Kai took the western road instead of riding straight back to the capital.

He told himself it was a tactical choice.

Eevy had all the necessary intelligence to handle the inner circle, and the politicians would finally listen to her now.

Millenia would wait for him because the succubus always waited patiently for her prizes.

The real reason for his detour was far simpler.

He just needed three days when nobody wanted anything from him, and space to breathe outside the shadow of the corrupt city before the second stage starts.

The first two days were fine.

He camped in the quiet woods, ate poorly roasted game, and ran through his new skills to understand his growing limits.

He tested the Blood Puppetry Fragment on a stray dog outside a small roadside village.

The skill required him to touch the target with his blood to establish the connection. He pricked his thumb with a hunting knife, smeared a single drop on a scrap of bread, and tossed it to the animal.

The dog swallowed the bread whole.

Kai felt a strange, thin string of mana connect his mind directly to the creature. He suggested it sit.

He did not speak the word out loud, but the dog sat immediately, staring up at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

’That is going to be very useful and dangerous,’ Kai thought, tossing the animal a larger piece of dried meat before getting back on his horse and riding down the trail.

The third day was when the real problem started.

He noticed a warm wetness clinging to his shirt right around midday. He pulled the stained fabric up while his horse maintained a steady walking pace and found a nasty wound slashed across his lower stomach.

It was a shallow cut, just a grazing hit that Lilith managed to land right before he dodged the full arc of her sword.

He had ignored the pain during the adrenaline of the fight and the rush to leave the canyon. He had not cleaned the cut, nor had he wrapped it in bandages. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Three days of riding in dirty clothes through freezing nights turned a minor scratch into a serious issue.

The skin was red, swollen, and leaking a steady trail of infection.

’I am an idiot,’ he thought plainly, letting the shirt drop back down.

He forced himself to keep riding until he reached Dornfeld by late afternoon. The town was small and served as a basic stopover for merchants travelling to the coast.

There was nothing remarkable about the wooden buildings or the muddy streets, but it possessed a high wall and a heavy gate. He desperately needed a safe place to sleep and a chance to clean his wounds.

He stopped his horse outside the main gate and swung his leg over the saddle to dismount. His boots hit the dirt road, and the entire world suddenly tilted sideways.

A rush of cold sweat broke out across his forehead.

He grabbed the leather saddle with both hands and waited for the spinning street to stop. His vision blurred around the edges, and a heavy ringing echoed in his ears.

A woman’s voice cut across the quiet street.

She sounded sharp and possessed a strict, no-nonsense tone, moving toward him before he could even raise a hand to wave her off.

"You look like you are about to fall over and die," the woman said, stopping a few feet away from his horse.

Kai blinked hard to clear the grey spots from his vision.

He focused on her face.

She looked to be in her thirties, wearing a simple linen apron over a practical brown dress, with long blonde hair.

Her arms were crossed tightly, and she tapped a wooden spoon against her thigh.

"I am fine," Kai replied.

He kept his voice low and tried to project confidence.

"I am just tired from the long road."

"People who are fine do not grip their saddles like they are hanging off a cliff," she pointed out, her eyes scanning him from head to toe.

"My name is Vienna. I run the tavern right across the square. You are bleeding through your shirt."

Kai looked down at his waist.

The red stain was spreading quickly past his heavy leather belt.

He felt a sudden flash of heat radiate from the cut.

"It is just a scratch from a wild animal," Kai lied, trying to stand up straight.

His knees buckled slightly, betraying his physical weakness instantly.

Vienna stepped forward and caught his arm to steady his weight.

Her grip was surprisingly strong for a tavern keeper.

She pulled his arm over her shoulder to keep him upright and moving forward.

"A scratch does not make a grown man turn the colour of old milk," Vienna said, shaking her head.

"Get inside before you bleed to death on my front step. It is bad for business when I have to scrub blood off the cobblestones."

"I do not need a doctor," Kai insisted. He let her guide him away from the horse because he honestly did not have the strength to fight her stubborn grip.

"Good, because we do not have a doctor," Vienna retorted as they walked toward a large wooden building.

"We have me, a pot of boiling water, and some strong liquor. You will have to make do."

Kai stumbled over the threshold of the tavern.

The warm air inside hit him like a physical wall, making his stomach churn with nausea.

A few local farmers sat at the wooden tables, drinking ale and talking quietly.

They paused their conversations and turned to look at the stranger leaning on their tavern keeper.

"Mind your own business," Vienna barked at the patrons. They quickly looked away and went back to their drinks.

She guided Kai to a back room behind the main bar.

It was a small office with a narrow cot pushed against the far stone wall. She dropped him onto the mattress, and he let out a sharp groan as the rough movement pulled at his infected stomach.

"Take your coat off," Vienna ordered, turning her back to him to grab a clean rag and a bottle of clear alcohol from a wooden shelf.

"And take the shirt off too. I need to see what I am dealing with."

Kai managed to pull the velvet coat off his shoulders.

He threw it onto the floor, his hands shaking slightly from the rising fever.

He undid the buttons of his white shirt and pulled the fabric away from the wound. The infection looked much worse in the bright candlelight.

The magic from the vampire blade had mixed with his own blood, turning the edges of the cut a sickly shade of purple.

Vienna turned around and walked back to the cot. She looked down at the wound, and her practical expression hardened into something far more serious.

"You lied to me," Vienna said softly, her sharp eyes flicking up to meet his exhausted gaze.

"No wild animal leaves a cut this clean. That is a sword wound, and it is infected with something foul."

Kai closed his eyes and let his head rest back against the cold stone wall.

He did not have the energy to invent another complicated story, nor did he want to explain the mechanics of a boss fight to a civilian.

"Are you going to report me to the town guards?" Kai asked tiredly.

"The guards in Dornfeld do not care about a passing traveller’s problems," Vienna replied, showing no intention of leaving the room.

She unscrewed the cork from the alcohol bottle with her teeth and spat it onto the floor.

"But cleaning this is going to hurt a lot. You might want to bite down on something."

’I really am an idiot,’ Kai thought again, gripping the edges of the mattress and bracing his body for the pain.