Eric honestly had no clue what the middle-aged man had just done, since he didn’t know what the artifact the man used even was.
He only sensed something pass through his neck for a very brief second, and that was it.
But truthfully, that also kind of worried him.
Since he couldn’t see any kind of physical injury on the outside, it most likely meant that he had suffered some kind of internal injury instead.
And those were never good for him.
Especially when they don’t show any immediate symptoms.
"Should I be concerned about it?" Eric asked the middle-aged man in confusion while looking all over his body for any sort of strange changes.
"What... what kind of monster are you...? Do you not feel pain at all?!" The middle-aged man said in disbelief and terror.
"Hm? Oh... I... I suppose I can feel it a little bit?" Eric finally realized that the artifact the man had used must’ve been a pain-inducing type of artifact based on his question, and he lied.
"Then what’s with your... your... your..." Before the middle-aged man could finish speaking, however...
Cough cough cough!
Three coughs suddenly rang out, and everyone turned to the sound, where they saw Celeste coughing up some blood while clutching her chest with one hand.
"Black Sovereign!" Multiple Astral Dawn members shouted in relief while some of the healers began running towards Celeste.
Celeste lifted her hand up though to stop everyone from approaching her.
Afterwards, she looked up at Eric, who also looked back down at her, and did the most shocking thing ever
To the Astral Dawns at least.
She slowly got down on her knees, placed her hands on her lap, and lowered her head all the way to the ground.
"Please... spare them..." Celeste pleaded.
"What are you talking about?" Eric asked as he was genuinely confused.
"I briefly saw that... the team leader... attacked you... and you said that... you’d act... if you were forced to... but please..." Celeste coughed a few more times and continued.
"Spare them..." She took another breath and then added, "They don’t know any better... and are only trying to... protect the world."
"..."
"Please..." Taking Eric’s silence as a refusal, Celeste pressed her forehead harder against the ground and pleaded again, though she doubted it would work.
But to her surprise...
"Aren’t you misunderstanding something about me again, like you did a few days back?"
"...!"
"If you remember what I said a few hours ago, I only said that I’d act if I were forced to. Being attacked once doesn’t force me to do anything."
"..."
"In fact, when your friend blew parts of my leg off a few days back, I still didn’t act or attack anyone back then. At most, I only took a pocket knife out, but that was it."
"..."
"So if I didn’t act back then, what makes you think I’m going to act now when I haven’t even been hurt yet?"
"..."
"I decide when I’m forced to act. Not you."
"..."
"So don’t act like you get to decide that for me. Ever again."
"..."
As soon as Eric finished speaking, he quickly turned to glance back at the middle-aged man and the two groups on the sidewalk.
Honestly, he just said that whole thing to Celeste just now so that the Astral Dawns wouldn’t think that he was a huge threat or something and try to retaliate first.
Because if even one of them felt so threatened to the point that they believed they couldn’t kill him no matter what they did, which was honestly the kind of person Celeste was making him out to be, then they might end up doing something stupid, and well...
Eric definitely couldn’t afford to let that happen.
Fortunately, after looking around a little more and seeing that none of the Astral Dawn members had changed their postures, he let out a quick and silent sigh of relief.
However, that was when he noticed it from the corner of his eye.
A smile, on Celeste’s face.
One that didn’t match her at all considering the condition that she was currently in.
And yet, it was one that was full of hope and relief.
"You’re right... I’m sorry... I misjudged you... again..." Celeste said as she looked at Eric with a faint smile on her face.
Honestly, she had grown so used to dealing with egotistical, arrogant beings even remotely strong that when Eric mentioned earlier in the penthouse that he would make a move if he was forced to, she instinctively assumed that even a single attack on him would push him to act and kill everyone here.
But as mentioned before, this was the same guy that had not a single ounce of care in the world when Verek blasted parts of his thighs off a few days back.
Besides, if it weren’t for him, she would’ve definitely been killed by now.
Truly... she was truly glad that he wasn’t like the others, even if he was the only being she had ever encountered so far who surpassed her in strength.
Having said that though, she still remembered that she had to act as his bodyguard for the time being until nobody tried attacking him anymore.
So after using the sword at her waist to slowly steady herself back on her feet despite the grueling pain from the lingering toxins still in her body, Celeste stepped in between Eric and the middle-aged man, who was staring at her in shock and confusion, and pointed the blade at him.
"Astral Dawn... did you not... get my messages after... the distress signals?" Even though Celeste had to pause at almost every other word so that the pain didn’t get worse, she still sounded very cold and stern when talking.
"Black Sovereign, I- I mean, our leader did receive your messages... but we thought you were telling us to stay away... and that everything was just a misunderstanding for our own sake... and a lot of people admire you, so you know..." The middle-aged man paused for a second before continuing, "P-plus, aren’t you deeply injured right now? I’m not trying to doubt you or anything, but the fact that you can’t even talk properly and look so weak right now speaks volumes to us..."
"Yes... but Eric isn’t the one... who did this... to me... and he actually... saved my life... so you’d all better just..." Before Celeste could finish speaking however, she coughed again, causing blood to spurt out from her mouth.
This prompted some of the healers of Astral Dawn to once again rush towards her.
Celeste didn’t stop them by raising her hand this time though, and instead pointed her sword at the closest healer that was a few meters away from her.
"Until we have... an understanding... that Eric is not... a threat... I won’t let... anyone near me..." Celeste stated.
Hearing this, all of the Astral Dawn members looked at the middle-aged man for confirmation, who then glared at Eric for a bit.
But since Eric didn’t truly seem like a threat like Celeste mentioned, considering that Eric never attacked back even after the man tried hurting him with his artifact, the middle-aged man eventually made his decision.
"Okay, we won’t pursue him anymore, and we’ll inform our leader and the groups with them about what happened. We can’t guarantee anything, and the other groups and organizations not in cahoots with us will likely still attack him, but it’s the best we can do." The middle-aged man then put his artifact back in his suit and said, "Now can you let the healers take a look at you?"
"Fine." Celeste finally lowered her sword, and 5 healers all in robe-like outfits quickly came over and asked Celeste what happened before chanting a couple of detoxification spells on her body.
Once that was finished, and Celeste could finally feel her strength returning, she quickly thanked the healers for their work while they fangirled and fanboyed over her, and then walked over to Eric.
"Thank you. For everything." Celeste didn’t say much, mainly because she was still too exhausted to put her full thoughts into words, but she truly meant it.
Eric simply nodded back in response simply because he was exhausted too, and then without another word, he walked into the building where his penthouse was and sat in the empty lobby while he waited for Celeste to finish talking to the Astral Dawn members and clear a few more things up.
And just like before, despite knowing that he still had toxins inside of him, he didn’t bother asking for help at all.
Although he knew that he should have.
"..."