Chapter 1669: Safety
Ning never realized when he lost his consciousness. When he came to, he found himself lying on a hard surface, staring at the darkness that covered his vision. There was a glimmer of light to the side, forcing him to twist his head to see it.
Light spilled through a small crack. They were inside some sort of room.
He felt movement to his side and tried to reach out in the darkness, but he could not feel anything. There was nothing he could use to feel.
He no longer had his arm.
The memory came back immediately and he sighed. He had nearly forgotten that was the case here.
‘Can I regrow my arm?’ he wondered. He couldn’t do that with what he had right now.
He tried to get up and felt a wave of pain pass through him. “Argh!” he cried out loud.
“Ning?” a voice came from the side. Shara moved between the slivers of light.
“Ning, are you awake?” she asked, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Yes,” Ning said, grunting as he spoke. “Where are we?”
“I found a house that seems to be empty for now. I brought you here to get healed,” she said.
“Healed?” Ning asked, reaching for his left arm. He felt a stump right above the elbow. It wasn’t healed at all, but there were bandages around it.
“You found bandages?” he asked.
“Stole some,” she said.
Ning laughed a little, the vibrations bringing along more pain.
“Is it nighttime?” he asked. “Why is it so dark?”
“It should be closing toward midnight,” Shara said. “Do you want water?”
“Sure,” Ning said. He was feeling rather thirsty, and hungry too. “Is there food?”
“I stole some as well,” Shara said. “Don’t move. It’s around here somewhere.”
She shuffled around the darkness until she found a small package wrapped in paper and brought it toward Ning.
“Can you reach out with your hand? Where are you?” she asked, reaching out herself.
“Here,” Ning called her with his voice and let her come toward him.
Shara came close and gave him a small leather sack that was filled with water. Ning drank the water, finding it rather awful tasting. Still, he drank it.
“I’m sorry it’s so dark. I thought of stealing some lanterns but I didn’t know if people knew this place was supposed to be empty. If they found light here, they would’ve come for us.”
“You did well,” Ning said. “What’s outside that door?”
“Road,” Shara said. “We’re right by the front door. This room is rather small.”
“I… see,” Ning said. He got up, regardless of the pain, and began tearing into the piece of bread he had received from here. There was a meaty flavor to the bread, as though there was meat mixed into it as well. But the texture didn’t suggest him that much.
“Did you eat?” he asked her.
“Oh yeah,” Shara said. “I’ve had my full. I was just waiting for you to wake up.”
“I see,” Ning said. “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” she said. “Not after all that you did for me. You saved me, Ning. If not for you, I would’ve died today. I’m sorry you lost your arm because of me.”
Ning smiled in the darkness. “Don’t worry about my arm. It will come back sometime in the future,” he said. He didn’t have the points for it yet, but surely in the future, he would have enough to buy some high-tier healing potion.
After eating his fill, Ning laid back down. He found his head resting on some sort of small sack.
“How is your sleeping station?” he asked. “You don’t plan on staying up, do you?”
“Oh, don’t worry about me. I have my place down here. You sleep on the table,” she said.
‘Oh, I’m on a table? Not a bed, huh?’ he thought.
“Ning…” Shara said.
“Yes?” he asked.
“What were those scrolls from today?” she asked.
“Scrolls?” Ning asked, now realizing that he hadn’t thought about the implications of him using it in front of her. She would obviously be curious about it after all.
“It’s… something special that only I have,” Ning said.
“Something special?” Shara asked.
“Yes,” Ning said. “It’s called a System. It gives me quite a lot of good things but in exchange for my doing stuff for it.”
Ning explained to her the basis of the system he had at the moment and how he had to earn points to do anything.
Shara was surprised at first, clearly disbelieving what she was being told. But as time went on, she believed those words and even accepted them as clearly the truth.
Her doubts were lifted even more after she heard that Ning had only helped her at the beginning because the system had asked him to.
“Does it still ask you to help me?” she asked.
“It asks me to protect you from time to time, but if you think I’m doing what I’m doing right now because of the system, then no,” Ning said.
“Then… why?” she asked.
“No reason. I just like helping people,” Ning said. “I don’t need a system to tell me what to do most of the time.”
Shara didn’t reply.
“Thank you,” she said one last time and seemed to go quiet forever.
It took Ning a while to realize that he wouldn’t be getting any more replies. He looked at the dark ceiling of the room and called out his status to see what was up.
There were a few quests left over from the village, but most of the important ones had been cleared. Especially the one about what Shara was had been cleared.
‘Reaper, huh?’ he thought. ‘Bane of both the living and the dead. She is feared by both.’
However, that didn’t explain everything at all. Sure she was a Reaper, but then why had people been sent to kill her?
More importantly, why did an Empire fear a Reaper?”
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