“Eisha, it’s good that you're alive, it’s good that you’re alive!” Julius said as he tightly hugged his maid.
“P-Prince…” Eisha began coughing profusely because of the nutritional fluid that was clogging her throat. The taste was abominable and unlike Julius, she couldn’t force it down.
She soon noticed that she was naked and quickly covered herself with her arms. “P-p-prince! W-where are Eisha’s clothes?! And what happened? Eisha thought...Eisha thought Eisha had died!”
“Ahem, mhm, well… let’s just say I revived you,” Julius replied as he awkwardly looked away while scratching his nose.
He couldn’t help but sneak a quick peek at Eisha but the maid immediately noticed this and glared back at him.
“...”
“...”
An awkward atmosphere hung in the air for a good few seconds between the two, but as Eisha was staring at her prince with dead eyes, she grew more fascinated as she looked at her own body.
The limbs she knew had been chopped off earlier had been somehow regrown or reattached and all the fatal wounds she sustained had been healed. Eisha felt that her body’s condition was actually better than before and she felt full of energy. It was nothing less than a miracle for her.
However, she couldn’t forget about the pain and despair leading up to the moments where she thought she had died. Whatever Prince Julius did to her, she was immensely grateful for it.
She quickly got out of the flesh sac she was in and knelt in front of Julius. Seeing her suddenly get up and kneel in front of him, while naked, Julius immediately became flustered.
“E-Eisha, what are you doing?!”
“My Lord, Eisha has no idea what you did but Eisha is extremely grateful… As before please let Eisha swear Eisha’s undying fealty and love to you again!” Eisha deeply bowed her head as she said this.
Julius was flustered not by the oath since he’s already heard it before, he was flustered by the fact that his ‘sister’ was kneeling in front of him naked. The visual was much too stimulating for him who had just come of age today.
“H-Here, put this on for now!” Julius said as he took off the mantle he was wearing. He was still just 15 so he hadn’t grown entirely, however, the mantle was big enough to cover most of Eisha’s body, especially her important parts.
“Stand up Eisha, the floor’s dirty.”
“Thank you, my Lord, but can Eisha ask?”
“What is it?”
“...Where are we?”
“We’re in the Shifting Hallows of the Harrdigor Continent,” Julius answered in a heartbeat. He had just asked the same question earlier and the voice in his head provided him the answer.
“Shifting Hallows? E-Eisha’s never heard of it...Where did Prince get this information?” Eisha asked.
Julius quickly explained to her about the voice in his head that’s been providing him with information and was even talking with him.
“Prince...are you okay?”
Julius sighed when he heard his maid’s question. “Eisha, how do you think I revived you? Also, can’t you feel it? I’m pretty sure you can...the ‘connection’ between us?”
“Uhm...Eisha’s had this weird feeling since earlier...especially when Prince Julius was looking at Eisha lecherously*”
“Hey!” Julius exclaimed in protest.
“Anyway, Eisha could clearly ‘feel’ Prince Julius’s thoughts,” Eisha said after she pondered for a bit.
There was some kind of invisible link between them. It was odd but if Julius thought about her, she could somehow ‘feel’ and understand his thoughts. And right now, Julius was still unconsciously thinking about something lewd.
“Prince...Eisha knows that Eisha’s body belongs to you but can you wait until you’re of marriageable age before you take me?”
“W-w-w-w-what are you talking about Eisha?!”
“Eisha knows exactly what you’re thinking, Prince,” Eisha replied in a deadpanned tone.
Julius pinched his brow in exasperation. He knew that his maid was witty and had a sharp, unfiltered mouth, but being at the receiving end, it was really exasperating. It wasn’t his fault that his maid came out of the flesh sac completely in the nude.
He cursed at the voice in his head for not telling him.
[Reminder: You did not ask.]
‘And there you go always providing an answer, huh?’
[Note: The answer is already there. You only need ‘think’ and it will be given.]
“Never mind…”
“What’s that, Prince?” Eisha asked.
“Nothing Eisha...anyway, we should start moving. We need to find a place to set camp. We can’t just stand around in the middle of nowhere…”
Eisha nodded before speaking up again, “Eisha’s been meaning to ask, but what is that...child?”
Eisha pointed to the homunculus who was standing quietly at Julius’s side, waiting for further orders. It was now half Julius’s height so it looked like a child compared to them.
“Ah this...he’s a homunculus... a worker unit,” Julius answered once he received the answers from the voice in his head.
“Worker unit?”
“I’ll explain everything later, Eisha. We have to get going right now...I’m feeling a bit weak and it’s almost nightfall. We’re completely exposed out here when the Shifting Hallows’ nocturnal creatures come out…”
“Where are we going, Prince?”
“Homunculus...lead the way…”
“Affirmative.”
The homunculus began walking in a random direction and led the two from their previous spot. Eisha had to support Julius along the way because he was feeling weak from the full-body recovery.
Unfortunately for Julius, the journey wasn’t uneventful as he was sidling up against Eisha’s body throughout the entire time. She was only wearing his mantle so he could clearly feel the contours and bumps of her body.
Naturally, the maid brought it up because she could clearly feel his thoughts but it was inevitable. The entire way, her talkative ‘toxic’-mouthed maid continued making fun of him.
“Lord, we have arrived.”
After traveling for a few hours, the Homunculus brought Eisha and Julius to a rocky outcrop. On the eastern face of the outcrop, there was a small cavern near the base that led downwards.
“A cave...there could be monsters inside…” Eisha said warily.
The homunculus quickly relieved them of their worries by reporting, “Negative. No lifeforms detected within the cave.”
“Aren’t you a handy little guy?” Eisha said and patted the homunculus’s head. She noticed that the homunculus had similar facial features as her lord so she began treating it like it was the younger version of him.
The only thing she nitpicked about which she kept on mentioning throughout the entire walk here, was the fact that the homunculus was not wearing any clothes and strutting around in the nude.
It didn’t have the important thing that Julius had but it was still awkward for her to stare at a greyish-white naked version of her Prince.
“Let’s go Eisha...I...I really need to rest…”
“Is this because Prince used that power to heal Eisha?”
“M-Maybe...I’m still not sure, Eisha...anyway, please hurry in…”
“Lord, should this one fetch the hatchery and bring it here?”
Julius was confused before he just nodded.
The homunculus then turned to walk back the way they came while Eisha helped Julius into the cave. She set him down at the entrance before entering alone to scout the place out.
She wasn’t much of a fighter but she knew basic martial arts and self-defense. Her prince was also in a bad condition right now and she wanted to double-check the place herself.
After finding nothing inside except for rocks and a small pool of water, she quickly went to fetch Julius and bring him in.
“Eisha...get me some of that…”
“It might not be safe to drink…”
“The water is clean. It’s dripping from the stalactites meaning that even though this place is a wasteland, it still occasionally rains here. The rain seeped through the outcrop and eventually pooled up in here and after going through*”
“Okay, Prince! That’s enough. Basically, it’s clean, yes?”
“Yes…”
“Then Eisha will get you the water! Sheesh, when did Prince turn into a genius...it just makes no sense at all...”
“Ehehehe…” Julius laughed weakly. It wasn’t him who was smart. It was the voice in his head telling him everything.
Anyway, the voice in his head hadn’t been wrong yet. He had followed its instructions and somehow he was able to find a place of refuge with water in it. He could go a few days without food, but he would die if he didn’t have any water.
It was the same with his maid, Eisha. Now that they secured a water source, they could start building up from here. Their first night was going to be tough since they had to somehow keep the Shifting Hallows’ monsters outside of the cave.
[Solution: Build a fleshwall at the cavern’s entrance.]
“Will I have to use―never mind…”
Julius already knew the answer. He would have to pay his own flesh and blood as a tribute to construct the ‘fleshwall’.
“Eisha’s going to freak when she sees this…”
“What’s that, my Prince?” Eisha asked after she returned with a hand full of water. They didn’t have any cups or bowls so she had to use her hands.
She quickly fed Julius the water and it was the first time in his life that Julius felt joy in the act of just drinking water. He was like a severely dehydrated man who had finally found an oasis in the desert.
If it wasn’t because of the voice in his head constantly notifying him that his hydration levels had finally reached tolerable levels, he probably would have cried. Eisha smiled when she saw some color return to Julius’s face after that one handful of water.
She returned to the pond to drink some of it herself. The water was extremely clean and clear just like her prince had said. His abrupt change after she woke up was quite a surprise.
Although her prince was smart he wasn’t THIS smart. He knew the name of the place they were in and how to accurately procure water and shelter. Her prince had also somehow healed her and brought her back from the brink of death with her full-body intact.
After taking a sip of the water in the cave she turned around to find that Julius wasn’t lying down in his previous spot. She panicked and began frantically looking around before seeing him near the entrance of the cavern.
“Prince Julius!” Eisha exclaimed and quickly rushed to his side in what she felt was like a single step.
“!”
This surprised Eisha and it nearly caused her to smash into the wall due to the momentum of her speed.
“What just―”
“What just ‘what’, Eisha?” Julius asked.
“N-Nothing...Prince, are you sure that you should be moving? You looked pale and sickly just earlier!”
“Don’t worry, Eisha. I’ll rest after I do this… it’s to keep us safe from the monsters during the night…”