When Aaron gradually woke from his coma, he immediately saw...
Oh, an unfamiliar ceiling.
"...Aaron, you're awake?"
Kiana, who had been slumped over the bed, immediately looked at Aaron with immense concern.
"How are you feeling? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Ah... if I have to say... I'm a little hungry."
After scanning his surroundings, Aaron roughly determined that this should be an inn.
"Where are we now?"
"In a city near the Imperial Capital."
Seeing that Aaron seemed to be fine, Kiana finally let out a slow sigh of relief.
"You scared me to death. Seeing you spit up so much blood that second time, I thought you..."
"Ah, it's not a big deal."
*The Kaslana constitution is seriously OP, after all. It could even suppress an injury like that.*
After taking out drinking water and canned food, Aaron looked at the pajamas he'd been changed into, and his expression suddenly changed.
"You just said I spat up so much blood the *second* time... You didn't just casually carry a guy covered in blood into the city, did you?"
"Of course not!"
After snapping back, slightly annoyed, Kiana seemed to remember something and quickly averted her gaze.
"I'm not a single-celled organism, how could I do something so idiotic? I waited until it was safe, found a stream to wash the blood off you, and applied medicine *before* I carried you into the city."
*Right. Judging by her performance so far, she hasn't entered her Tuna mode yet.*
"So, here's the question. My original clothes had blood on them, and you couldn't have bought pajamas before entering the city, so..."
"What clothes *was* I wearing when we entered the city?"
"...Don't worry about little details like that!"
Kiana interrupted him harshly, saying in a fluster, "I've already checked the surroundings. It's safe for now, and no City Guard or sentries have come to check on us."
"Yeah, well, that psycho Seryu was almost killed by us. Even if she survived, she won't be waking up anytime soon."
After glancing out the window, Aaron continued.
"But there are people in the Imperial Capital who can 'heal' her injuries. We can only rest here for about a day at most. After that, we'll have to leave temporarily."
"Is that so..."
With a small sigh, Kiana said dejectedly, "I thought we could rest a little longer..."
"Prepare yourself."
Sinking back onto the bed, Aaron held his right hand up toward the ceiling.
"A Teigu is like a second life to a Teigu user. And some Teigu can even change the fate of the entire Empire. We have to capture ten Teigu, which means we will inevitably become enemies with those Teigu users."
"The two we met this time aren't even among the strongest. If we had run into *those* two, we'd be dead by now."
*But, according to the plot, Esdeath is currently on an expedition, and Budo doesn't usually patrol the streets.*
*At least for now, we shouldn't have to worry about facing them.*
*But then again, with our current combat strength, it's going to be a massive headache even if we face other strong Teigu users.*
*We can't just count on me or Kiana to ram a motorcycle into their heads every time.*
[Ding! Tester No. 233 detected to have killed a Teigu user (Zank the Beheader) and defeated a Teigu user (Seryu Ubiquitous), activating a hidden mission.]
[Hidden Mission—Slay the Teigu Users.]
[Defeating a Teigu user rewards 1 mission point. Killing a Teigu user rewards 3 mission points. Repeated defeats or kills are invalid. Don't even think about using Yatsufusa to cheese the system.]
[When your points reach a certain threshold, this System will issue rewards.]
[Tester No. 233 detected to have unlocked a hidden mission for the first time. Tester No. 233 and Tester No. 233's teammate will receive one standard reward. Please choose one of the following three options.]
[1. Randomly strengthen one skill—Note: Can only strengthen skills you possess. Skills temporarily granted by the System after entering the dungeon cannot be strengthened.]
[2. Randomly receive one skill—Note: This skill is not temporarily granted by the System but is permanently held. Future skill-strengthening rewards may randomly apply to this skill.]
[3. Randomly receive one piece of equipment—Note: Includes items such as crowbars, bricks, steel-toed boots, torn cotton jackets, etc. The lower limit for this option is extremely low. Please think thrice.]
Upon hearing the long-awaited... well, okay, it hadn't been *that* long.
Upon hearing the System's voice, Aaron froze for a second, then suddenly questioned it angrily.
*I'm sure I killed Zank the Beheader before. Why didn't you tell me I could get a reward then?*
*As a System, you actually lagged out and went offline. Have you no shame?!*
.............................