Chapter 39: Cheeky Boy

Dita screamed:

"What the hell are you?!"

Peace looked up at her.

Slowly, he managed to rasp back:

"Huh? What’s wrong?"

The words came out, but they were muddled and distorted, his throat having suffered some damage in the fight.

Dita pointed at him.

"’W-what’s wrong’? What’s not wrong?!"

Peace fell back on his ass and gave himself a once-over.

Even through blurry vision, he could see thin, loose strips of flaky flesh falling off his body, revealing healthy skin underneath.

’Ah, right...’

Plus, where the healing hadn’t been enough, his grievous wounds were still very much visible.

Thankfully, or maybe not, consuming the Spirit Shard had shocked most of his body into a numb state; it was strangely blissful...

But the evidence of the pain he should have been feeling was most definitely there.

Then there was the fact that, after killing the Blood Warden, everything he’d subsequently done had been in plain view of Dita. Consuming bloody bones off the ground and all.

’Wait a second...’

Peace looked at his thigh, then his chest, then his arms...

All of which were exposed.

"Why am I naked?!"

Dita shrieked:

"D-don’t change the damn subject!"

Covering himself with his discolored hand, Peace called back:

"Hey, weren’t you the one who said to be quiet in the dungeon?!"

Twisting his neck to the side, Peace could barely make out the Skeletal Stalker off in the distance.

Pointing toward it, Peace tried to focus his eyes, then asked:

"Is it throwing another one?"

"Shit! It is!"

Dita wasn’t so caught up in her delirium that she’d ignore the proper response. She rose just in time to direct the attack upward, then ducked beneath it — Peace doing the same.

Still, the moment the spear disappeared into the distance, she went right back to cowering from Peace, holding the Bone Sword toward him.

"E-explain! What are you?! Are you actually one of the Night Parade?! Are you a monster?!"

Peace shook his head.

"I’m not. This was merely... the result of a Resonance."

Dita stammered back:

"A Resonance?! What godsforsaken Resonance prompts such lunacy?!"

Peace scratched his cheek, accidentally peeling off some loose skin and sending the flaky piece fluttering to the ground. Dita followed it with her eyes, looking terrified that he might pick it up and munch it right back down.

Peace replied:

"You’re one to talk about dungeon etiquette. Asking about one’s Resonance is a much graver offense than asking their name."

Dita shook her head and shouted back:

"I think that matters not, given the circumstances!"

Taking a deep breath, Peace sighed, then replied:

"Well, I guess I’ll say a little to ease your mind... and suspicion. Ahem... I heal when I consume beasts, and with my body in that state, I didn’t really have a choice but to eat anything and everything I could get my hands on."

Dita buried her face in her hands, then let out a wail that almost sounded like crying.

"You— but— whahaa! Fuck! There’s something wrong with your head!"

Peace, feeling his serrated teeth that were slowly morphing back to normal, said:

"Yeah, I’d say there are a lot of things wrong with me currently."

Ignoring Peace, Dita continued:

"How did you even get your hands on such a Wisp?! Resonances like that are typically high-level!"

Peace smiled.

It was a smile meant to ease Dita. However, with the current state of his scarred face, it only made him look even more horrifying.

"That’s a secret. But... uh, I think I’m going to need to eat a little more."

He still had a long way to go until he was back at 100%.

’And some clothes would be nice.’

The last thing he wanted was to be tossed back into the city square completely naked. Beyond being a Night Elf and looking like one of the Night Parade, he’d be arrested for public indecency!

Assuming that was a law...

’Surely it is.’

Suddenly, a new fear gripped Peace.

He moved his hands so fast that Dita almost cried. As for where his hands were going...

The top of his head.

’P-phew! I almost had a heart attack!’

He was checking to see if his hair had been melted away alongside his skin. More specifically, whether the skin holding the follicles had survived. Hair itself was pretty tough.

Thankfully, everything seemed to be all right and in place. He wasn’t fully bald at the ripe age of eighteen.

Observing his dubious smile, Dita shouted:

"Please! No sudden moves!"

’What is she, a cop?’

Peace shook his head, then awkwardly rose to his feet. His vision was slowly clearing, sharpening by the second.

"What should we do now...? Resting here—"

Dita, clawing at her hair, rocked back and forth as she said:

"Please, just stop... Stop trying to have a normal conversation!"

Peace tilted his head to the side, still holding his crotch with his other arm.

"What else am I supposed to do...?"

"Uh— I don’t know... be screaming on the ground and crying out in pain? Look at yourself!"

Peace nodded.

"Yup. Mhm. ’Twas quite painful."

With that, Dita gave up...

She seemed to have finally realized that he hadn’t actually changed. The frenzied state he’d dipped into during the fight had only been temporary. He was the same Night Elf she’d been leisurely conversing with before.

"W-whatever... take this."

Dita suddenly stripped off her leather armor, then began pulling off the tunic underneath.

Peace quickly averted his eyes, focusing on the eerie Stalker shuffling toward them at a snail’s pace while Dita continued undressing.

Dita called out:

"Just cover up already, and don’t even think of giving it back."

Bringing his hand over his eyes, Peace looked back at her, peeking through his fingers.

’Oh, phew... she had clothes on underneath.’

Though it wasn’t much.

After redonning her armor, Dita had the Victorian equivalent of a black sports bra covering her chest, hidden beneath the leather chest piece, and it looked like nothing was under the leather tassets, but thankfully, he spotted the bottom half of the undergarment set. Other than that, she only had boots and thin shoulder plates.

She looked like she was wearing the kind of skimpy armor only seen in gooner games and anime.

’If only she weren’t doused in blood...’

"Quit staring and get dressed."

’Was I—? Oops...’

Peace looked down at the pants and tunic at his feet and quickly slipped them on.