Life As A Commander

Chapter 34: Salad

"You, Y-You're awake." She seemed to be very relieved to see me awake by the way that she was crushing me in her hug.

"Y-Yeah, I'm awake. So I...I take it that you're the one who was taking care of me."

"Yes, Why'd you even do that?" 

"Eugen, you should know that I literally cant remember anything." 

"I guess that's true..."

"C-Can you let me go now?" 

Upon saying this, she tightened her grip. "Just give me five minutes." 

And just like that, I spent the next few minutes within the grip of Eugen. She was a completely different person, she wasn't the person who would tease you when every you made an mistake. She was just like a lost girl who had just found their parents after loosing them for an extended period of time.

When she finally let me go, I dusted myself off and walked over to the cold soup. "We can talk while we eat. But first, where are our utensils?" 

"..." Eugen gave me a nervous look.

"You cant eat stew with your hands, so I know that you have some form of utensil." 

"I may or may not have broke them yesterday."

"And you still made stew?"

"Well I didn't want to have to eat a salad." 

"Oh my god Eugen. Are you some kind of kid. I wont fault you for not wanting a salad, but you still made stew?"

"Just shut up about that, I still have bowls okay." Eugen said as she reached up to a shelf and pulled out two ceramic bowls.

"Guess I didn't look around enough." I muttered. "Actually, Eugen. What happened to you? You're acting very weird. Like you kinda just stopped being the Eugen that I knew."

This caused Eugen to drop whatever she was doing. "I don't know. Ever since I woke up, I didn't feel like me. That's about all I know. Well, I know that, that I was different. But I don't know how I was like. It's so weird, I know but I also don't know about how I was. I can only remember you and the experiences we had."

"Well what about what happened after we went trough the portal?" I said as I took a sip of the stew. 

"I don't really know, its all kinda blurry. All I remember was that I took a shot from something that was aimed at you. From the condition that I woke up in, I don't think that it was intended to physically hurt someone."

"And I suppose that whatever happened to you was a side effect of that shot that you took for me...Thanks...For taking that shot for me. I'll be sure to pay you back once we get out of this mess."

This left Eugen stunned. "You don't have to do that. Even if I don't remember much, I still know that I did that on my own accord."

"You should just accept it. Its very rare for me to thank someone. That's how you know I mean it."

"But-"

"Just finish your food, then we can figure things out." 

The rest of the meal was done in dead silence. The only sound were the sounds of water flowing into the cave. When we both finished our food, we cleaned up the dishes and got ready to do...Something.

"What are we going to do now? We can't just stay here for the rest of our lives."

"I was leaving that for you to decide. The only thing that I have really done is go to the nearby town and meet the locals."

"Well then, did you get anything? I assume that they weren't hostile from the fact that you have...Had utensils."

"They didn't really see how I looked. I was wearing a cloak." Eugen took a second to think. "I got food and utensils."

"That's it?"

"I didn't want to do anything without you. You know, if I did something wrong; I wouldn't want you to get mad at me."

"Please, you've gone through too much for me to get mad at you. Just take it easy." I said as i got up and looked around the cave. "Do you have another cloak?" 

"Yes, its on the mattress."

"How'd you even get this mattress?" I asked as I put on the cloak.

"I found it around the Siren's town." She replied as she put on her own cloak.

"Alright, lets go." 

When we arrived at the town, it was sun set. The shops were getting their last few customers and were getting ready to close. 

From one of the shops, an employee walked out. He had a rather bulky build with black hair that barely reached his shoulders. 

"Oh, Sona I thought you already left. And who's this new...err cloak?" 

"Call me Ace." I replied.

"Nice to meet you Ace! I'm Otto." He held out his hand for a handshake.

"Nice to meet you Otto." I returned the handshake. 

"I've gotta ask, but are you that person that Sona was taking care of?"

"Yeah, I suppose she told you about me?" 

"Well she's only occasionally mentioned you. So I don't really know much." He replied as he scratched his nape.

"Welp, that's all for me. Sona, you can take over now." I gestured to Eugen.

"Right. Ahem...We're just dropping by to show Ace the area. Ya know we cant really leave him on his own. You can see how that turned out."

"Hey, I can take care of myself!" I retorted.

"Heh, well I hope you two have fun. I've gotta go pack up." Otto began to walk back to his shop. "I'll see ya later."

"Good to know that you made some friends." I said.

"That's just plain mean. Did you really think that I cant make friends."

"Just because I forgot how to act like myself doesn't mean I still cant make friends." She pouted.

Seeing this made me let out a slight chuckle. "Alright, since we cant really do much right now, lets just explore."

A/N: Sorry for this update being a little late. I had a really busy day yesterday and I just fell asleep for a good 14 hours.