The Gentle Hero

Several minutes later Yuril could hear the sets of footsteps closing in on his room and he opened his eyes to be greeted by the sight of Syr and Ryuu walking into the room. "Mr. Artwaltz… it is a relief to see that you are awake and alert, you slept all day yesterday and I was starting to get concerned. Syr was even more worried though, she refused to leave your side all day."

"R-Ryuu! I said that he didn't need to know that!" Syr quickly blurted out as she waved her hands around and blushed a deep red.

"Oh, forgive me Syr I didn't mean to…" Ryuu said softly in her plain bored tone which made Syr shoot her a cute pout and cross her arms in an exaggerated manner.

"So, Syr said that you had something you wanted to speak to me about?" Ryuu said with a slight tilt of her head.

"I just wanted to give you my thanks for saving me… to both you and the others as well… I hear they helped out..." Yuril said as smiled slightly, he had yet to see Ryuu smile even once and he was starting to debate if she was even capable of ever smiling. Yuril wondered if he greeted her with a puppy if she would even crack a small smile at the adorable animal.

Ryuu closed her eyes for a moment and bowed her head slightly in a small nod "There is no need to thank Mr Cranel, I simply did what anyone would have done in the situation. Besides, if I had simply left you to die on the doorstep I would have had to eventually move your body for dinner service… and Syr would probably never speak to me again. And, the others wanted to come and say hello but Mama Mia wants everything ready for tonight's supper and we are running slightly behind. So you can thank them all personally the next time that you see them. But in the meantime I will pass on your appreciation to them in your stay." she said in a calm voice like she was discussing nothing more than the weather.

"Well, I am still thankful to all of you… I will be sure to thank them for that the next time I see them." Yuril said with a small smile as he adjusted himself in the bed to get more comfortable.

Syr blushed slightly and waved a dismissive hand in his direction "Oh, Yuril... Ryuu was the one that did all of the… bloody work…" she said with a slight giggle as Ryuu turned to look at her with a surprised expression that screamed "Please don't, I beg you." While Syr was giggling softly she just smiled with an amused look on her face that replied "Just watch me!"

"What do you mean by blo—"

"Ryuu carried you all the way to the spare room here on the second floor right after she found you on the front steps unconscious!" Syr said with a smug smile as she lightly clapped her hands together and made the Elf blush ever so slightly.

"S-Syr you promised you would leave that part out…"

"Yes, but you also said that you would leave out the part where I stayed beside him all day and night so this is payback Ryuu."

"T-that was an accident…" Ryuu softly said under her breath as she turned her gaze towards the floorboards and she raised her right arm from her side and placed it over her left elbow.

"I know, but now we are even Ryuu!" Syr said happily as she reached her arms out and wrapped them around the Elf's neck in a surprise attack hug that made the Elf stumble over her words for a moment.

Yuril was stunned, the Elf that he had seen never even smiled was accepting a hug from the waitress. She did not throw her to the ground or hurl her out of the nearby window in a small fit of anger like she had done with anyone else that had tried to touch. Yuril himself had suffered the Elf's outbursts twice, once when he had simply tried to touch her shoulder to get her attention and a second time when he was passing her on the stairs and nearly bumped shoulders with the blonde haired woman. Quicker than Yuril could blink an eye he was sent ass over teakettle and sent tumbling down the stairs with no clue how he suddenly went from passing Ryuu on the stairs to sitting at the bottom of the staircase.

However the more surprising thing to the albino boy was that the Elf that had shown herself to be less than friendly and at the very best an acquaintance, had carried him up a flight of stairs and treated his wounds for him. "Y-you really did that for me Ryuu?" he softly asked in almost disbelief.

Ryuu sighed heavily and slipped out of Syr's hug a second later "Yes, I did carry you… despite my distaste for being touch and touching others… in such situations I do not have the liberty of worrying about my personal preferences. In that situation your life mattered more than an old custom…"

"Well, that means a lot—"

"However," Ryuu interrupted him with a serious glint in her eyes," if you ever… ever think about sharing that with anyone else, I will deny it and make sure that you wished that you had bled out that day."

"O-okay… n-no problem Ryuu, my lips are sealed…" Yuril said with a slight nervous laugh as Syr gave Ryuu a playful push on the shoulder directing her to the door.

"Alright, with that I should probably be going now…." Ryuu turned around and walked towards the door, before turning her head to look back at the young boy in the bed covered head to toe in bandages. "Oh, and Mr. Artwaltz… I am thankful that you survived."

"Me too Ryuu, all thanks to you and Syr..." Yuril said with a slight smile, Ryuu did not respond as she turned her head back around forward and walked out of view.

"That went well," Syr said with a small smile as she returned to his seat beside his bed and started to talk about whatever came to mind.

"Yeah, it went alright… I guess…" Yuril said with a slight chuckle.

There was a brief awkward silence between the two before both of them burst into a small chuckle. The two talked for a while until Syr noticed that his eyes were starting to stay closed longer every time he blinked, he started to talk less and soon was drifting off to sleep.

Syr got up from her seat several hours later, she had watched over Yuril for as long as she could but she needed to go and get changed in her waitress uniform for dinner service, she had skipped out on two nights of service and Mama Mia was nice enough to consider them sick days for her at the time. But she needed to get back to work, so she wrote a quick letter and set it down on the chair next to his bed where she had sat for hours with a needle and thread in her hands.

She blew out all the candles in the room besides the one resting on the small table next to his bed, just in case he did wake up she did not want him to be in full darkness. She leaned over the bed where Yuril slept and combed her fingers through his snow white hair, as she retracted her hand back from his head and turned her hand so that her palm was facing her she was briefly reminded of what his hair had looked like not long ago.

She could remember walking down the stairs to the main floor to start getting ready for the day when Ryuu let out a brief sound of worry before she crouched down just outside the door of the Hostess of Fertility. Syr quickly made her way over and saw Yuril laying on the ground, under him was a large puddle of blood that had flowed down the stairs like crimson waterfalls and made a river of red liquid down the gutter. Ryuu quickly took control of the situation and picked him up in her arms, as she did blood from the boy stained her own clothes but she paid no mind as she quickly carried him inside and quickly started to bark out orders to Chole, Anya, Lunoire and Syr on what they needed to do.

Chloe fetched a bucket of water, several rags and a bottle of alcohol from the kitchen. Anya went about grabbing the medical kit that was kept in the kitchen in the case that while doing prep for dinner service someone accidently cut themselves. Lunoire went ahead of Ryuu and opened up the spare bedroom and got it ready for his emergency treatment.

They set him down on the bed and started to treat him the best that they could, they used the rags to clean away as much blood as possible and dunked the rags into the water once the piece of cloth could no longer absorb any more blood. It was not long and the bucket of water was looking more like a bucket filled with the crimson liquid as they noted that his injuries were too extreme and they would need to strip some of his clothes to stop the bleeding.

They removed the makeshift bandages that were dripping with his blood that had soaked through the fabric that seemed to be made out of his cloak, the rest of his clothes were in a similar state. They were ripped and torn in several different locations and could barely be considered clothing anymore as they hung desperately together with just several strained threads.

Once they managed to get his jacket off they went about removing his armour next, carefully lifting his arms up as they propped him up with a pillow to slide it off. There was a large gash in the chest area and Ryuu simply tossed it across the room as if it was garbage.

Ryuu acquired the bottle of alcohol from Chloe and poured a healthy amount onto the boy's chest to sterilize the wound of any bacteria that could have possibly infected the wound, he was laying in a puddle of blood for an unknown amount of time. Yuril's body had tensed up and twitched widely for a few seconds and Lunoire and Chloe had to hold down his arms and legs to keep him from struggling too much where he could have hurt himself further.

Once she was sure that his wound was sterile Ryuu began to bandage his chest while Chloe went to bandage his arms, repeating the same process with the bottle of alcohol he squirmed around more in the bed. While it was good to know that he was still breathing, the struggling still looked rather unpleasant to the collection of waitresses. Lunoire rolled up one of his pant legs that was stained with a fairly sized bloody patch and upon seeing the sight of his left leg went to bandage the wound as well, she removed the belt that he had wrapped around his left leg to try and slow the bleeding. She reached into the medical box and found that there were no more bandages, the kit was meant to deal with some small cuts or wounds, not a complete full body reconstruction. She had already poured alcohol and his leg had kicked weakly a few times as she did, she did not want to have to wait for Anya to bring more scraps of cloth and bandages. She would have to repour the alcohol onto his open wound causing him further pain than what he had already experienced. So Lunoire went about ripping up her waitress uniform dress into strips, she knew that Mama Mia would surely get angry at her for the action but she had no choice. They had spares in storage and Lunoire would pay for a new one afterwards if she had too, in the heat of the moment her uniform was not her main concern.

Anya was running back and forth past Syr who stood in the doorway watching the situation wide eyed, Anya replaced the water with a clean fresh bucket of water and brought fresh rags for the three to use. Anya having nothing better to do after completing her tasks suited up and headed out to the Miach Familias store that was not too far from the Hostess and with her speed she would be able to get there and back rather quickly. She did not know for sure if they would be open so early in the morning but they were known to be rather generous and if she mentioned that it could be a matter of life and death they would almost guarantee to let her into the shop early to sell her a few potions.

Once the three had finished bandaging Yuril the best they could they got up and left the room, placing a wet cloth on his forehead to try and help with the slight fever he had. Mama Mia placed a hand on Syr's shoulder and told her that she was closing the pub for the day because of all the commotion and the bloody mess still downstairs.

Anya arrived back at the Hostess not long later with a small collection of healing potions that she had purchased, she gave one to Syr and assisted her in pouring it down his throat. He coughed slightly as they did but he remained in his deep slumber, Syr kept the rest of the potions in case his condition worsened. But the one had seemed to do a reasonable job as his breathing became more regular and his complexion brightened up significantly. While Syr had wanted him to wake up so that she could comfort him, she was relieved that he was in deep sleep because while he was asleep he would at the very least not have to suffer from his injuries.

She spent the rest of the day watching over him in bed, she grabbed a chair from downstairs and sat beside him all day and night. He barely moved the entire time she watched over him, only the slight rise and fall of his bandaged chest was the only sign that he was alive.

She had stayed at his bedtime until morning, when she got up and went to go him a fresh cloth and when she returned he was awake, it annoyed her slightly that she had not been there the moment he woke up but she was still the first person his red eyes were laid upon so she would take that as her victory.

She brushed his white hair up slightly and gave his forehead a quick kiss before she placed the damp cloth back on his forehead and left to go and get changed. As she left the room she looked back at him with a slight smile "Sleep well Yuril." she said not loud enough to wake him but enough that in the land of dreams her comforting words would surely reach him.