บท 38: Rushing Things
They did the last part of the sea travel on the two little boats Charlotte thought were there in case of emergency.
The yacht had more people than she initially imagined. More than thirty workers came out to help and make sure everything was going smoothly the moment they prepared to part. The hidden place could only be called a resort, it was a big house with vehicles and a swimming pool
They couldn't stay much longer, they bid farewell to Kent, his two personal bodyguards and the butler, Martin. He was the one Charlotte and Gut interacted with the most, he was apparently assigned to assist them. Though Kent had offered them a ride to the closest city, Roraillevante, Gut said no to his kindness. She was too tired already and didn't want to bother anymore with pretenses.
On the other hand, Gut had discovered Kent was somehow connected to Paversia, the goods he had stolen from the government of Gercia were some new developed weapons someone in Paversia desired, paying Kent enough to forget his safe and normal life in Gercy. Gut didn't want to be mingled much more with him, something could go wrong if anyone noticed them, so the best solution was parting as soon as possible.
After being denied his goodwill, Kent didn't insist on it but still gave them a tent to spend the night without much worries and food to last them for two days, taking into account Charlotte's appetite. He parted soon after that.
They started to walk, getting as far away as possible from the beach house and from prying eyes. As soon as they couldn't see the house or anyone resembling an intelligent life, Charlotte fell to her side. Gut was aware of her weak self so he was ready to catch her. He frowned when he felt her temperature. She was burning, with a serious fever on herself. Looking at her face, he saw how the powder of her makeup was falling to the floor, as if it was sand being carried by the air.
He held her tight and sat her next to a tropical tree close to them. He proceeded to start mounting the tent, even though he had planned to walk a little bit more towards Roraillevante this night, with Charlotte with that high of a fever, there was nothing much he could do. Putting it together took him less than five minutes. He then carried Charlotte inside and undressed her. She was sweating a lot, she needed a bath as quickly as possible. So he started to work on it.
She fell unconscious on the spot, and it wasn't until the midday heat inside the tent the next day that she was awoken. She felt froggy and fuzzy, without much energy and her body hurting a lot.
"Ugh…" She groaned, touching her forehead with her hand.
"Oh, the little lady is finally awake." Gut said from outside the tent.
She was currently alone in the tent and was only wearing her panties and a blanket that had covered her before sitting up. When she wanted to get up, an uncontrollable headache made impossible for her to muster any strength on her body. Suddenly feeling the pangs of hunger, her tummy protested. She looked at the monstrous sound and realized her current attire, or lack of it.
"Why am I nude…? No, what happened to me?" She asked Gut on the outside, hoping to get some answers.
"What happened to you, I am not sure, you suddenly fainted and got a severe fever all day long, we have been here for almost a full day now, we got enough water at the very least and you drank it without a problem. As for why are you nude, you drenched three sets of clothes in at most fifteen minutes. I decided to leave you like that until you got better."
Hearing him going on and on about what happened to her, she couldn't help but be scared of what was happening inside her 'soul'.
"I… I overexerted myself… Sorry for the nuisance..." She said weakly, not having much energy to keep herself in a sitting position she tumbled on the sheets she was using as a bed. "Hey, can I have something to eat?"
"Ha ha ha, if you can eat already, then you are good enough. How many dishes you want?" He started moving on the outside of the tent.
"...Everything." She said while blushing, she didn't know how much food exactly they had, but she was at her weakest ever and couldn't help but want to eat the world.
"..." Gut was silent for a full minute before continuing. "Okay, prepare yourself then, there is a lot."
"Thanks…"
She closed her eyes but didn't fall asleep. She was more worried about her vision than her fever right now. She tried to enter the Crystal's Space but there was nothing. She panicked a little and opened her eyes, looking around she didn't find the crystal she had dubbed as her daughter around her.
<Where is Prism…?>
"Hey, where are the clothes I had on before passing out?" She asked Gut, who was preparing her food.
"I washed them, why?"
"...! C-can you bring them to me? Fast? Please? I need them now!" She was getting desperate at this point, if White Prism was lost, she didn't know what she would do. Everything she had done until now was for its sake, after all.
Gut brought her clothes back without delay, wondering what could have happened for her to hurry him like that.
Receiving the clothes, she searched for where she had put White Prism and found it in the pocket. She sighed in relief and held it, no, her to her bare chest.
"Really, please, never part from my side..." She said before feeling a soft breeze flow by her body.
She looked back and saw Gut staring at her actions. She froze for a moment.
"U-uhm, can I help you with something? I don't have anything on so please keep yourself away."
She motioned for him to leave and he left without spouting a word.
<He now knows… He knows this is very important and what I can do, so most likely he can guess Prism has something to do with it… I don't think he'll expose me but I need to be more cautious regardless…>
She put her head on the soft pillow he had prepared with their clothes and finally entered the Crystal's Space, she couldn't see properly anymore, way more than three quarters of her vision was black, she sighed to herself in impotence and started to try to get rid of it.
<I was almost finished with it before, and now this…>
Getting rid of these tired her physical body, and she was already bored of only doing the last ones without making any progress whatsoever.
<Hey, Prism, watch what I do and try to record it. Let's call it Soul Purification.>
She had tried that before but didn't have any results, so there was nothing else she could try but to manually do it.
She did it until she felt some tugging on herself. Opening her eyes, she saw Gut was looking at her, feeling without any protection, she remembered the state of her body, she blushed and told him to get out, as fast as possible. Once he was out, she put some clothes on and went out to eat. She saw there were three dishes already prepared, so she started to eat. After finishing the three, she thanked Gut and went inside the tent, though her belly wasn't fully pleased. She then entered the colorless space and started expelling the blackness of her vision.
She did the same five times when at the end of the sixth.
"There is no more food, you ate it all already…" Gut told her with a grave expression.
"...Oh, then, what do we do then?" she asked blankly, she was full after the third round but started being more aggressive to the black spot, so she tired faster and made the food be gone at an alarming rate.
She had just finished eating so she was still full, she hadn't spent any energy yet.
"I suggest we go to the closest city and you can keep on eating there."
"Right… How far is it?"
"From what Kent told me, we are around 20 kilometers from Roraillevante, we just need to follow the coast to the west and we will see it. We can also walk five kilometers northwest and arrive at a highway that connects to that city."
"... How long is it again?" She didn't know for how long they would need to walk to make that kind of distance, so it was better this question.
"If we go fast enough it would take us between one to five hours to walk 20 kilometers." He didn't get to finish his sentence and Charlotte was already up from her sitting spot.
"Then it's not that much, let's go." She went in to the tent to get all her things packed.
It was already 8 at night, so if they hurried, they would be there at 9 at the fastest. That was what she was hoping for.
Getting her things ready, she waited until Gut disassembled the tent, put the disguise on her face and started walking in the direction he pointed, her bag was bigger than his but he was carrying the tent, so they were even on the weight.
Gut was surprised at her pace, she was almost jogging all the time, without showing much exhaustion, only when they were around one kilometer away from the city's entrance did her breath start to become rugged.
It had taken them almost two hours to arrive, so she was happy when she saw it being so close and started trotting towards it. No one would believe Gut if he said she was on a serious fever all day long. She had so much stamina and energy!
Once in the city, they started to search for a place to stay the night. Which they found when it was eleven and a half. The hotel they found was big enough to be called a luxury but didn't have a full-time restaurant. So they couldn't help but go to their room and sleep as soon as they arrived.
*****
The next day, she woke up feeling her body being tired, but not as much as the day before. She went to the bathroom and took a shower, to wash away all the sweat she had of the previous two days. Once she was over with, she looked at the mirror and saw her face a bit slimmer than before. She decided to not mind it for the moment, she liked her oval face more but she had important things to do now.
She put on some knickers and a camisole and went out of the room with her hair still dripping wet.
"Hey! Gut! I need to eat, don't spare anything and keep 'em coming until I say I'm full!" She shouted at him, not caring a bit about his expression.
"... How many dishes do you want again?" He said after resigning himself for the act that was to come.
"The same as yesterday! Uh, two? Each hour!" She answered resolutely as she sat cross legged on her bed.
"You ate three each hour, so, two or three?" He asked, not sure of what to do, eating three dishes was plenty enough, but now she wanted to eat the same amount each hour, and he didn't know for how long it would be.
She glared at him, "The same as yesterday!" and then closed her eyes to continue doing what she must.
Looking at her face, he couldn't help but wonder what she was doing with that posture she had right then. She was meditating right then, there was no doubt. He didn't know that for her to get into that blank state, she needed to meditate.
<So she can meditate without having a correct posture, huh.>
He then realized that if he was to call for food, they would need to get into the room, and she was without her disguise. Sighing at her carelessness, he went to put it on her. After it was ready, he called the hotel's reception and asked for food.
Once Charlotte was inside the Crystal's Space, she felt she was being touched, calling forth the External Projection, she saw Gut had his brushes and powders out, realizing what he was doing, she let him be and started taking out that blackness that bothered her to no end.
They were already on Igny, far from Gercia and its conflicts. In here she could go without much trouble, she hoped.
She did this all day long, having nine dinners throughout the day, eating a total of twenty-seven dishes. She had reduced the blackness considerably, only her peripheral vision still had some of it left. When she finished the ninth and was about to start on the tenth cycle, she was stopped by Gut, again. She looked at him in anger and was about to open her mouth when he shut her up with his words.
"Please, look at yourself in the mirror before continuing. You look like you suffer from a several case anorexia. I do not know what to say."
Doing what he requested, she went to the room's mirror, feeling herself way lighter than she remembered, she felt as if her body could go on flying with a little breeze, her legs shaking with every step and her hands feeling weak. Seeing herself in the mirror, she couldn't say anything. Anorexia was a compliment to what she looked like right now.
Her extremities didn't have any fat, only bones and the blood vessels transporting the blood. Her chest was almost nonexistent, having been reduced to a precarious state. Her face was as ugly as it could become, her cheeks were sucked in and her cheek bones seemed to be a protrusion so big it appeared she had a deformity. She moved her hand and saw her reflection moving it, making sure it was her the one being reflected. To make matters worse, her belly was big, as if it had a baby wanted to be delivered.
He hadn't told anything to her because she was practically normal before the ninth cycle, yes, she was slimmer, but still not at that point. During the ninth, she started looking more and more like a mummy with each passing minute. It was as if all her cells were inflated until then and now the air inside was going out. He decided to stop the madness at that point.
"... This…"
She wanted to cry, she looked horrific! Like a monster on one of the games or horror movies!
"What have I become...?" She looked back at Gut with her destroyed face, eyes unfocussed and trembling lips.
As she was about to fall to the floor, Gut noticed her mental state and rushed to her side.
"…She fainted."
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