Although he had escaped, no one in the room had it in them to follow him. Even Avis and Albus decided to lie on the floor to rest instead of going after him.

The only one concerned enough to mention it was Jake. He was crawling on the floor when he reached Tibaut and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Should, uh, we not go follow him?"

Tibaut looked at the hole and rested his back on the ground.

"If that bastard manages to escape, then so be it, we're here just for some evidence, right? (Damnit the bastard escaped!!)" He said, sounding tired.

"Oh right, I completely forgot," Jake commented as he looked around.

Tibaut had a nasty-sounding cough before replying to him. "I don't blame you."

He looked around the room and it looked like the scene of a war rather than a battle between four people. Around half the ground in the room was broken and there were stains of blood here and there thanks to the giant.

As Tibaut looked around he noticed Jake on the floor.

"Did he get you during the battle?" Tibaut as he observed Jake kept the pressure off one of his legs.

"Oh, no. It was just a final gambit I decided to try with my magic."

"Huh, what does that mean? In the first place, how does your magic work? I remember Albus telling me to create some mana around me but I had no idea what it helped with."

As Jake sat up, he rubbed his leg which seemed injured and winced.

"(Wait a minute are we having a conversation!?) Oh right, I should probably explain that. My magic works through skin contact with my mana."

"So…" he thought about it for a second. "My mana protected me from the effects of your magic? So what happened to the big guy was your doing?"

"Pretty much. I'm surprised you accepted it so easily. Most people are surprised when I say it needs my mana to be in contact with someone else to work."

As they chatted, Tibaut noticed Avis and Albus start searching around the room for something. They headed towards the scant drawers and dressers that were in the room.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"(Surprised? Have you heard about Ezekiel's magic!?) I'm not surprised by anything when I hear magic's involved."

"Really? You must have seen some strange magic on your travels."

"Y-yeah. Anyway, what does your magic do exactly?"

"Oh, it just allows me to share some of my senses with whoever touches my mana."

"(How the hell do you figure that one out?) Is that why he was acting so strange?"

"I mean, having your sense of smell, hearing and sight taken out would make anyone freak out," Jake said, with a drab look on his face. "Training without being able to see was rough enough, I can't imagine how bad it'd be without your own hearing."

Tibaut wondered if he misheard.

"Train without seeing?"

"Yeah, I did. Is something wrong?"

"Why would you train to-"

Jake seemed to have gotten where the point of confusion came from and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a blindfold and when Tibaut grabbed at it, it felt like it was made out of a thick material.

He took it, put it on himself and wasn't surprised at how dark it was.

("No wonder he was looking around so much, you can't see shit with these.")

As he handed them back he had another question.

"What made him fall to the ground? That wasn't my doing or Avis's."

Jake tapped his injured-looking leg.

"Since it was so close, and I wasn't in any shape to fight, I decided to make myself useful for that plan you had at the end."

Tibaut blankly stared at his leg before realizing what he was implying.

"Y-you broke your leg!?" Tibaut shouted.

Jake awkwardly laughed while looking away, not denying what he said.

("Maybe I should keep quiet I was going to break the other if I saw him running out of Tibaut's flames.")

Before Tibaut could get another word in, Avis walked, with her stride noticeably less jittery than before and one of her legs covered in a herbal-smelling liquid.

"Both of you come with me."

Tibaut stood up and Jake pointed to his injured leg. While Tibaut considered picking him up, the maid lifted him in the bridal carry and walked over to the entrance. He slightly blushed but the maid paid no attention to him.

Next to the entrance was an opened cabinet, with Albus chugging down green bottles of liquid like there was no tomorrow.

As they approached, she started opening her mouth again. "I've already had my share and my pain has subsided. Please decide amongst yourselves how to split the remaining bottles after my master is finished."

"Yo, Maid Red. That bastard was hiding some good shit under here. I think these are all level 2." He continued gulping them down and as far Tibaut could count, he went through about thirty, though some of them might have been from Avis.

("Well his punch broke my arm, so I guess a kick to the chest would be life-ending. I'm surprised he could still move after that.") Tibaut thought.

Avis gently placed Jake on the floor and went further into the room to search for anything they could find of importance.

Tibaut looked at his broken arm and sighed. ("Elizabeth will probably be pissed but it'd better to have Jake heal up and I take the remainder. It'd be less risky for her to heal me than Jake. Besides she wouldn't just…") He was about to think "She wouldn't just leave me injured" but considering what she told him plus past times he was injured…

("Maybe she'll be more lenient if I pretend I didn't think she was going to heal me. Yeah, she wouldn't leave my arm like this if I said I let Jake heal as much as he could because he needed it.")

With that flimsy reasoning, he encouraged Jake to drink as much as possible after Albus finished.