Chapter 36 - Severe Lack of Nurse Outfits

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I was sitting in Holiés’ house, having breakfast with his mother. The injuries he suffered the day before were severe but not life-threatening and he was now sleeping in his room.

The priests and volunteers who came from Vilfori had returned home when, after a long night of work, the fire was finally quenched.

As I was biting into a piece of bread dipped in milk I heard a loud, “fuck,” followed by the sound of something falling coming from Holiés’ room. I got up and said, “I’ll go,” to his mother who was getting up from her chair too.

“Lady Fortuna, you’ve already done enough,” she said.

“Don’t worry and get some rest, you need it,” I said to the old woman who showed the signs of a sleepless night.

“Thank you.”

I walked up to Holiés room and opened the door. When I entered I saw him, on the floor, face down, wearing only a the bandages and a loose pair of pants, with his body hugging a stool that had fallen on the floor.

“It’s nice to see you’re already this lively,” I said with a laugh.

He turned his head and said, “oh, Fortuna, it’s nice to see you. Can I ask you a couple of things?”

“Ask away.”

“Okay, first of all, can you put me back on my bed?I think my everything is still broken.”

I laughed and said, “oh sure,” and lifted him up.

He groaned a bit from the pain as I laid him on his bed then he asked me “second thing, what the hell are you doing here? I thought you left for Dulsalies last week,”

“I decided to work in a distillery for a while and just as I was about to finally enjoy the fruits of my hard work I saw someone had decided to play with fire a bit and decided to scold them,”I said as I put back the stool next to his bed.

“I see, I see. I guess I’m the one who needs a scolding then,” he said, ending in a soft laugh which soon turned to groaning in pain.

“That depends if you deserve it or not.”

“Fair enough. Lastly, could you call my mother?”

“I told her to get some rest, she’s been checking on you all night. You can ask me if you need something.”

He stared at me with the most serious expression a face half covered in bandages allowed him and said, “Fortuna, I’ve been sleeping for what I think has been half a day, I have to take the piss of the century. I really don’t think you want to help with that.”

“I’ll go call for her.”

“Thank you.”

I exited his room and went to the main room but Clementine was nowhere to be seen. I went to her room and knocked on her door, soon she opened the door and said, “did something happen?”

“Holiés woke up and told me to call for you.”

“Oh! I’ll go immediately then,” she said and walked towards Holiés’ room.

Deciding that I didn’t really want to assist at Holiés’ supposed piss of the century I went to sit at the table in the main room and finish my breakfast. After about five minutes Clementine came out of his room and said, “I’m sorry we had to trouble you with such a thing.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

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“I’ll go to sleep for a bit now, call me if something happens again.”

“Sure, I will.”

She she gave me a light bow and went back inside her room, leaving me there. I got up and went back in Holiés’ room.

When I entered I found him back on his bed, trying to find a comfortable position to rest in.

“Hey, aren’t you tired of having everything broken like that?” I said, half laughing.

“Well, I tried to tell my bones to fix themselves immediately, but they’re a bit stubborn. That priest could have fixed me a bit better yesterday tho.”

“Well, you were breathing and you had no parts missing, I guess it was good enough for him,” I said as I sat on a stool next to his bed.

“Ah, fair enough,” he said, grunting a bit in pain.

“How about I try to speak to your bones? Maybe they’ll listen to me.”

“I can’t really stop you, can I?”

“No, I guess you can’t.”

I leaned over him and started removing the bandages that had in part untied themselves, being careful not to move him too much and ripping the bandages apart when it would have been better not to move him to remove them. I soon noticed the wooden sticks that were holding his arms straight under the bandages. I removed those too and placed his arms down at the sides of his body. I was about to remove his pants when he said, “do I really have to be naked for this?”

“Well, it’s better if I see what’s going on, or do you want to risk finding yourself with two right feet? It’s not like I haven’t seen you naked before anyway,” I said, smiling.

“Okay! Okay! I get it,” he said, rolling his eyes, “do what you have to do.”

I laughed a bit and proceeded to remove his pants, then the bandages that were holding his left leg and the sticks around it together.

“Okay, seems like everything is in the right place,” I said once all the bandages were removed.

“Except…”

“Except?!” he asked, worried.

“Bite this,” I said, sticking one of the wooden sticks that were holding his arms together in his mouth.

“Wud bu biu meam bide di- Aaaaah fag!” he shouted as a sharp noise came from his leg.

I took the stick from his mouth and said, “sorry, half of your shinbone had shifted a bit and I had to put it back in place.”

“Tell me that before you do it!”

“Now, now, everything went well, right?”

“I’d still prefer to know when someone is shifting my fucking bones around!”

“Fine, fine, I’ll tell you next time.”

“Next time?! You have to do that again?” he asked, goggling at me.

“Well, no, if you stay still I should be able to heal you without having to manually fix anything.”

“Oh, thank the goddess.”

“Not that it won’t hurt like a bitch,” I said, smiling.

“Wait wha- Aaaah! Fuck!” he shouted as I started healing him.

“Come on, you’ll get used to it immediately,” I said, pouring even more mana in the spell.

“Oh Fuck! Is it supposed to hurt so much?” he shouted again, bringing his head up to look at me better.

“Only if you go really fast when healing.”

“Can’t you slow down then?!”

“I don’t want to stay here all day,” I said, pushing his head back on his pillow.

“Fuck!”

“Come on, we’re almost there,” I said, [looking] at his bone.

“I find it hard to believe after… oh, it stopped,” he said, blinking.

“I told you we were almost there. Try to move around a bit, slowly.”

He raised his right arm, and, while looking at it, tried to move the fingers.

“It seems like everything went right.”

“Yes, it seems so,” he said, moving the other arm.

He sat up on the bed, moved his legs and said, “it looks like I’m all fixed.”

“Good. Don’t move too much tho.”

“Yes, yes, mum. I promise I won’t go out to play right away,” he said.

“Good little Holiés, mama is really happy. Now mama has to go retrieve her liquor and horse. Can I leave you here or do I have to watch you like a guard dog?” I said, patting his head.

“Nah, go, I’ll sleep some more.”

I got up and said, “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.Your mother is sleeping, don’t make too much trouble.”

“Yes, yes. I’m not a kid, you know?”

“You’re a man though,” I said as I went to the door.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he shouted at me as I closed the door of his room behind me.

I decided to check on Clementine to see if she needed something but she was already sleeping so I chose to let her sleep and exited the house.

Outside I was met with the village full of people still making quick repairs to the houses damaged by the fire, while the village chief was arguing with some old farmers about something concerning the crops.

I ignored the villagers, only greeting them when they looked at me, greeting that they returned with a quick bow, and walked towards Vilfori.