Fractured God

After falling unconscious when the two women had started their assault he found it strange when he eventually woke up on the floor and his injuries were not any worse than they had been after he had been healed by Elizabeth when he arrived at the mansion.

How was he like this? Simple. After their assault, Elizabeth had quickly healed his body back to its pre-beatdown state and fortunately for her Vanessa couldn't tell the difference between the healing she used when the men returned and this healing.

Vanessa had then helped clean up the blood that pooled around him and changed his gauze.

"Geez, those guys need to stop joking around, I thought they were gonna kill me." He said blissfully unaware of what had happened to his body before he had regained consciousness. He then stood and stretched for a few seconds.

"Well I did almost cause his death, so I guess the least I can do is show my face."

He mumbled to himself before making his way to Tibaut's room.

Tibaut was still in his room lying stomach-side down in his bed, still quite annoyed at what Elizabeth told him. He did hear a few concerning screams and shouts coming from the mansion earlier but it didn't seem like a woman's. Maybe some unlucky thief broke in while Elizabeth was around (bless the poor bastard's soul).

("Ugh, this sucks. Surely she doesn't actually want me to stay like that until I fully heal, right? What the hell is a person supposed to do for entertainment while they were injured in mediaeval times anyway? I can't even practise anything. Wait, maybe I still use my magic.) He then tried to summon a flame and then felt an odd pain in a strange area within his arm.

("???")

He tried again and experienced the same pain.

("What the hell is going on? Wait I've experienced something like this before.")

When Vanessa had put through a gruelling gauntlet of being her smelter he remembered feeling a pain like this at the end of that slog. The only reason he forgot about that was due to the fact he felt like he was going to pass out and getting to his bed was the only concern in his mind. When he woke the next day he didn't notice anything too out of the ordinary with his arms.

("Well it truly does seem like I have nothing I can do, at least for the next few hours or so.")

As soon as he thought that, he noticed the door being opened. ("Has she finally come back to finish healing me?") He naively thought.

The figure behind the door soon showed himself. "Hey, kid!"

It was Ezekiel and Tibaut had put no effort into hiding his disappointment.

"Well, considering Elizabeth didn't say anything about you, I had some slight concerns but I'm glad you're still alive." He said somewhat relieved accompanied by the feeling of weight being lifted off his shoulders.

("Well I can't just come right out and tell him I nearly caused our deaths, now can I?") Ezekiel thought to himself when he saw the look on Tibaut's face.

So he decided on explaining to Tibaut how he may have made a few mistakes here and there while making the explanation vague enough that it didn't seem clear-cut enough to be Ezekiel's fault.

"No, if anyone's at fault it's me. Without you, there's no doubt I would have died back there. You were doing your best to get rid of those kobolds while I was just jumping around trying to pick them off. The woman in my arms is no excuse." He said while he had a look of self-reflection.

("You little bastard, you heard the conversation downstairs, didn't you? You're just trying to guilt trip, aren't you? Or maybe there's just some cruel God out trying to punish me.") Ezekiel thought to himself while keeping a straight face.

"Well, saying what is or isn't your fault is solely for you to decide I suppose. Just don't beat yourself up over stuff you have no control over. Consider something like this a learning experience to prepare in case something like this happens again (Man, if Elizabeth was here she'd probably kill me.)" Ezekiel then cleared his throat to change the subject.

"Still, this wasn't befitting of someone wielding a sword at all."

"I thought you wielded a sword for fun, though what we went through wasn't fun in the slightest, so I guess you're right."

"Nah, this is a different reason than that. That'd be the number 2 reason I use a sword nowadays."

"Then what's number one?"

"Well you know, it's the weapon a hero uses."

"What does that have to do with anything? A weapon's a weapon." The man who has not used a weapon up to this point stated.

"Come on what type of person uses a sword? There may be many people but the most iconic one is a hero. There's no weapon more associated with doing the right thing than a sword. Compare that to a knife, what's it known for? Backstabbing, assassinations and thieves. There isn't a single trustworthy type of person associated with knives."

("Don't hunters use knives?") Tibaut thought but decided not to respond to see where he was going with this.

"Think about it like this, if you saw a person in an alley staring you down who'd think would be more suspicious? The guy with a sword in its hilt or a guy with a knife on his belt."

Maybe because during most of civilisation, there were probably shady people in dark alleys with knives, Tibaut responded with the latter.

"So you think heroes use swords while villains use knives." Asked Tibaut.

"Essentially. Also helps that the sword I use came from my own personal hero."

Tibaut was a bit shocked by this revelation.

"Really?"

"Yeah, came from the old geezer himself."

Tibaut then stopped and thought for a moment who this old geezer he referred to was.

"(No way) Mr.Bentley?"

"Yep."

"That frail old man? (Aren't those kind of old people supposed to be strong? The last time I saw him it looked like a strong breeze could take him to his grave)."

"Frail? I'll have you know he could have been a big shot adventurer if it wasn't for an injury he got."

Curious at what a big shot adventure would be, he decided to ask him a hypothetical. "How does that compare to Elizabeth?"

"Back when I met him, he could probably take on three Elizabeth at once."

I was within the moment Tibaut realised how wide the world is. The fact that someone who could take on three Elizabeths is considered someone who could have been a big shot must mean there are some absolute monsters that roam the world.