“You defended me,” she says between sobs. “I just froze. I didn’t know how to reply to everything she was saying and—” She takes a deep breath. “I never expected them to hate me so much.” The last words are barely above a whisper.
“Moe… Come here.” I open my arms for her and she flies straight into my embrace. “I’m so sorry you had to hear that. You know none of it is true, right?”
“Yes, I know. It just… It still hurts.”
“I know. I know,” I murmur as I pat her back.
We stay like that for what feels like an eternity and I enjoy the mere feel of her in my arms. It’s only when her sobs have subsided and she’s regained her calm that I reluctantly let her go.
“You should have told me you needed more bandages,” I suddenly say and point to the pack she’d bought. “I would have bought more. I’m sure there are other stores that sell them.”
Although it does warm my heart that she’d want to purchase bandages for me by herself, with her own money. She’s too sweet.
Her mouth drops open as she stares at me wide-eyed.
“T-they’re not b-bandages,” she whispers.
“Huh?” I frown.
“They’re feminine products,” she adds in a low voice.
“Feminine bandages?” I frown again, even more confused. “How are female bandages different than male ones?”
But then it dawns on me. Perhaps they’re not for me, but for her. I wrinkle my nose and scent the air.
“You smell of blood,” I grit out. “Did they hurt you? They did, didn’t they.”
Perhaps a few months of jail are worth for killing those two cockroaches.
“They’re not bandages!” She raises her voice slightly just as her cheeks turn a bright shade of red. “They’re menstruation pads!” She says quickly before running to her room.
And I’m left standing there befuddled.Menstruation pads,I repeat to myself, slow to realize what she means.
Blood. She’s bleeding. But not from any wound.
My own cheeks become tinted red.
I’m such an idiot!
29
Kendra’s silence is concerning. She’s been staring at me for the longest time, her brows knit together in a deep frown.
Did something happen? Did the Zantrax cause any unwanted effects?
When I used it the first time, the side effects were awful. But every time I used it after that, my body started to get used to it. I still wake up tired and a little sore, but I stopped having fevers and hallucinations. I’ve used so many vials of Zantrax by now that I’m basically immune to to the adverse effects. That’s not to say that the potion hasn’t been affecting my inner body—after all, it is a foreign substance I put in my body.
Perhaps that is what she’s seeing? In my quest to get rid of this seal once and for all, I took all the D and C level jobs I qualified for, earning a pretty sum of money and gaining some valuable experience along the way.
“This is very strange, Nykander,” she mutters, mostly to herself. “Just last week the results of your check-up were positive but still nothing out of the ordinary. But now…”
“Now?” I ask as I sit forward on the examination bed.
“I cannot find any evidence of the seal.”
“No evidence? It’s…gone?”
She nods. “Completely gone. I have no idea how it happened, but it’s as if it was never there in the first place.”
