Published at 3rd of January 2023 8:16 am

Chapter 296 Unfamiliar Ceiling

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“Argh…” Mathew released a long, pained groan.

He then slowly forced his eyes open, only for his eyes to instantly get assaulted by their currently greatest enemy – intense light.

‘What?’ the young man attempted to figure out what was going on, in spite of the torture that it was to keep his eyes open.

And bit by bit, the fuzzy images that his brain received started to make some sense.

‘Is that… a roof?’ Mathew thought once his headache weakened a little. ‘But why are two parts of my vision… ah.’

The realization struck Mathew as soon as he noticed the uneven softness below his head.

And then, like an avalanche, his sense of self returned, washing away all the pain and dizziness.

“What happened?” Mathew asked in a weak voice, blinking his eyes to remove the excess moisture that kept his vision unclear.

“You are awake!” Nadia muttered. A soft touch of her fingers landing on Mathew’s cheek to caress his skin followed her words.

“Kinda.” Mathew closed his eyes shut before pressing his eyelids as tightly together as he could. Once his eyes started to hurt, he forced his eyelids open, finally regaining proper sight.

“Where are we?” Mathew asked when he noticed an unfamiliar ceiling.

His head was still hurting, and it was still a challenge for him to think… but this strange weakness continued to go away with every passing second.

“After you fell, we brought you to the survivors’ camp we saved,” Nadia softly explained while running her fingers up and down Mathew’s cheek.

‘This isn’t good,’ Mathew thought, closing his eyes for the last time before forcing them open yet again.

His head was on Nadia’s lap with the girl’s face peeking over the two impressive mounds of her chest. Yet, for how great this sight was, Mathew was too pressed to focus on it.

He forced his head up a little. As soon as a single inch of space appeared between the back of his head and Nadia’s lap, she moved her hands to his head before prompting him up a bit.

A moment of cuddly moving around later and Mathew ended up half-sitting, resting his back on Nadia’s lap and lower body while his head was lodged right between the two soft peaks of hers.

There were a total of four people in the room, befitting the numbers of the original members of his party that took part in the horde subjugation.

Nadia was sitting behind him, offering her body as support for him. Leila sat by the doors to the simple room they were in, her saber exposed and resting on her knees.

Just a single look at the girl was alone showcased how on edge she was, ready to lash out at any potential intruder at a moment’s notice.

Then, there was Norbert, appearing as if he was meditating, sitting cross-legged below the frame of the only window within the room.

“What’s the situation?” Mathew asked.

‘I can tell quite a lot from their positions, faces, and what I already heard…’ Mathew killed his desire to shake his head. ‘But it’s easier to just ask.’

“It’s not good,” Nadia whispered. And the fact that she considered this kind of information to be sensitive enough to keep her voice down was a hint all on its own.

‘If this place is really ruled by that guy…’ Mathew thought, closing his eyes for a second as he fell into deep thought.

“After you feel, we got quite desperate to keep you safe. So, we got Peter and his friend to pave the way inside,” Nadia shortly described the events that took place after Mathew passed out. “We didn’t dare to leave your side, so we don’t really know what they talked about. And Norbert…”

Mathew didn’t need to expend his precious energy to look behind to feel the angry stare his wife sent to the policeman.

“He doesn’t want to speak about what he heard and what he saw,” Mathew spoke softly.

“Huh?” Nadia twitched a little, rocking Mathew’s body up a little bit. “How did you know?”

“I think I know the guy that rules this camp,” Mathew replied.

“How… No, it doesn’t matter,” Nadia was about to ask right as she decided not to. “Anyway, right now, we are official guests,” she then said in a mocking voice. “Guests that are held under the care of twenty people, all armed with guns.”

“That’s not good,” Mathew admitted. Yet, there wasn’t even a hint of surprise in his voice. “After the show that we gave out…” he added only to let his words fade away.

‘For him, we are likely a menace, a threat to his rule,’ Mathew thought, relaxing his body and allowing himself to fall back into the softness of Nadia’s flesh.

He relaxed his neck, enjoying the warmth that Nadia’s cleavage offered to the back and sides of his head. He then took a deep, long breath, treating himself to the taste of the girl’s slightly sweet smell.

“And another group is currently busy stealing all the cores that we conquered,” Leila added in a voice loud enough for it to easily seep through to the other side of the closed doors.

“Other group?” Mathew inquired. “Of the same camp or did a third party come?”

“The same group, just a different… group?” Leila confused herself a little. “Same faction, different group,” she then added, finding the right words to describe what she wanted to say.

“Either way, I cannot accept that,” Mathew said. He then took a quick glance at the corner of his vision.

The negative number describing his mind, or rather, his mana, was no longer negative. It was still pretty low for Mathew’s mental comfort, but he had some leeway to use his abilities.

‘I guess that explains why the side effects of overusing my abilities are mostly gone,’ Mathew thought, finding the reason for how he could go into the negative mind range in the first place.

“Nadia, help me up, please,” Mathew asked.

“Are you sure you can move?” Nadia whispered in a concerned voice. Her hands then snuck up to Mathew’s stomach, as if she wanted to hold him in place. “You were out cold for nearly two hours. Isn’t it too early for you…”

“Dear…” Mathew muttered, cutting into Nadia’s worried words. “I’m okay.”

“If you were okay, you wouldn’t need help standing up…” Leila muttered under her nose. And once again, she didn’t bother to control her voice to keep people outside from eavesdropping.

But Mathew… The young man only smiled.

A moment later and with Nadia’s help, Mathew stood back on his own two legs. And yet, despite claiming to be alright, he wrapped his arm around Nadia’s shoulder before changing his position to make it seem as if he was heavily leaning on her.

“Right, I nearly forgot,” Mathew muttered before lowering his voice even further. “What about Daria?” he whispered.

Norbert stood up in one, graceful swoop before approaching Mathew’s other side and grabbing his arm to serve as additional support.

“I’ve contacted her already. She holds the other group captive in the building we were in before you guys rushed out,” he reported in a properly hushed voice.

‘Even if I was out for over two hours, it’s still going to be a lot of time before the night will fall,’ Mathew thought, quickly running a quick check of all the accessible options he had.

He then took another glance at his system.

“Shall we go and play around for a bit?” Mathew then suggested while a huge smile sprouted all over his lips.

‘If this guy is the one I’m thinking about, then he is quite a crafty opponent to tackle,’ Mathew thought. ‘But since I know most of his tricks already, I should be able to at least recover what’s ours!’

Mathew took his first, unsteady step. His legs cried out in pain from overused muscles.

It appeared that overusing his mana led to all sorts of aftereffects that wouldn’t completely vanish even once his mind started would turn positive again.

“Now that I think about it, we ought to thank our hosts,” Mathew then muttered, causing all three of his companions to get a dumbfounded look on their faces. “Gathering all those cores from the horde… Wouldn’t it be a huge pain in the ass?”

Nadia pursed her lips together, Norbert looked at Mathew with a confused expression… While Leila’s lips turned into a wicked smile.

“I think I like where this is going,” she said out loud, standing up and pressing her blade against her thigh.

“Oh, and before we go,” Mathew then added, leaning his head over Norbert’s ear. “There is one thing I need you to check,” he whispered.

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