Chapter 368 Unwillingness to Save a Life <TOC> Chapter 370 Advancement
Translator: SumTLMan
Angel felt as if he had been in a long dream, but he could not remember any specifics, only the memory of someone giggling incessantly near his ear. Moreover, he had the feeling that someone was touching his face.
He woke up because of the loud giggling and a restless hand trying to pry open his eyelids, forcibly rousing him from his dream.
As Angel opened his eyes, he found himself directly facing a pair of eyes staring at him.
Those eyes were filled with fascination and admiration. Angel was momentarily puzzled when he awoke, but he soon realized that the restless hands left his eyelids and began playing with his hair, stroking it strand by strand.
“Such beautiful golden hair, like the finest satin, so smooth and silky,” the person continued to touch Angel’s hair while muttering praises.
“Take your hands off my hair,” Angel spoke, realizing his voice was hoarse and low.
“Look at these beautiful eyes. Pure and unblemished, like the sky after the rain or the sunlit, rippling azure sea.”
Angel reached out and pushed the person sitting beside his bed away.
The person by the bed was pushed away, but when Angel exerted force, he felt tearing pain in his chest.
In the midst of the pain, Angel’s gaze transformed from confused to lucid. It seemed he remembered something, and he suddenly raised his head: “Shadow, what have you done?”
The “person beside the bed” was Shadow, who was still speaking in an admiring tone, praising what he saw: “Such perfect golden hair and blue eyes, if only they were my spoils of war… No, if it were you, they should be the finest pieces of art, and I would keep you in my treasure chest, cherishing you,”
Bearing the tearing sensation in his chest, Angel sat up on the bed. He looked around and found that it was a simply furnished bedroom, with only a bed and a cabinet, and a bow and arrow hung on the opposite wall.
The layout here was somewhat familiar.
Angel recalled that when he and Totoro had left the depths of the primeval forest, they had once “purchased” clothes at a ranger’s cabin. At that time, Angel had inspected the bedroom in the ranger’s cabin, and the decorations were just like this.
Was this a ranger’s cabin?
Following his gradually clearer memory, Angel thought back to what happened before he fell unconscious… A door opened in his chest, three small shadows crawled out of the door, and then he fell into a coma?
Angel raised his head and looked at Shadow, who was still uttering strange remarks: “You knew the door would open at that time, right?”
Shadow was originally still talking about “spoils of war,” “items,” and “treasures,” but when he heard Angel’s question, he paused. Putting away his exaggerated expression, he curled his lips into a faint smile: “So what if I knew? I warned you to leave.”
“I voluntarily sat in that spot, and you repeatedly warned me to leave. It seemed unintentional, but in fact, it was your deliberate guidance, wasn’t it?”
“Well, that’s not necessarily true. If I were deliberately trying to harm you, the contract wouldn’t let me get away with it,” Shadow replied.
“That’s true. I remember when the door opened, you seemed to be smiling. It seems you really did bypass the contract, but why did you save me then?” Angel recalled that before he passed out, he had seen Shadow’s smirk, and at that time, he had somewhat understood that all these seemingly unintentional actions were actually orchestrated by Shadow. However, he did it very successfully; he didn’t lead Angel, and all the choices were made by Angel himself, so the contract did not punish Shadow.
Nevertheless, his chest was torn open, and he was undoubtedly going to die. Why did Shadow still save him?
“Because your golden hair and blue eyes are beautiful, and if I didn’t save you, perhaps even my mentor would scold me?” Shadow’s expression seemed sincere.
Angel didn’t believe this nonsense. He silently pondered the contract and then whispered, “Was it the ‘failure to save a life’ clause that forced you to save me?”
Shadow hesitated for a moment: “You’re very smart.”
Angel shook his head, laughing at himself: “If I were really smart, I wouldn’t have been played by you.”
After saying this, Angel tried to get up, bracing his injured chest.
“Although I used a healing spell to fix your external wounds, your ribs are not completely stable yet. You’d better not move around, or if your bones break again, I’ll have to perform another surgery,” Shadow stopped Angel’s movement.
Upon hearing this, Angel stopped moving: “How long do I need to recover?”
“Probably a year or two,” Shadow said casually.
“That’s not funny.” Angel gently covered his chest, where there were no scars, but pressing lightly still caused pain. According to his understanding of orthopedics, it would take at least three months to heal.
“Alright, if you want to take it slow, about two months should do. If you keep using the healing spell on yourself, maybe about a week.”
Healing spell? Angel calculated the time he had left to study, and he was already in the final stage. If he continued his research, he would succeed in about two or three days. Based on this, he would have to stay in Watthelmgrass for at least ten more days.
He didn’t want to stay here during these ten days. Living with someone who was constantly plotting to harm him was a suicidal act. However, he also didn’t want Shadow to take him back, as he didn’t know if Shadow would cause any more trouble on the way.
Angel decided to stay here, learn the healing spell, and then leave on his own.
“How long was I unconscious? Where’s Toby?”
“Less than two days,” Shadow paused, “What’s a Toby? Your dead bird?”
Under Angel’s icy glare, Shadow pointed to the pillow, “There it is. The day you passed out, it attacked me like crazy, as if it didn’t care about its own life. It even broke my hand. Under such difficult circumstances, I still painstakingly saved you. Don’t you think you owe me some compensation?”
Angel turned his head to look at the pillow, and Toby was lying there, motionless and unconscious.
“I didn’t do anything to it; it fainted on its own. I checked, and there are no external or internal injuries. However, it’s strange that it’s been two days, and while you’re awake, this bird hasn’t woken up yet.” Shadow quickly cleared up any misunderstandings when he saw Angel looking over.
Angel reached out and covered Toby’s body with his hand. The warm touch and strong heartbeat indicated that Toby’s body was very healthy.
“Didn’t I tell you? Let’s discuss the compensation you owe me.”
“Compensation? Ha, what compensation do you want?”
Shadow didn’t seem to understand Angel’s sarcasm, and approached with a grin, ambiguously saying, “Forget about material things; why not give yourself to me?”
“What I mean is, give me your shadow. I’d love to keep you as a treasure, and since you’re not a mere mortal, losing your shadow wouldn’t cause you any problems.”
“Do you think that’s possible?” Angel paused, “You sent the Kulakuka to steal other people’s shadows just for collecting purposes?”
Seeing that collecting was out of the question, Shadow said dispiritedly, “Yeah, these are my great collections. I want to hold an exhibition of blonde, blue-eyed shadows in Sky Mechanical City in the future!”
“Shadows are pitch-black; you can’t see if they’re blonde or blue-eyed.”
“Just make them into puppets,” said Shadow, and a Kulakuka with a “hee-hee” laugh jumped in through the window and landed on Shadow’s palm.
A gray cloth bag was handed to Shadow by the Kulakuka.
The cloth bag was still wriggling.
“Another shadow?”
“That’s right,” Shadow casually replied.
“Not interfering in mortal lives is the first lesson I learned when I entered the Wizarding World,” Angel said as he looked at the wriggling cloth bag.
“Are you pleading for them?”
“I’m just reminding you to restrain yourself.”
“Don’t worry about my affairs. If you really want to manage, give me your shadow, and I’ll return everyone’s shadow. How about that?”
Angel made a “sending off” gesture. He had sympathy and empathy for mortals, but he wasn’t so noble as to exchange his own freedom for others’, nor did he accept any moral coercion.
After Shadow left, Angel stroked his chest, feeling his own heartbeat.
He was still alive.
As long as he was alive, that was enough.
Angel had never been so grateful to be alive. When that door was opened from within his body, he thought he was undoubtedly going to die. At that moment, he resented Shadow, but he resented himself even more.
He resented himself for signing the contract, for not killing Shadow beforehand; he resented himself for being too foolish, not understanding Shadow’s seemingly intentional but actually unintentional hints; he resented himself for being too careless, for repeatedly ignoring the preciousness of life.
Fortunately, he didn’t die. He still had a chance to make amends and change his ways.
Never overestimate one’s abilities, and never underestimate the opponent’s limits. Even if under the watchful eye of the World’s Will, small movements still cannot gain prominence, but the undercurrent can still overturn a large ship.
In the following two days, Shadow did not reappear. Angel used his mental tentacles to sense that Shadow had not stayed in the ranger’s cabin but left two puppets behind, one of which was the magician.
Angel did not deal with these puppets but began to silently practice healing magic.
Two days later, he successfully released the healing spell. He used it on his chest, and a pale green light penetrated his skin and soaked into the fractured ribs.
Under the perception of mental power, the cracks in the ribs slowly healed in the green light. Although it was slow, the effect was genuinely visible.
Once he confirmed the effectiveness of the healing spell, Angel began to plan his departure. However, the premise of leaving was that his bone injury could support him walking back to Watthelmgrass.
Angel roughly estimated that as long as he waited one more day, the major cracks in his bones should be mostly healed, and there should be no major issue returning to Watthelmgrass from here, as long as he didn’t bump the wound carelessly.
After a night, Angel, who had been lying in bed for three days, finally got up.
While getting dressed, he found that his inner lining and windbreaker were already tattered. There was a tear at his chest that was beyond repair.
This windbreaker, worth thousands of magic crystals, became obsolete in such a way in less than half a year after he got it.
“It’s a pity to lose a solidified first-level defense trick.” Angel shook his head, put the windbreaker into his bracelet, and decided to study it later when he had time to see if it could be salvaged. Although the solidified trick was gone, the fabric was still precious.
He picked a more relaxed casual outfit.
Without the windbreaker, wearing the hat alone looked odd. Angel simply put away the hat as well and left the bedroom in this manner.
Chapter 368 Unwillingness to Save a Life <TOC> Chapter 370 Advancement