noveltune Chapter 44: Old Wounds
Chapter 44: Old Wounds
Chapter 44: Old Wounds
"BASTARD!"
Nothing frightened Vadim as what he saw in Leon that day.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"
The rage, the anger, the drive for destruction in Leon that day was just too much. He expected to see an angry Leon, a murderous one even; but never this sorrowful, this wretched, this pained.
He was even crying.
Leon's actions were not a thing he could control anymore. He was in a state of grief that turned into a burst he can no longer tolerate.
All of that happened when Vadim told Leon that his father beat his mother.
Vadim then figured out that what he told Leon about his mother getting hurt unearthed something. Something he never even knew.
"Lad, calm down! Look at me! I am here."
"I SAID STOP IT! YOU THINK AAAH! I HATE IT I HATE IT I HATE IT!"
With just enough luck, Vadim managed to stop Leon from lashing out against a shelf of a very unstable concoction preventing a potential accident.
An Alchemy shop? Who the fuck gave him the idea that this is a calm place to speak with someone in? Leon held his head together and roamed the inside of the shop pulling his short growing hair to the back not even realizing his surroundings.
"Lad, you're alright?"
"AND IT KEEPS HAPPENING! He never stopped hitting her. He would always do it. He would do it would do it would do it FUCK!"
And if all the evil in the world almost possessed him and he kept struggling from within to calm down and to find shelter but the edge was far past him and he was facing a reality only he could see in his head.
His outburst died down with his falling on his knees weeping as he covered his face with his hands then started struggling to breathe and held his chest. The skin around his eyes was greenish-blue and the blood vessels around it and on his neck and forehead became read and visible.
Vadim realized that not only did he make a mistake but he royally fucked up on a grand scale.
He isn't even sure what to do. A wrong word and he may make it worse. It all caused him to freeze behind Leon with a tragic pale face and cold sweat covering him.
"Cousin Vadim! Here ye are! There's an emergency!" A voice came from outside the shop as the Dwarven shopkeeper returned.
"Not now, Sacha!" Vadim grumbled in a low tone while glaring at the Dwarf.
Sacha, the Alchemist, walked in slowly and looked at what Vadim was looking at. He saw Leon sitting on his ass, leaning his back to the wooden wall, burying his face between his knees, and shaking his body back and forth.
"What've ya done to 'im?" Sacha asked.
"Na Nothing! I'd never hurt 'im." Vadim retorted, "I don't know what's wrong I surely said something that upset him. I've no idea what to do."
Sacha ran ahead and put his hand on Leon's shoulder making sure that he is in no state of self-harm.
"It's a trauma resurfacing!" Sacha said.
"A trauma? Why? Lad's never been to any wars or missions even."
"That's not some war trauma. Just go from here now"
"No way!" Follow current novels at novelhall.com)
"If ya're the one who caused then ya need to stay away from him so he can calm down. Off with ya! There's trouble near the kid's camp, Red-eyed Centipedes showed up and the only one with Fire Magic is ya." Sacha said, "Go!"
Vadim was in a tight spot as both his senses of duty and guilt committed him to stay beside Leon but if it is going to cause more harm, he'd better go punch his anger on something.
"Fuck! Ya keep yer eyes on 'im, Sasha." And he walked out grumbling like a beast.
Leon was not in the right state of mind now. Such a trauma came to him when he expected it the least and opened up something he never wanted to experience again.
A Psychotic Breakdown.
His self-loathing and negativity would simply burst out whenever he expected the least but this time, he is far worse than before. He didn't even have his medication for half a month and it was wishful thinking of him to think that after reincarnation, he is now safe from this mind that torments him.
His mental breakdown would come into the forms of rage then collapse. He was not the most problematic patient either but his case was brutal on him from the inside.
During his episodes, all the meaning of hope vanishes from his notions and he starts to lose the sense of color gradually until it all becomes depressing and grey. He would imagine things after that such as self-harm or as if he's trapped in an hourglass and sinking in its sand.
It was hard to understand but Sacha the Alchemist seemed aware of the case and started working on something as he heated sometimes on a stove and added honey to it before putting it in a mug and walking to Leon.
"Now, don't think. Just drink."
He held Leon's head back and put the mug under his nose so that the heat and the scent can interrupt the traumatic train of poisonous thoughts. Leon held the mug trying to resist it at first but slowly and mindlessly accepted the taste and started drinking it.
By the time he was done, he became silent still while returning back to consciousness.
"What happened?" He asked.
"Ah! Ye're back. Good thing ya calmed down." Sacha said.
"You're good. Some Mercenaries look down on reading the books and focus on training before anything else. Hmmm how about this? I'll sell you a new book as well."
"What's it for?"
"A little bit of everything." Sacha handed Leon a book, "Written by yers truly but the copies aren't at the market yet. I get to sell it though. It has all the pieces of advice and little tips ya young lads need. Useful herbs, first aid procedures, where to find materials and make oils and baits. Even how to acquire certain skills System Skills, I mean. Exciting, right?"
"Indeed." Leon nodded as he skimmed through the book, "The title is Sacha's Cauldron of Everything? Impressed naming sense, very deja vu inducing for some reason."
[A/n: bun intended]
"Alright, I'll buy it."
"Another Gold Piece."
"You are the nicest yet the greediest dwarf I met and I only met two." Leon said as he slammed another Gold Piece on the counter, "You were saying Vadim went to deal with the Red-eye Centipedes, right?"
"Yeah. He's the only one here who can cast Fire Magic."
"Oh, those things are very weak to fire but can't be hit by it easily since all they do is to attack from underground." Leon agreed.
"Yeah, yeah. Dwarves fight those little buggers all the time in the mountain belly, maybe as much as humans fighting dogs or themselves they do the latter one more." Sacha said as he and Leon shared a short laugh, "Well, he'll clear those little buggers over the young noble brats camp and come again. Just wait over the"
"Sorry, what did you say just now about the centipedes?" Leon asked.
"Oh! I said dwarves fight them all the time."
"No, I meant where they are."
"Over at the Academy Students camp."
"Over this way?" Leon pointed in a random direction.
"No, that way." Sacha corrected him not realizing that Leon just beat around the bush and got the rabbit up and running.
"Hmmm Mr. Sacha, do you happen to have any good flammable liquid substances?"
"Animal fat?"
"No, something more intense. Chemicals I mean and cheap."
"You can take a flask of Alchemist Fire. Best stuff in the market and not pricey."
"I was thinking of highly flammable alcohols."
"Hmmm It is a rare commodity but if you want something as infamously flammable and you can get a river from it if you ask a Dwarf, then it is Dwarven Oil." Sacha pulled out a small metal container and presented it to Leon, "Humans import tons of it for many purposes so you'll find it cheap and everywhere."
Leon took the container and smelled its oily content to suddenly put it back and start coughing.
"Mother *cough*... fucker."
"Strong, isn't it?"
"*cough* Ehem! Where did you get that from?" Leon asked.
"It's Dwarves' Piss. Hahaha!"
Sacha started laughing heartily at his own joke.
" It's just some refined Crude Oil." Leon replied.
It was as Leon said hence the shocked look on Sacha's face confirmed it. In other words, petroleum.
"Alright, I'll take a few liters of that oil. I also want some dry cloth and as many glass bottles as you can provide."
Sacha listed what Leon wanted and started collecting the materials.
"By the way, Mr. Sacha, if any humans want to exchange some of your oil for democracy, turn down the offer, okay?"
"What's that?"
"Nothing good. Just spread the word among your people." Leon said, "You done?"
"Here ya go. What are ya going to do?"
Leon simply took the small Dwarven Oil barrel Sacha had and filled the few bottles he brought almost equally before cutting the cloth into suitable pieces and completely sealing the bottle with them. He then rinsed the outer part of the cloth with oil.
"What's this?" Sacha asked after Leon lined the bottles together on the counter.
"You said Vadim is fighting those little centipedes over the academy students' camp?" Leon asked.
"Yeah." Sacha nodded.
"Hmmm I'll go and serve those little fucks some Cocktail."