Novel Catchup
Chapter 237 : She Has Her Ways
Henry fell backward and sat on the ground heaving deep breath after deep breath. He felt exhausted but he knew what should come next.
"Thank you." He whispered fervently with genuine gratitude to the Goddess that even made it possible that he wasn't a corpse right now.
As though the 'Blessing of the Moon' had supplied him with the stamina he required to make all his moves, now that it had ended, all his fatigue came at him all at once.
He took out a Healing Potion and downed it.
[You have recovered 200 Hit Points]
[Hit Points: 211/300]
His stamina recovered enough for him to pull himself toward Gareth's body and grab the Command Cuff off his wrist.
Boyle had stood in place with his eyes open in awe at the last sequence that ended in Gareth's death. He looked like he wasn't sure how to react. One thing he did know was that his group just lost one of their most important Fighters and that was not counting all the other Mercenaries who lay dead on the ground.
Seeing Henry take Gareth's command Cuff jolted him to react though.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
Henry ignored him, gripped the Cuff tight, and said in a low voice,
"Release."
With multiple clicks, the cuffs on the wrist of every Slave knocked out or standing snapped open and fell to the ground.
Andor had his spear stabbed into the ground and leaned against it like a staff for support as he watched a kind of clarity take over the eyes of the Slaves as they came to terms with their freedom.
The ones still wielding weapons and in the motion to strike at Eloise stopped short and dropped their weapons to the ground in dull thuds/clatters. Some looked over at Henry, who still had the Command Cuff in his hand, with Gratitude.
"Why did you do that?" Boyle asked Henry.
Henry looked up at him not sure what to make of the Knight's tone. Boyle sounded resigned. Reasonable person as he was, he understood that the moment Gareth and Henry became locked in battle with the desire to kill each other, it was not in his place to question the winner.
But even then, he was angry at the loss of a member of his group which put them at a disadvantage for the rest of the expedition.
"What do you mean?" Henry asked, genuinely confused about the question.
"You freed them," Boyle said.
"Yes, I did," Henry said with a nod.
"Why?"
"Why not?" Henry asked.
Boyle raised a brow as he realized Henry was not understanding his point yet.
"It will be difficult to get them into new Cuffs," he said and gestured at the Command Cuff still in Henry's hold,
"You could have just put that on and herded them away."
"Oh," Henry said and suddenly he understood. Boyle thought this was a battle for possession of the Slaves. It was likely because of the made-up story Henry had told Gareth.
"I'm not a Slaver," Henry said with a sigh as he stood to his feet.
"You're not?"
Henry shook his head to confirm 'No'.
"So you really just let them go," Boyle said looking skeptical.
"Yes," Henry nodded, "It's why I'm here."
Boyle watched him intently like he was looking for some hint of falsehood and then he nodded like he didn't know what to make of this. He turned away from Henry then and called out,
"Eloise. To me!"
Eloise frowned slightly and sheathed her sword as she walked slowly toward her Captain for what was undoubtedly a query about her recent conduct.
Henry was going to pay attention to that when he noticed his shadow was getting darker.
"-Can I come out now?-" Nyx asked.
"-Of course,-" Henry answered and the horse rose out of the shadow, her dark coat gleaming as always.
Henry had told Nyx to remain in his shadow because he didn't want to tip off Gareth in case the Mercenary was on the lookout for a black horse with shadow manipulation abilities. For all he knew, Kayla had filled him in. After all, the Water Mage had gotten a good enough view of Nyx last night.
"-You almost died.-" Nyx said.
"-I did.-" Henry said with a sigh, "-I did not like it.-"
"-I should have been out here.-" Nyx said and lowered her head as she scratched at the ground.
"-Hmm…-" Henry said as he reached out and stroked her neck to console her,
"-It's not your fault. I didn't call for you. I was— arrogant.-"
Once Gareth knew who he was, Henry had no excuse to not call on Nyx but he thought he could do it on his own. He felt he shouldn't always need his horse to win a fight and he nearly died for it. It was his fault.
"-That's right-" Nyx said and raised her head to let out a snort, "-Youwere arrogant.-"
Henry let out a chuckle then. And then he heard a voice from behind.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"So… you did it."
He turned around he was facing the female Cleric from before. She was smiling lightly. The guard of Knights had broken apart now that the danger was over so she could walk over.
"She said you would," Meryna the Cleric continued.
"Who's 'She'?" Henry asked.
Meryna chuckled but didn't answer. Either she didn't want to say or she thought Henry's confusion was a joke.
Hearing her laugh, Henry did note that 'She' was likely the Lady from the Temple of Selene from back at the Citadel courtyard.
"You should follow me back to the temple to say your thanks to the Goddess," Meryna said when her laugh was over.
Henry smiled lightly,
"I told her my thanks already," he said.
Meryna stopped smiling,
"And you think that's enough?" She asked and moved closer to tell Henry in a whisper that sounded very threatening despite her thin lady-like voice,
"You've been blessed by the Goddess. Trust me, you don't want to be cursed by her."
Henry furrowed his brows and he did feel worry. He resisted the urge to gulp and managed a smile still,
"Well, then, I suppose you'll lead the way to the Temple once we're out of here."
Meryna returned the smile,
"Good. Let's try to survive till then."
She turned around and walked away. Henry watched her walk, her gown swishing with every step and her threat (there really was no better word for it) continued to repeat in his head.
He distracted himself by calling up his Status screen;
—————
[Name: Henry Morgan]
[Level: 30 (20% Exp)]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Gunslinger]
[Title: Death's Bane, Vyker-Killer, Infernal Partner, Dungeon Raider <Novice>, Hunter]
[Hit Points: 211/300]
[Mana Points: 35/400]
[Strength: 31]
[Agility: 87]
[Stamina: 41]
[Perception: 50]
[Skills:
{Marksmanship Lv. 5 <Active Sub Skill: Quick Thinking> <Active Sub Skill: Reload> <Active Sub Skill: Guiding Shot>}
{Taming Lv. 2 <Active Sub Skill: Bonding>}
{Insight Lv.3}
{Raider's Intent}
{Hunter's Instinct}
[~Arcane Tapestry~:
Imprinted Spells: -Shocking Grip-. -Extra Arms-. -Witch's Hold-.]
—————
The Exp count was where Henry's attention especially fell. It turned out the notification from the System about a restructuring Upgrade was about the System stopping being transparent about just how much Exp Henry gained and how much was left for the next Level.
"Not sure how to feel about this," Henry thought but eventually decided he didn't quite care. He was far more interested in at least filling out the rest of the 80%.
"Henry."
The voice pulled Henry out of his thoughts and his studying of his Status screen before he could observe what other things the Restructuring Upgrade meant —if there was even anything more—, he looked up at Boyle's suspicious face.
"Whose horse is that?" Gareth asked and, as though he felt some sort of threatening energy, he reached for his sword now sheathed by his waist.
"Mine," Henry hurried to say and reached to the side to pat Nyx's coat as she sniffed at the Knight. Her eyes were on his hand still on his sword handle.
"How did it get in here?" Boyle asked, still suspicious.
"Nyx has her ways," Henry said with a small smile and he would have told Nyx to demonstrate what he meant had Eloise not stepped forward.
"It's fine, Sir Boyle," She said in a serious voice, "It's his horse and not a threat."
Boyle looked over at Eloise and back at Nyx who was glaring at him and then he let out a sigh, visibly relaxed, and took his hand off his sword.
Nyx stopped glaring at him too.
"So about the things that happened here…" Boyle started.
"I apologize," Henry interjected quickly,
"I wasn't planning on engaging Gareth right this moment. But he accused me and charged at me so I thought, why not?"
"And his accusations?" Boyle asked in a gruff voice, "Were they true?"
Henry waved him off in an attempt at nonchalance,
"Maybe. Maybe not. But who knows?" He asked and then became more serious,
"What matters is I couldn't just stand by and let him kill me, now could I? He certainly tried to."
"I suspect the accusations were true. As you yourself have admitted, you're not a Slaver so why would you have lied to him about who you were if you weren't trying to hide something."
Henry frowned but said nothing.
Boyle sighed and grabbed the bridge of his nose,
"It's not really my business. Not until the Gribbo Estate makes it so. For now, I'm just a third party with no skin in this fight.
Besides, we've lost so many already, it would be foolish to lose more.
Eloise may not have known what you would do but to interfere and slay Mercenaries herself… Well, that makes things complicated. But we'll deal with that after.
We have a job to do and by gods, we will do it."
Boyle ended his words with a glare at Henry, then at Eloise and then back.
Henry nodded,
"Of course."
Boyle gave him a long look and walked away while Henry and Eloise waited until he was far enough before discussing what would be sensitive information.