Bab 38: Chapter 38 : Helping Hand
They arrived on another island with a tall tower peaking through the mountains. The building occupied the small island leaving only a little land around it. Gigantic stone pillars circling the tower with a gleaming blue sigil clear even from afar.
Vega didn't have time to admire the view in front of him and ran straight away toward Elder Yichen and bowed. "I'm going to take it from here, elder. He's my friend."
Elder Yichen caught his sister's eyes and finally nodded. Slowly he untied the rope, and Vega was ready to catch Dion, who flopped helplessly in his arms. Dion was still asleep, tired from crying the whole way here.
His mentor hugged him and slipped something in his hand and turned back. Professor Addilyn and her brother lifted their hands up and two different colors, blue and yellow, raised from the stone pillars intertwined together. Barrier shimmered from the ground up slowly.
But Vega didn't dawdle outside. After he received the key and a note from his mentor he went toward the door and glanced one more time toward the glimmering light and had a glimpse of huge ancient writing similar to what he saw on practitioners' talismans written in red ink splattered on the other side of the stone pillars. But he didn't waste any more time and pushed the door open and went inside.
A relaxing melody vibrated in the air keeping Dion asleep. Finally, he saw what was inside the tower.
The grand hall had warm red color with colorful windows shining a different hue inside the hall. Four majestic chairs lined up on a stone dais at the back of the room. On their side, two tube-like contraptions had glass walls reaching the top floor. A huge chandelier emitting a constant hum of mana hung from the high ceiling, casting a warm glow across the room. The floor was wooden shiny planks making the room looked formal even from where he stood.
When he walked across the room, his boots tapped echoing in the grand hall. Because the tube-like contraptions were too similar, he chose the left one instead and when he approached closer, the glass door opened automatically.
Inside, he stood on a platform looking toward several buttons with numbers written on them. After observing the note, he pressed the number 27. The glass door closed and he heard a clicking sound and a slight vibration on his feet and suddenly the platform shot upward. It was a little shocking and he almost lost focus on the melody he kept humming on the way.
The journey was fast, only for several breaths and the platform stopped abruptly. But the knight training he had from Dion kept him from falling down. When the glass door opened, he saw a hallway with several wooden doors lined up in certain order. It reminded him of the scene where he first arrived at the academy when the key glowed leading him toward the correct room. When it finally stopped glowing, Vega reached the door and unlocked it open.
The room was smaller than his new room in the academy, but the bed was huge. It could fit two people sleeping together without needing to touch each other.
Vega put Dion slowly on the bed, and looking at the state of his clothes, he searched for something in his ring. Luckily, he still had his old hanfu, which he got when he visited the sect with his mentor. Heading toward another door, he found where the bathroom was. After experimenting with the sigils, he set the water a little warm and went back to the bedroom and found the bed was empty.
He dropped his bucket, ran toward the other side, and found Dion crawling down on the floor. Reaching forward, he lifted the boy up but found resistance.
"What are you doing?" He questioned while still trying to use all of his power to lift his friend up. Even without the power on his legs, Dion was still more powerful compared to him.
"It's okay. I don't need your pity. I just need to be alone for now."
Dion tried to push Vega, but Vega didn't bulge. "Stop! I don't care what you want. You sleep here, and I go!" He snapped at Dion, who stared at him incredulously and stopped crawling.
Vega realized what he had done and apologized, "I'm sorry. What I mean is I'll be with you even if you don't want me." With a push of his strength, he hoisted Dion back and carried the flailing noble, and put him on the bed.
"Stop it, please. I'm trying to help you here."
"No! I don't want you to look at me like that.
"What? Like I'm finally showing compassion?" Vega asked feeling a little guilty.
Dion nodded.
"I'm sorry, okay. I told you about it before when I was visiting you in the sect. I had too many bad experiences with nobles before, so even though you treated me nicely, I couldn't control my expression. Here, let me help you."
Dion started to push Vega with his body, but without power in his arms and legs, it was useless.
"Listen. I'm going to change your clothes. So stop moving around. I didn't want to touch anything that I'm not supposed to."
With that statement, Dion stopped moving.
Vega slowly untied the blue cloth wrapped around Dion's waist. Dion still struggled to keep Vega's hands off him. But after several tries, Vega succeeded in opening the dirty robe and throwing it on the floor.
Admiring the toned muscles on Dion's body, Vega shook his head and, with a little bit of magic, moved the spilled water in its bucket over to him. When he felt the water had started to get cold, he stared at Dion, who showed a beat-red face naked on the bed.
"Don't go anywhere. The water had turned cold already. And what are you embarrassed about? We're both guys, and it's not my first time looking at someone without clothes in front of me. Listen Dion. I'm your friend. So please stay here, okay."
Vega stared at his friend, waiting. Dion finally nodded, his cheek still red and looking like a tomato. Vega made sure to open the door to the bathroom, and while waiting for the bucket to fill, he paid attention to the bed.
Dion helplessly lay there on the bed without moving.
Vega finally went back and slowly kneeled beside the bed. After making sure the water was still warm, He washed Dion slowly, making sure he didn't put too much pressure on the skin that had turned blue because of the bruises.
After cleaning the body, he asked Dion slowly, Listen, I'm going to turn you over to wash the back side, okay?"
Dion nodded.
Vega pushed Dion's waist and turned the noble over. The noble's back was even worse than what his mentor had described. Several scars lined up and intersected on his back. Near his neck, a huge scar started to scab.
Vega cleaned the back slower, being careful not to touch the scars around his neck and let it dry. Taking out his potion, he mixed the warm water with some of the liquid from the potion and finally tapped the scar slowly with the mixture.
After he finished, he pulled Dion back to an upright position and slowly lifted his neck, making Dion sit down on the bed. After putting the arms inside the sleeves, Vega tied the hanfu with a new green cloth.
Dion finally looked like his usual self.
"Now sleep. I think my potion was not stronger than my mentors, but I hope it will make your wound heal faster."
Vega cleaned the whole bed with a slight wave of his hand, sucking up all the water from the bed, and went back to the bathroom to take a shower himself.
After he went out, he was glad that Dion was still there, lying on the bed with his eyes looking at the ceiling.
"Stop that. "Go to sleep."
Dion looked at him and finally smiled. Vega went toward the door when he heard Dion call him.
"What?"
"Where are you going?"
"Of course, to my room. Do you really want me to sleep here and disturb your sleep?" Vega heard several times that he slept loud.
"Yes," Dion whispered.
"What?"
Please go to sleep here. I don't really want to be alone now."
Vega didn't know what to do, so he sat on the other side of the bed and lay there.
Even though the bed felt soft and he was tired, it was really weird sleeping with someone you had seen naked. Vega stared at the ceiling, waiting until Dion was asleep, and then moved back to his room.
The room started to turn dark. Vega stood up, trying to close the curtain.
"No. Don't go!" Dion stared at him.
"You still haven't slept? I'm not going anywhere. I just need to close the curtain first."
Vega approached the window and closed the curtain, glancing at the full moon shining brightly surrounded by white clouds.
He went back to the bed and waited.
"Vega. "Do you think I can use my sword again?"
"Huh?" Vega glanced at Dion, who stayed in the same position, staring at the ceiling.
"I hope so. But Dion, listen. I know the feeling of having lost something. Even if you can't hold the sword again, you were an adept before becoming a practitioner. Yes, you were a knight, but we're going to figure this out together. Even I don't know what's going to happen after this."
Dion nodded. "Thank you. "I know you are going to go back to your room, but I really want you to sleep here."
"Okay. We finally share our room after you offered me the first time, yeah." Vega joked.
Dion chuckled. "Yes, but I didn't know that the circumstances would be different."
Vega finally relaxed, humming a relaxing melody to make sure Dion fell asleep before him. When he finally heard the faint snore from the noble, he smiled. He laid his head on the pillow and waited until the darkness swallowed him.
But instead, his heart beat faster. He felt his heart beating and glanced to his right and saw Dion sleeping there soundly with a smile plastered on his face. He smiled and observed that the noble's chest went up and down in the same rhythm as his heart.
He didn't know what was happening, but he felt a knot in his stomach looking at the sleeping figure. He felt cold suddenly, and his chest hurt from needing something more.
He turned around on his bed. Knowing that Dion's presence didn't help him sleep, he sat on the bed instead and meditated.
Finally, his mind turned quiet, and he went to sleep.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
strigidae713
strigidae713 Enjoy! I'll put an extra chapter on Thursday.
Status Power Mingguan
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Power 
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