Blanche looked at Agatha. She was currently asleep. She arrived after they finished treating Percavel. Her wounds weren’t bad as Percavel’s, probably because she used her healing to heal herself. However, due to her age being without food and water for this long was too much for her. She couldn’t even stay awake after Blanche gave her something to eat and drink.


    “What are you doing?”


    Blanche asked as Poyraz put more and more water into the pot he was stirring. His back was turned to her.


    “I am making soup. We gave them solid food and we also ate it but it wasn’t really a good idea. You can’t really digest solid foods after going without any food for a long time.”


    Blanche didn’t know that. She hasn’t gone without food or water for a day before arriving here. But he knew it. That meant that this wasn’t the first time he didn’t have anything to eat for extended amounts of time.


    He also knew how to treat the wounded and sick without magic.


    Blanche didn’t think too much about him before. Yeah, he was skilled for a peasant. And useful. Pretty to look at. But the more she spent time with him, the more questions she had about him. Even now, looking at his now grey hair she had more questions.


    She pulled her ponytail to her face so she could see it. She compared her hair color and his. They weren’t exactly the same tone. But this didn’t mean much. While the entire Silverfox family had grey to silver hair, the tone of grey and silver changed between individuals.


    Blanche didn’t think he was related to them. But she was afraid that Poyraz went the same wrong path as her ancestor, using a Calamity’s power to strengthen himself. However, she wasn’t so sure. G?kb?rü, that dog Poyraz wanted to keep with him constantly played with him. If he somehow absorbed Calamity’s power shouldn’t it be afraid of him?


    If he didn’t absorb or got power from Calamity it created more questions. Why his hair turned grey? Why his eyes were now a dark shade of purple and resembled a wild predator’s? How did he defeat her?


    “I would have died if you used magic but you didn’t. That’s why I was able to slip you the potion.”


    “You actually couldn’t move a lot. Ice covered your entire body. I thought you did that to yourself to help me.”


    Lies. Blanche knew Poyraz lied. Even though her memory was fuzzy she knew what he told her wasn’t true. She saw her family members go mad before. When it happened they lost their rationality and ability to strategize. However, that didn’t mean much. Ice armor covered them as their mana increased greatly. Their physical capabilities also increased, though that got more to do with them losing their self-preservation.


    She touched the scar on her chest. She wasn’t sure if Poyraz saw the scar. She knew he saw the wound since he was the one that gave it to her. But the scar was different.


    The ice armor she created while she was unconscious should been strong enough to block any non-mana-based attacks. She knew it because ice armors created by other family members she witnessed going mad were that durable. But he was able to not only break it but also create a wound that deep?


    It also left a scar on her. Her first scar. Healing magic, potions, and her boosted Vitality healed all wounds she received before perfectly. The fact that this left a scar meant one thing: The attack that caused the wound had mana stronger than her. Foreign mana suppressed her healing and left this scar.


    How? Blanche felt mana from him. His mana pool was larger than when she met him. It was bigger than what a peasant should have. However, he didn’t know how to control it. He didn’t have circuits or pathways open to manipulate mana freely. The best he could do was use an active skill. But acquiring one was hard.


    Blanche looked at the treasure chest. Maybe a skill book was one of the drops. Maybe he learned it? No. Blanche couldn’t imagine him doing something like that. At least with greed. Maybe he was desperate when he tried to stop her and he had no choice? Then he didn’t tell her that because she was afraid she would punish him?


    While Blanche wasn’t naive enough to think Poyraz was able to defeat her with a random skill he got, it explained some things.


    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.“You look tired.”


    Blanche snapped out of her thoughts with Poyraz’s voice. In his hand was a plate. Steam rose from it.


    “It smells good.”


    Blanche said without realizing it. Poyraz gave her the plate.


    “This place doesn’t have enemies. Warm soup and a long sleep will help us recover.”


    He sat down beside her, G?kb?rü climbing to his leg. It wagged its tail while drool dropped on Poyraz’s lap.


    “Don’t give him food. He stole enough from me.”


    G?kb?rü turned to him and barked in protest.


    “You will get fat, fleabag.”


    G?kb?rü barked more to answer Poyraz’s heated voice. Poyraz frowned before wrapping it with his cloak and lying at his side. He hugged G?kb?rü. It didn’t protest this time.


    “Fire will keep soup warm. I will be taking a short nap.”


    Blanche watched with bewilderment as both of them fell asleep in seconds. At first, she didn’t believe he was asleep. How can someone fall asleep that easily? But seeing his breathing slow down, Blanche was sure he was asleep. Even weirder, G?kb?rü was also sleeping despite barking angrily just a second ago. Blanche realized it was futile to try to wrap her head around them and just drank her soup.


    It tasted even better than it smelled. Blanche quickly drank it all. Filling her stomach caused her body to feel heavy. She lay down beside Poyraz. She told herself she would just rest her eyes for a minute. However, she couldn’t fight against sleep and slipped into unconsciousness.


    She opened her eyes again. At first, she didn’t realize she had fallen asleep. But Poyraz was no longer on his side, she was thirsty and her body ached. All of it told her that she was asleep for some time. She moved her body and realized she was wrapped in Poyraz’s cloak once again. It had his smell. Even though they were here for days, the smell wasn’t unpleasant. But he didn’t have a cloak before. Maybe it was his hoodie ripped when he fought against her? Then again his armor also looked different.


    Blanche wanted to get up but she realized the warm, heavy, and fluffy thing lying on her chest. It was G?kb?rü.


    “How?”


    The last time she saw it, it was sleeping with Poyraz. How did it come to her?


    Now Blanche felt conflicted. She wanted to get up but doing it would wake up the creature. It was sleeping so peacefully that Blanche didn’t want to wake up it. She raised her head off it and her gaze met with Poyraz’s. He gave her a smile and focused on helping Percavel drink soup again. Agatha was also awake. She couldn’t keep lying like this if her entire party was awake. She carefully lifted her body while putting G?kb?rü to the ground. She successfully let it and stood up. She took a breath of relief since she was able to get up without waking it up. But to her disappointment, G?kb?rü woke up and followed her to where the rest of the group was.


    “I am glad both of you survived.”


    Blanche said with a warmer voice than usual, surprising both Percavel and Agatha. Percavel was the first one to regain his composure as he blinked.


    “It is good to see you too, My Lady. I see that we are one person less…”


    Percavel’s voice was weak, partly due to his wounds partly because the person missing was Duncan. Still, it was better compared to his feverish talking before. Percavel must be feeling weird since someone as strong as Duncan died while they survived. Blanche wasn’t sure how she felt about Duncan. On one hand, she got rid of one of her problems. But on other hand, she was given his “leash” by her grandfather. Just the thought of her grandfather being angry made her shiver. But if the substance she acquired helped the Silverfox family losing him wasn’t a big deal.


    Blanche had to move quickly and give the substance to her grandfather. Even now there could be family members of her suffering from magical sickness.


    “Will you guys be able to move?”


    Percavel and Agatha looked at each other. Percavel nodded.


    “It is better if we rest in a town rather than this damn place.”


    Agatha spoke.


    “I can move. Madam Agatha healed me while you are resting.”


    “Good. After you eat-“


    Blanche turned around as she felt a dimensional shift. Duncan was in front of her now. She fully expected him to die or be so weak that he couldn’t move any further. But there he was.