Chapter 295 - Episode 295: Dark And Light.
Chapter 295 – Episode 295: Dark And Light.
I'm slowly opening my eyes and my head is hurt, I look at the ceiling and I don't remember anything about this place. I'm sure that this isn't my room but then I remember that I'm still in the game, I'm slowly getting up while groaning in pain because of the headache. I look around and I'm inside a ward where many beds are around me, I get off the bed while groaning and then I notice that Ivonna is sleeping next to my bed. I approach her and look at her, she's asleep and she looks peaceful and doesn't look like she's in pain or anything after what just happened to her.
I hear commotion from outside the room, I can hear familiar voices from out there. I walk toward the door and open it to see how many of them are out there, I see Kingstar, Queenstar, and the other Ophiuchus with Francesca and the others as well sitting on the bench. All of them are surprised to see me awake, and so all of them hurriedly walk toward me and ask how I'm doing, I tell them that I'm doing fine and just having a slight headache. Francesca and Chelsea are asking about Ivonna and I tell them that she's still asleep, they both are nodding with understanding.
Kingstar is crossing his arms while standing in front of me, he looks at me while nodding up.
"Do you know how long that we have been waiting for you to wake up?"
I furrow my forehead while looking at all of them, they all just raising their eyebrows, and then I look at the date, I realize that I have been unconscious for five days of in-game time. If I have been unconscious for five days, then that means Ivonna is also the same? I ask them if Ivonna is unconscious for five days as well, and they all nod in agreement. Francesca and the others get inside the ward and check on Ivonna's condition and when I'm about to reenter the ward, Kingstar grabs my shoulder.
"Where are you going? There's someone that wants to talk with you and he's so pissed for the whole five days at you and has been waiting for you to wake up so why don't you meet him first and deal with that problem first?"
I furrow my forehead with confusion because I don't think I do anything wrong to anyone. Kingstar is tilting his head to the hallway and telling me to follow him to meet this person. I follow him and the rest of the Ophiuchus are following us from behind, I notice my surroundings and I know where we are right now. All the priests and priestesses are bowing their heads when I look at them, I bow at them back while keep following Kingstar.
Kingstar is leading me to the garden and I see Krestan is standing in front of the fountain while crossing his arms. I look at Kingstar and raise my eyebrow and he just nods and raises his eyebrows in agreement. Kingstar and the rest of them then leave after guiding me here, I walk toward Krestan and I have no idea why he's angry at me. When I'm about to call his name, Krestan turns his head and glares at me from the corner of his eyes.
"What have you done to her?"
I'm furrowing with confusion because I have no idea what's he talking about but then the only person that he cares about is Avriel. I realize that he might notice that Avriel has consumed a portion of Alucard's power, but why is he angry at me for that since Avriel is fine as far as I know. I look at him and shake my head because I still don't understand what's he so angry about.
"What are you talking about? Are you talking about Alucard's power inside Avriel's body?"
Krestan approaches me and grabs me on the collar and his eyes are wide open with a furious expression while gritting his teeth.
"If you know about it then why did you do that to her?!"
Before I can open my mouth, Saintess Aria walks toward us with the priestesses following her from behind.
"Mister Krestan, you are not allowed to raise your voice in this holy place and of course, it will disturb everyone's prayer. I would like to request you to lower your voice and calm yourself, I believe I would be the best one to explain to him about what happened to Miss Avriel."
Krestan slowly removes his hands from my collar and bows his head while walking away from me. Saintess Aria approaches me and looks at my condition, she knows that I'm still weak so she puts her hands in front of me and removes the headache and pain on my whole body. She walks past me and waves her hand gently to tell me to follow her, the priestesses are not following us and just stand there looking at us.
Saintess Aria let out a sigh and then she looks at me.
"The truth is…"
I'm dumbfounded when I hear what happened to Avriel and the consequence of taking Alucard's power into her body. She can no longer receive a divine power or even get exposed to that, her body will burn the moment she's making a contact with divine power. I never knew about that and I thought it only affect her stat and didn't have a drawback after consuming it because I use my [Understanding] skill and it's said that there's no drawback or side effect from consuming it.
After thinking about it for quite a while I might know the reason why she became like that. I believe it has something to do with her because she's not a player so she received that consequence as soon as she consumed it. Now that I think about it, I realize that Avriel was affected by Alucard's power and command while Aspen didn't get affected by his power or command. I sit down on the bench while covering my face and sigh with regret, Saintess Aria grabs my arms and tries to lift me up, I look at her and raise my eyebrows with confusion. She smiles and shakes her head.
"I see that you did not know about it, I believe there is a way to cleanse her from that demonic power inside her body. Unfortunately, I do not have the answer to that since we have experimented with so many methods on cleansing the subjects' bodies and souls but none of them work and we were only made them suffer."
Krestan walks toward us while keeps glaring at me with hatred.
"Now you know and do you know what is happening to her right now? She cannot go back to the Alliance Kingdoms because the divine power is rejecting her body, and not just the Alliance Kingdoms but everywhere around the three sovereignties! You made her like this, Trevor, you must do something about it because you are responsible for this."
I look at him while furrowing my forehead with regret and guilt.
"Where's she right now?"
Krestan looks at me and sighs.
"You know where she is."
I nod with understanding and look at them both.
"I want you both to come with me because I want to hear your opinions about this when I ask her the question if she's suffering or regretting what I did to her."
They both nod with understanding and Krestan immediately opens a portal to where Avriel is at right now. The three of us enter the portal and we are inside Jariel's pub, I look around and Avriel is nowhere to be found but I can sense that she's here. I walk toward the drawer and open the hatch because I have a feeling that she's down there.
The three of us walk down the stairs and the atmosphere here is more intense than the first time I came here to meet Jariel. Saintess Aria suddenly stops and the two of us look at her and she just smiles and shakes her head.
"I am not welcome here, I will be standing here and listening to your conversation from here."
Krestan and I are looking at each other and then we proceed to keep walking down the stairs. I see Avriel is playing with her dagger with a bottle of rum on the table, she looks at me and she's not showing any expression at all and I can't read her because of that. Avriel is glaring at Krestan and he immediately stops walking, she looks at me and points her hand on the chair next to her. I walk toward her and sit down while Avriel keeps on playing with the dagger in her hand.
Avriel looks at me and slightly smiles.
"I'm glad that you are okay, Trevor."
I look at her and nod then she pours the rum into the glass and slides it toward me. She looks at me for quite a while and I look at the glass for a moment and notice that it's poison by the smell and of course thanks to my [Understanding] skill, then I grab it and chug it all down. Avriel scoffs and shakes her head while pointing the glass with her dagger.
"Are you not aware that the thing I poured into that glass was a deadly poison?"
I look at her while taking a lot of damage because of the poison inside my body, I don't feel any pain but I'm taking damage over time but it ends before it kills me. I cough when I'm about to answer her question and I can feel that my throat is dry and sore at the same time. I swallow my saliva but it's stuck on my throat while I'm trying to answer her question.
"I'm aware…"
Avriel stands up and stands next to me then sits on my lap while pointing her dagger on my throat.
"That is what you did to me back there, and it feels similar, right?"
I nod while closing my eyes, she chuckles and smiles at me.
"You know it was a poison and yet you still drink it all without a single drop."
I don't know how to react to her but then she pulls away from the dagger from my neck and gets off of my lap while looking at Krestan and Saintess Aria. She sheathes her dagger while walking back to her chair, she sits down and crosses her arms.
"I know why you all came here, but you just saw the answer."
Both Krestan and Saintess Aria are furrowing their forehead with confusion. Avriel smiles and looks at me.
"I know that it is dangerous to take that pill, but since Trevor was the one who gave it to me, I took it without doubting him or hesitating because I know that Trevor never try to hurt me. It is the same as him, he knows that I gave him poison but he took it anyway."
Avriel pours another glass of that and drinks it, she's staring at the glass while rotating it.
"If you both here to convince me to remove this power from my body like what you did to the other subjects then I'm going to decline that offer. I'm happy with this and…"
Avriel puts down the glass and stands up while staring at them both.
"I never was a pure and innocent person in my whole life, so this won't affect me at all."