[Nightmare]

Chapter 98 [Goodbyes]

"Tilly… why would you…."

Helix's eyes filled with light tears as he looked down.

"Because he cares about you." A middle-aged woman replied with tears in her eyes.

"I…."

Helix opened and closed his mouth multiple times.

"Why are you acting so emotional?" A man laughed.

"Tilly, this is…" Helix replied with a light scoff.

"Just too much."

Helix's expression was beyond bewildered at the bakery box in his hands.

"I kept tellin' the misses that we should've made you harem doughnuts instead—ow!"

Tilly rubbed the back of his head with an indigent expression.

The woman was giving in a scolding look between her puffy eyes.

"Anyway… we just wanted to thank you for your contributions and patronage at our shop.

It's going to be lonely here without ya, kid." Tilly chuckled with a smile.

"We're going to miss you, dear.

Please come back and visit at any time." The woman said.

"Thank you, Lilith. I will." Helix replied with a soft smile.

—

"Nooooooo way! Look! There are three Hellie doughnuts!" Charlotte exclaimed with excitement burning in her eyes.

Helix chuckled.

"They haven't known you three long, but you've left an impression.

Tilly said, [kid, if I only made one Helix donut, it would be gruesome watching you get ripped apart by those women]." He reenacted in his best Tilly impersonation.

"That's…." Marie began with a perplexed expression.

"Comically descriptive! I can see that in my mind like I'm looking at it!" Charlotte cried.

The four burst into laughter after envisioning what it would look like for three women to savagely rip apart a Helix donut to share.

The Helix donuts were loaded with raspberry filling so that the scene would be extra gruesome.

Helix shivered at the message.

"This was really sweet of those two." Riley commented with a gentle smile.

There were a dozen donuts in the box from Tilly's Bakery.

Each was decorated with the faces and clothing of various people.

There were three Helix donuts, in addition to a donut for Marie, Charlotte, Riley, Tyrene, Tilo, and Elsa.

The last three donuts were Tilly, his wife Lilith, and their daughter Rika.

It was a precious scene that moved him to tears.

It would have been perfect if Helix's donuts weren't the only ones with red filling.

Tilly's sense of humor was… aggressive, sometimes.

"Hmmm. There are three Helix donuts and three of us.

But I have a question." Charlotte announced with a finger to her lips.

"Which of us is Hellie going to eat?"

Helix looked at the Marie, Charlotte, and Riley donuts and chuckled.

"All of you—"

Helix's poker face crumbled when he looked up from the box.

Charlotte had lifted her silky white skirt and showed Helix her blue lace panties underneath.

"All of us, Hellie?" Charlotte mused.

He looked over and found the same scene with the other two.

Marie lifted her pink skirt, showing her cute white panties with a bow on the top.

She had picked up what Charlotte was about to do and quickly followed suit to not be undone.

The action left her blushing furiously.

Riley lifted her green and white striped sundress, showing her green panties underneath.

She was just happy to be part of the fun.

"So ambitious this early in the morning… What a naughty boy." She remarked with an evil grin.

"Looks like I spoke too soon." Helix sighed.

"Since I've already committed, it's my duty as a man to follow through with my word."

—

"Samma…." Helix said with an awe-stricken face.

"Well? Are you going to put it on, or what?" Samma huffed in annoyance.

Helix nodded in a daze.

He carefully removed his peacoat from the box and slipped his arms into its sleeves.

The peacoat was dark, charcoal gray with dark red accents.

It used the hide of the Warpshire after Samma stripped the pelt of its fur.

"So… smooth." He commented in a daze.

"Yes, that tends to happen when you line a jacket with royal Life Silk." Samma commented dryly.

"Otherwise, that thing would reek of death, and its texture would match."

Helix chuckled in amusement.

Warpshires were large wolf-like creatures that were around 800-1000 pounds.

They were mythical canines a hero from a cringe-worthy novel would ride into battle.

Their fur was pitch-black and had red veins of color that moved through it.

Warpshires were HellHounds in all descriptions.

Their appearance was why dark red accents ran through the coat's exterior.

"That silk is pretty remarkable, but try not to ruin it.

I'm not sure where you got so much of that silk, but I can tell you that it would take me a month and a small fortune to find a small patch.

While I get why you're using it in your coat, I'm appalled and cringing on the inside." Samma warned.

"Life Silk is a tool, and it was a gift.

If it's not used, it's just an over-glorified business transaction." Helix chuckled.

Life Silk kills bacteria and only lets molecules conducive to healing pass through.

It's used to wrap wounds and increases healing time by preventing infection.

For that same reason, Helix lined his battle coat with it.

His coat wasn't just fashionable; by creating it with Warpshire, he had the partial defense of a Level 156 HellHound.

Now that he had lined it with Life Silk, it would keep his wounds from getting infected and destructive molecules from reaching his skin.

It was a near-mythical grade of armor from a functional perspective.

However, it was absurd.

Life Silk was exceedingly rare and exorbitantly expensive when it surfaced.

The fact Helix was given a six feet roll of it was mind-bending.

He needed to ensure that the gifts and stories he brought back to the Capital were thoughtful.

He owed Princess Eliza more than he could repay.

She got him out of the city, allowed Elsa to heal him, gave grandmasters and teachers leave to train him, gave him a place to live, and kissed him so he would heal faster.

Saying she saved his life was a gross understatement.

"It's far better than I ever imagined. It's perfect, Samma." Helix praised with a dazzling smile.

He was overjoyed, and it showed.

"Hah, I'm expecting heaps of gold coming my way after the merchant unloads in Alzeria." Samma scoffed.

Helix chuckled at her forward personality.

"Don't worry about that. After walking into a cosplay scene a few nights ago, I realized that you're about to make a fortune." He laughed.

Samma gave him an evil grin.

"I'm expecting to. So you better not let me down, partner."

Helix shared a laugh with her before parting ways.

—

"Good thing we're moving with a caravan…." Marie commented with a gawking expression.

"Yeah… my strength stat is far beyond human, yet my arms still hurt lugging this amount of stuff around.

Thank you for helping me out today." Helix sighed.

"I think it's fantastic." Riley commented with a gentle smile.

"And I~think that I will be making the most of this stuff!" Charlotte commented while jumping on the bed.

"Watch where you're laying!" Marie snapped.

"Yeah, yeah." Charlotte grumbled while picking up a magic jar.

"It's amazing to see how much you helped everyone and their appreciation." Marie commented with a smile.

There were over a hundred different items on the bed from the shops in Lexion.

"I was just handing out my practice doodles.

I'm glad they could help people out." Helix replied with a genuine expression.

"Yeah. I hand out refrigerator doodles to 18th-century people after my training too.

So I completely understand." Charlotte sassed with a wide grin.

Helix had loaded up countless shops with magic circles he created during training.

All of the eateries were given refrigeration circles to keep their meat fresh.

Some were given ice makers.

A few shops received wind barriers.

He took note every time he saw a shop with some need.

Then he'd create the magic circles for practice.

Since he had to draw circles from memory at least twenty times, he handed them out whenever he was in town.

From his perspective, he was just handing away doodles.

However, he had loaded a million Alzerian Golds worth of circles into the town free of charge.

He would have been hunted down mercilessly by the magic circle guilds in the city if his circles had used the magic they had.

The spells were not special, but the modifications and usage were.

As a result, his presence furthered their research and would allow them to obtain international prestige in the future.

"There are even gifts from the magic circle guild as well.

That says a lot." Riley remarked.

Helix gazed at the items on the bed with a fond expression.

"I'm glad my time here was well spent." He chuckled.

"I can't wait to show you the furniture I got for our future home."

—

"Have you said your goodbyes, kid?" Tyrene asked.

"Yes. Thank you for giving us a full day.

I'm thankful for saying that we needed it."

—

Power stones and grammatical errors = more content. :)