Pov Silven

"That's the entire story."

I said hoarsly, Jack was insistent about learning everything that happened, to the exact detail. I tried many times to skip over the fact that I submitted to Eclipse, but Jack has known me far too long to fall for my lies. Thankfully Jack wasn't in a joking mood, as he only acknowledged what happened with a silent stare. I guess the title the juvenile moth has is really putting him on edge. His kind blue eyes turned ice cold in an instant and stayed that way until Eclipse's [Status] got an update.

Titles

...

*New* Curiosity Killed The Cat, But Why?

Ever since you were born, you have questioned everything as you knew nothing. Everything needed to be explained to you, yet your questions have been ignored. But you will not be ignored by the world, let everything you see be answered for. Grants the active skill [Appraisal] at level 1. [Appraisal] takes far less to level up.

Earning [Appraisal] through a title was not unheard of, but that does not mean it's common. What was strange was that Eclipse is only 2 days old, yet it got the title. What was stranger was that this was the only title Eclipse had that didn't max out a skill.

Jack's eyes turned a bit warmer, but that must've been a facade as they turned even colder once he comforted Eclipse and looked back at me. Thankfully he keeps his promises, or else Eclipse would've definitely faced the sheer might of Jack the Reaper. I couldn't help but shudder at the thought.

The reason why I disliked this man so much. He has no place for any positive emotions, this man was a cold blooded killer and nothing more.

But I didn't blame him. Unlike adventurers, most mercenaries are only friendly when not on the field, and once they are on the field, they are cold bastards who loved money more than anything. This makes it so that Jack has to be colder than them as the leader or else his leadership would be questioned by an arrogant bastard and the delicate order of the guild will collapse. The only reason everyone hasn't killed eachother for money was because of the Mercenary Guidelines and Jack. But guidelines aren't rules, most mercs wouldn't stop even with the mercy guideline being enacted. Of course if a merc ignores those guidelines too many times, thats where Jack comes in. Let's just say Jack isn't called The Reaper for no reason.

"Seeing how you haven't made any comments about Eclipse, I am guessing you have no clue what an insectoid is?"

I managed to croak out and Jack shook his head. I couldn't help but sigh at this.

"Silven, be sure to raise Eclipse right, if you dont... well you probably know."

Jack spoke for the first time since I started talking, and I couldn't help but gulp.

"Ah, also be sure to stay safe around the insectoid! We both don't have any information about its species!"

Suddenly his mischievous mood from before came back like a switch. It honestly made me shiver.

"Y-yeah I'll keep that in mind, l-let's go E-Eclipse- Wait Eclipse?"

I was about to grab Eclipse and leave, but I noticed the little fluff ball had disappeared. I hurriedly looked at Jack, who was smiling, and he simply pointed to the left and that's when I saw Eclipse on a wooden cabinet, looking at the Cursed Sword of Elz which was sitting above it, a dangerous trophy that Jack kept in the open for an odd reason. I didn't bother at glancing back at Jack as I felt my body move on my own. In a split second I had reached Eclipse and grabbed it quickly pulling it away from the dangerous item.

I couldn't say anything as I held the juvenile moth closely, I shouldn't have let it go out of my sight. It was only 2 days old (almost 3 days), it clearly couldn't understand how dangerous everything in this office was. I was a fool, and now I was pissing off the juvenile moth once again as I felt it was shivering once again.

"Sorry..."

I said quietly as I let go of the juvenile moth, who, instead of angirly tapping me like it always does, starts nuzzling me. As I am about to ask why, I hear Jack explain.

"[Absolute Silence] makes the targets inside the sphere invisible. I noticed Eclipse jump off the desk and make it past the sphere. Since Eclipse probably doesn't know what invisibility is, it must've thought you disappeared and got really worried."

He said it so cheerly that I couldn't help but get pissed off.

The entire time he's known this, and he didn't say anything. And for some reason, I'm not surprised.

I looked over at him, glad he couldn't see my scowl hidden behind the front plate of the helmet. I didn't give him the satisfaction of responding as I turned on my heels and promptly left the room. I had no more patience talking with him, and I had to focus on comforting the juvenile moth that seemed abnormally attached right now.

Thankfully there seemed to be no one outside Jack's office as I forgot to cover both of us in my cloak, so I quickly did that and speed-walked down the hallway towards the stairs. Once I reached the stairs, I was already in a jog as I went down to the second floor. The second I reached the second floor, I sprinted down this hallway and to the end which was where my room was located at. Thankfully no one was in the way as they were mostly downstairs at the moment.

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I grabbed my merc card with my left hand, wincing at the pain that I kept on forgetting about, and quickly scanned it on my door scanner. The second the small light beside the lock turned from red to green, I burst into my room and quickly uncloaked myself, letting the door close and lock by itself. Eclipse seemed to have calmed down from its initial fright as it had stopped shaking, but it kept close to me and didn't bother escaping my now loose grasp on it.

I didn't know what to say since this would be my second time comforting someone, so I just stood there for a couple of seconds before I spoke up.

"U-um my armor is probably cold and rough to hold onto. I'll quickly take it off."

I mostly wanted it off as I was tired from wearing it, but it was also so Eclipse could get comfortable since it seemed keen on not letting go tonight.

And it seems that it doesn't want to let go now.

Eclipse only twitched when it heard my voice, it didn't bother with any other movement.

"Eclipse you need to get off of me so I can take off my armor, please?"

I asked trying to be as quiet as possible while not whispering. I saw Eclipse twitch again, but this time it slowly but surely started removing itself from me. Once it was finished, it looked up at me, and did nothing else. I had to give myself a few seconds as I stared into its adorable face, but otherwise I placed it back on the ground, and started the process of removing my armor. Which would've been easy if my battery for the suit wasn't dead, as the entire process would've been automated. This was one of those times that I wished I was reliant on batteries. But oh well, I saved a bunch of money on just buying two batteries so thats a plus. I started off with my left arm, pulling off the gauntlet to exposing an ugly purplish arm.

Ah shit I forgot to go to the clinic... Eh I'll do it tomorrow.

I would just have to remove the arrow head so the wound doesn't get worse in my sleep, I should have something to cover the wound, so nothing to worry about. I quickly started taking off my armor piece by piece as Eclipse was staring holes into me. I had to explain multiple times that my armor wasn't my skin to get it to calm down.

It seemed to accept that answer as it swayed back and forth. After what felt like forever, I took off everything, leaving on my loose fitting white t-shirt and my black pants. The armor and gambeson sitting by the door way as I had no where to put it at the moment since I didn't take off my set beside the equipment locker.

I looked at the juvenile moth still swaying back and forth, almost like it wanted to sleep....

wait sleep!? Does Eclipse need sleep!?

My thoughts started running through situations that seemed to keep progressively worse, so I took a deep breath. I've brought trouble to Eclipse before when I was overthinking, first let's just ask.

"Hey Eclipse.... are you feeling tired? Or sleepy? Like you have no energy? L-Like do you feel h-heavy?"

I decided to describe the feeling just incase Eclipse doesn't know what tiredness is or sleepiness is. I don't know if that worked, but Eclipse did raise a single leg, causing it to almost topple as it swayed.

Stepping over a gauntlet, I picked up Eclipse and started moving to the single bed that was small even with my small frame, probably will be cramped with the cat sized juvenile moth, which didn't even include its wingspan.

"Then we'll have a bath tomorrow."

I looked down at the juvenile moth as I said this, noticing that it wasn't moving, even if it's eyes were open. I did almost start panicking, but after thinking about it, Eclipse was probably already asleep as some species do sleep with their eyes open.

I snuck around my own room like a thief in the night and gently dropped off Eclipse on my bed. Before sneaking back towards the small washroom behind me. It seems the door leading to the washroom didn't care about me being quiet as it creaked louder than before once I opened it. I couldn't help but sigh knowing that I would have to do this three more times, hopefully Eclipse doesn't wake up due to the sound.

I closed the creaky door once more as I entered the cramped washroom, which didn't even have place for a shower, but thankfully it did have a sink. I grabbed a washcloth and turned on the cold water as hot water wasn't available here. Damping the washcloth slightly, I turned around while I grabbed a pair of tweezers and a gauze placing them on my lap, abd sat on the closed toilet. I slowly took off the white t-shirt slightly wincing. The back of the shirt was stained red, showing the ungodly amount of blood I lost, thankfully the leveled folk can survive this, but I did notice I was slightly lightheaded. I looked behind me at the hazy mirror which barely showed any details, forcing me to move my silver hair to one side so it wouldn't obscure my view and looked at the fleshy hole in my shoulder, I'm surprised it wasn't still bleeding as I checked it over.

Hesitantly I moved the damp washcloth around the wound and started wiping away some of the blood, careful not to put too much pressure. After cleaning the area, I threw away the now red washcloth and picked up a pair of tweezers that sat on my lap, and just as I was about to start digging around for the arrow head, I stopped and grabbed my t-shirt quickly bitting on it and moved back to my previous position.

Once I saw part of the snapped wooden stick, I shakingly and slowly moved the pair of tweezers into the wound and clenched the shirt hard with my teeth. Once I grabbed hold of the stick with the tweezers, I pulled. Big mistake as my hold on the stick slipped. I couldn't help but yelp into the shirt as I felt the tweezers scrape along one side of the wound.

I took a small breather, before I went at it again, this time going a bit farther and wedging the tweezers into the area where the flint and wood met, and pulled carefully causing a quiet squelching sound. I didn't know if I should be thankful or not at the fact that the wound expanded from all the movements I did with my arm today as the triangle shapped tip didn't catch on too much when I brought it out.

I quietly placed the blooded arrow head into the sink, and grabbed the gauze and quickly started wrapping my shoulder area as I noticed the blood coming back. I made sure to keep each wrap firm but not tight, this of course caused me to start cussing more than a sailor into my shirt.

Once I finished wrapping, I made a knot, let the shirt fall into my lap, and observed my amateur work.

Yeah I'm definitely going to have to go to the clinc tomorrow to fix this mess.

It's not my proudest work as I had to work with one arm and my teeth were already busy. And I couldn't use [Absolute Concetration] due to the fact that I already used it today.

Who am I kidding, I'm just really bad at this medical stuff...

I looked down at the condition of the shirt and decided to sleep topless tonight. I was thinking about chucking it out seeing the condition of the shirt, but decided not to as this had been one of my nicer shirts.

I think I'll also have to buy some new clothes tomorrow.

I sighed knowing that I used most of my money on the custom set of armor and the bastard sword, and then perked up when I remembered that I haven't turned in my mission yet. I guess tomorrow is the most normal day I'm going to get, if we ignore Eclipse that is.

I stood up from the toilet and left the washroom quietly as possible, opening and closing the door with a wince, before I creeped towards the bed. I stopped watching the still figure of Eclipse it really did look otherworldy with the help of the moonlight that entered through the window, shining down on it. But that didn't stop the fact that it was adorable. I supressed the urge to pat it as I crawled into bed and covered myself with the blanket as I felt Eclipse wouldn't like the feeling due to how it reacted to being covered by my cloak.

Due to my tiredness, I fell asleep the second my head hit the cheap pillow.

I dreamed of an abyss and a white void.