Chapter 68: Worries of the heart

“Fenrir, what was that? Did we just.. teleport?” asked Edward after taking in his new surroundings. He’s been in the forest just south of the City of Ashes enough times to recognize it right away.

[Yes and no, from what I could understand, we didn’t travel through time and space like normal teleportation but moved along the mother tree’s roots.]

“Moved along the roots?”

[Elves have always had a special connection with the mother tree. They must have learned how to make use of that connection to travel from one point to another making use of the mother tree’s roots. You should try to learn more about the elves living in this world.]

“Why is that?”

[If you manage to learn how they travel across the roots, we could use the same method to travel to other worlds tied to the mother tree. The elves living in this world probably don’t know the coordinates of other world to do that, but I do. That’s a thing for the far future anyway, but elves would probably be our ticket in reaching Vidar. Also, you need to increase your leveling speed. If not for that elf, you would have probably ended up dead..]

Edward understood what she meant. This was probably the strongest opponent he had faced until today and the feeling of not even being able to put up any resistance did not sit well with him either.

“I know. I’ll meet with the others and we’ll try to go back to dungeon farming as soon as possible, but there’s something else I fail to understand. Who sent that elf to look after me? As far as I’m aware, I don’t know any elves or other people that have any connection with an elf.”

Seeing that Fenrir remained silent, Edward turned towards Minx. Crouching down and rubbing her head softly, Edward sighed and said: “I’m sorry I put you in a dangerous situation once more Minx.”

Minx rubbed her ears against the palm of his hand affectionately and didn’t say anything in reply. She didn’t blame Edward for anything and was just happy he was alive to spoil her like this.

After spending a few more minutes playing with Minx, Edward stood up and said: “Minx, I’m going into the city to take care of some stuff. Go and wait for me at our hiding place.”

“Minx will wait.”

“Good girl.” Replied Edward, petting her head one more time before heading towards the city’s southern gate. He was extremely tired after not sleeping for quite a while. but he had a few things to take care before he could finally get some rest.

The guards at the gate already knew Edward and let him pass after one of them handed him a simple cloak. After all the fights and times he has turned, even his trousers were nothing more than a pair of rags.

Since he needed to change anyway, he decided to visit Violet’s inn first. As he arrived in front of the inn’s front door, Edward raised his hands to push it open, but started hesitating at the last moment.

With a trace of anxiousness in his eyes, Edward finally mustered up the courage to open the door and stepped inside. It was quite late in the morning and Violet was just sitting behind the counter with an unfocused look in her eyes. She was a little bit thinner than Edward remembered, her hair was a bit more messier and her eyes had bags under them, but overall, she was alright.

The sound of the door made her absentmindedly turn her head, only for her entire body to suddenly shake as her eyes landed on Edward.

A wry smile appeared on Edward’s face, unsure of what to do next. He would have liked to not look like a beggar the first time meeting her after more than two months, he would have liked to have bought her something. He could also somehow feel that he was the reason for her appearance and a question surfaced in his mind. ‘Is she mad at me?’

As all kinds of thoughts kept Edward frozen at the door, Violet dashed from behind the counter and jumped straight in his arms. To Edward right now, the speed she moved with seemed even faster than the attacks of the assassins he has encountered in the south.

Her reaction surprised Edward, but at least answered some of the questions plaguing his mind. He opened his mouth to say something when he felt something wet touching his shoulder and the words he was about to say froze on the tip of his tongue.

Edward sighed and used one arm to gently massage the back of her head while using the other to hold onto her waist. His eyes started to get wet as well but he forced his tears back and whispered in a slightly hoarse voice: “I’m back, Violet.”

“Mhm.” Violet just nodded softly and just kept crying on his shoulder.

“I missed you.”

“Mhm.”

“Have you been good?”

“Mhm.”

…

Edward kept asking her question after question, but Violet continued to cry silently while nodding from time to time. Once she seemed to have calmed down a little bit, Edward said: “Let me go up and change first. We’ll speak after.”. He didn’t mind staying like this, but it was becoming quite awkward with all the eyes in the dining room stealing glances at them from time to time.

“I’m coming too.” These were the first words she has spoken ever since Edward stepped inside.

Seeing how clingy she was, Edward agreed and tried to break the hug, only for Violet to clench her arms around him, refusing to let go.

“Violet, I can’t really walk like this.”

Seeing that she still wouldn’t let go, Edward crouched down and lifted her up in a princess carry. Knowing that convincing her to grab the key to his room was useless, he just headed directly up the stairs.

Reaching his room, he forced the door lock until it broke and stepped inside. Closing the door behind them, he sat down on the bed with Violet still in his arms and asked: “Are you going to stick to me like this the entire day?”

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Since Violet answered with a nod again, Edward chuckled and said: “I can’t say I don’t like it, but I still have things to do in the city. Do you want me to carry you like this all throughout the city?”

Violet took a good moment before finally saying: “Can’t you just stay with me today?”

Hearing her voice shake slightly towards the end, Edward felt a tinge of guilt in his chest and asked: “Did anything happen while I was gone? I already told you I’ll be gone for a while on a mission when I left…”

Violet refused to reply, remaining silent and just holding him tighter. Her hands started shaking as her mind went back to the past few weeks and tears started wetting Edward’s shoulder once again.

Edward pulled her head away from his shoulder and raised her face to look at him. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Edward brought his forehead next to hers and said softly: “I love you, Violet, you know that. Can you please at least tell me what happened? I don’t like seeing you like this.”

Hearing the worry in his voice, Violet finally relented and started telling him everything. Around a month and a half ago, the demi-humans started talking in the tavern’s lobby about a beast tide that has happened in the south and Violet happened to overhear it. She knew from Edward that his mission was also in the south so of course she started to get worried.

After one week has passed and there was still no sign of Edward having returned, she couldn’t sit still anymore. she went to the adventurer guild to ask if there was any kind of information about him. There, she happened to see Ingvar who she recognized as one of Edward’s party members. She was initially happy, thinking that he might have returned and just didn’t get the chance to come and speak to her, but after Ingvar told her Edward has remained in the swamp while he and his sister returned, Violet started to get even more worried.

Wishing to at least know what happened, she posted a quest with the adventurer guild to look for Edward, but as more and more time passed with no news, her worry grew even stronger. She would visit both the adventurer guild and Ingvar’s house every evening to ask for any news. Even with adventurers taking on her quest daily, no one was able to find Edward. It was like he has disappeared from the face of the world.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, Violet…” said Edward as he hugged her to his chest, letting her cry her worry away.

How long has it been since he had someone that would care and worry about him like that? It’s been so long that he hasn’t even considered this might happen. As cruel as it would sound, Edward’s guild for making her worry like this was accompanied by a small amount of happiness. He was happy there was someone to care and worry about him. He was happy there was someone waiting for him home like this.

‘That elf was most probably just some adventurer who happened to take Violet’s quest..’ He also managed to get an idea about that elf’s possible identity.

They spend over an hour with Edward whispering sweet words while gently patting her head until Violet finally stopped crying.

Having calmed down, she lifted her head from his chest and asked: “Edward, can you tell me what happened? Where were you all this time?”

Edward sighed and, looking into her eyes that were still red from crying, decided to tell her the truth. After making her promise she won’t say a word of all that happened, he started recounting the entire story. The only things he didn’t mention was everything related to Fenrir and his curse.

Hearing all the danger Edward had to go through, tears started threatening to fall down her cheeks once more. Seeing that, Edward flicked her forehead and said: “That’s enough crying for today. I’m alright.”

As he saw the wronged expression that appeared on Violet’s face the moment he flicked her forehead, Edward chuckled and moved to seal her lips with his. After some time, Edward broke the kiss and looked at Violet’s face with a satisfied smile.

“Damn, how I missed these sweet lips of yours.”

Violet blushed but chose to hide her shyness by just closing her eyes and moving for another kiss. As her body started getting warmer and warmer, Violet moved her hand under Edward’s cloak and started heading downwards while feeling the muscles on his chest, only for him to grab her hand and break the kiss.

“As much as I would like to, once we start I can say goodbye to my plans in the city.” Said Edward with a smile. There was also the fact that he was too tired to indulge in such activities.

Violet just hang her head in shame while nodding silently. All her pent up emotions made her lose control of herself for a moment. Wishing to change the subject so that she can hide her embarrassment, she asked: “What do you need to do so badly in the city?”

“I need to visit the party and my master to let them know I’m alright. They might also be worried. I also wish to speak to them and plan our next journey to level up inside the dungeon.”

Hearing him mention he was planning to leave once more, Violet tightened the hold on his cloak and asked: “You’re leaving again? So soon?”

Edward saw her sad expression but he knew he had to do it. Fenrir was right, he needed to increase his leveling speed or he would die in this world before he had a chance to even reach Vidar. Rubbing her head gently, Edward said: “I have to, Violet. Please understand.”

“Can’t you just stay here with me? The inn makes enough coins so you won’t have to head into the dungeon anymore. We can live a simple life here. You can just help me take care…”

Edward moved a finger to her lips, stopping her next words and said: “It’s not about gold or not having enough coins to live. I just need to grow stronger as fast as I can.”

“But, why?”

Edward sighed and hugged her head to his chest as he replied: “There are some things I need to take care and until I’m strong enough to do it, I’ll have to keep fighting and increase my level.”

He knew there will probably come a day when he would have to leave her together with this world. He knew that it was unfair and it would probably bring both of them a lot of pain in the future. He knew all this but he has still fallen for her and wanted to be selfish for once in his life. He wanted to love and be loved by her for at least a while longer.

Violet eventually nodded with her head resting on his chest and didn’t ask about it anymore. After a few minutes, she mustered up the courage and said: “Will you come spend the night here with me?”

“Not tonight. I haven’t slept for around four days and I would like to really get some rest after being done with all the stuff in the city. If you want to and are not busy, we can spend tomorrow together. I’ll be yours to do whatever you want to for the entire day. What do you say?”

Violet agreed to their date tomorrow and, after spending a few more minutes just simply cuddling in bed, Edward finally changed out of his rags and walked out of the inn.

“Time to see how the others are doing and find out if there are any news about Eddena. Circe is probably just as worried about her sister as Violet was about me…” muttered Edward as he started heading for Ingvar’s place, deciding to visit them first.

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