Chapter 390: New Cracks

If even Luan himself had no idea what had happened, then Roxanna was even more clueless than he was.

She still did not know where all the blood had come from, but at least she could finally breathe a little easier knowing that Luan was not badly hurt.

"You’re still confused," Roxanna said at last. "Let’s talk about this after you clean yourself up and eat something."

Luan was clearly still curious about what had happened to him. However, since he had no idea how to bring back the missing memories, there was not much he could do about it right now. In the end, he decided to listen to Roxanna.

"Alright," he replied in a low voice.

Roxanna then went to fetch some water and boiled it before pouring the warm water into the tub in the bathroom.

"Come on. Let me help you," Roxanna said.

Luan followed her without asking any questions. He was strangely quiet, even when Roxanna asked him to sit on a small stool so she could wash him more easily.

He simply did as she asked and sat there while she slowly poured warm water over him from head to toe.

As the dried blood slowly washed away, Roxanna was finally able to get a better look at him.

"Tell me if anything stings," she said softly. "I don’t see anything serious, but I’m not sure if it hurts."

It would be easier for her to heal him once he was clean and she could see everything clearly. That was why getting him cleaned up came first.

"I’m fine," Luan replied, his expression still strangely blank. "It’s not that bad."

Roxanna nodded and did not push him any further. She picked up a clean cloth, dipped it into the warm water, and began wiping away the dried blood that still clung to his skin.

The water in the tub quickly turned a faint shade of red.

Roxanna tried not to think too much about just how much blood had been covering him earlier. She focused on cleaning his arms first, then his shoulders and back, carefully wiping around every scratch she found.

Luan remained unusually quiet through all of it. Normally, he would have found something to say by now. He might have teased her for taking care of him so carefully or leaned closer just to steal a kiss when she was not paying attention.

But this time, he simply sat there and let her do whatever she wanted.

Roxanna sighed and continued cleaning him. Once most of the blood was gone, she finally poured another bucket of clean water over him, washing away the last traces of red.

"There." Roxanna placed the bucket down. "Much better."

Luan lowered his head and looked at himself as if he had only just realized how filthy he had been.

Roxanna grabbed a dry cloth and handed it to him. "Dry yourself. You need to eat something."

"I’m not hungry."

Roxanna sighed once more. "I didn’t ask if you were hungry."

Luan wanted to say something, but then closed his mouth again. In the end, he simply said, "Alright."

Roxanna brought him a set of clean clothes before leading him back into the hut.

Inside, Cyrus had already prepared a bowl of warm soup and a pot of warm water for Luan. The soup was still steaming, filling the small hut with the comforting smell of meat and herbs.

"Sit down," Roxanna said, pointing toward the table.

Luan obediently sat down without another word.

"Cyrus made this for you," she said as she pushed the bowl toward him. "Eat while it’s still warm."

Luan picked up the wooden spoon and stared at the soup for a moment before finally taking his first bite.

Perhaps he really had not been hungry at first, but after the first few spoonfuls, his movements became faster. Soon, he was eating without Roxanna having to remind him again.

Seeing that, Roxanna finally relaxed a little.

[Look at him. He said he wasn’t hungry, but now he’s eating like he hasn’t eaten all day.]

[Maybe he really hasn’t.]

That thought immediately wiped away her amusement.

She still had no idea where Luan had been gone or what he had been doing during that time. Worse, Luan himself could not remember any of it.

Roxanna rested her chin on her hand as she watched him eat.

"Do you really not remember anything?" she asked after a while.

Luan’s spoon stopped halfway to his mouth. For a few seconds, he said nothing, but then he slowly lowered the spoon back into the bowl.

"I remember going into the forest," he said. "And then..."

His brows pulled together. Roxanna waited patiently, hoping something might finally come back to him.

Luan closed his eyes, clearly trying hard to search through his memories, but after several seconds, his expression only became more frustrated.

"Nothing," he muttered.

"Alright, I’m sorry. I’m sorry," Roxanna said. "Don’t force yourself."

"But it feels strange." Luan looked down at his hands. "It feels like I should remember."

Roxanna understood what he meant. Losing several hours of your own memory and waking up covered in someone else’s blood was definitely not something anyone could easily ignore.

Still, forcing him to remember would not help.

After a while, Luan still could not remember anything. No matter how hard he tried, nothing seemed to come back to him.

Seeing the frustration slowly growing on his face, Roxanna finally sighed. "Just finish your soup first. You can try to remember again later."

Luan did not argue this time and quietly went back to eating.

Cyrus was leaning against the wall behind him, watching everything in silence. When Roxanna happened to look his way, their eyes met.

Cyrus glanced at Luan’s nearly empty bowl and then back at her, silently asking if he should bring him something else to eat.

Roxanna gently shook her head, thinking that the soup was enough for now. Besides, she doubted Luan would have much of an appetite when his mind was still so focused on those missing memories.

Not long after Luan finished the last spoonful of soup, footsteps suddenly came from outside.

Zeir and Calen had finally returned.

Zeir looked as calm as he always did, making it impossible to guess what he had found. Calen, on the other hand, looked unusually serious.

Luan immediately noticed them, so he placed his empty bowl on the floor and turned toward them.

"What did I kill?" he asked without wasting a second.

Zeir looked at him for a moment before answering calmly, "Demon beasts."

Luan’s brows pulled together. "Demon beasts?"

Zeir nodded. "Yes."

Roxanna felt some of the tension leave her shoulders. If Luan had only killed demon beasts, then at least the blood covering him did not belong to another beastman.

However, before she could fully relax, Calen spoke. "But not just one or two."

His voice was unusually serious, making Roxanna look at him again.

"There were a lot of them," Calen continued. "So many that we could follow the trail of blood you left behind."

Luan went completely still, while Roxanna’s relief disappeared just as quickly as it had come.

"A trail of blood?" she repeated.

Calen nodded. "It started not far from our settlement and continued deep into the forest. There were dead demon beasts everywhere along the way."

Roxanna stared at Luan, thinking. [Just how many did he kill?!]

Luan looked just as shocked as she was. He lowered his eyes to his hands again, almost as though he expected them to somehow give him an answer.

"But I don’t remember any of it," he said quietly.

"That’s what makes this strange," Calen replied.

Zeir finally stepped farther into the hut. His face was still calm, but the next words that came out of his mouth made Roxanna’s stomach drop. "There’s another problem."

Roxanna immediately turned toward him. "What problem?"

"We found a new crack."

The hut suddenly became quiet.

For a moment, Roxanna wondered if she had heard him correctly. "A crack?" she repeated.

Zeir nodded. "It wasn’t there before."

Roxanna’s expression slowly darkened because she already knew what those cracks meant.

The demon beasts did not simply appear out of nowhere. They came from the void, and before a new void could fully open, a crack would usually appear first.

"How big is it?" Cyrus finally asked from behind them.

"Still small," Zeir answered. "But it’s unstable."

Calen crossed his arms over his chest. "And considering how many demon beasts were already around that area, there’s a good chance it will open into a new void."

Roxanna held her breath for a moment. [Another one?!]

They already had enough problems with the voids that existed around their territory. The last thing the Vixeria Tribe needed was another one opening nearby.

She turned toward Luan again and saw that he was still sitting in the same place, staring down at his hands with a troubled expression.

"So..." Luan slowly began, "I went into the forest, somehow found a huge number of demon beasts, killed all of them, and then came back without remembering any of it?"