The Novel's Sidekick

"Will he be alright?" Elinor asked, looking at the figure laid on the bed.

Oscar's face was already quite bad with the stings, and it appeared he could not avoid a fever now. Even though he said he will be alright before resting with his innate healing factor, they were not as convinced. Hunter Bees could kill spirit practitioners if one was unlucky.

Julies changed the wet cotton from his forehead, with a little frown on his forehead. There were actually a dozen stung on his boss's body. He could have run away, but he still used his body as bait to make it safe for them. And in doing so, he used most of his spirit force, which made the situation even worse for him.

"He'll be fine," Julies said. "He's far stronger than he looks. You should worry about yourself, girl. I reckon you got more sting than you can handle as well."

It was dark, and they were in an inn now. Julies had led the horses to the nearest inn. They could have made it into the academy, but they were not sure about making the journey in the dark, especially while the two of them were bitten badly. Well, Julies was bitten too, but he seemed fine.

"The pain is gone after I took the medicine," the white hair girl said. "Though my head is a little feverish, I'll be fine."

Julies nodded when he heard her say it again.

"I just wondered how you are fine," she said, gesturing towards Scar. "After all, he's in such a state, while you are fine."

"It's probably because Boss has not practised his spirit arts since last year," Julies answered uncertainty. "Moreover, his new ability was far more demanding. I heard from him, he couldn't use any other skill properly during that time. Also, I am quite resilient to these poisons."

Elinor nodded, as there was no better explanation, and what Julies said was convincing enough. She looked at the figure sleeping with crooked lips and discomfort. There was no anger in him, and he really did not appear like what she usually assumed. It takes a lot of courage to bait yourself to deal a blow to the enemy, especially when you are in such pain.

'How come the famous son of Emberheart became so humble?' She did not know, but it should be for the best. 'I owe him again.' She could not help but sigh.

"Are you fallin' for my boss?" Julies snickered laughingly. "Sadly for you, boss already has a girl in his life."

"I ain't," Elinor yelled, and felt a little pain in her head. Though she found out the bald fellow was just pulling her legs. "I was just wondering, he's nothing like the rumour."

"Of course," Julies said. "Even though everyone saw him as an egoist person, boss had the biggest heart, though he's changing a lot these days. I have no problem with most of it, but . . ."

"But?" Elinor asked, seeing the bald guy struggling, clasping his palms into fists.

"I just don't know from where he got the idea of becoming a boring guy." Julies sighed and looked at the feverish face of the redhead. "He's really serious about giving up on delinquency."

"You really are not joking." Elinor did not know what to say. "What's good about being a delinquent? And why do you even want to be a delinquent?"

"Why wouldn't I want to be?" the bald fellow said. "I really like when people see me with fear and stand apart from my path. With such esteem, you can avoid a lot of problems."

Elinor shook her head again. Her cat was already fast asleep, finding a warm spot near the heater.

"Right, you have not given it a name yet," Julies said and changed the wet cloth from Oscar's forehead again.

"You still want me to pet it after all we have been through?"

"Why not? You ain't gonna push away from your responsibility now. That cat is your responsibility now. Also, we did find the golden root. As for the other things, don't worry about it. Think of it as a necessity for your first experience." Julies arched his brows, looking at the black cat sleeping through the dark glasses. Nobody but him knew how much he could see in the night. "I will shoot a few names. Pick one you like.

"Let's see. Jon, Rob, Van, Alon, Tom, Peter, Pitt, KIlim, Seth, Rufas, Ruth, . . ." Julies shoot wherever names came into his mind.

"Those aren't really names of cats," Elinor said warily. "How about Luck then? You said it's lucky for me?"

"Sounds good, it's called Luck from now on," Julies nodded his head in agreement. "It's getting late. You should sleep now."

He watched the thin girl leave with the cat to the next room and get up in bed. He sat on the other side of the bed, wrapping his lower body in the blanket before removing the glasses from his eyes. With misty eyes, he looked at his boss and changed the wet cloth on the forehead again.

. . .

I felt a warm palm on my forehead and a little headache in my head. That's right, I got stung by the hunter bees and had a high fever. With a little effort, I tried to open my heavy eyelids. In the little opening of my eye shutters, I managed to see a maiden with white hair next to me, with her palm on my forehead.

I could not help but bring my palm to her cheek and called, "Yasmine."

The white-haired maiden moved away instantly, and I woke up properly to find it was not Yasmine, but a frail girl of fifteen.

"Sorry," I told Elinor, and sat up. My head was still heavy, but the fever was down a lot.

"I was just checking your fever," Elinor explained timidly or acted timidly. I could not tell.

"Where's Juls?"

Elinor shook her head. "I woke up a few minutes ago and had not seen him."

I thought about doing the morning meditation, and my eyes drifted off towards the clock on the wall. It was well past eight, and I recalled that I had a class at ten o'clock. The horse would take an hour at the slightest, and a little more time in the mission hall if it was empty. It's very much that I would miss the class or would be late for the arrival.

"Looks like I have to get my notes from someone else," I said out loud, though there was no one I knew properly in the magic department and I hate bothering Rosalyn, my aunt.

"We can still make it if he came back in time, though," Elinor said. "Though we have to skip breakfast and other things."

Just then, the door of their room shot open and out came a short bald youth with big baggage on his back, and a broad smile on his lips. A sweet smell was coming off him the moment he entered.

"Good to see you two are awake," Julies said with a bright smile. "I went back to bring back the components we lost. Fortunately, nothing was lost. And that's not all I found."

Saying that, the bald youth brought out a big container as a sweet and drunk smell surrounded the room.

"This is the honey from the hunter beehive?" I asked, sucking in a cold breath. This honey was more expensive than anything they had found yesterday and there was the danger of the hunter bee, even though I had killed a lot of them yesterday.

"You really have the courage to go there again," I said and checked him head to toe. Julies appeared to be fine. I could see no stung marks on his body.

The price of the honey of the hunter bee was expensive, not just because it's super useful in making medicine and a lot of other things, there was also a good chance that one would die from the bites of the bees. Moreover, even a knight or apprentice thinks twice to search for it, fearing the queen bee. So only professionals in this area go to salvage honey from the hunter bees, though the casualties were no less.

"We all got stung by so many bees yesterday," Julies said with a smile. "I just thought it would look bad if we returned empty-handed. Gotta keep our reputation, right, boss?"

_________________________