Chapter 46 – People? (4)

Chapter 46 – People? (4)

Rowan and everyone else in the cave just stared at Cynthia.

“What did you just say?” Henry asked, face full of concern.

“I said that I wanted to be here!”

“So, you chose Apocalypse?”

She nodded. “Yup!”

For a few seconds, no one spoke until Eren asked, “But why?”

Cynthia tilted her head and thought for a few seconds. Then, her face brightened, and she practically shouted, “Because it sounded fun!”

Henry let out a low groan and put his head in his hands. Then, he gritted his teeth and spoke. “Well, that’s one mystery uncovered, ain’t it?”

Eren and Lucas both chuckled halfheartedly, and no one else said a word. Rowan didn’t even need to try to figure out what they were all thinking; it was just too obvious.

Cynthia was just a child, and right now, she could’ve been in Easy Difficulty playing in the flowers or whatever the people in there did.

Before anyone said another thing, Rowan froze as he looked at Henry’s shoulder. The man had been wincing and rubbing it for a while now, but he’d assumed it was just a normal injury.

It had mostly been hidden behind his makeshift leather jacket, but it had lined up so that he could perfectly see the wound beneath. And now that he looked more closely, he could see that the flesh was turning gray.

“Henry,” Rowan snapped, immediately bringing the man’s attention towards him. “Is that wound from a bloodspawn?”

Henry nodded tentatively, panic growing on his face. “…yes? Why? Is something going to happen? Is it like a zombie bite? Am I going to turn into one?”

“No, nothing like that,” Rowan replied, trying to calm the man down. “But their claws are poisoned.”

“Shi—” Henry cut himself off and glanced towards Cynthia, who was poking at the mold growing on the wall with her finger. “Will I be fine?”

“Hopefully, yes. Why didn’t you tell me about it sooner? The flesh is gray! It wouldn’t be as bad as it is now if we’d known right after you received the wound.”

“I…I can’t see my shoulder very well from here, my beard makes it impossible, you know? I just thought it was a bad wound, not poison! Damn, if this had been a few months ago, I would’ve gotten it checked out immediately. The Tutorial really changes people, huh?”

Ignoring the man’s nervous babbling, Rowan released some compressed mana, taking control of it before it could shoot outward and hurt someone. Then, he formed it into a small blade. “I’m going to have to cut it out before it eats away any more of your flesh.”

The bearded man gulped and nodded, sliding his leather top off of his injured shoulder, revealing bare flesh.

Looking around, Rowan found that everyone was staring at Henry with concern and alarm. Everyone except Cynthia. She was staring at the floating mana construct he was going to use on her adoptive father.

“Wow…how did you do that?” She asked, eyes wide.

He ignored her question, but a moment later, Henry spoke to her. “Why don’t you look away for a bit, Cici?”

“No! I wanna watch!”

He opened his mouth to protest once more, but Rowan cut him off. “Just let her watch. We don’t have time to waste.” As he spoke, an idea came to him, and he turned towards the rest of the group. “Someone find a piece of cloth I can use as a bandage. If you have to rip your clothes to get it, then do.”

Henry watched the others trying to decide what article of clothing to sacrifice before, with a reluctant nod, he presented his shoulder. The man gritted his teeth and looked away, continuing to watch as his group members found him a bandage.

Rowan took a deep breath and prepared to cut out the wound. Henry’s body had a small layer of fat all around, which, thankfully, meant that the necrotic rot hadn’t yet reached his tendons or bone. Then, he began to cut.

Henry began breathing heavily and groaning through gritted teeth the moment he began. Rowan was working as fast as he could to minimize the man’s suffering, but he could only go so fast if he didn’t want to risk cutting too deeply.

Doing his best to tune out the man’s groans of pain, he kept cutting. A few seconds later, the blade passed through, and a chunk of flesh fell to the ground.

He called out, and Eren immediately tossed him a length of fabric. Nodding his thanks, Rowan grabbed it, tied it around Henry’s wound, hoping to stem the bleeding as much as he could.

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The bald man spent a few seconds staring at the piece of his shoulder lying in the ground, getting a good look at the gray, rotting flesh for the first time. He looked distraught, but a moment later, Cynthia walked over and wrapped her arms around him.

Henry’s face lightened, and he hugged his daughter back before turning to Rowan. “Thank you. I would’ve died without you, huh? That’s the second time you’ve saved me today.”

Rowan nodded. “Well, you would’ve survived, but I’m not sure if you’d be able to move your arm or shoulder again. It’s my fault, too, honestly. I should’ve told you what the effects of attacks from the bloodspawn were.”