Cursed to level 1 with an Ego weapon

"Are you doing okay?" Ash asks Leiva while we are waiting.

Leiva is not sure how to answer for a moment, but then she nods.

"Yes… why do you care that much? I always seem to be crossing paths with you since I came to town."

"Nothing." He says. "I'm leaving. I have some stuff to take care of."

Ash approaches me and places his hand on my shoulder.

"You are crazy for having this place out here, and bringing her here… but I noticed it is safe. I will be watching you."

I am still pissed off that he did nothing to stop what happened back there. "Why didn't you do anything back there?"

My ears, that I have little control over from time to time, press against the scalp of my head as I stare at him in anger. My tail flicks behind the chair, as a sign of annoyance.

"I wanted to see how your group would go about it. We got into a difficult situation, and those can only be solved with good team work."

"Y-you wanted to see how we did?" I stand up and start to growl. With force I press my finger in his chest. "What kind of shit is that? Look how it ended! She could have died! You could have done something and…!"

"Yes. I could have done many things. I was ready in case the situation got worse. At the end, you managed to pull through."

"I almost lost a friend!" I bark at him, raising my voice. "Don't come at me with bullshit about observing! Look how she is! You caused this!"

"Did I?" He answers my accusation, irritating me even more. "You are the one that casted a spell to push her to the ground when a magic shield would have been enough."

"Why- You!" I move forward to punch his face. Is all I want! To hit his face and make him shut the fuck up!

"And let's not forget you are attempting to continue acting weak… why use the wand when you could have just used your normal spells? It would have ended faster and you would have kept your friend safe."

As I prepare to make my swing, Lisa grabs my arm and stops me.

"Amber! Stop! This is not going to solve anything!" Lisa begs. "You need to rest too! What you did was reckless too and I don't know how your body is going to act, so go to bed!"

I try to take the swing anyway… but my body gives up.

I lose my balance, and fall to my knees while Lisa attempts to hold me, screaming my name.

What an unbearable pain! It's like every muscle is begging for me to find rest! How did I end up like this?! I barely got damaged by Kaira's spells compared to the critical state Aurelia is in.

No, I caused this to myself. Overcasting. Using my own HP to continue casting spells when I ran out of MP. Lisa managed to keep me alive and I managed to pull through the hurting sensation on my body, but it seems I managed to hit a limit in me.

"Your group is talented, but you all lack experience and teamwork." Ash continues. "Or at least, trust that the other will have the other's back."

"What the fuck does that mean? I trust Aurelia and she can trust me!"

"Hah! That didn't show back there." He turns and starts walking out.

"Hey! I am not done with you!" I scream at him.

"Take care of Leiva. Be thankful you are all still alive." He answers.

He leaves the house, out of our sight, like nothing. I curse.

"Fuck!"

I cannot stand up, my whole body now is a wreck. Everything hurts, everything is going dark…

I open my eyes. It is darker now, the sun went down while I was asleep it seems.

I am still stiff and my muscles are complaining but I feel better now. One would think that with healing magic this would not be much of an issue, but what I have seen is that there is a limit to how much a body can take, even with healing.

"Aurelia!" I scream when I remember what happened earlier.

"Let me sleep a bit longer…" She answers while on her bed.

She is sprawled on the bed, with one leg hanging from the side and a hand over her belly, snoring like nothing bad happened earlier.

I sit and the sheets fall and I am in my underwear. "Eep!" I yelp and grab the sheet to cover my body in immediate response.

"Huh…?" Aurelia opens an eye, then yawns, and opens the other. "Is it morning already or…?"

She looks at me, then around us, sees Jace on the other bed.

Lisa is sleeping in a chair close to us. Maybe she has been watching us sleep this whole time. There are white towels and a bucket that I don't know where she got from. Maybe she took a trip to the city.

Leiva is asleep on the table, with her face over a book.

"We need more beds…" I sigh.

"That is what I am saying!" Karina comments. "It took you long, sleepy head! I was starting to get worried!"

"Sorry… I didn't want to end up like this."

"Be more careful, dummy!"

Then, I move my attention to Aurelia.

"And how are you? How is your neck?"

"Ah…" she puts her hand on the side of her neck and starts rubbing it, moving her head. "Stiff as fuck that bitch sure did a number of me, didn't she?" She says with a smile. "What happened? Did you kill her?"

"No, she escaped at the last second…"

"Shit, normally that brings problems." She says. "We will get her next time! I don't take kindly to a big tits bitch like her to get me like that..!" Then she sees me. "What is it? You don't seem very happy that you won… hey, we rescued that guy, didn't we?" She points at Jace.

I sigh, gathering courage.

"Sorry…"

"Huh? Sorry…? Heh…" she gives a much softer smile. Not the ones she usually does, the ones that are ear to ear or smug. This one feels different. "What are you apologizing for?"

"What do you mean? If I was more careful you wouldn't have been hurt like that! I should have used other spells, going all out with her… I tried to act like I was still weak and that ended… you almost ended like Kathrina…"

"Well, apology accepted." She says, putting up a big smile on her face.

She stands up, complaining still from the pain.

"Gonna get some air." She says and, limping, she starts walking out.

"Hey, you should rest." I say.

"I said I need some fucking air." She says, more exasperated, not looking back at me.

Although it takes me a bit of effort, I follow her while grabbing my kimono and lazily placing it on top of my shoulders.