The affection of an old lady

"It'll take the guards some time to find us, so I can probably explain.

You know the evolution thingy that Sophie did some time back, "

"Yes"

"So after i had left, I realised that it was not only your system which got an upgrade but mine also evolved. Though not at Soph's level, sys can also interact with me via messages."

"Dude that's awesome, obviously not as cool as mine but still that is pretty nice. So what kind of personality does it have?"

"There is no personality yet but by the looks of it, I guess a little boy or sister will be better."

"You know if you want something much more, you can always go to the upper floors of the library where they keep the ero...."

[Ahem, ahem! I guess that is enough information for one day now, isn't it Ed?]

"S...sure"

"Fine, but still you should check it out but knowing you are a loli...."

"I t-think I hear someone" Ed hurriedly cut off Rey to protect his secret from I don't know who.

"There they are. Hurry up everybody."

Six guards came rushing from the same direction that Rey and Ed had come, bringing two stretchers and some supplies in case someone was in urgent need of it.

"Quickly take them to the infirmary and one of you scout the area for any other monsters and eliminate it on sight. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir!" all 5 guards responded in unison and went for their designated tasks.

"Oh, it's you two. I told you to be careful but... *sigh*" the guard who was giving orders to the rest was the same one that Rey had met at the entrance of the hunting grounds.

"Hehehe! I was kind of missing your face, so I thought why not call you here only."

"You know, you should stop with that bad sense of humour."

"What can I do, it is my USP."

"*sigh* I can spend the whole talking to you and still not get anything useful out of you, so it is better to head back first and tell me about what happened later."

"Ah, before I forget, there are two more besides us who were also injured. You should take them in the stretchers as they are in a worse state than us."

"Sir we have found a boy with only one arm." the guard who went to scout the area came with Zeke in his arms, unconscious.

"Immediately take him back and increase the search radius there must be another one somewhere around here."

"Yes sir!" the guard again went into the forest to search for Sam.

"Is that all young man?"

"Yes"

"Let's take you back then."

The guards gave Rey and Ed a piggy-back ride to the nearest infirmary with Rey being carried by the captain. The infirmary was not as big as the one that the library maintained, it was still pretty neat for commoners to use.

....

Ed and Rey were lying on a bed, covered with bandages for most part of their bodies. They were kept in a specially designed room, arranged by the order of the guard who came to rescue them. The room was isolated and devoid of any essence and to prevent the essence from the entering the room whenever someone came in or went out, a large tunnel like structure was built which sucked out the essence gradually making the tunnel essenceless. This was done so that the strain on their bodies could be reduced as even the slightest amount of essence could be strenuous for their essence channels which were still not fully healed from earlier.

"Bro my body feels so light in here. Even though it is not much of a difference but still."

"Ya"

"I wonder how those two guys from earlier are doing? After all they were pretty roughed up."

Ed was staring at the ceiling trying to figure something out, "I feel like I am forgetting something but I can't seem to figure it out."

Ed was still in the middle of his recollection when the door of the room opened and the same guard who carried Rey appeared.

"I see you two are doing well."

"Well, there is a beautiful nurse taking care of us, so why wouldn't we?"

"I see your point there. It is a bit late for introduction but I am Tanjuro, leader of the 1st division."

"I am Rey Shelding as you already know and this is my apprentice Ed Sheer..... Edmund Clive or Ed for short."

"Is he the one you were carrying? I couldn't quite see his face from the sack."

"Yep"

Rey looked at Ed but he was thinking about something else.

"Hey what are you thinking about?"

"Tanjuro..... captain of the 1st division so..... didn't that make you a direct subordinates of captain Ross, the most chivalrous of all captains of the royal guards?"

"Yep, that's me" Tanjuro give Ed a wide smile, showing his perfectly aligned teeth.

"So then what were you doing at the hunting ground?"

"I was just trying to get to know the mind of the common guards. What they think, his they feel and how they view their leader."

"So did you achieve your objective?"

"I sure did"

"Then why are you here?" Rey who was quite during the whole conversation, and the question out of nowhere.

"..."

"Dude seriously? He told us to give an account of what happened earlier. How could you forget that already?"

"Sorry... sorry, then please continue." Rey turned his back away from them to take a nap.

Ed told Tanjuro about everything that happened with them from them finding no monsters to the goblin illusionist.

"I don't know if I should be impressed by the skills you two showed or be angry that you didn't heed my warning."

"If I were you, I would go for the first one." Ed and Tanjuro looked at Rey who was still turned around.

"Hahah, I guess I'll listen to you then!"

"You definitely should"

"Rey, shut up!"

"It was nice keeping you guys company but I should leave now and you'll probably be discharged by tomorrow, so make sure to get the nurse's number, Rey."

"Don't jinx it by saying that."

Rey shouted but Tanjuro was already out of the door and a nurse entered shortly to change their bandages.

Rey turned around to look at the beautiful nurse he had been waiting for but the heavens were not on his side as instead of the young nurse, there was an old lady who looked like her grandchildren had grandchildren, that old.

"Psst... Rey, your beauty is here. Say hi"

[Ya greet her Rey]

"Shut up"

The nurse first tended to Ed because he was closer to her and in a much worse condition.

"Excuse me ma'am"

"Yes" the old nurse was clearly annoyed by Ed having a request but it was probably ingrained in her brain by now to be polite to the patient as she smiled and looked at him.

"You know my friend there" Ed looked at Rey's back and after a sad nod reverted his gaze back to the nurse, "actually he has a crush on you from the moment he first saw you when we came here and is too shy to say that. That's why he is currently facing away from you so as to not embarrass himself."

The old nurse was flustered. It was probably the first time in her 60 years of working as a nurse besides her younger days, that a man has had a crush on her.

"Don't make fun of this old lady, boy. There is no way that a boy like him will like me and anyway I am too old for that short of stuff."

"That's not true, you are still pretty and also my friend is into mature women."

The nurse was still not convinced as she looked at him with doubt.

"You can ask division leader Tanjuro, he is still outside."

The nurse looked at the observing screen from where Tanjuro was nodding at them. While leaving the room, he talked to Ed about this plan via sound transmission and changing the nurse was also his plan.

It probably had been too long since the nurse was with a man as it only took a little more convincing to get her onboard. Rey's looks probably helped too.

"Oh my! It's been so long, I don't even know what to do?"

"I have a plan, what do you say?"

Ed whispered his plan into the nurse's ear and her blush became more visible.

"I can't possibly do that"

"How long is it gonna take ma'am?"

"Just a minute"

"You see how eager he is to meet you to the extent he is asking you to hurry up."

The nurse after resolving herself moved onto Rey who had his back turned all this time and was oblivious to Ed's schemes.

"Hello, I am Julia and I'll be changing your bandages now."

"Nice to meet you, I am Rey." though Rey was feeling pretty down that the nurse for changed, he still nonetheless gave his best smile to the old lady, which she obviously misunderstood.

'I feel bad for the nurse but this is my payback for kidnapping me.' Ed looked at the nurse change Rey's bandages. Rey couldn't notice but Ed could clearly see the nurse intentionally touching Rey here and there according to his plan.

'Now for the last act.'

The nurse was on the opposite shoulder of Rey, tightening the sling around his shoulder when her hand slipped and she fell on Rey, giving him a big wet kiss barely missing his lips.

1sec...2sec.... 3sec... 4sec...

"Ummm.... excuse me ma'am"

"Ah, sorry where are my manners. I'll go and send the doctor to check up on you." the old lady dashed out of the room with speed inhuman for her age, looking all flustered.

Ed slowly looked at Rey trying to reel in his laughter. On the other hand Rey was touching the spot where the nurse kissed, the lingering wetness still giving him the creeps.

Rey was constantly reminded of the kiss because of the wetness, making him unable to respond. Whereas someone else was having a panick attack.

[Waaahhhh! What is that old wench thinking. K-k-kiss, how could she do that to m-my Rey. Waaahhhh!]

Both the user and the system were in shock for entirely different reasons.

.....

Rey and Ed were discharged late into the night the next day, contrary to their expectations of getting an early leave.

Ed wanted to hang out with Rey before retiring for the night, but Rey went straight back to his room.

For the entirety of his stay in the infirmary, the old nurse was the only one attending to them, especially him. She even started wearing makeup and got more daring with her touches which sadly Rey noticed this time.

He also managed to get the nurse's number but not the one he was hoping for.

[That old hag, how dare she touch you before me. Uggghhhh!]

The worst affected was probably Sophie, everytime she managed to calm down a little, the nurse reappeared and she started throwing a fit everytime. Fortunately for her Rey was too traumatized to pay attention to her otherwise be would have listened all the possessiveness Sophie was showing.

Rey reached his home and fell on the bed trying to forget about everything.

"Everytime I start to forget about that, those gifts come into view. What should I do with these?"

Rey pointed at the pile of gifts that the nurse gave him, mostly homemade stuff and some other merchandise.

[Burn them down, burn everything!]

Rey finally called the room service and asked them to distribute the gifts among the poor. Only after the gifts were taken away was he able to sleep peacefully.

.......

*Thump* *Thump*

Rey just got out of the shower after taking a long bath when he heard someone knock his door.

"Coming" Rey grabbed his clothes from the bed and was about to change.

*Thump* *Thump*

"1 minute please"

*Thump* *Thump*

"I said wait" Rey was getting angry at the impatient person who was not even letting him change.

*Thump* *Thump*

"What the hell is up with you."

He dropped the clothes he was holding and stormed towards the door, keeping his towel in place which one hand.

He opened the door and saw Ed standing there waiting impatiently, constantly looking at his Dolex watch.

"Ah, thank god you opened up. Come with me, we need to go"

"Go wheerrrrrr..."Rey couldn't even complete his sentence when Ed grabbed his free hand and using his lighting attribute, dashed out of the inn, jumping from the window in the first floor.

"Sorry I'll pay you later"

The maid working there was stunned when she saw two boys jumping from the first floor with one of them being almost naked.