Despite the pain, It took Lily several minutes to calm down and stop her laughter.

Great, I would gladly wait for her to stop, it only meant that everything had given us more fear than harm, if playing the fool could make a cute girl smile it was all worth it. But seeing her good mood gradually disappears in favor of the pain, I ended up stopping her.

“ At your service, glad you liked it. I could repay your cookies with fun at least. But calm down or your wound will worsen. How are you? Something’s broken?” I smiled back at her laughing face. Happy myself that my worries were all for naught.

“..Ahem... Yes, sorry…” She wiped away a tear. “Honestly, not so good. I already stopped all the open wounds from bleeding, and my head, although she received a shock, seems fine. But I think I got a broken ankle and leg plus some rib fractures… maybe more? It hurt a lot, I anesthetized myself lightly with magic, but I can still feel pain.”

“Let me see… tell me if you can’t stand the pain.” I got by her side on the knee, took her hurt limb on my lap and proceeded to take off her shoes.

“Eeeeeyoutch!”

“Don’t move, it’s very swollen. I will cut your boots and stockings, we will have to buy you a new pair of both when we return.”

The sexy attires were already ruined anyway, long past any chance to save them, even for a role play. The whole lower leg was definitely in a bad state. Well, both wounds were located in the same place, so it was coherent.

The bulge was understandable, the stockings state too, but that one was irrelevant.

“It’s not necessary, better not touch if it’s swallowed. I will walk with a crutch anyway and heal over time...”

“No!! If it’s completely broken, and given the extent of the fall, sure it is, we need to check the damage. If you have a displaced bone, or worth a sticking out one. We need to take care of it asap, and you know it.

Even you can’t be sure if it is all covered and squeezed by your shoes. We won’t move again today and camp right there. if necessary, I’ll carry you tomorrow and then.”

There is no way you would be walking, I wouldn’t let you, even if you could. Or I won’t be the hero anymore. I started cutting off the shoe and ripped off the garment’s fabric with a knife.

“But...argh!!!!”

“No speaking! I will get angry. Why are you so stubborn when it comes to yourself? Here! It's already over… what the… what is this...” Suddenly, something odd caught my attention, something that shouldn’t have been there, or at least, not as much.

“…” She stayed quiet, pretending not to notice my reaction.

“Lily, hold out the other leg to me.”

“Why? I only had a small flesh wound who's already close.”

“LILY!! Do I need to threaten to divorce so you so you listen to my words without making a fuss?”

“…” Again, she remained silent, tears got in her eyes, and nodding negatively she put her other limb at my disposal. Here too, the shoe was stuck. So without asking or losing time either, I severed the leather, and tore it off. The loose fishnet wasn’t an issue yet, so I left it on.

“Lily… Why?…” Refusing to look me in the eyes she ended up facing the horizon.

“Looking away eh? Are you a child? Should I spank you? Why didn’t you tell me? I might stay unmoved and insensitive to you, but I’m not evil… you’re making my heart bleed.”

What concerned me was not the ankles’ bad state, both inflated to an abnormal degree, meaning the second one was at least sprained too . The above broken part either not.

But the feet… swallow, full of bruises, and blisters, covered in both dried and fresh blood.

“Spank you? I should beat myself hard instead” How could I call myself a hero, a protector of women? When I can’t even see that a girl is worn out. I didn’t pay attention to the signs, I should have.

“No!!… It’s all my fault...I’m useless!” Lily, unable to take it anymore, began to speak

“The forest was fine really, the pace suited me. But even then I...I got a sprain at the end! Tripping over a damned root! It hadn’t even been a few days! Already there I was in pain…sniff.

I didn’t want to be seen as a weakling. I was already a dead weight in the first fight…I…sob…didn’t want to hear you say I was a burden! Sob sob.”

It was my turn to stay silent, I was stunned by what happened because of my negligence and the weight of my word.

“I thought I could hold it...hic...that...hic...that it would teach me how to endure pain… So I didn’t magically cure it on purpose. I was a fool…hic...sob”

“I understand, and then?.” How could you end up in this way? How? Oh Lily…

I wiped away those tears that came one by one, she was dying of embarrassment and regret. She spoke while crying, still not looking at me, avoiding my gaze so as to not show me her miserable face more than reason.

At least I must’ve managed to comfort her a little as she continued with longer uninterrupted sentences.

“Then, when you took me off on the mountain path, I had trouble following you and things only got worse. Eventually, I could barely stand properly, and the second ankle was about to give up too! Sniff

When I asked for a break, I actually wanted to heal myself in secret while you were eating. Or at least I intended to. But you didn’t give me enough time and you were so cheerful…”

Embarrassment became shame, her tears who had slowed down returned more numerous, changing whimper into lament.

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“I didn’t want to break the mood. Sob sniff, at the end...hic...when you...hic...let...me-hic...off to climb, I got an opportunity… sniff. Perfect!...hic...guh...I said to myself!...hic... But I…hic tripped agaaaiiiinnnnn! Waaaaaaaahaaa!!!”

She started crying profusely, and for a while before slowing down her sobs and resume.

“I was scared…hic, I thought you would abandon me!! Sob sob”

I‘m a scumbag. Now I understood her troubled face when I abuptly interrupted our rest.

Her complaints about the difficult terrain made sense so I didn’t take them into account. Nor did I care about her fatigue.

She didn’t want to eat, not because she was afraid of gaining weight, but seeing that she was already tired and didn’t want to exhaust further while digesting.

Now she was shedding tears in my arms, her legs in pieces, feeling bad about the situation and taking it all as she was the source of our problems, while I was the main accountable without a doubt.

“I won’t, okay? I won’t, rest assured, I promise I won’t throw you for that. After all, at the moment, I’m your knight, am I not?”

kiss, pat “mmmh?”

I slowly kissed her on the forehead, while gently stroking her head for a long time, until the cry slowed down and ceased.

“Are you okay now? Did your fears fade away? I likely won’t treat you well as a wife, but at least, I will treat you as a party member, sorry, seriously, I hadn’t taken you into consideration enough.”

Without speaking, she nodded in agreement, her eyes all puffy and irritated, the tear trails not even having dried yet.

“So, no more secrets about your well being all right? When you are hurt, when you are tired, no lies, no concealment. If I’m too fast, If the terrain doesn't suit you, even if you take it as a small inconvenience, let me know. Daccccccooord?”

Another nod

“Let’s continue the inspection then. Tell me if I’m wrong. The leg seems to be okay, no blood, bone sticking out, or hematoma in view. But you should check yourself when you have recovered a bit. I’m not a doctor. Other one’s fine, the ankles can be sorted with a bit of magic and good sleep, I think. Your head is fine, so you said. I’ll take your word for it. Now, for the libs… how many fractures?”

“A few...”

“I have trouble hearing? What did we just agree on?”

“Sorry... five.”

“Yay! Better late than never. But that was the last time. If I catch you back again, I won’t let you travel with me, and make you a perfect housewife, who is waiting home alone for her husband to return, compelled to masturbate out of frustration.”

Maybe I should have done that straight away. Locking her In our base would have been safer. Allowing me to flee temptation and… that it.

To be fair, she was not incapable, far from there. She was truly good in melee, easily matching average adventurers specialized in the front line. She seems to be a good healer, her flesh wounds were all taken care of even though she was nearly exhausted and seriously injured. She just needs some time to get used to her new life.

Gaining some field experience should suffice, stamina didn’t seem to be the problem here. Above all, she endured a greater pain and for longer than most I know of, without saying a word.

If she wasn't that crazy in love, had I encountered her earlier, I would have taken her on my journey to push back the demon, no questions asked.

“Five, so be it, nothing worse? No broken one? Be careful, I have the means to keep you on a leash until the end of the trip, Literally!”

No. Let's not lie to ourselves, given she is this young and already as capable as. Even if she were to rape me beforehand, I wouldn’t have mind teaming up with her in the war after some training. I wonder how well she will grow.

“With the tail and ears? Dog or cat?” She eventually responded to my joke by herself, she seemed to have gotten back some confidence.

“Ah… yes, that could be taken as a reward for you… Thus, how about I bound you to a tree for a few days and let you alone? And why not a rabbit?

Seems fine to me, a hurt naked starving rabbit, trembling in fear and cold. Leached to a tree without provisions. You would make good prey for wildlife if you don’t die from hypothermia.”

“Pffff, I would like to see that, but I don’t think the wildlife would be of any concern. The wild hero-sama on the other hand… That’s a predator I can’t ignore but wouldn’t that reverse the roles? -smile- No cover up this time I swear. Only fractures, no broken one”

Seems I succeeded in lightening the mood.

“Fine, you come first, then I will make the camp, next comes the supper. Let’s eat well and rest nicely, as for what’s left, we will advise tomorrow morning. Okay?”

And we did just as I said.

I took care of Lily's injuries, a healer was not an excuse to let serious ones unattended, I put on bandages to compress and keep in place her broken and cracked parts. Then I made a splint with wood and some tights’ leftover for her legs.

At the end, I proceeded to give her a massage where things were okay, to release some pain and relax some more. No more magic was allowed for today, she was already quite weak.

We ate whatever we had on hand, so it was a bit too light to fill Lily's body needs, her blood and bones were far more hungry than she was herself after all.

She would need to eat more than that to recuperate, we were not gonna last with only dried meat and pottage rest. But as it appeared she had difficulty eating in any case, that would be enough for now.

Out of sight, I secretly used some of my life saving belongings… Well, it was not supposed to be one, but that’s all I could afford and saved from my past equipment and now it was.

An elixir, although not of the highest quality, and not at all made for this situation, it was largely capable of improving her condition. Even if it was a waste to use it as a simple tonic, I take my responsibilities seriously.

A few drops in her drink, the effect should reduce pain and speed up the recovery process.

If she knew I squandered it, she would blame it on herself beyond reason. Why? Simply because elixirs are NOT miracle potions that can instantly treat ailments, well the best could presumably.

What they were, however, were costly, if not overpriced, general medicine with light effects on the long term, its power and lasting time vary and heavily depended on the price.

You tend to use them in absolute necessity before the need comes. Yes I know, that sounds inconsistent, but that is the paradox, you need to use them in advance to be effective, but they cost a lot so you generally falter.

On the other hand, potions are mostly for specific use, these are less pricey… although still too expensive considering my situation, but I usually didn’t have use for them so I didn’t have any.

Anyway, mine tend to have similar effects than of a stamina recovery potion, with a detox counter for numerous poison, slow mana replenishment, modest adrenaline boost, and very light wound recovery that’s more for blood coagulant than wound treatment. And that in the long run.

See, told you, general medicine, that does nothing perfectly but is a must when forecasting long fights, with unplanned events. Fortuitously, It might be that it had unlikely but useful uses, and another purpose may have been to replenish and boost stamina through my overlong lingering nights, but that's another whole story.