Rebirth of the Bedridden Warrioress

Chapter Fourteen - Despair

Aramis Bronx Davina

It's been a while since Dahlia lost consciousness, so we decided to take some of her clothes off and let her body cool down on the freshwater.

The water in the middle is decent enough to clean her up, she's burning and it's making me worried.

"She'll be okay, she must be exhausted or got sick because of the strange climate change here," the friend of Noleen, Ingrid explained, which made me grip my hands.

"There's also nothing we can do here to calm her temperature down, I hope this bath will make her feel better," Loane said while holding Dahlia's head while I'm supporting her unconscious body.

"I wonder how many of us will survive this? We're 150 in total and most of us there were peasantians and middletians," Chloe muttered while playing with her fingers.

Loane shook her head at her, "There's only 40 or 50 of us middletians and peasantians combined, at least that's what I heard since we're all staying in a quarter right?" Loane curiously asked, but Chloe just shook her head.

"When we realized that we can't fit in that quarters that night, we requested for the royal maid to give us another room from somewhere," Chloe sighed, "We used up the rest of our money for that," she smiled while biting her lower lip.

"I see, we didn't know that," Loane admitted, which made me agree with her.

"So it's possible that there's 75 of us and 75 of richtians and nobles combined," I added, so Noleen nodded at me.

"Yes, shall we dry her off?" Noleen asked, so Loane and I just nodded before taking care of Dahlia who's grunting because of pain.

"In my opinion, you don't have to help her," the quiet friend of Noleen and Chloe commented while walking towards us. I think I heard a while ago that her name was Olivia.

"What do you mean?" I curiously asked, so she just chuckled before shaking her head. She looks like she's in a mess.

I wonder if she's alright? She looks heartbroken or something like that.

"Don't you guys remember that we're all rivals here? The faster others get sick or die the more chances of us winning," what she said made my eyes widened.

"Olivia, don't talk like that," Chloe scolded her, but Olivia just shook her head before staring at us again.

"I'm stating the truth, you don't have to help others because this is survival! You only have to think about yourself!" she shouted in a rasping voice, so after I placed Dahlia who's now dressed and resting on the side, I faced her.

"It wasn't stated that this is a fight between us, we can survive and help others here if we want to, it's my choice and I'll respect yours. I can't bear my fellow warrioress and friends suffering," I grunted while gripping my hands.

Olivia scoffed before laughing at me, "You think this would help you succeed until the end huh? Those friends of yours will betray you someday! You can't trust anybody here!" she furiously stated, so Noleen slapped her.

"That's enough Olivia! What you said was way below the belt!" Noleen sounded furious, so we all went silent as we dried ourselves off.

Olivia still looked so furious even if we let it go for several hours, she looks like she's in deep pain and anger.

That happened with Elaine either, she left because of that strange mindset of surviving on your own.

I wonder what pushed them to have that kind of idea towards others? I just sighed before wearing some fresh decent clothes I brought with me.

We decided to eat lunch and dinner at the same time, so I gave some apples to Chloe and Noleen, "W-We're sorry about Olivia, she's been like that ever since we found her," they whispered, so I raised my head to them.

"It's no big deal and you found her? She wasn't in your group?" I curiously asked, but they both just shook their heads.

"Like us, we're separated from our fellow warrioress when a beast attacked, she wasn't talking too much, but she told us that some of her fellow warrioress betrayed one another and let others be a sacrifice for the beast so the others could buy some time to run," Noleen explained which made my eyes widened.

I curiously glanced at their backs and saw that Olivia's just sulking on the corner.

"It must be one of her friends that has been sacrificed," Chloe mumbled while scratching the back of her head.

"That must be a horrible experience," I sighed and glanced at the almost salmon pink and orange skies, sunset coming to greet us.

"It is, so if she ever said anything, please don't take it to heart," Chloe pleaded, so I just smiled before nodding at her.

"You don't have to worry about that, I completely understand," I reassured them, so they thanked me for the apples as we all quietly consumed our dinner and lunch.

I can't believe that it's almost been a week since I was reincarnated here, everything is not going as smoothly as I expected it to be.

My hands took out the book I've been keeping in the pockets of my bag and saw that it was still narrating what happened to me today.

It's odd and yet it certainly looks like the book that my mom almost gave to me before I died. This isn't a coincidence, that warrioress name was also the same as mine, so it's possible that I'm probably redoing her life in that novel and game.

Some of my games have novels to explain some history of every character and a guide on a game that's been established due to its popularity.

I missed my old life, the only thing that I'll think about is where to find money to buy some new books and games.

"Maybe I'm really inside a novel or game story," I whispered to myself before keeping it inside my bag.

Loane suggested making fire because there are rocks and some branches, dried leaves that can allow us to make some fire during the night. So we helped her gather it.

It took us a while before we successfully made some fire, it's small but the heat was enough to warm us all.

Dahlia was still asleep, so I carried her near the fire beside me. Loane, on the other hand, was busy gathering more twigs from bushes to keep the fire burning.

"Don't worry guys, this challenge will end tomorrow," Noleen mumbled while covering herself with some dry clothes from the cold.

"We'll eat decent and full meals again," Chloe cheered before finishing the rest of the apple slices I gave her.

"I'll stay in the sprinklers forever, this smell of us will probably stick until we have some soap or something," Noleen commented, so we just laughed at their statements.

My eyes glanced on the far corner of the oasis and saw that Olivia was sulking over there. I excused myself from the crowd who's busy talking and laughing with each other and came after her.

I know I shouldn't bother because bothering with others isn't my thing, so why am I so eager to go there? This isn't like the old me.

My past self wasn't even noticed by anyone. I was invisible, and yet here, I'm slightly popular because of my bedridden reputation.

And now, my body is forcing me to talk and appease everyone's statement here. This is exhausting, but it's making my heart full for certain reasons.

"Hey, can I sit here?" she looked at me after hearing my voice, she exhaled out a lungful air before looking at me again.

"What do you want Aramis?" she asked in a steady manner, so I just smiled before sitting right next to her.

I'm still not used to people knowing me that bad. Despite how poor I was from my old and recent life, at least I'm popular now.

"I'm sorry about your friend, I heard what happened to her," I solemnly said, so she hissed before throwing some rocks on the water.

"How could she tell you that," she furiously mumbled while averting her gaze at me. She moved her legs towards her body and hugged them.

"Your friend means a lot to you right?" I solemnly asked, she didn't talk but I can tell that she's listening to me.

"S-She did," she whispered while sniffing, so I just smiled.

"Do you want to talk about it? Before, I didn't have many friends, so the only ones that I talked to were myself, my games, or maybe sometimes my mother, she must be very special to you, for you to mourn like that," I said, so she looked at me intently.

"No, I really don't want to talk about it plus you already heard what happened, just being by my side is enough to cheer me up," she shyly whispered, so I just laughed before nodding at her.

"And um, you're talking about games, what kind of games?" she curiously asked, which made me flinch, shoot! I was talking about games online!

I wonder what games they have here? I just sighed because my games are probably missing me from my past life.

"U-Uh games that are also...games here! Hehe!" I nervously said, so she just shook her head at me.

"I see, I'm sorry about what I said a while ago, I didn't really mean it," she sincerely apologized, so I just smiled.

"Alright, I'll stay with you or just join us there," I pointed at the back, and she flinched while shaking her head.

"I'm good here, you can go back there if you want to," she mumbled, but I just shook my head and grabbed her wrists.

"Saying sorry wouldn't hurt you, it's alright, they'll accept it," I reassured her, so she just sighed and accepted my hands.

The rest of the evening went by smoothly because we all got along with each other, it was freezing but thanks to the fire that Loane made, we can peacefully sleep at night.

It wasn't that long when morning came, we woke up early and patiently waited for our Conestoga wagons to arrive.

Dahlia's recovering pretty well, she feels weak but she can manage to stand and walking on her own.

"Dahlia, have you eaten anything yet?" I asked so she glanced at me before nodding.

"Yeah, you asked that for the nth time Aramis, stop worrying too much about me, I can handle this," Dahlia pouted, so I just chuckled.

"What's taking them so long?" Noleen complained while pacing back and forth near the edge of the oasis.

"Do you guys think a lot of us survived?" Chloe asked this time, but no one dared to answer her.

"I hope so, all of us we're dedicated to finding an oasis, it's odd that we're the only ones here," Loane wondered.

"Wait! Over there! There's someone--" Olivia stopped talking when an arrow pierced her chest, my eyes widened and immediately caught her bleeding body.

"Get down!" I ordered, before all of them successfully duck, Chloe, Noleen, and Ingrid were also shot with arrows.

"A-Ahh!" Their horrified screams were heard, Loane and Dahlia caught some of their bodies before they could fall dead on the ground.

"W-Who was that!? Why are they doing this!" Loane shouted, so I peered my eyes at the far corner of the desert and saw some richtians riding some camels.

"R-Run, Aramis, e-everyone leave us here," Olivia talked with blood gushing out of her mouth.

My head immediately declined her request, that is something I can't bring myself to do.

"N-No! We're taking you to safety!" I felt my tears burn my eyes as I exhaled out a lungful of air, trying to think of what I'll do.

"T-They'll kill all of you," Olivia grunted while slowly closing her eyes, so I shook my head and grabbed some knives.

"N-No, they'll be walking from here!" I gritted my teeth before professionally throwing those three sharp knives and killing those camels they were riding.

Shoot! I'm a murderer of camels!

To be continued…