After hugging Lowen for several minutes Nia abruptly let go and stood up. It seemed that a tiny change began to occur within herself and a look of determination flashed across her eyes. She slowly turned to Lowen and softly said."Let"s go."
Grabbing Lowen"s little hand she pulled him along once more off towards her home. After a few minutes of walking along the dirt road followed by a turn here and a turn there the two finally arrived at Nia"s home. Looking at where Nia lived Lowen couldn"t help but think it was small, way too small. It wan no more than a rundown shack. Its size was maybe 10x10 no way was it any bigger. Lowen couldn"t help but tilt his head slightly in thought. The look of it reminded him of his previous life. When he was a young child before he took over this body he had lived in an orphan home similar to this broken down shack. He had to share it with 10 other children each one orphaned or abandoned. Later on, Lowen went off to become a mercenary and eventually although he wasn"t royalty he did end up living in a palace guarding the king as a Royal Knight. It had been nearly 50 years since he last lived in something so small. From the outside looks of this shack, Lowen began to feel an ache in his stomach from the bad memories.
Seeing Lowen"s face, Nia felt slightly embarra.s.sed. She mistook Lowen"s tilted head and cramped gaze as a judgemental look but she quickly shook the thought away.
(No, he"s probably just a curious child. Someone who could speak such kind words to a complete stranger like me wouldn"t judge my house nope, nope, absolutely nope.)
Those were her simple and honest thoughts.
Entering the home Lowens guess rang true it was indeed no bigger than 10x10 but before Lowen could think about it something caught his eye. As he looked over to the corner of the room he could spot a bit of hay trembling or better yet whatever was underneath it seemed to be shaking slightly. Nia seeing this had, instead, dashed over to that certain spot.
In the corner of the room on the ground covered with a bit of hay for warmth laid a small boy. The boy seemed to be around the same age as Lowen but although they were of a similar age the little boy was extremely thin and pale. He looked so weak, so fragile and tiny, his life seemed ready to be extinguished at any moment. Although most people won"t starve to death after only going 3 days of not eating it was clear to Lowen that the boy was extremely malnourished. So even if he was eating previously it simply wasn"t enough to maintain the boy and not only that the boy seemed awfully sick. If the boy lasted another night it"d be a miracle. Lowen"s face couldn"t help but scrunch up slightly in thought.
(Those elders and that Chief knew this boy is at death"s door and yet they are doing nothing. Hmph, those pieces of trash. How dare they behave so repulsively, acting as though they were in the right treating these kids like this. Giving this Nia girl a little bit of coin as though that would solve everything and then shooing her away like a common bird. Hmph, how generous of them.)
Looking at her little brother"s terrible condition Nia called out to him softly
"Ben..."
But there was no response. The color of this boys body was unnatural. It was as white as a sheet of paper and although it wasn"t actually hot within this little shack he was sweating profusely. Once more Nia called out to him this time a little more forcefully.
"Ben it"s me..... Ben its sister.... can you hear me?"
This time there seemed to be a bit of a reaction. The small boy weakly opened his eyes. When Nia saw this she couldn"t help but gently caress his head lovingly.
"Little Ben, its ok I"m here now, big sis is here."
Ben looked as though he wanted to say something but with no strength to muster he was too weak to utter even a single sound. Looking at his trembling little lips he was clearly mouthing the word [food].
Watching this scene Nia wanted to cry.
"Not yet, just wait a little longer, big sister is gonna go get you something to eat right now."
The boy seemed to force out a little smile before fainting on the spot. Seeing this Nia shouted out.
"BEN.. ...BEN! NO! PLEASE WAKE UP!, PLEASE WAKE UP!"
Nia continued to shout but there was no reaction. She wanted to shake him awake with all her might but she restrained herself. She knew if she did that it would only cause more harm than good her heart sank to the pit of her stomach and she started feeling that hopelessness once again but before it fully reared its ugly head Lowen came over from behind.
"Step aside little girl, I will take it from here."
Before Nia could say anything Lowen had already stepped in between Nia and her brother Ben. Kneeling down Lowen placed his palm in the center of Ben"s chest and with a thought, he immediately injected ki into Ben"s body. At first, Nia wanted to pull him away but seeing Lowen do the same thing he had done to her she immediately halted herself. She remembered the way her exhaustion and weariness melted away and how invigorated she felt after Lowen had touched her shoulder. She couldn"t help but wonder if this boy who was basically the same age as her little brother was some type of holy healer or mage.
Meanwhile, Lowen was focusing with every single fiber of his being. Ki energy was almost mystical. It was a pure power from the world and the universe. With mastery of it, you could trample forest or split the clouds in the sky. Legends say you could dominate the world and the heavens above but what Lowen wanted to do with it was a lot simpler than all of that. Although Lowen had given a bit of energy to Nia pa.s.sing some to her through her shoulder. What he had given her was but a fraction only enough to lift her spirits with that amount no harm would come to her even if he had done it a 100 times. With Ben, however, it would be a different story entirely. Normally in order to have ki within your body, you would at least need a ki seed otherwise pure ki energy would flow chaotically through your body destroying it from within. But with a former ki manipulating master the task could be done. Lowen wanted to heal Ben with his ki but since he was not at his former strength he would do this with 100% caution and 100% focus. The ki he would use was no longer the universes each time he absorbed ki it became a part of him. Therefore when he uses it on Ben it is his ki energy. So he can control whether it heals someone or injures them. The only reason why Lowen was so cautious, was because his control was not 100%. With one slip he could easily injure Ben and with the small boy already in a devastated state one slip could be death. So with pure focus Lowen"s ki energy slowly began to heal the small child.
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By the time Lowen had finished day had become night. lingering above the world a calm moon had replaced a blazing sun and the once unseen stars now shined with a beautiful brilliance. Down below in Nia"s small home in total nearly 7 hours had pa.s.sed. Beads of sweat had poured from Lowen"s face nonstop and because of the dirt floor in this shack a small puddle of mud formed beneath his feet. Constantly injecting Ben with his ki, stopping for only a few breaths of time while during those few breaths he would also be reabsorbing as much ki as he could from his surroundings then starting the whole process over again, doing this repeatedly really put a tax on his stamina. Finally after 7 hours of strenuous work Ben"s body had been healed enough to at least become stable. Had this been a fully grown adult, no scratch that, had it even just been someone slightly bigger like Nia who needed the same treatment, Lowen"s stamina wouldn"t have stood a chance. He would have collapsed possibly even pa.s.sed out after just the first hour or so. The reason being was because Lowen didn"t have precise control over his ki. He couldn"t send it to any pinpoint location only throughout the entire body. So if it was let"s say the heart that was in trouble, if Lowen had perfect control, he could send his ki directly to the heart healing it and strengthing it within minutes. But because he can"t manipulate the ki perfectly. It gets absorb throughout the body evenly. the pure energy of ki would heal everything at once. Hence, the bigger the body the longer it would take and the bigger the consumption of ki it would cost. Currently, his small storage of ki simply wasn"t enough to do more and it could barely take care of a small child such as Ben. But finally, with a huge exhale Lowen had completed his task. Stepping back, his legs felt like jelly causing him to fall flat on his b.u.t.t.
(Although ki is amazing, constantly using it like that is a bit too much for this small body of mine to handle. Right now, that"s about as much as I can do for him. Even though with this energy I could supplement a meal or two for myself. For those that cant use ki like this Ben, it"s simply a waste. If I could improve my control over my ki it"d be much more of a benefit for the boy but for now, it"d be better for him to actually consume some food.)
When Nia knelt down next to her brother she held his small hand and cradled his head with a soft hug. Looking at his now improved condition she was both surprised and joyful beyond belief. Her brothers once pale skin that looked as white as snow was gradually returning to its former color. His body that earlier had continued to pour sweat like a fountain had finally come to a stop and his skin that felt as though it were on fire now became warm and soothing to the touch. Nia looked as though she had witnessed a miracle. A few tears of joy began to slowly trickle down her face and a low murmur like prayer slipped gently pa.s.sed her lips. It was at this moment that a small voice spoke up.
"S...sister."
Ben had woken up and his once weak eyes seemed to twinkle like tiny stars. As he looked up at his older sister a smile broke out on Nia"s face. She couldn"t help but laugh out blissfully but before they could even begin to celebrate a roaring sound like a small cornered beast was heard from Ben"s little stomach. He needed to eat and as though it was responding to his calls Nia"s stomach began to rumble as well. Nia also hadn"t eaten for 3 days. The only reason she was not bedridden like her brother was simply because she wasn"t sick like him and her will was a bit stronger then it appeared. Now a flame of determination slowly grew within Nia"s mind and a sense of hope returned. She looked at her little brother and spoke confidently.
"Ben, everything"s going to be ok now, leave the rest to big sis."
Nia turned to Lowen with a thankful expression on her face and bowed to him.
"Thank you. I will probably never be able to repay you in my whole life for what you"ve done and I know this might seem selfish but please I need your help one more time. Please watch him for a bit I"m going to get him some food.
Lowen looked a little stunned
(It seems this girl is determined now.)
Since Lowen didn"t answer her immediately she thought he was hesitant because they were strangers.
(Of course, it would be weird if you asked a child you"ve just met to watch someone for you. Especially after they just did something miraculous but the whole situation itself is weird so who cares. I just need to find some food real quick and I will worry about the awkwardness later.)
But before she could say something else Lowen untied one of his jars he had with him and handed it to her.
"Eh, um, what is this?"
Opening the jar Nia looked inside and spotted some dried meat. Not only that there were also some s...o...b..rries down at the very bottom. She looked back at Lowen with incredulity.
"Take it, feed your brother and feed yourself. As for repaying me well, I guess I do need a place to stay."