D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad - Chapter 2076 A Sore Throat Part 1

Chapter 2076: Chapter 2076 A Sore Throat Part 1

— Kat —

“Wait this is Steel’s house!” hissed Appoline once it became clear they were landing.

“Yes? That’s where Lin is waiting,” answered Kat.

“Dammit! What was with all that arguing back and forth over who I should deal with if they’re both in the same fucking location!” hissed Appoline.

Kat shrugged, “Well they might be, but Steel is either still asleep or likely out working on keeping a lid of things… you know on account of all the poison? I’m not sure where I’d have taken you if you wanted to see Steel, but I’d probably have visited Ramor and had him call Steel.”

Appoline glared at Kat but didn’t seem to have a good retort for that. Even if she did still think it was weird that she was avoiding Steel by going to his house. Kat landed in the backyard, no reason to alert more of the street they’d arrived, and nobody had looked up to notice her so no crowds spotting the potential convict sneaking into Steel’s house.

Kat opened the door and lead them inside. “Um… wait, do we need to rush for you neck?”

“Did you forget Lin can heal? Annoyingly, after getting the smug out of her system she’ll probably offer to heal me and then ask for that favour to be paid back later when I’m more relaxed,” grumbled Appoline.

“Well it’s no fun if you know what I’m planning,” said Lin.

“AAAAAAHHHHHH!” screamed Appoline, as she launched herself into the wall trying to jump away from the voice. Kat was pretty surprised as well, her heart jumping into her throat and the world slowed around her. Only the fact she could see it was Lin when she turned prevented her from doing the same thing as Appoline.

Lily was asleep. Thus, she had no reason to overreact.

“Well, surely I’m not that ugly?” pondered Lin.

“YOU BITCH!” hissed Appoline.

“That’s a rather rude thing to call the person responsible for setting up your release,” sighed Lin.

“No, no, no. You don’t get to play the innocent saviour bitch. I’ll not be saying anything too bad… but you can’t just scare someone like that and expect them to be cool with it! You’re lucky I don’t have any potions on me or I’d have thrown one out of reflex,” grumbled Appoline.

“As if you could hit me with an attack like that,” said Lin as she waved the concern off.

“Whatever, can you heal my throat or not?” asked Appoline.

“What about a please?” asked Lin.

Appoline gave the most deadpan stare she could, and injected an almost sincere lack of gratitude into the word. “Please,”

“Good enough I suppose,” sighed Lin as she placed a hand on the side of Appoline’s neck. Kat watched as Appoline’s hands twitched upwards only to be held in place. Lin was being gently, and Kat had to assume there was at least an excuse… but Appoline looked like she was barely holding herself back from attacking Lin for this.

A sigil appeared and Lin presumably tried to heal Appoline… but nothing seemed to be happening. “What the fuck?” hissed Appoline. “What have you DONE to yourself?”

“Which part?” asked Appoline, now with her own smug grin, though one tinged with a bit of confusion as well.

“Oh I have plenty of questions for you… but the most immediate one is what on earth you did to your neck?” queried Lin.

“Fixed it?” said Appoline, though her answer conveyed a hint of nervousness. That might’ve just been the close contact with Lin though.

“I… don’t know if I can heal this? At least…” Lin was cut off.

“Ha! The great Lin can’t fix something?” cheered Appoline.

“If you’d let me finished,” said Lin injected a fair bit of malice into her voice. “I was going to say, ’at least not without ripping it and part of your throat out’ that or waiting for it to go away. What on earth did you do?”

“Wait, what why? This should be completely safe for the body,” countered Appoline.

“Yes… but it’s still… plastic? Maybe? I can’t just heal over it because that would cause problems. I can’t force it out with my healing because its, technically, on both sides of your neck and throat. Coating the outside AND the inside. I basically have to remove it… but you’ve stuck it to you quite well. Not in the most healthy manner but acceptably… so your body has a hide time recognising that it needs to heal over the ’wound’ without me forcing it.” Lin said.

Lin backed up a little bit, making sure to have her hands nowhere near Appoline, nor in lunging range. Appoline was looking more worried now that Lin was away. Kat wasn’t sure if that counted as progress. “Truthfully, I want to just rip it out and heal the wound up afterwards… but I’m sure you’d find that a little distressing,”

“Huh… hmm…” Appoline took in that information. “That… makes an annoying amount of sense. I did have to design this on the fly with subpar materials. Well, it was more of an adaption of an older potion but the materials really weren’t what I’d want for a potion like that. I… you’re also right in that I don’t know I can trust you enough not to freak out if you DO rip or cut out my throat even if it needs to happen…”

Lin raised an eyebrow as Appoline trailed off at the end. Appoline pouted back for a bit before sighing. “BUT I… am not entirely sure that it’s safe for me to just let it run out anymore. The patch is meant to turn into sludge. I’m sure it’s edible. Not nutritious but edible… however now that it’s been brought up I may have failed to account for the fact it can still clog my wind pipe and choke me regardless… and I’d be low on air as the seal started to fail. I might not trust you to do this but I might have to. Urgh, why didn’t I just go to the guards…”

“Well I’m afraid Steel is already up and about so you’d need to get moving soon if you don’t want me to do this,” stated Lin.

*Do I volunteer to rip someone’s throat out? What a weird sentence. I don’t even know if I want to say it out loud let alone actually make the attempt. Then again, this is, technically, a medical procedure. Hmm…*

“No, at least with you I’m sure you’d have more fun with me alive. Plus, if you’ve accepted my as a patient, letting me die would be far too great a stain on your reputation. If you were going to kill me you’d have done that years ago,” sighed Appoline.

“Probably yes, and while I’d love to just get this over with, I understand that if you freak out too much it could hurt my concentration and… truthfully I worry you’d be able to accidentally alchemise your blood into a poison or something,” sighed Lin.

“Oh, yeah not after last time. Though maybe actually in this instance?” mumbled Appoline.

Lin rubbed her eyes. “Of course you did this before. What stopped you?”

“For some reason it made everything taste weird. It also made it harder to brew healing potions, but it was mostly the taste thing,” admitted Appoline.

“That’s… I can hardly believe it… but fine whatever. Can you keep calm enough for this? Yes or no? I can wait if you want,” insisted Lin.

Appoline continued to look unsure about what to do as Kat looked down at her sleeping girlfriend. *Sort of wish you were awake to help me decide if I should say anything… but I don’t think I want you seeing this if I do mention it. Sigh. I’m probably going to offer at least aren’t I?* Kat didn’t love the idea but if it was a choice between Lin doing it and freaking Appoline out enough to break the spell Kat would rather do it herself. “What about I do it?”

Appoline froze for a moment before carefully looking over at Kat, examining her as if she was looking at a rare plant she didn’t understand. “Why… why offer?”

“Because if you attack me in a panic I’ll automatically heal up, Lin won’t be at risk of losing concentration on the spell and I should still be strong enough to do this quickly. Plus, it’s likely less worrying for you if you don’t NEED to supress whatever reflexive attack you want to deliver. The fact it won’t be Lin might also help,” explained Kat.

Appoline glanced between Kat and Lin for a few moments before shaking her head. “I’ll do it myself!” With now determination Appoline reached up to her neck and yanked at it. Hard. Lin got ready to rush in to help… only to pause mid motion as it became clear that the alchemical mixture was holding strong. Stretching sure, but not coming unstuck.

“That’s not going to work,” cut in Lin. “You’re going to need to take out a chunk of flesh as well and I don’t know if you can bring yourself to do that. I don’t know if I could either to be fair, but… you might want Kat’s help.” Appoline didn’t seem any more pleased with the idea after hearing that.