My hearing once again faded into a deafening silence—a heavy void where even the faint crackle of burning mana embers had vanished. All I was left with was an empty space and a mind left to wander in circles.
A thought crossed my mind in the meantime: if I were actually alive and getting patched up by someone, what would be the very first thing I'd want to do once my health bounced back?
What could it be? Eating my favorite street food? Playing something? Or desperately trying to find a spouse?
For me, it was a one-in-million question, but option one felt the most precise. Marriage is a scam anyway.
As I was turning it over, sounds began to trickle back in. This time, they brought warmth, ambient echoes, and rich scents, while the absolute darkness in front of me slowly shifted into a blurry, hazy wash of light.
The girl's voice cut through: "It's done. Now it's just a matter of time before he wakes up, but I've depleted too much mana and energy... I really need to eat something."
As I forced my eyes open, I saw strange flowers with deep green leaves and pink petals—resembling camellias, but growing completely upside down from the vaulted stone ceiling. Soft, green, snow-like spores carrying a gentle, synthetic warmth drifted down like a slow winter rain across the entire room. As the glowing dust touched my skin, I closed my eyes just to soak in the sensory comfort it provided. Artificial or magical as it was, it felt warmer than most fake people ever had.
I tried to move my body, but neither my limbs nor my eyes answered.
A sharp wave of frustration spiked inside me—something I could neither express nor act on. It was deeply unsettling, leaving me trapped with nothing to do but imagine what was happening around me.
Until a voice drifted through the air, close yet still distant: "Don't try. You aren't in sleep paralysis; your motor neurons are just healing themselves, and we can talk about it later."
The voice arrived alongside the rich, greasy scent of someone frying food in hot oil, accompanied by a soft, absent-minded tune escaping her lips:
Hm hum, hmh hhmmh...
I couldn't be sure, but could this actually be the Curse Weaver?
A system message popped up right in front of me:
{Story chapter: The humming witch is giggling towards your action}
The girl replied to thin air, "System, had I any story for cooking?"
{System message: no story found}
She muttered, "I had to figure out a way to make one."
{System: current 3 tournaments are happening from which you can get one}.
She hummed, "Hmm, interesting... which ones?" She lowered the stove fire as her footsteps started to move closer.
I could sense someone casually sitting on the corner of the bed, muttering, "So, those are..."
"The Spirits Kingdom Master Chef."
"The Aquas Graduate Chef."
"The Beast Master who cooked his pet."
She made an exaggerated gasp. "Someone actually made a story with that name?! I genuinely feel sorry if his pet was a cat. Is there a story named 'The Cook Who Fed a Dumbass'? I can obtain it easily by feeding this corpse-like menace.",demoness ?
{Demoness of faith: we are talking about stories not virtues}
She paused. "Has a point."
{Demoness of faith: it's near 4 am}
With that, she stood up and moved outside the room without saying anything more. In a little while, the sound of the stove fire stopped, the dense aroma of food thickened, and someone seemed to have hopped right back onto the mattress.
"...Ryn, did you need to eat, or ain't you?"
I was hungry, true enough, but I didn't know who she was or how her cooking tasted, and on top of that, I barely ate food prepared by more than two or three people, so I might have normally rejected it. But that wasn't even the point—I couldn't speak. Even if I wanted to say no, I physically couldn't.
She monologues to herself about how hopeless I am: "He ain't even healed enough to speak, and I think he can't even chew, so it's better to just feed him a potion or elixir."
After it all, all I could hear were soft chuckles, followed by the clinking sound of a bottle opening. And all I could do was lie there and take it.