Dawn- An age of Darkness

"I see. You're burdened with a grand curse."

Why is this world so focused on that one word? Grand this, grand that!

"You also seem to have an undeniable affection for bunnies…"

This guy's good….

I was immediately convinced of his skills. He must have been a world-renowned doctor! He had to be!

"Two- no three broken ribs, and seven fractured bones in total. Most of them have healed though. The hole in your chest too has kind of healed. Although you must have had the goddess of luck by your side or was it the devil of luck?" He giggled to himself. What was this guy, a tape recorder? "Anyway, you were really lucky that the wound barely missed your artery. Or you'd have a wonderful time now. "

The last part wasn't necessary.

"Can get rid of the curse?" I asked. I did like this curse. I had a use for it, namely to survive.

The tone of his voice changed and he looked a little serious. "Why the hell would you want to get rid of it?" His voice had a hint of jealousy.

"I mean-" I was just asking for the sake of asking. It wasn't like I wanted to die just from a goblin's bite or anything. If it weren't for this curse, I'd have been dead a hundred times already.

"Do you even know why you're still alive even after this hole in your chest?" I did understand him and I agreed with him but I didn't like this attitude. The guy was jealous of me and that was clear.

"Aww… aww-aww- hey, stop poking…"

"You can see my point…" He was a thorough guy. He kept poking me in weird places.

"Alright, alright. Stop!" I wiggled my arms around. (Only my legs were bound.)

He smiled and backtracked. Oh, boy was this man annoying.

"Can you heal me?" I changed the subject.

"That's easy!"

I had to remove my shirt and he removed the bandages. Afterward, he applied some sort of liquid over my body. It had a strong smell. Probably some sort of disinfectant. The last thing I needed was to get infected. It did sting like hell though.

He changed the bandages but before that, reapplied some herbs. I let out a sigh and relaxed a little. My body was still in serious pain. I had to chew on some cloth all this time so I didn't end up screaming for my life.

At least he knows what he's doing- Or so I hoped.

Next, he brought out some brown liquid in a glass. It reeked and looked like mud gathered straight from a mud puddle.

"What is that…?" I asked.

"Medicine," he said with a cynical but comical laugh.

I was stunned. I refused and he shoved it through my throat without even the slightest of hesitation. "Bleewh! What- bleeuh!"

It tasted worse than it smelled. The muddy texture….

The damn guy had an annoying smile on his face. I wanted to punch that face. I wanted to punch that face more than I wanted to punch the old man's face.

After a while I calmed down and gulped as much water as I possibly could before potentially puking.

With a spinning head I asked what he did to me.

"Don't worry, that was just a health drink. It had all the nutrients you need to regrow and strengthen your bones. Given the fact that you're healing system is already beefed up with the regeneration curse, I didn't need to do much…" He almost sang the praise of his own drink.

Still doesn't really seem like that much of a curse to me though. And what health drink?

Sister Ashlyne had said the same thing.

"What part of that was healthy?" I glared at him with murderous intent.

"Well, mostly half of it…" He answered with a straight face.

"What about the rest of the half?" I couldn't even begin to wonder what the rest of that stuff might have been.

His face came too close to mine. His eyes were closed and he almost looked like a demon with the expression he wore: perhaps he was one. "Trade secret! Anyway, pay up. You now owe me five shiny silvers."

"That much!"

Was he serious or was he was just ripping me off?

Five silvers were enough to keep me fed in luxury for a whole week. Before coming here I just eyeballed the pouch, not counting anything. It wouldn't take a genius as to why there was so much sweat pouring from my face.

Hope you didn't cheap out on me old man.

"The treatment I just gave you was worth more than ten but I'm giving it to you a discount since we had so much fun together. So pay up…." He rolled his tongue in a very misleading way.

He wasn't going to let me go without actually paying, so I didn't really have the right to refuse; at least not while my body was busted to this extent. I grinned in a not-so-friendly way and stopped out every ounce of strength from leaking from my body, so I wouldn't turn hostile.

Calm down, Daarc. Calm down. He's just a friendly doctor.

It really took a lot of willpower to keep my rage in check.

I forgot to count my money before actually coming in: I probably had enough to pay him but I didn't know if I had enough to do anything afterward. I could just imagine the old man rolling his tongue and laughing this off sarcastically. I was literally screwed and I knew it.

Relief swept across my face when I opened the small pouch and examined its contents. I paid him

I sighed in relief when I saw that I had enough money. The geezer hadn't cheap out me. Thank you, old man… I'd probably never say that out loud though.

"Do come again." He threw me- I mean escorted me out in a gentle fashion and I found myself back to the streets.

Never!

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