Fever and Conviction

Cliff opened his eyes, he felt a slight headache which forced him to get up from the bed with a sudden movement.

Cursing under his breath, he desperately stroked his temple, trying to alleviate even some of the pain.

"That must have hurt you," a soft, feminine voice suddenly said next to him.

"Two days of training tirelessly, spending your mana without taking into account your vital reserve, I will definitely never understand you men, tch!"

She declared, clicking her tongue.

"But what is she saying? Is she still angry that I didn't send her into the operation?" wondered as she stared at Viola in the corners of her eyes.

"Sire Brown, please put this on," she said, holding out a black tunic with red stripes on the sleeves.

After she said that, Cliff was surprised at his position, he was completely... naked, as he had come out of his mother.

Hastening to cover himself with his sheet, in the corners of his eyes, he glanced at the young elf followed by a smirk.

"So have you seen my anaconda?"

"Is that what you called it?, I spared myself from this trauma" she spat, trying to look serious, "when you were unconscious I ordered two of you to my colleagues to come to your bedside, since you couldn't stop sweating, they had to wash you, poor things"

"Besides, I'm not interested in you, you're not my type."

Cliff's smile widened.

"She says as she keeps staring at my little nipples" Cliff says pretending to think out loud.

"No, no, I wasn't looking, it's not like I was interested in you sire" said Viola not being able to stop her cheeks from blushing.

"You should have seen your face, weren't you the one who blamed me for looking at Yadha with attractions?" Cliff said teasingly.

"Sire, did you hear?

While she suddenly stood up in her seat, stunned, she never would have expected this to happen to her.

"Yeah, I heard it all, the way you hate me, no, you pretend to hate me" Cliff declared not wanting to let go, he was determined to tease her until the end.

Until then someone interrupts them by scratching their throat.

Cliff looked away he saw Cain and Akumu enter the room, these guys were still wearing serious looks.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I am delighted to see you restored, my lord."

"Likewise my lord, I was very worried about your health. "They said giving him a bow.

"Ahah I'm fine, thank you for taking care of me, I'm now in great shape, shall we start training again?" He said nonchalantly.

"Yes of course !!" Akumu affirmed, tightening his grip on his sword.

"Boys, not so fast, the master has just recovered from a mana fever, so I believe he will stay here a little longer, until he regains his full strength"

"Mana fever?" Cliff asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, it's not really an illness, but rather a great weakness after having spent all his mana up to his life energy, it was the counter-blows" Viola declared in a severe tone.

"Until you regain all your mana, I would advise you to rest and not use your energy unnecessarily."

"So that was just it?" Said Cliff getting up wrapped in a sheet, rummaging in a sort of box in which he took out two stones.

It was an essence stone and a mana gem.

"Sire, do you know the words; 'take a rest', wouldn't it be better for you to wait?" Viola spat sternly.

"Woman, I know you are worried about the master but that doesn't give you the right to speak to him in that tone" Akumu suddenly said, a little annoyed.

Cliff waved at them with one hand and they immediately calmed down, he let out a short sigh.

"Viola, I know you are worried about me, but I will quickly become stronger, with my current strength, I risk dragging you to death by attacking the ogres so I will prepare myself the same way as I also prepare."

"After this rescue operation, our real ascension in this forest will begin, we will claim this territory, so to lead, I should train a lot in order to be up to being your master, right?"

"You are absolutely right my lord, you are always strange to the concept of this world, you seemed to underestimate the strength that these creatures of the underworld could exert." Viola had declared, suddenly regaining her calm.

"On that you are right, I let myself be carried away by the greed of the essence stones I underestimated their dangerousness, it had almost cost me my life, if it was Dahlia or Rakahn who had died by my otherwise I wouldn't know what I would have done."

There was a silence which was quickly broken by Cain.

"Is that why you prioritize increasing our individual strength? It's a simple but effective strategy, I like it!" Cain muttered under his breath.

"I intend to change all our training methods, so I can experiment with them for myself then..?"

Cliff had long thought about how to make his soldiers powerful in the shortest possible time, so he had considered several methods without achieving anything, after searching for a long time, he had an idea that he considered to be that of a genius and he reserved it as a surprise for the soldiers when they return after finishing with the waves.

"So I'm going to quickly absorb these little gems and get back to work; I only have 4 days left to finally be ready for the operation."

"But sire?" stammered Viola.

"There are no buts," Cliff said suddenly, cutting him off.

He put his hand on her shoulder and then smiled.

"You're going to have to go out now I'm going to get dressed, but you can stay if you want to be 'TRAUMATIZED'."