================================Leraje's P.O.V====================================

It had been 2 hours since i ended up in this wooden hut of hers she introduced herself as artemis she didn't seem to have a surname so i didn't really question her i could see my bloody sack next to the bed only 2 steps away from me my injury and the sack probably showed obvious signs of who i am but she didn't really seem to care either it seemed...

Other then that the hut was as normal as it can get the woman with red hair and the most green eyes that i had ever seen was just cooking something on the other end of the hut my weapons were also located on the other end of the hut with my upper clothes that were hung to dry...

I looked towards the red haired woman she was humming while stirring the stew she was making...

-Why did you save you could have given me to the guards and taken the coin for it too.

My voice held contempt in it i never liked pity especially if someone pities me which made me sometimes furious too.

She stopped her stirring for a moment and looked at my direction her eyes held indifference when she looked at me but also loneliness she turned back to her stew and continued to stir it.

-Why should i ? isn't it normal to help someone if they are in need ?

Her answer was alien towards someone like me i was in the literally sense the embodiment of evil i did what i want to do and killed when i needed it or just felt like it everything comes with a price even if they didn't show it.

I didn't answer her and just kept quite she also stopped talking and i continued looking around the hut especially for my daggers that were placed with my other equipment i tried to move more then once but soon discovered that all of my strength and body muscles were too weak to be able to move the poison probably weakened my vitality a lot...

I looked towards the woman again...no artemis she was preparing the dinner and filled a bowl with her brown stew.

If she didn't had found me or gave me that medicine i probably would have died at that very moment...

-Hey are you still there big boy ?

I looked towards the the red head she was holding the stew in front of me with a wooden spoon in hand i really wanted to just hit the whole bowl away but unfortunately i wasn't strong enough to even move my arms instead i just turned my face away from her she didn't seem to mind and said.

-This stew has a lot of medical herbs mixed into it so it should be able to help you somewhat but your still going to stay in bed for the next 7 days

I quickly turned to her in disbelieve... 7 DAYS ?! As i did that i could see a sly smile on her face as she announced

-haha gotcha !

She grabbed my cheeks with her one hand her strength was monstrous i couldn't move my head anywhere and because my body was in almost paralyzed state i had no way of resisting her.She placed the bowl next to me and started forcefully feeding me in which i started to spit the food out of my mouth which got both of us dirty.

i could see her getting a bit agitated by my behavior it was better this way but then something unexpected happened.

-You wanna do it the hard way huh

She gripped me harder and shoved the spoon into my mouth blocking both my nose and mouth at the same time i did not have any other choice but to swallow the stew which honestly tasted very good in the end i stopped resisting and just ate the stew in silence.

When i finished eating she looked very satisfied and nodded to herself continuing to do something on her side i was still watching my equipment to the most part knowing very well that i could not take it and leave this place for that i would need a full recovery which took time...

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4 days later

Artemis didn't joke when she said it would take 7 days to get fully healed even now i am only able to make very faint movements with my body and artemis continued to feed me in which i already stopped complain she even wiped my clean once which i found very frustrating because i started to feel embarrassed because of it making her even more amused.

I was never good with woman and she was even more then a woman that i could tell.She and i didn't talk much i was never a talkative person to begin with but the atmosphere between us was not bad she seemed to be able to understand me without saying anything making me even more uncomfortable then it was.

I didn't really get a chance to leave the bed it was also the only bed in this hut she would often just sleep on the ground next to me her faint breathing sound and sleeping was always made me go to a trance for some reason she was a odd woman who would let a murderer in her hut knowing very well that he is a criminal and about the head that i carried with me it was already disposed of i personally asked her to just throw it away because of the smell she didn't say anything and just took the head and returned after an hour or so our current understanding between is was really strange.

These past 4 days i only observed her because of pure boredom she seemed to be a ordinary girl who lived in the woods i never asked her why she was here because i knew very well the world was full of tragedies that befall anyone who was dumb enough to walk into a dark alleyway no matter if king or peasant this is how the world works and everyone accepted it how it was.

Artemis would wake up in the morning and starting going out with her bow to hunt some game she would came back and it would always be a different expression when she came back sometimes she would catch a deer which made her really happy and sometimes she would only get a rabbit in which she frowned on it but in the end she would always come with something and make food out of it her home was really big for a hut there were a lot of pelts in this hut ranging from big grizzly pelts to small rabbit skin her attire for the most part was also hardened leather with a bow made out of willow when she returned from her hunt she would always start changing her clothing to casual clothing right in front of me which made me look to the other way out of embarrassment i could always hear giggle when i looked the other way red to my face she had no shyness concerning her body by freely teasing me.

Its not like she is ugly no she is one of the most striking woman i had seen so far i even thought elysaa was the most beautiful one i had ever seen but artemis just knocked her from the competition with her wild look and body curves...

Anyways after she finished changing she would proceed making dinner for us and as i said we wouldn't talk much other then exchanging 3 or 4 sentences a day she was the complete opposite from what i imagined a woman like to be when i was a guild leader and got out drinking with my fellow members some of them would always start complaining about their wives how their nagging them all day long and how it was hard for them to get a girl because you needed to look good and have your mouth running until she would agree to something for you...

In comparison to those girls artemis was like a straight sword the edge blunt to the point you could feel it bashing you like a club....sorry i don't really have a good example.

Her being silent did not mean she was emotionless or boring she had her moments when she would burn herself from the pot in the fire place and start whimpering or when she would start sewing new clothing and finish it painstakingly to make a happy sound she was a girl with all kinds of likes and dislikes with many flaws and good points a good person should i say ? But she also had her cheeky moments when she started picking the carrots in her soup into my soup for me to eat at first i thought she wanted me to heal faster but then realized when we were eating that she didn't like carrots at all which made me want to question her why did she put the carrots in the soup first place !?

I didn't particularly mind it that much but she sure was an odd person when it came to it.

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2 days later

Artemis and i were sitting next to each other eating stew again this girl only ate liquid food for the last 6 days and so did i knew she was only doing this to make me heal faster but i still kinda felt bad for she herself didn't really seem to mind that much and just ate happily next to me i also started to be able to move my body a bit better and ate using my own hand to move the spoon tomorrow would be the day i would be able to make a full recovery just as she said.

-hey does it taste good ?

While i was eating the stew artemis asked me out of nowhere she and i never really talked all that much about useless things nor about ourselves or who we are it made communicating with her much easier sometimes and in other times it would be really hard to get to the right words with her.

I looked at her smiling face since the day she took me in i only stayed her not doing anything but recovering she rescued my life not asking anything for return i more then once offered her gold treasures and many other items for my sign of gratitude which she always declined with her slime she never felt burdened when seeing me i was good at seeing someones intention through their eyes she held sincereness in her eyes which made me sometimes really uncomfortable.

For me smiling was like admitting your weakness showing that you have a weak point where you can be pierced through more then once i had seen quote "trust is a dagger pointed at your heart" i had learned from my mistakes and used the anger from them to forge myself into the man who i was today but she...

I smiled at her and said.

-Yes its very tasty i like it a lot

She is more then a dagger to me she is an arrow that had already stung me hard to the deepest part of my heart.

She smiled even more and nodded to me we finished eating and didn't continue talking afterwards and just sat there enjoying the heat of the fire place.

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Today was the final day i had already recovered 85% of my strength but i still waited artemis also insisted on it.

It was currently night time artemis was sleeping on the ground next to me i tried to tell her that she should take the bed instead but she refused that too this woman was really headstrong if i had to say it but it was also one of the things i like about her.

The night was long and i never really slept it was because i was a demon we never sleep because we don't need to we only sleep when we need to recover somewhat we could go without sleep for 2 months until we actually needed it.

-uhh aghh...no....

I looked towards artemis surprised i could see her move in her makeshift bed sweat was coming out of her forehead she was having a nightmare it seemed.

-...

I slowly stood up from my bed and took the pillow with me setting it beside artemis laying down next to her she wiggled around and finally stopped getting blocked by my body she was still sweating from the nightmare so i embraced her she moaned a bit and soon calmed down in my embrace i patted her long straight red hair until she stopped moaning and she did...

She was breathing faintly like a small animal i smiled at no one really particular more like mocking myself.

-In the end we both ended sleeping on the ground huh...

That night i guarded artemis but in the process of doing so for some reason i felt tired and slept with her in my embrace.

In the next morning i was supposed to be on my way i felt lonely and sad thinking about it.

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