Chapitre 22: Aftermaths
Chapter 22: Aftermaths
'Is it morning already? Ugh.' William regretted opening his eyes.
His body felt tired as if he hadn't slept at all. He realized that he was not at his house, although he recognized the place.
"This is... Old Neil's house." He muttered to himself as he looked around. He was quite familiar with the house due to his lessons with the old man. "But it's strange, he shouldn't have been injured so badly that I felt this way. Perhaps it was due to blood loss?"
But his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.
"Darling! You're finally awake!" William could feel the relief in Debris's voice, and that surprised him since she should have known his condition at all times.
'Debris, what happened to me? Why did I pass out?' He asked her directly, she could read his thoughts anyway.
"I heard the one you call Captain say that you had been poisoned." That made a lot of sense, considering Assassins specialized in stealth killing. "I'm sorry, Darling, I couldn't do anything, and I didn't even notice the poison to warn you."
William calmly got up from the bed, noticing in the process that he was wearing some kind of pajamas.
'It's fine, but we should take this experience so something similar doesn't happen again in the future.'
He had been closer to death than he thought. If the assassin had had a faster-acting poison, he doubted he would have won the fight.
The door to the room opened at that moment, and Old Neil entered, his face full of wrinkles but with a friendly expression.
"Oh, you woke up earlier than I expected." He told him, though he didn't seem too surprised. "You have a strong body."
"Good morning, Old Neil." William suddenly felt uncomfortable, Old Neil had probably had to work overtime to take care of him. 'I wonder if I should pay him for it.'
The older man nodded with a smile.
"Good morning. You must still be tired from the poison, it will do you good to eat something." He motioned for William to follow him.
"Poison?" William questioned since he had to pretend that he didn't know anything.
"That's right. That guy was quite prepared to kill you, but you handled him quite well. You also managed to get to the headquarters carrying him alive and thanks to that we were able to get information from him." Old Neil congratulated him and sounded quite impressed. "Honestly, sometimes I doubt you're the newest to join."
William gave a nervous laugh.
"I'm not entirely proud of it. He caught me off guard and almost killed me due to my lack of experience, even if he was far inferior to me in combat." It was not false modesty, after all, it was true.
Old Neil looked at him kindly.
"Don't blame yourself for that. Your pathway may be dedicated to combating, but others are much more complicated and mysterious. If you remain a Nighthawk, you'll soon realize that they all have their strengths and weaknesses." They sat down at a table where there was some bread and jam. "All pathways have their style, and it is the responsibility of the Beyonder in question to bring those abilities to a certain level of mastery."
William ate in silence while he listened to Old Neil.
"That man was not a normal Beyonder, rather he was a member of the Theosophy Order." This surprised William, as he did not remember anything about an organization with that name. "Thanks to you we were able to discover quite a few things. For example, the Theosophy Order is a branch of the Demoness Sect."
William took a deep breath, and a little cold sweat broke out on his back.
The Demoness Sect was an extremely nefarious organization. They worshiped the Primordial Demoness, an unorthodox Goddess who was also considered very evil. They were widely known even if in theory they were a secret organization.
"Should I worry about them coming for me?" William asked, hoping it wasn't as bad as he imagined.
"I don't think so. Even if you've dealt with one of their members, he's just someone from a branch, plus he was just a Sequence 9." Old Neil reassured him. "You did the right thing. The Church is quite pleased with you and might even reward you with the necessary ingredients when you want to reach Sequence 8."
This managed to cheer William up a bit, though inside he was still worried. He sighed, realizing that the Beyonder world was far more complex and dangerous than he already knew.
"By the way, how did you get the poison out of me?" He asked. This was not just out of simple curiosity, but he would like to know how to do it too, just in case he one day needed it.
Old Neil took a sip of coffee before answering.
"Frye has some medical skills, apparently. He quickly detected the poison and extracted it." He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "I didn't know he was capable of doing that, he usually only deals with corpses."
William made a quick mental note to thank the pale man. Then he remembered something.
"Oh, has the Captain received the items I got during the mission?" He shot up from his chair with a look of concern. "There is one that can be dangerous."
Old Neil just laughed at William's concern.
"You worry too much, man. The Captain has years of experience with it, he knows better than to touch an object with unknown Beyonder powers. He's sealed them in Chanis Gate until you woke up so you could explain the effects." He explained, again easing William's concerns, who was already beginning to think of Old Neil as his psychologist.
"That's great, then. I should go see the Captain now." He got up intending to leave. "Come over to my house one of these days, Neil. I'll cook you my stew again as thanks for taking care of me."
Old Neil's eyes strangely seemed to shine like stars.
"Is that so? I won't hold back then." He agreed immediately, causing William to chuckle a bit. "By the way, your clothes are there. You don't want to go outside in your pajamas, do you?"
William looked at himself and had indeed forgotten that detail. A couple of minutes later, he was ready to go.
"See you soon." He waved goodbye to Old Neil, who waved back.
He set foot on the street and felt the tiredness return to him. It was strange that he felt so tired, he didn't feel that way even when he spent a sleepless night.
"William Hastur. It's a pleasure to meet you." An extremely soothing and pious voice came from in front of him, causing him to look up.
In front of him was a man wearing a simple white cloak. He had golden hair and a magnificent beard of the same color. His eyes seemed as pure and innocent as a child's but something in them shook William's soul. He was wearing a silver cross necklace as if he were a priest.
William stood still as a statue. He felt calm just seeing the stranger but at the same time, he felt a primordial fear that could only come from his most primal instincts.
"Darling...Run." His fears were confirmed when Debris's voice sounded in his head with an emotion he had never heard in her tone, panic.
--------------------
Sorry about the punctuation marks, I know there are probably quite a few mistakes with them but it's hard for me to correct because in Spanish they work differently. I hope you understand and I don't mind if you ever correct me.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone