"Is that so?"
After hearing Greg's answer, Vivian showed no obvious disappointment. She merely nodded lightly. Deep in her ice-blue eyes, a flicker of understanding seemed to flash past, as if to say, "Just as I thought." There was even... a little relief.
Uh... had she dreamed up some bizarre scenario on her own?
Vivian's reaction struck Greg as a little odd.
Vivian had no intention of ending the conversation there.
She leaned forward slightly and studied Greg with concern, her gaze lingering a moment longer on the places where he had been injured in the previous battle. Her voice grew softer, too:
"Have your injuries completely healed?"
That understated yet unmistakable concern left Greg momentarily stunned.
As far as he remembered, Vivian had never spoken in that tone before.
"Yeah, pretty much."
Greg rolled his shoulders in front of her, then did a few simple stretches to show that he was in good shape:
"Thanks to Sylvia's ongoing treatment, the supplementary potions Chloe specially prepared for me, and those very precious herbs you brought me earlier, I recovered much faster than expected. There's basically nothing wrong with me now."
Although his last battle had turned misfortune into a blessing and sent his strength soaring, his injuries had been very real.
Without all three women helping him, he could never have been up and about again in just a few days.
He would remember what he owed them.
Besides, one unresolved mystery still lingered in his mind: why had the Throat of Longing suddenly entered a second phase that neither the game's reference material nor the player community had ever mentioned?
The only reasonable guess seemed to involve his dark-attribute magic.
But with Nightmare's missing memories and the Broken Mother having silenced her, he still had no way to verify