Chapter 179 Keep her!

I am truly sorry! >"<

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"Runi has been acting strangely?" Erik turned his head to look at Meira. Before he could ask anything else, a gray-haired woman in a Healer’s robe walked over, clutching a medical chart to her chest, her face stern.

"Director, I have been looking everywhere for you."

"What happened in the Eastern emergency ward?" Meira immediately asked.

"The team leaders have taken over. The medicine stores have also sent more supplies. What I need now is for you to go back to your room and rest for one hour."

Meira frowned. "I still have patients."

"This hospital does not have only one Healer." The deputy director pushed the report into her hands. "You have been using mana continuously since this afternoon, and you just had to handle a large wave of wounded. If you collapse in the emergency room, we will have one more particularly difficult patient to manage."

Erik nearly laughed. Meira shot him a glance, making him immediately straighten his expression.

Meira looked at the report and finally had no choice but to return it. "One hour. Call me if there is an emergency."

"Take Sir Erik to rest as well. Looking at the two of you, I cannot tell who the actual patient is anymore."

Only after the deputy director had walked away did Erik speak quietly. "It seems your subordinates care about you a lot."

"Master can still laugh?" Meira continued pushing the wheelchair.

Erik obediently sat up straight. The small resting room behind Meira’s office had a single bed, a sofa, and a medicine cabinet. Through the gap in the curtains, the silver light of the scarred protective dome shone down upon rooftops that still smoked. The sound of ambulance sirens echoed faintly from afar.

Meira put a private lock on the door. She walked in front of the wheelchair and crouched down, seeming as though she wanted to say something before stopping herself. In the end, she only lowered her head and rested her forehead against Erik’s knee, both hands lightly placed on his thighs.

Erik froze. Since the outpost, he had only seen Meira running around, giving orders, healing people, and worrying about everyone. This was the first time she had sat quietly before him without finding something to do. When he placed his left hand on her golden hair, her fingers suddenly trembled ever so slightly.

"Meira?"

"Just give me a moment, Master." Her voice was choked. "A moment is enough."

Erik slowly stroked her hair and did not ask further. After a while, Meira finally raised her head. The dark circles beneath her green eyes could no longer be concealed.

"You should sleep right now," he said.

"I will sleep." Meira gave a weak smile. "But before that, we need to talk about Runi."

Erik’s smile faded. She pulled over a chair and sat opposite him, remaining close so they would not have to speak loudly.

"To be honest, I thought something was strange too," he said slowly. "Today, the child has been acting as if she is guessing the answers I want to hear. I thought she was just tired."

"There is something else." Meira lowered her voice. "There is a very strange smell on Runi."

"A strange smell?"

"It is not disinfectant, nor blood or stone dust. It is cold and faint, like the damp air beneath a cellar that has never known light." Meira frowned. "At the outpost, I smelled that scent on your wounds."

Then she suddenly leaned toward him, her nose nearly touching his collar.

Sniff.

"...Meira?"

"Don’t move. When the chandelier fell, she was the one standing closest to you."

Sniff. Sniff.

The tip of her nose moved from his collar to his shoulder, then lingered for quite some time at his splinted hand. Erik sat stiffly in the wheelchair, cold sweat breaking out down the back of his neck. Earlier that afternoon at the mansion, she had clung to him like a small dog guarding its food. Now she was sniffing all over him like a hunting hound.

’This is bad. She has really turned into a dog.’

"Fine." Meira finally sat upright, her expression as serious as if she had just completed a diagnosis. "Master only smells of medicine, smoke... and Felyn."

She narrowed her eyes.

"I will let that one pass."

"...Thank you for your generosity." Erik wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Meira laughed, but her smile faded quickly. "I also heard the report from the Healer in charge of the isolation room. The black-haired female soldier you saved has awakened. She is extremely panicked and keeps saying that the one controlling her can leave one host and ’borrow’ another body."

Meira looked straight into his eyes. "Does that match the one you fought?"

Erik recalled the woman with long silver-white hair, a glossy black body, and a red cross on her face. She had regenerated after Thunder Eagle, then fled just before he collapsed.

"It matches." He exhaled. "She said the female soldier’s body was only something she borrowed to get close to a man. I destroyed her body, but I did not destroy her."

"I considered that possibility." Meira lowered her gaze to her hands. "When I examined Runi’s scratch in the waiting area, I quietly used my GOD Talent to observe the rhythm of the mana inside her. I only dared to touch it very lightly, afraid that whatever was inside would notice."

"I heard two rhythms." Meira tapped two fingers against the tabletop, each tap slow. "One was small, very weak but steady, like Runi’s mana that I have examined before. The other covered it from the outside, cold and spreading like an oil slick over water. They are in the same body, but they have not fused together."

Erik looked at her for a long time. "Then the real Runi is still alive?"

"I believe so. At the very least, the child’s distinct trace has not vanished. But I do not know where her consciousness is, or whether she can hear us."

"Can we separate that thing from her?"

"If it were on its own, I could try to seal it. But those black mana strands are wrapped deep within Runi’s channels. Striking it directly would be like tearing out a tree’s roots after they have taken hold of someone’s heart. Runi may be the first one to suffer harm." Meira paused. "I do not yet have a way to separate them safely, Master."

Erik looked at the silver scars in the sky outside. At the outpost, he had nearly gambled with his life just to save an unfamiliar female soldier from those tentacles. Now, it was Runi’s turn.

"I wonder what the child has had to endure," he said softly.

Meira reached out and took his left hand, not rushing to find words of comfort. Only after a while did Erik raise his head again, his gaze calmer.

"We will not expose it yet."

Meira was slightly surprised. "You want to keep it here?"

"At least for now. If it really can borrow another body, making a scene would be no different from warning it to run. It could abandon Runi in critical condition, then approach someone else without us knowing. The hospital is full of wounded tonight."

"But letting it stay near you is also very dangerous."

"I know. That is why we will not simply ignore it." Erik looked at Meira. "We need to know who it came for, what it wants, and whether anyone is behind it. At the outpost, it could have killed me while I was exhausted. But it ran away instead."

He still remembered the Primal Charm notification from that day, but nothing guaranteed that its effect would last forever.

"It could also be acting."

"Of course. But if it is truly learning something from us, I want to understand why before we make a move."

Meira let out a soft sigh. "What is Master’s plan?"

"Inform Laviana privately and have her Serpent Eye take turns watching. Do not let Runi be alone with anyone vulnerable, while everything at home continues normally. You will check the real Runi’s mana rhythm every day and find a way to separate that thing without hurting the child."

"What about Elowen and Felyn?"

"Do not tell them yet. Elowen will want to capture it immediately, while Felyn is very close to Runi. I do not want her to have to hide her worry in front of it."

"One condition." Meira tightened her grip on his hand. "Master is not allowed to approach it on your own to experiment. Especially with your arm and ribs still injured like this. If anything happens, you have to call us."

Erik looked at that unusually serious expression and finally nodded. "I promise." Then he spoke in a very quiet voice, "It wants to see how we live. Then let it watch. But Runi, I will definitely bring her back."

Meira lowered her head and placed a light kiss on his uninjured fingers.

"I knew Master would say that."

As the tension finally settled, her fingers began trembling from exhaustion again.

"Now it is your turn. Go sleep."

"The deputy director did not forbid me from caring for someone close to me before I sleep." Meira smiled softly and lifted his left hand. "Master cannot even hold a spoon steadily right now. Let me help?"

"You have been healing people all night." Erik pulled his hand back. She only held it gently and did not stop him. "I do not need more magic. I need you to sleep."

Meira removed her hair tie, letting her golden hair fall down her back, then dimmed the lights. Playfulness still lingered on her lips, but her eyes were weary.

"I will rest. But before that, I want to tell you something honestly." Meira raised a hand to touch her chest. "When you leapt out of the wheelchair and fell amid the shattered glass to hold Felyn, I was so afraid. I understand better than anyone how fragile that arm and those ribs are. Yet the moment you see someone else in danger, you forget everything."

"I did not forget," Erik replied softly. "I just cannot bear seeing them get hurt right in front of me."

"I know. That is exactly why I am afraid."

Erik fell silent. He looked at his splinted right hand for a long time.

"Meira, you realized it too, didn’t you?"

She did not ask what he was referring to.

"My GOD Talent," Erik continued. "Anyone who forms a Contract with me awakens once. That is part of my ability. The rest... I will tell you later."

"I realized it a long time ago," Meira replied very softly. "It was only because Master had not said anything that I did not ask."

Erik laughed, but there was no joy in it.

"It is funny. I can make the people beside me stronger, I can borrow all of your strength to fight. Yet today, the sky cracked, homes collapsed, Saraya is lying in the intensive care room, and Runi was taken over by that thing right beneath my eyes. Meanwhile, I am sitting in this wheelchair, unable to even hold a spoon steadily." He clenched his left hand. "I have power, yet I still feel useless."

Meira stood up. She bent down and used both hands to lift his face, forcing him to look directly at her.

"Master, look at me."

"If the Creator God wanted you to bear everything alone, He would have given you the strength of a thousand people. But He did not. He gave you a power that makes those standing beside you stronger." Her voice was slow, every word clear. "That means He does not want you to be alone. He wants us to build this world with you, to protect it with you."

Erik was stunned.

"You are not useless." Meira’s thumb gently stroked his cheek. "You are the reason we can still stand here. So when your hands cannot lift anything, let us lift it for you."

For a long time, Erik could not say a word. He only closed his eyes, letting his forehead rest against her palm.

Meira hesitated for a moment. "Can I hold you for a little while? Not as a Healer, nor as the director. I just want to know that Master is still here."

"All right. But do not press against my sore ribs."

"I know."

Meira hugged him over his left shoulder, avoiding his splinted arm. She lowered herself, allowing her cheek and soft breasts to rest lightly against Erik’s uninjured shoulder. Her golden hair brushed over his neck, carrying the faint scent of herbs. He leaned gently into her, feeling his breathing finally slow.

"I thought you were going to scold me some more," he said.

"I still want to scold you." Meira laughed softly by his ear. "But today, I want to keep Master in my arms more."

She pulled back just enough to look directly into his eyes. "If I want to be a little closer to you, Master, would you agree?"

Erik looked at her for a moment, then smiled faintly. "How am I supposed to refuse when you ask that with this face?"

"Then that means you agree." Meira pressed her forehead against his, her green eyes carrying a trace of happiness after a night filled with fear. "This time, let me take the initiative."

Meira’s scent drifted into Erik’s nose as their lips slowly moved closer together, then...