This starts out confusing as hell. Please bear with me for a few chapters.
And for those who want to ask: Yes, I will be getting back to the mafia au right after my creative streak for this one dies.
This fic will likely get slow updates till I finish the other one, but I'm promising nothing.
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Wriothesley's POV
Pain.
For a moment, all I could feel was pain.
Though I suppose I deserved that. Getting a knife jabbed into my chest and all.
Honestly, it was great that I was feeling pain at all. With where I had been stabbed I half expected to die, increased healing ability or not.
As Neuvillette always says: 'You have a longer life than most but you are not invulnerable.'
I'm probably gonna get an earful because of this later. With how many times he told me not to be stupid and reckless, it is safe to say that I will get banished to the couch for at least a week if not more.
But since my leg was able to hurt like hell at least I was alive, no?
At least I won't have to find out whether or not Neuvillette would really drag me back to life only to beat me to death himself like he promised the last time I got severely injured-
Huh?
Wait...
I am pretty sure I got stabbed in the chest. Why the hell was my leg hurting instead?
My eyes snapped open and I sat up.
Sat up without much difficulty.
Difficulty I would have expected after a wound like that.
I found myself in my bedroom in Meropide.
Huh...
Was Neuvillette so pissed off he couldn't even be bothered to bring me home?
But still...
He would have been here.
Somewhere close.
And yet I couldn't feel him anywhere near.
Even if it wasn't him...
"Lucine!" I called out.
Only to be met with silence.
"Neuvillette!"
Predictably, silence once more.
Oh, come on.
Obviously, if I was well enough to sit up so easily I hadn't gotten injured that badly.
Did those two seriously abandon me here?
To think that disagreeable pair would come to an agreement about this.
Well, since they are not here I'll just have to go to the surface myself and look for them. Not many places they can be, really.
Not Neuvillette at least. Either at home, the Palais, or the Opera Epiclese. As for Lucine... Yeah, that will be a bit more difficult so let's just start with Neuvillette.
At most, I could get shouted at. Nothing a kiss or two can't fix at least temporarily.
And so I turned to get off my bed.
Or at least, I tried to.
Piercing pain shot up my leg.
F*ck!
What the hell?
The last time my leg was this painful was when I tore my ACL a few years back.
How the heck did I manage to injure my leg while unconscious?
Did Neuvillette throw me around before getting me to bed or something?
Might as well bite me again at this point-
Huh?
I froze as I felt the smooth skin at the crook of my neck.
It had become a habit of mine to brush over the mark, to play with the elemental resonance there and bother Neuvillette every once in a while so he would come storming down here between trials demanding for my actions to cease that instant and for me to stop distracting him while he works.
He never really meant it and the encounter always ended in my favor but-
It wasn't there.
The mark I had grown so used to was missing.
Bearing with the pain I jumped out of bed and stumbled over to the bathroom to look in the mirror.
No...
No, no, no, no, no!
Why...
Why was it gone?!
I could still feel it. The bond.
I could still feel him.
He wasn't in Meropide, but I could still feel his presence. His existence.
But-
Where was the mark?
Putting aside the elemental marking I still often couldn't see, even the clear row of teeth marks was gone without a trace.
I couldn't even say it healed.
It couldn't heal. It was a scar that would always remain. A scar I wear with pride.
Or...
Wore, at least.
Now it was gone.
Why?
At least the bond was fine. That was the only thing keeping my heart from exploding from anxiety.
Still, I have to go-
"What do you think you're doing?!" A loud shout cut through the silence.
I turned to see Sigewinne glaring at me from outside the bathroom.
"Sigewinne-"
"I remember ordering you to bedrest."
"Sigewinne-"
"To bed. Now!"
Seeing as how I wasn't gonna get through to her, I pushed down my worry and made my way back to bed.
Feeling considerably less pain in my leg now, but I guess that's a given with my unreasonably fast healing speed.
Looking at it another way, Sigewinne can surely provide me with at least some answers.
Her glare followed me till I sat down on the edge of the bed only for her to poke at my knee as soon as I did so.
"Ouch! Ouch! Sigewinne!"
That hurt like hell!
"Hmph! Who told you to be up and about with a torn ACL?! When I tell you to stay in bed, you stay in bed, mister." She huffed.
Torn ACL?
Seriously?
"Again?"
You would think that with my current strength if I were to get injured it would be something... less embarrassing.
"What do you mean again?!" Sigewinne demanded.
"I tore it a few years back in the Pankration ring fighting what's-his-name. He managed to kick my knee- Ouch! Ouch! Sigewinne! What now?!"
For my honest answer, I simply received another poke at my knee!
Unfair!
"You've already done something stupid like this once and yet you do it again?!"
Again?
"What again? You seriously can't go blaming this one on me. I was unconscious for Furina's sake. I take full responsibility for the stab but not the-"
"Stab? What stab? Don't tell me you stupidly got yourself stabbed again."
Now her glare was so fierce that I couldn't help but shiver.
Still nothing compared to Neuvillette's though.
"Yes, yes. I know, I know. I got stabbed. I'm stupid, reckless etc etc. Now can I just go find Neuvillette and get my unavoidable glaring session over with?"
Suddenly, Sigewinne's glare was replaced by a confused look.
"The Chief Justice? Why would he glare at you for getting injured? While you explain that, why don't you show me where exactly you got stabbed?"
Chief Justice?
Ouch.
"Did you argue with Neuvillette?"
"I have done nothing of sorts. I haven't even seen him in weeks. Now show me your wound." She grumbled.
Haven't seen him in weeks?
Yeah, sure. And I stopped liking tea.
You slept over at our place two days ago you stubborn brat.
Now I'm seriously curious to know what could have possibly gotten Sigewinne not only to go back to addressing him as Chief Justice instead of Dad but also to pretend like she hasn't seen him.
"How long have I been out anyway?"
In other words, how much of a scolding can I expect?
"Only a few hours. My tranq dart doesn't last too long to avoid health risks."
Hmm?
"Your what?"
"A projectile from my tranquilizer gun. Do you not remember that I had to go and knock you out 'cause you were stubbornly refusing to get off your leg again? Work or not, till your knee is fully healed you cannot be up and about for long." She huffed.
I have not been that stupid in years, okay?
I fear my husband more than the hint of shame that taking a step back would bring me.
Though it does help that the inmates have started to fear Neuvillette just as much.
I guess throwing the prison warden over his shoulder like it was nothing does have its effects. Especially if this happens right after he punches a hole through a solid steel wall without even flinching.
While thinking about that embarrassing moment I absentmindedly unbuttoned my shirt to finally show Sigewinne the wound she had demanded to see.
Did Neuvillette not call her just in case?
Did something happen so that she couldn't come?
Surely even if that was the case she would have known about the wound.
All of Meropide is probably talking about how their idiot of a Duke jumped in front of a knife to protect someone who clearly didn't need his protection.
Ugh...
Looking back at it, that was seriously idiotic.
Lucine is more than capable of defending herself.
I really should start thinking more before acting if I don't want to be handed divorce papers or something eventually.
Another harsh poke at my knee snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Sigewinne! Can you please stop doing that?"
While it did hurt less and less each time she did it because the injury was healing as we speak, it still hurt.
A lot.
"I will stop doing it when you quit making me worried for nothing! Stab, what stab?! I'll stab you myself next time you worry me so much!" She shouted.
Not giving me a second to speak, she grabbed her things and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
???
That was totally uncalled for!
I looked down to button my shirt up again and-
Huh?
Sigewinne was right.
There was no wound.
Not a single trace of it.
...
I know from experience that I don't heal that fast.
There should at least be some remnant of a wound with the size of that knife.
But there was nothing.
After I noticed this, I started taking note of other things as well.
This room... Our room...
It looked more like my room.
My room before I started dating Neuvillette.
My room that became our room, filled with my little dragon's traces all around.
Now that I think about it...
I got up once more, going back to the bathroom.
Sure enough, this place too was void of all of Neuvillette's traces.
Then what about...
Out of the bathroom, out of my bedroom, I went for the room two doors down.
A storage room.
Only, it was not supposed to be a storage room.
Sure, her room had always been messy with all kinds of junk piling up, but this...
I went around the house, over and over again, but all that I found were empty spaces.
A home missing all that made it home.
All the pictures, all the little trinkets...
Why...
Why was everything gone?
Why-
What?
Suddenly my eyes stopped on an object.
Something I usually don't even glance at.
A calendar.
A calendar showing a date from 5 years ago.
Before Lucine arrived.
Before Neuvillette got his authority back.
Before the flood.
Before we got together.
It was a few days after the trial that sent that annoying harbinger down here.
And that wasn't all.
There was a small, slightly glowing note stuck to the calendar.
As I went closer, I was able to read what it said.
While I do not care much for this world, the Hydro Dragon's rampage driving it to the brink of destruction disrupts my nap. So, I somehow managed to make a deal with that crazy dragon of yours. I can probably only do this once so this time, don't die. I just want to sleep in peace so behave yourself.
-Istaroth
P. S.
Tell your idiot mate that if he disturbs my nap again I will find the day in his life with the most paperwork and throw him into a damn time loop.