Chapter 54: 53. Interlude
When Fisher struggled to open his eyes, the first thing he saw was the familiar ceiling of his compartment. He stared blankly at the ceiling for a long while before turning to look beside him, only to find the space empty, with no one else in the bed.
He sat up, only to find his whole body was in intense pain. Looking down, he discovered he was wrapped in bandages everywhere, but the person who had wrapped him up was probably a fool, as the bindings were thin and loose, much like being wrapped as a mummy. Nevertheless, it had at least stopped some of his bleeding, preventing him from bleeding to death.
Moreover, his enhanced physique allowed for rapid recovery; after just one night, most of his wounds had scabbed over.
It had the flavor of the Dragon Race’s incredible healing ability.
“Fisher, you’re awake!”
As Fisher inspected himself, the door to his room was pushed open. Raphael stood in the doorway, looking at him with joy. Just as he was about to speak, a loud voice came from behind Raphael.
“What?! Fisher is awake? Let me see!”
“Ral!”
The petite Ral crawled out from under Raphael, running to Fisher’s bedside despite Raphael’s frustrated gaze.
“Fisher, you’re awake! Yesterday, Lord Raphael said your bed was too small and worried it would press against your wounds, but I think it’s not small at all; I can lie down if I tuck my tail in.”
Raphael’s face turned red. She had intended to rest together with Fisher last night, but she didn’t know his room had a single bed. Though it could accommodate them, given Fisher’s injuries, she decided against it, not expecting Ral to spill everything out.
“Ral! I told you to wash in the river outside, and you refused, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t! Lord Raphael! I don’t want to wash right now; Keshil and Fashir will definitely splash water on me! I promise!”
Watching the noisy Ral, Fisher smiled, but after a night of fighting, now having slept until noon, he suddenly felt very hungry. Remembering that he had some bread he bought in Feilon City placed next to his bedside table, he reached out to grab it, only to find nothing there.
Huh? Where’s my bread?
Before Fisher could voice his thoughts, Ral, captured by Raphael, suddenly buried her face in Raphael’s arms, not moving, as muffled sounds came from her.
“Oh, I really want to take a bath. How about we go right now?”
“….”
Without hesitation, Ral covered her ears and ran out the door, disappearing from the compartment.
Thus, Fisher’s room was left with only Raphael and himself. Raphael glanced at the bare-chested Fisher and said as if recalling something,
“Your clothes are all ruined. I took them off and put them over there, but I guess they won’t fit anymore; your things are all here.”
By the bed were his wallet and a pack of Nali cigarettes and matches, but his two handbooks were not among them. Fisher nodded and rubbed his sore body before telling Raphael,
“Please go out first; I’ll get dressed and come out.”
“Okay.”
Once Raphael closed the door, Fisher, rubbing his sore body, got up from the bed and looked at his suit jacket, which was full of holes hanging on the coat rack. He reached into the pocket of his underwear and found the two supplement handbooks.
Oddly enough, even though he had placed them together yesterday, now they were one on the left and one on the right. He hadn’t moved them, and others couldn’t see them; could these things move by themselves?
Fisher took out the two handbooks and changed into a suit in the adjacent changing room. This was the last of his custom suits; he hadn’t expected that money would burn through faster in the Southern Continent than clothing would, as they were either soiled or torn from the fighting. If he had known it would be this troublesome, he wouldn’t have worn a suit at all.
After pondering for a while, Fisher hung the suit jacket up and decided to wear a white shirt underneath.
Feeling quite hungry, when Fisher exited the compartment, he realized they were currently stopped by a small creek at the edge of a forest. Keshil and Fashir had already washed up and were drying their hair with towels from the changing room, while Mill was nearby making a fire with leaves and roasting meat.
“Lord Fisher, you’re awake! Come and have some breakfast.”
“Thank you. Where are we now?”
“Ah, Lord Raphael has been heading north; she should not have deviated from the route.”
Mill handed Fisher a piece of meat of unknown species, then continued,
“No one is chasing us from behind, but we heard cannon fire from humans in the distance last night, so Lord Raphael did not proceed.”
“I see.”
Fisher looked toward the distant forest. According to Feilon, there should be people from the Shivali City Lord Alliance here because they were about to clash with the tribe that existed in the area due to the mines.
Fisher decided to rest here for a day, waiting for his injuries to improve before moving on to avoid any accidents.
“Fisher, come look! Ral has learned to swim!”
A loud shout from Ral drifted over the shallow creek, and Mill’s face turned red. She stood up and scolded Ral,
“Ral! You’re not wearing clothes! I told you not to come over!”
“But I want Fisher to help me clean my scales.”
Clean the scales?
Such a thing should only be done by a suitable tail partner!!
Mill’s face turned crimson, speechless, while Ral by the creek called out to promptly swim back and wash in that direction.
Fisher didn’t look over but continued chewing on the meat.
“Sorry, Lord Fisher. Ral is just too mischievous.”
“It’s fine.”
Unexpectedly, after finishing breakfast, the previously lively and playful Ral became listless, wrapped in a towel and shivering, unable to even open her eyes. They had almost reached dawn when they stopped yesterday, so they hadn’t slept much. Mill and Raphael were fine; the youngest, Ral, truly couldn’t hold out anymore.
After Mill helped her dry her hair, she planned to take a nap with them, while Fisher went outside the compartment to get some fresh air.
The daytime forest was surprisingly quiet. It seemed the battlefield between humans and goblins was a distance away, so this place remained tranquil.
Taking advantage of this rest time, details of everything that had happened earlier flooded Fisher’s mind, such as the Soul Supplement Handbook that Feilon had given him and the terrifying creature that had taken their souls at the end.
When Feilon handed him the Soul Supplement Handbook, she mentioned he needed to handle the technique himself. Did this technique refer to his ability to extract and utilize souls?
It seemed he must study this Soul Supplement Handbook.
When Fisher reached into his pocket to pull out the Soul Supplement Handbook, he only found the Supplement Handbook for Sub-Humans in the area where he had placed it on the left.
“Huh?”
He then reached to the right and finally found the Soul Handbook crammed into the corner of the right pocket.
Just as he was perplexed, a bit of footsteps sounded beside him. He turned around to see Raphael standing beside him, having seemingly also wanted to clean herself. She was wrapped in a simple towel, her eyes darting around, her face flushed.
Fortunately, her tail remained still; otherwise, that simple towel wouldn’t be able to contain her beautiful body.
“I-I want to take a bath too.”
“….” Fisher looked at the whiteness she unintentionally revealed, like a tempting apple and cream, his gaze darkening for a moment before he still stood up to leave. With his body full of injuries, it wouldn’t be good to add more.
“Alright, I’ll just head back then.”
However, as he walked past her, she caught hold of his sleeve. Turning to look, he only saw her profile.
“Wait a moment, help me, help me clean my scales. I can’t reach my tail and back.”
“….Okay.”
“….”
The creek was not deep; even if Raphael knelt in it, the water only reached below her chest. She hadn’t fully untied the towel, only exposing the scales on her back and tail.
“What should I do?”
Her smooth, tightly arranged scales were perfectly shaped, delicately lying along her white back. The tail arched over the creek’s surface, occasionally swaying playfully, causing Fisher’s gaze to see the towel drifting underwater.
“Use water… help me wipe them clean…”
Fisher scooped up some water with his hands and gradually wet and cleaned her scales. The scales of the Dragon Race were warm, feeling like a small heater in his hand. Wherever his large hands passed, the scales would quiver slightly but never stand upright.
From the cool spring water rose steam like a hot spring, enveloping them. In this moment, Raphael blushed and turned her head to find Fisher focused on cleaning her scales.
“Fisher.”
“What?”
He replied with an expressionless face, his hands wiping her occasionally fidgeting tail. Now that tail was obedient, occasionally trembling comfortably without splashing water.
Raphael said nothing but reached out to grab the collar of his shirt, pulling him closer, and then kissed him on the lips, melting Fisher’s expression a bit.
The kiss lasted a brief moment before Raphael gasped and released him, turning to hug her towel tightly, preventing Fisher from seeing her expression.
“A thank you… for helping me clean my scales.”
“….”
“In the future, you can only help me clean my scales.”
The last sentence was said quietly, but the forest was quiet, so Fisher heard it clearly. He didn’t know if it was Ral’s earlier assertion about him helping her that reminded Raphael of this, prompting her to speak up at this moment.
“Okay.”
Hearing Fisher’s affirmative reply, her somewhat damp tail slowly coiled around his pant leg, unwilling to let go for now.
The mist was thick, and the creek babbled softly.
This week just happened to be featured on recommendations, so I’m preparing to open a reward for additional updates.
Currently, the plan is for two updates daily, around 6,000 words, with an additional update for every 5,000 in rewards, limited to one additional update per day. Any excess will be saved for when it goes on the shelves, and additional chapters will specify whose rewards they are to avoid confusion.
Lastly, I still seek support in terms of readership and votes, as this is very important for this book. Thank you so much for your support!
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(The End of This Chapter)
