the area in search of important ingredients for his quest to leave Esprit.
"What is Esprit? Is it the country…where this small village belongs to?" The man coughs weakly.
Keen finishes his fireplace and puts all three patients before it to keep their bodies warm. He then offers water to the two. "You don't know Esprit?"
He assists them in drinking. When he realizes how cold their bodies are, he offers Vi's meal to them with almost no hesitation.
'No time to fret. They will die if I don't feed them something hot.' He assists them in eating and takes out more water.
"Guild…master," Vi calls out to him in a weak voice.
The red-clad rushes to her next. Upon seeing her reddened face, his body acknowledges the sensation he has been resisting due to circumstance. Seeing her in that state, however, reminds him of the carnal heat again.
"Damn. It is really an aphrodisiac, after all," he gasps.
He offers a drink to his subordinate but she reaches for his wrist instead while her other hand is brushing over her neck.
Her neck.
The System notifications he proactively ignored earlier after slaying the Mad Hound Chieftain comes popping out over his right shoulder once more.
[ Mission: Drink Blood ]
[ Accept? YES | NO ]
[ Mission: Find the Hidden Temple ]
[ Accept? YES | NO ]
His eyes fixate on her neck, then drift to his first Mission prompt. "Tch. What kind of mission is that, anyway?"
The female assassin's grip tightens on his wrist, trying to pull him closer.
When he looks away to the direction of the two weakened villagers, he sees them starting to do something that only a couple would do. "Crap, I messed up. Why did I give them that food?!"
The man's hand reaches down between the woman's legs and the sounds they make are no joke for his ears.
Before things turn to worse, he decides to counter the effect of Vi's meal. Instead of having a definite idea, he is completely clueless. However, he remembers that he can see the properties of objects and materials if he focus on observing them.
With that realization, he reaches down for Vi's Item Box and works his hands to gather the ingredients that she might have used.
"This demon," he clenches his teeth as he reads the effect of one of the mushrooms in her possession.
Love mushroom. A delicious mushroom with a rich, meaty taste available around Topsy Town. Has the ability to wake the sexual desires of people who eat it.
"This is totally the culprit," he hisses. Upon reading further, he notes that the counter to its effect is anything that is bitter.
With that much information, he creates a random concoction of herbs that have bitter aftertaste from Vi's collection.
He is surprised by the amount of ingredients she has with her which are not available anywhere else aside from Topsy Town.
"Has she been planning to prepare the food since the beginning?" He clasps his head with a palm, but smiles in recognition of her determination.
In less than five minutes, he is able to create a trial antidote.
He cannot bear to look back at the couple making out behind him. They are obviously on a sort of climax already.
Right after feeding Vi with the antidote, he covers her eyes with the hand she is holding until she starts calming down. Right after her fever drops, he slides a bowl full of antidote to the direction of the two villagers without even glancing.
"This is an antidote. Please drink them. And I'm sorry for the side effect of the meal you ate!" He bows his head slightly.
After following his instructions, the villagers calm down. The woman then proceeds to thanking them.
"Don't worry. We are husband and wife. But doing that in the presence of others is...still rude and improper," she apologizes with a healthier voice.
The man echoes it with conviction. "We're indebted to you. Given that, let us help you in getting out of this place."
Vi catches her breath upon realizing that her head is lying on Keen's lap. She almost jumps back on her feet but his strength is too much to handle.
"Keep resting for a while. We have a mission to do in two hours."
"What's that?" She pushes his hand away from her eyes.
He smiles at her with those beautiful, red eyes.
"Okay, I'll rest a bit. Stay here." She closes her eyes.