79 Dark Hour 1 - Revenge (2/2)
And like he had expected, Stigma saw that Emily's face was covered in beats of sweat with a pained expression. Stigma immediately placed Kirin on the ground, took a towel that was by the nightstand and had been soaking in bowl filled of water then started wiping down Emily's face.
As he brushed over Emily face with a cold towel, Stigma could feel that her fever had started to lessen over time, but not completely.
Stigma could also see that traces of fatigue and exhaustion had almost disappeared from her face, and Emily looked no different from a normal fourteen year old girl as she continued to sleep.
Even from a third party's perspective, they would not believe the young girl known as Emily was shouldering responsibilities of being a wealthy merchant and was suffering hardships from her peers.
Unfortunately, rather than show concern or pity, Stigma could only sigh as he remembered how far apart Emily's appearance was to her actual personality.
Despite their first interaction, where Emily attempted to stab him, Stigma tried to forget their previous encounter as he wanted to try asking Emily for a few favors and only held back his intentions in getting even when he recalled Lara's story and Emily's overall troubles.
”*Sigh*.....If she hadn't tried to stabbed me earlier, I would have thought she was cute.....'*Sigh* *GAH!!!...What the hell?!?!?!”
*Cough!**Cough!* ”Why the hell are you sighing every time you look at my face, is my face not that appealing you bastard, and who the hell is not cute you white haired brat!!!!”
When Stigma looked down, he was immediately surprised to see Emily staring at him with a red face. But before he could figure out what was going on, Emily landed another blow to his gut and caused him to curse at her.
*GAH!!!* ”What the hell! You didn't have to punch me to prove a point! Wait a minute, when were you even awake?!??!!”
”Shut it! Not important! Take responsibility when y-you stole my first kiss and grasp my b-boob without apologizing! If you won't, I'm labeling you a pervert from now on! No, a sexual predator going through puberty! So hold still so I can kick your ass for touching my face as well!!!”
”Huh? How does that connect?!!! Also, I'm ten years old! How does that count as a first kiss, don't be unreasonable!!?!?!?!”
”That makes it worst!! Be a man and take responsibility for taking my first!!!!!”
When Stigma saw that Emily was not making any sense, the only conclusion he made was that her fever may have affected her ability to think when she woke up, so he was at a lost on how to respond.
Before Stigma even had a chance to rebuke the misleading argument, Emily immediately got up from her bed and attempted to kick Stigma's head. Making it clear that she still held some grudges from their previous encounter.
And because he did not want to harm Emily by mistake, Stigma was left no choice but to jump back and dodge. As each time Stigma tried to block, Emily would counter by moving closer to him and tried to aim for any opening in his defense, which Stigma commented as 'vicious; When most of the attacks were aimed at his groin.
'How viscous can you be!?!??!!' Eventually Stigma was getting impatient with Emily being unreasonable, so when he dodged another kicked to the head. Stigma then grabbed one of Emily's leg and arm then threw her back to the bed.
And to make sure there was no more misunderstanding, Stigma did not pursue when Emily landed on her bed.
Even though their exchange was brief, Emily was taken aback from their difference of strength and was left dumbfounded when Stigma showed that he was able to subdue her at ease each time.
In the end, with Emily's pride on the line, she did not care of the difference between them and resorted to relying on her space ring then threw random objects at Stigma out of a desperate attempt to land a hit.
With Emily still affected from her fever, Stigma was able to dodge most of the item and continued to distance himself. Unfortunately with his body being stiff half the time, Stigma had a slight difficulty in dodging and received a few hits to the head.
And when Stigma saw that knives and weapons were being thrown at him, he could only curse from the mistreatment he was receiving and hid behind a table with his head sticking out.
”Are you nuts!! Hey!!! Stop throwing knives already! Is this how you repay someone who looked after you!?!?!?!?”
”Haa!?!!! The f*ck are you saying, you were asleep the entire time and little Kirin was the one looking after me?!?!!? Why should I feel grateful?!?!?!”
”Can you at least show gratitude you unreasonable little...”
....
....
As both children continued to hurl insults at each other, Stigma's three familiar did not join in their master's fight due to different reasons.
With Kirin still being a young Heavenly Beast, it did not understand what was going on between them and innocently believed that Stigma was playing around with Emily.
From Hilda's perspective, Emily's attempt to harm Stigma was futile, thus it did not pay heed to their short fight and continued to observe.
Lastly, Dusk would only responds to danger, only when Stigma has deemed it a threat. When the familiar senses that it's master had zero intentions of killing or harming Emily, Dusk did not so much as flinch or made no attempt to intervene.
After thirty or so minutes had passed, Emily eventually ran out of objects while Stigma was in the middle of the room filled with personal items that had been housed in Emily's space ring.
With both of them continued to grasp for air, Stigma eventually caught his breath and thought up of a suggestion as he tried to stand up with his hands raised. Implicating that he means no harm and wanted to talk with Emily in peace.
”*Breathing Heavily* Call.....a truce...”
”....Fine...”
Before Stigma could even respond with his suggestion to leave the vicinity, Emily immediately sat back down on the bed with an exhausted expression before he could finish speaking. Emily then grabbed the water jug by her night stand and greedily gulped down its contents as she turned her face away from Stigma's.
Between the two of them, Emily was clearly more experienced in controlling the pace of a conversation and intuition told her that if Stigma had ever finished his sentence, she felt she might have lose an opportunity of a life time.
Obviously, Stigma had no idea what was happening. But when he realized that he was being ignored, he also responded by turning away and grumbled as he performed some stretches to check if he still had any issues.
Thankfully after his short squabble with Emily, Stigma felt that his body had no others issues and was almost familiar to the changes to his body to some extent.
Stigma also decided to let go of his previous grudge and tried to face Emily to make conversation with her.
”Hey....” - Stigma
”...What?” - Emily
”....Sorry....about earlier...” - Stigma
”.....Fine, I do owe you a favor, so I'll get even with you another time.....” - Emily
'?Huh?.....' Although Stigma apologized for his earlier behavior, he was left speechless from Emily's blunt response, especially when she mumbled half of what she said.
Perhaps it was because Emily did not say anything else, Stigma felt like an idiot staring into space as he looked at her and eventually looked away to focus on another matter he had in his mind.
'I'll deal with her later....Essence Reader!'
*Bing!*
[Name: Stigma Falsus
Age: 10
Rank: Unique (I)(Early stage)
0 / 10000
Strength: 250
Agility:270
Vitality: 350
Zen Reserves:125 / 1700
Skills:
Essence Reader(IV) 55%
Poltergeist (III) (1) 75%
Soul Eater (IV) 50%
Taboo(III)45%
Demon's Soul 10%
*
.....
....
...
..
.
]
After browsing through his stats, Stigma sighed with satisfaction from all the changes he saw. True Stigma's stats did not appear to have changed much from a third point of view, yet the Imp has implied that any change related to the soul is by no means a small matter.
And if the body or vessel is not strong enough to contain the modified soul, the consequences would be sever from making drastic changes.
To understand the problem Stigma would be facing, visualize the body as a glass container and Zen energy is equivalent to cold water, while the soul is the opposite - hot water[5].
If we consider Cultivators increasing their Zen reserves through breakthroughs, then they are by no means damaging their vessel but are strengthening it.
In Stigma's case, tampering the soul directly was dangerous to being volatile, as his underdeveloped body will likely undergo negative consequences because he altered the physical limits far from what his body can handle.
Thankfully after becoming as a cultivator with large reserves, Stigma was able to contain the changes and as he grows older his body will learn to adapt.
As a precaution, Stigma was discouraged in attempting to cultivate to a higher stage until then, as the balance in his body was still unstable to say the least.
He was also warned that, while his current abilities far surpasses the capabilities of a regular Cultivator's, he still has a ten year old's physique.
This means that should Stigma uses his maximum limit for an extended period of time, his growing bodies would not cope with the overexertion and his gift will become more of a burden. In other words: his strengths can also be his weaknesses.
But with curiosity present in his mind, Stigma ignored the Imps earlier warning to his body and attempted to test the full extent of his strength with excitement in his eyes.
After finding a stance he was comfortable with, Stigma was about to perform a punch, but was stopped when he heard someone call him out.
”Hey, what the hell are you doing?” As Stigma relaxed his stance, he turned around to find Emily standing five feet away from him with a raised eye brow and her arms crossed, like a sister finding out her brother was about to do something bad and wanted to scold him.
When Emily saw that Stigma was staring into space early on, she thought that he had something in his mind and move closer without him noticing, but when she him change position like he was ready for a fight. That got her concern for a number of reasons.
”You trying to train or something?” Since Lara was not present, Emily was free to act as herself, and was acting familiar with Stigma.
”...More or less. Look, if you feel uncomfortable with me being around you, I can always...”
”That's not it!....Look, that was me venting out my frustration. So I'll apologize for what happened earlier. You cannot believe what I have went through.”
”Don't worry, I'm not judging.” Stigma felt that if he allow Emily to continue her rant, he might be listening to her the entire night.
After hearing the grumble of their stomachs, Stigma decided to pull out some food from his space ring for both of them to eat. Surprisingly, even as Stigma sat on the floor to eat, Emily did not seem to mind the food she was given and also sat down on the ground as she ate with bliss.
After finishing their light meal they gave Kirin their leftover bones to chew on, and Emily immediately started interrogating Stigma for answers.
”.....Hey can I ask you something?”
”? Sure...”
”Why are you hear exactly, and don't lie to me. Although you did unknowingly gave me a number of reasons to protect you in the market, when you caused a stir of trouble for those three bastards, that was under the assumption that you were a third party.
When you asked me information about Jaculas Fel, that got me suspicious about you origins when it was related to the Naga Clan. A clan who just so happen to have arrived the day before you, and when I heard you dealt with some people who allegedly claimed that they belong to that Clan, I had them interrogated. If their claims are true and word gets out, you will get into a lot of trouble if you leave the market.
But with the obvious high regards that Sir Felix holds you, I assumed you are a trust worthy person. So please don't hide anything from me.”
”...Aren't you afraid I'm going to get you involved in trouble. Besides, what benefits do you get for warning me and risk your position in you family? I heard from Lara that you are not very....welcomed in the family to say the least.”
When Emily saw that she was given a suspicious gaze, she did not look away and told Stigma her reason.
”I want to find trustworthy people, based on what I found out, you are definitely strong despite your age, but most importantly I can trust you. My evidence and proof was that you would go out of your way to ask about my safety instead of profit after hearing my question.
Also, you don't have to worry as being part of that family is by no mean an objective for me, all I want is revenge for the death of my parents!”
When Stigma asked for the details of what she meant, Emily gave the details about what happened to her parent before the accident and what she found out over the years. When Emily finalized her story, Stigma could only respond with three words.
....What the hell.
[1] If your wondering where I got these references, I went to a website that tells what object represents what in a dream. Check it out.
[2] Darkest Hour - to emphasize that things often seem at their worst just before they get better. Like grieving the deaths of love ones and moving on.
[3] My little brother was in a similar position in his old college, but I could not say anything to support him as I could not understand what he was going through. I don't know how he feels about me, but I still love him no matter how he views me.
Remember to love your siblings and parents my fellow readers!!!!
[4] He is trying to do the impossible.
[5] If there are those that don't understand this logic, check this video out to understand.