Raising A Few Wives in a Beast Apocalypse-Chapter 94: Shouldn’t I be the one pinching you!?
A week later....
Muku still hadn’t woken up. Other than hunting a few beasts for food close by, the girls hadn’t left the mansion much, if at all. They hadn’t even bothered to interact with their "neighbours", who didn’t bother them either. Although they were worried about Muku, they could only put their faith in Hope. Who was slowly but gradually healing his body.
They were also using their free time to meditate. Audrey had even improved her mana control by 4%, putting her at 5%. The moment she reaches Peak Rank Two, she’ll immediately enter the Half-step R3 stage, albeit on the weaker side. She wasn’t the only one though.
Emily, Chloe and Hope had also improved their mana control by a bit. Emily and Chloe being a bit better than Hope. Both were at 3%, while Hope was still at 1%. Likely because of their past experience. Chloe had always been trying to better control her mana after a certain "incident" that left her naked. While Emily got some inspiration from her spell that chooses who to burn despite covering everyone. So it was understandable that she wasn’t as fast as them. Not to mention that had spent most of her week in a weakened state after using all her mana on Muku.
As for Layla, she had refused to say. Which made others think that she might not have improved by even 1%. So they didn’t pry, not wanting to embarrass her. Though it wasn’t true, Layla was already at 2%, just didn’t want to admit that she had lost to Emily and Chloe when they ranked up on the same day. The girl really didn’t like losing.
Jade, on the other hand, was going through something completely different. Unlike the others, she had to completely abandon mana and switch to Beast Aura. Her evolution path was a bit unique. Her access to mana was only temporary and had to be changed if she wanted to get to Rank Three. She had to replace the mana in her core with Beast Aura. So far, her normal transformation with the orange fur was a construct of mana, while her berserk state was a construct of Beast Aura.
When she was Rank One, the two worked in tandem. But ever since she reached Rank Two, they had started vaguely clashing. That’s when the IA notified her that she should completely switch to Beast Aura which is the specialized energy for her class. Mana was only a temporary fix, allowing her to survive as a Rank One while learning how to use Beast Aura, which is a lot harder to control when so weak. Hell, she couldn’t even access it initially.
So while the others improved their mana control. She has to slowly replace the mana in her core with Beast Aura, which had been circling in her body, avoiding the core until then. She was currently at 1%, which was basically the same as Hope. Since she didn’t have to improve her mana control, just had to abandon it.
As for Elsa, she was still unranked, with a kill count of nine. She had managed to kill the ninth just before the Crow attacked. Since they couldn’t find any unranked beasts close by, she was stuck for a while. They couldn’t even return to the place they went last time since the mice had been wiped out during the chaos.
Emily was even worried that they wouldn’t be able to find more unranked beasts anytime soon. This was understandable since such beasts were at the bottom of the food chain and were everyone’s easy prey. Even weak humans targeted them with greedy eyes after realising that they’d likely not leave long if they remained weak.
There were no longer governments that handed out hampers to the poor....or at least during voting season. So people were learning to be independent, making unranked beasts a hot commodity. And a starved R1 beast wouldn’t mind an unranked beast feast.
.....
"Ahh, my eyes!" Muku exclaimed in pain when he tried to open his eyes after regaining consciousness.
"Big Brother!" Hope, who had fallen asleep while sitting beside his bed, immediately woke up and jumped on top of him. Luckily for Muku, she wasn’t too strong physically, or his back might have been broken by how hard she was squeezing him.
Visit ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com for the 𝑏est n𝘰vel reading experience.
His body had been healed completely on the fifth day. Since Hope healed him whenever her mana regenerated. But he didn’t wake up, even after two days. Audrey had told them not to worry but the others could tell that even she was starting to worry. But since there was nothing they could do, they could only wait until he woke up. So Hope’s happiness from hearing his voice after a whole week could be imagined.
"You’re squashing me" Muku said in a low and gentle voice. But Hope didn’t move; he could only smile wryly while caressing her hair, hoping that she’d calm down soon. He could tell from her reaction that he might have been out for a while. After all, the last thing was...
When that memory resurfaced in his mind he opened his eyes wide. Then, he immediately closed them; they still hurt like hell, though not as his heart at the moment. Was she really gone? Will he never see those kinds of golden eyes and bright smiles again? Will he never hear her melodious voice again? A tear flowed down the side of his face as he thought about Emily.
"I heard screaming, what happened?" After budging in through the door, Emily asked while looking toward the bed with worry on her face. She just happened to be going past the room when she heard Hope’s loud voice.
"Huh!?" Muku exclaimed in shock and confusion after hearing the voice he was just thinking that he’d never hear again. He immediately opened his eyes, which had adjusted a lot more, and looked toward the door. And there she was, even prettier than she was before. Was she a ghost? Muku kept on looking at Emily unblinkingly as all these thoughts went through his mind. Emily looked back.
"What?, Is there anything on my face?" Emily who’d already forgotten that the last time Muku saw her was when she "died", was completely confused by how he was staring at her so intensely. Her happiness from seeing him awake made it even harder for her to catch on. She would have jumped onto him if Hope wasn’t already silently weeping in his arms.
"Can you come here for a second?" Muku didn’t answer her question and only beckoned at her. Emily confusedly did as told.
"Give me your hand" Muku added after she came close enough. Although still confused, Emily did as told, she was already faintly blushing, wondering why he’d want to hold her hand soon after waking up.
"Ahh!, what are you doing!?" Emily screamed as she jumped back, her left hand on top of her right one, trying to ease the sudden pain. She glared at Muku with teary eyes full of grievances. Although it was acceptable that he didn’t do what she thought he’d do, but why would he pinch her hand of all things!?.
"Oh, so I’m really not dreaming!?" Muku exclaimed in shock.
"What do you mean?, and even if you wanted to check that, shouldn’t I be the one pinching you!? When did you become so unreasonable?" Emily complained, feeling even more wronged. Since when did the person who thought they were dreaming become the one to pinch others!?
"Ah, right, sorry, I guess I am not thinking properly yet", Muku replied with an embarrassed expression on his face. That’s when he felt the weight on him lighten, then completely disappear, along with a certain softness. It was Hope who had gotten up. She had been startled by Emily’s cry of pain. Hearing what they were talking about, she realised that Muku must have been shocked to see Emily alive. And like a reasonable sister, she unwillingly got up to leave the room and give them privacy for a bit.
After Hope left Muku slowly got up from the bed. Although he felt a bit weak, he could still move, which was likely a perk of having mana that normal humans don’t have. He slowly walked to Emily who hadn’t dared get close to him after being pinched on her hand. As he got closer, she’d step back. He wasn’t discouraged and kept on walking forward until Emily’s back was pressed against the wall, and she couldn’t step back any further.
He stopped advancing after there was less than thirty centimetres between them. He was taller than Emily, so he looked down, while she had to look up to meet his gaze. But she was also looking down which meant all he couldn’t see was her golden hair.
"Will you not look at me? he spoke softly. Emily shivered a bit but didn’t say anything; she didn’t even know what to say. And still didn’t dare meet his gaze; her legs felt weak, like she could fall over at any moment. She wanted to run away but didn’t trust her legs to take her even one step forward, so she was stuck. She closed her eyes in the spot hoping he’d go away. She felt so nervous that she suspected that she might faint if things continued like this.
That’s when she felt a hand touch her chin and then push her face up. She couldn’t help but open her golden eyes a bit. She was immediately met by his grey ones that still looked at her intensely, with a lot of hidden emotions behind them. She forced her face down again, her heart racing, and he didn’t prevent her.
He took her in his arms. Instead, he gave her a tight hug. Though not tight enough to hurt her. She even felt like he was treating her like a fragile flower.
"I...I’m sorry that I failed you" Muku said with a croaked voice. Although he didn’t know how she was still alive. He was happy nonetheless; this way, he could make up for his failure to keep her safe.
