Kyran slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he noticed was how his clothes clung to him uncomfortably, and he felt a thin layer of sticky sweat on his skin. He slowly got up and groaned when he felt a pain in his torso.
As soon as he made a sound, the next sound that followed was a girl yelping nearby.
Snapping his eyes wide open, Kyran belatedly remembered what happened before he passed out and immediately sprang up in all fours before warily looking at his surroundings.
The sudden movement made him dizzy, but he ignored it and concentrated on confirming his current situation. It was still unknown how long he was unconscious, but he first needed to check the situation and if the girl did anything while he was out cold.
After his eyes adjusted to the dark once again, he looked at the place where he heard the yelp and found the shabby little girl at the corner still holding the broken stalactite, trembling non-stop.
The girl had not moved from her position. She still had her outstretched hand holding the stalactite in front of her as if to threaten whatever was up ahead.
Kyran studied her for a few seconds and found her a little strange. Apart from her being out of place, her reactions were off. He was also sure he ‘hit’ her with his Void Knife, but it probably only grazed her if she was still this ‘lively’.
Coming up with an idea, Kyran noiselessly picked up a stone near his feet. He then threw the stone to the side near the girl, hitting the uneven wall.
The girl’s ears perked as she waved the stalactite over where the stone fell.
At the moment, the stone made a few clanking sounds as it bounced a few times before stopping.
“I-If you come closer, I-I’ll s-strike you with m-my w-weapon!” The girl warned, trying to act tough even with her shaky voice.
Kyran was slightly amused. He was about to make fun of the girl’s weapon of choice, but he remembered when he first met Nolan and picked up a hardened soil as a weapon. This girl’s weapon looked better than his.
Pushing the random thought at the back of his mind, Kyran carefully looked at the girl. As he suspected, the girl’s reaction was indeed strange.
When she only reacted after hearing the sound, Kyran was now convinced that the girl was blind.
Kyran came up with this conclusion because, though this small space was dark, there were still a few blue minerals on the wall that gave a faint glow. Though the glow was not as strong as the ones outside, it was easy to distinguish the silhouettes around as long as one got used to the darkness. Besides, nearby stalactites gave off a stronger blue glow at the small space’s opening, and he was near there. It was easy for someone who had adjusted to the darkness to see him the moment he appeared. However, the girl did not see him and even missed him when she threw out some stones.
After confirming the girl’s condition, another Kyran question surfaced in his mind.
With the girl’s condition, how did she end up in this place?
Based on her tattered clothes, it seemed she went through a lot. However, she did not have anything with her. How was she able to survive outside and manage to come up here?
Something did not feel right. The girl might be hiding a ‘trump card’.
Kyran sat crossed-legged and activated the Regis Body Tempering Technique. Immediately the foul scent assaulted his senses, but this time, it was stronger.
‘This…’ Kyran looked at the trembling girl.
Sure enough, the foul scent came from her. Not only that, with Kyran’s enhanced eyesight, he also saw a dense dark shadow looming around her.
Kyran heard it before from his older cousins. They said, once he attained a certain mastery of the Regis Body Tempering Technique, he could also develop the ability to perceive death.
The sign was usually a dark shadow. The denser the shadow was, the closer one was to death’s door.
This girl would die soon.
Kyran took a slow deep breath and deactivated the Regis Body Tempering Technique. He initially wanted to kill the girl, but he would not trouble himself if she were about to die.
When Kyran took a deep breath, he saw the girl flinch at the corner and secretly commended her strong hearing sense.
Because Kyran breathed in as silently as he could, yet she heard him. He remembered reading how the senses of other people with disabilities were stronger than ordinary people.
With a shake of his head, Kyran decided to ignore the girl and closed his eyes. He would not waste his time on this girl. Besides, whatever happened to her was not his business. She was about to die, anyway.
Pushing all unnecessary thoughts at the back of his mind, Kyran focused his senses and checked his body’s condition.
He first confirmed the wounds on his torso. It was not that deep, and the bleeding had stopped even before he went to look for the cave. Right now, it had started healing.
Next, he checked the poison.
When using the Regis Blood Cleansing Technique, it normally circulates actively for ten minutes throughout the body. It would then remove any impurities or toxins in the bloodstream by excreting them in the form of sweat.
Feeling the sweat all over his body, he confirmed the poison was already out of his system.
But removing the poison did not mean he regained consciousness right after the cleansing was completed. He was already exhausted when he passed out and most likely resulted in him being out cold for much longer.
Kyran opened his eyes. He could find out how long he was unconscious if he went outside to check the moon and the direction of the shadows.
But it was too tedious. What if he encountered a mutated forest beast outside? Even if they deliberately avoided him, the strange scent coming from this cave might attract them.
Kyran looked at the girl. He hesitated only for a second before he spoke to get her attention.
“Oi.”
The girl yelped at once and pointed the stalactite she held at the empty spot on Kyran’s left.
“S-Stay r-right there!”
“If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead right now,” Kyran told her, feeling somewhat wronged.
He was not an unreasonable man who would attack a defenseless person. To top it off, she was blind, for goodness sake!
Then Kyran remembered he threw a Void Knife at her earlier.
‘That was not being unreasonable. That was me being cautious,’ Kyran reasoned to himself.
The girl flinched from Kyran’s blunt words but did not lower her trembling hands.
Ignoring the frightened expression on the girl’s face, Kyran started, “How long was it when-.”
He abruptly stopped.
He could not very well ask ‘when he passed out’, right?
Being blind, he reckoned the girl did not see him passed out.
Kyran chose his words carefully and finally said, “-when you threw the stones?”
“H-Huh?”
The girl’s expression turned confused. She looked cautiously in front of her but still failed to properly ‘face’ Kyran.
Kyran cleared his throat, thinking that the girl might be able to adjust where she was ‘looking’ if she got a better grasp of where his voice was.
As expected, the girl moved her head a little to her right and managed to face Kyran better.
“I won’t kill you if you cooperate and answer my question.”
“Not that long,” the girl answered at once.
Kyran raised his brows.
‘Well, that was fast,’ he thought. He could not help but observe the girl one more time.
Her will to live was commendable.
‘But she’s already dying,’ Kyran thought to himself.
“How long is not that long?” Kyran asked again.
“I-I…”
Seeing the girl’s uneasiness, Kyran guessed that she either did not know or had no idea how to answer.
The latter might be the answer. Because if the girl did not know, she could have outright answered she didn’t know. Why hesitate? She might not want to piss him if she replied she did not know, but honestly, her stuttering was more annoying and most likely invoked a person’s wrath.
“1,083 counts…” The girl answered after a short pause.
Kyran’s eyes narrowed.
What kind of answer was that?
But her reply answered some of Kyran’s doubts.
Initially, he thought the girl came from a poor family from the way she was dressed. She was probably around ten to twelve years old, which in most cases with poor families meant she was illiterate. He came to this conclusion because she was blind and also stuttered a lot.
But if she could count to a thousand, then it proved she at least knew how to count. And her stuttering might only be caused by her nervousness.
This discovery made Kyran wonder again how she ended up here.
‘Stop,’ Kyran scolded himself. ‘Whatever her circumstances are is none of your business.’
After reminding himself, he computed the girl’s answer in his head.
If the numbers she said were equivalent to seconds, it meant he was out cold for less than twenty minutes. But the girl might have counted slow or too fast, so he was not 100% sure.
Anyway, as long as he did not pass out for a day, it was good enough. He did not want a repeat of what happened when the army was chasing him.
“Thanks,” Kyran thanked her without much thought.
To his surprise, the girl’s eyes widened, and suddenly tears flowed down her eyes.