Chapter 7:

The Aftermath

A Delinquent Reborn as a Royal!?


Justinius sat up suddenly in bed, and immediately howled in pain. Lilith ran to his side.

“My prince! You need to lie down. Lie down. Your body is in a horrible state. Father Stachys is getting his tools to perform a miracle to help you recover?” She gently helped him lay back down.

“A… miracle?” Justinius asked

“Yes, to help you recover. You really pushed yourself too hard you know. The doctor said you could’ve died.” Justinius laughed.

“If I die from just this much, then I deserve to die.”

“Don’t say that!” Lilith stood up straight, looking down on Justinius with tears in her eyes.

“S… Sorry.” He stammered, looking bewildered. She sat back down on the stool she had pulled to his bedside, and looked down at her hands. She fidgeted around, looking like she wanted to say something. Justinius stared at her.

“What?” He asked. “Do you have something to say?” Lilith looked surprised, and her eyes darted back and forth from Justinius to her hands. After a moment of awkwardness, she took a deep breath.

“Why did you do all that?”

“Do all what? The sword fighting? Although I guess you can’t really call it sword fighting, more like getting hit with a sword. I did it to get better at sword fighting. Apparently I lost honor in that duel, so I have to get it back. I can’t have it get around that I’m dishonorable if I’m going to be a good king.”

“So you weren’t avoiding me?” She asked, looking up at him like a hurt puppy.

“Why? Because you tried to kill me?” Lilith stood up suddenly.

“Stop bringing that up!” She yelled.

“You’re the one that brought it up!” He retorted, sitting up suddenly so that every muscle in his body ached and every bone creaked. He howled in pain once again. Lilith dropped down to tend to him, but he waved her off. “I forgave you. If you keep pestering me about this, I’m going to start thinking that you don’t believe me, and how are we supposed to get married if you don’t believe me? What kind of queen doesn’t believe in her king?” Lilith blushed.

“I didn’t do it because I wanted to, you know. Sure, you were always weak and timid, but I still kinda liked you. They made me do it. And no, I can’t tell you who ‘they’ are. They’ll act if they think they’ve been found out, and I need to do everything I can to protect you.”

“Alright, well if you’re not going to tell me who they are, then just stop talking about killing me, I’ve got a bit of trauma over being killed so I’d like to avoid the subject if we can.” Lilith nodded. Justinius laid his head back down gingerly, and took a deep breath. Even that managed to hurt his entire body. After a couple minutes of silence, there was a knock at the door. Lilith got up and let the priest in.

“My prince.” He said, as he came in, but Justinius couldn’t be bothered to hurt half his body in order to turn towards him. “You’ve been far too reckless. You may not be used to it, but you’ve got a weak body now. You need to treat it delicately.”

“No, I need to strengthen it. I’m not going to sit around all day like the former prince. I’m going to get stronger so I can be a proper king.”

“But you can’t be so rash about it. You’re not used to this body, so you’re not used to its limitations. You need to proceed slowly.”

“Excuse me…” Lilith cut in. Justinius sat up straight, inviting the pains of every muscle in his body. He had forgotten she was there. “What do you mean by former prince? And new body?”

“Uhhh…” Justinius gulped, and looked towards the priest, who stood silently, waiting for him to think of an excuse. “That’s just what I call my old self. Before I decided to change who I was. And this body, that doesn’t match who I am in my mind anymore.”

“Oh…” Lilith didn’t seem particularly convinced, but she also didn’t seem doubtful.

“Can you please wait outside, Lady Beckinghall?” Father Stachys asked her.

“Yes, Father.” She opened the door and stepped outside. “My apologies, my prince.” He continued. “I thought by the way you were speaking you had told her of your circumstances, though I would caution against any unnecessary honesty.” Justinius just grunted in reply as he lay back down gently. He continued to lie there as the priest proceeded with his ritual. He rubbed a coarse, salty solution all over Justinius’s body, and placed buckets of water all around his bed, finally he poured a thick, concentrated liquid down Justinius' throat while uttering unintelligible words. When he was done, Justinius tried to move, but he still felt horrible.

“What gives? I thought I’d be better?”

“You will be. You just need to wipe the salts off your skin first. They’ve absorbed all your pain, so once they are gone you will feel better. You must wipe them off thoroughly, for they have likely penetrated your skin at this point. Unfortunately I have business to attend to, so I will be unable to perform this task. I will ask Lady Beckinghall to act as my proxy.” Justinius turned towards him, his face flushed red.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! Lilith is going to wipe my whole body down?” But the priest ignored him, opened the door, and after just a moment Lilith came back in. She was looking down, with a beet red face, so Justinius assumed Father Stachys had told her what she had to do. She had a rag, and took it to one of the buckets of water. They both remained silent as she began to wipe the salts off. She took off his shirt, and Justinius could see the black and blue of his massive bruises be wiped off the salt. He was so amazed that he forgot to be embarrassed, but when she began to take his pants off, he remembered his embarrassment.

“I… I think I can do the rest!” He stammered out. Lilith dropped the rag and covered her face.

“Oh! Of course. Your upper body should already be better.” She sat in the corner facing the wall as Justinius finished wiping his body. He stood up and jumped in place, doing some calisthenics and stretches.

“This is amazing! I can’t believe such convenient magic exists.”

“It’s not magic, we’re not elves.”

“Elves?! There are elves?!” He asked excitedly. This new world suddenly seemed so much more fantastical than it had before. Maybe there were even dragons and dwarves.

“Of course.” Lilith answered plainly. She clearly didn’t share Justinius’ excitement.

“Wow, I’d love to meet an elf.” Lilith looked at him curiously.

“Then just go down to the slave quarters and meet one.”

“The slave quarters?”

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