Forbidden love (MGE harem fanfic)

Chapter 57: Consciously unconscious

Five days later...

When I awoke I felt the sensation of water around me. I was confused because the memory of breaking free from the ice and stopping the initial attack had been too real to have just been a cruel dream.

"Master, are you awake for good?" Asked a shy voice.

I turned my head and looked eyes with Ruth who seemed to be a mixture of tired and just being done with the situation.

I nodded after finding that my mouth was too dry to make words. I felt the kikimora pulling me towards the side of the tub in order to hug me.

"You kept drifting in and out of consciousness. I was afraid that you wouldn't ever wake up for longer than five minutes. If you weren't bonded with a mershark you would've drowned the first time after you wanted to bathe. I stayed by your side for five days, whether you were awake or asleep I was either taking care you, or sleeping at your side. I asked Vin to check your dreams and every time she saw nothing. It was like your consciousness had died and you were only a shell of who you had been." Ruth started to cry.
"I want to go with you... but my life force is... attached to this home." Ruth sniffled.

An idea came into my mind and in a split second I managed to pull Ruth into the tub with me and wrap my arms around her.

After the initial shock of what happened Ruth quickly clung to me.

"M-master?" Ruth asked.

"You have bags under your eyes and your hair is a mess. You've taken care of me while I slept so I think you need to rest." I stated.

I felt as she kissed me. It was a gentle, loving sensation. By the end of the kiss she was trembling slightly and panting while her face slowly became shaded red.
She seemed tired, among other things, her emerald eyes were dull which contrasted the rest of her face. I could tell that part of her didn't know what she had just done because she was more shocked than I was. In a flash Ruth had jumped out of the tub with little regard to the water she was sending everywhere.

I quickly got out of the tub and put some clothes on. I ran in the direction that Ruth went which was easy since she tracked water behind her. I thought it would be simple to find her but when I turned a corner and found that she had gone through a small opening in the wall I realized I had made a mistake. Normal kikimoras know the house they reside in, inside and out. I wouldn't be able to find her if she didn't want me to but I was not about to give up. I tried to use magic in order to track Ruth down, I saw a glimpse of her before collapsing with a splitting headache.

She had been right there, watching to see what I would do. What surprised me the most was that I felt as she placed a hand on my forehead from behind me.

"Ruth... what's going on?" I asked.

Ruth let out a sigh.

"You might have experienced the passage of time over five days, however, in reality it has been three months." Ruth whispered.

I bolted upright and Ruth wrapped her arms around me from behind.

"Master, please!" Ruth urged.

"What happened!" I shouted.

"We retreated, your intervention gave us time to go over our information. If you hadn't intervened we wouldn't have had time to go over all of the information, we were outnumbered ten to one." Ruth explained.
"What about..."
"The amount of energy if must have taken for you to raise a barrier like that must've been immense... and you held it for twenty minutes."
"It didn't even feel like one..."
"Sarah has assigned various monsters to give you various amounts of spirit energy but we've only been able to keep you stable, let alone wake you up. That's why Vin created this world in your subconscious. I lost track of time a-and if I don't leave you could die." Ruth sighed.

I nodded and she started towards the crack but I suddenly grabbed her wrist which caused her to turn around.

"If I wake up... no, when I wake up, I'm finishing what we started in the bath." I stated.

Ruth blushed but gave me a shy smile. "I-I would love that."
She kissed me and then walked away.

I felt a sudden ringing in my head and I doubled over and pressed my hands against my head.

"Y/N!" Shouted a voice that was a mixture of gloomy and sweet.

I felt as something coiled around me and it took my a second to recognize Scarlett's patterns.

After a second the buzzing stopped. I assumed that this had to do with monsters switching places.

"Are you alright?" Scarlett asked.

I nodded.

This cycle continued on and off for days on end, I didn't have a definite answer as to if our prospective of time were the same, if they weren't I was starting to fear the amount of time I had been asleep. One morning I awoke to find the dullahan from before sleeping next to me with her arm wrapped around my chest.

"Good morning, human, I told you that we would meet again." She whispered directly into my ear.

Her voice seemed enchanting, as if it's sole purpose was to lure people to god knows where.

"To start off, my name is Maeve, and I work for the gods of death. You are supposed to be dead, but a trade has been made, a soul for a soul, if you will. This works in any number of ways, but I'm not here to, nor can I, tell you who will die in your place. What I can tell you, is that the goddess who has been unleashed on your realm cannot die through normal means. Sacrifices must be made and I shall help you along the way, I only ask that when the time comes you will not fight the will of death." Maeve explained.

I opened my eyes and bolted upright. It was a strange sensation considering my eyes had already been open in the dream.

"Y/N..." whispered a voice.

I looked to my side and found Sarah next to me. She was pale and her eyes were barely open. I placed a hand between her ears and scratched her head gently. She let out a soft purr and I lied back down and wrapped my arms around her. She felt cold and I could feel that she didn't have the strength for this to be one of her tricks.

"You needed... a sudden jolt... it almost killed me... but I owe you my life... we all owe you our lives." Sarah stated in a weak voice.

I felt as she pressed the top of her head against my chest. I pulled up a blanket and Sarah's purr became more lively.

"Y/N?" Sarah asked.

"What?"

"Thank you for coming back." Sarah said.

She looked up towards my eyes and I could see tears beginning to form in the corners of them.

"I-I love you." Sarah whispered.

"I love you too."

Sarah suddenly looked away before exhaling.

"It's been three months since you learned the truth about you situation... a lot has happened in those three months and that's partially why I never went in to see you... I didn't know how to tell you this but now is as good of a time as ever... just... please keep an open mind..." Sarah said nervously, more nervously than I've ever seen her.

She guided my hand with one of her shaky paws until it landed on her stomach just above her waist. After a few seconds I felt something like movement and then the realization hit me.

"That's our daughter Y/N." Sarah whispered.

After recovering from the initial shock I quickly moved and kissed Sarah on her forehead. She wrapped her arms around me and began to cry tears of joy. It's hard to believe that less than a year ago I was merely an outcast, now I was the head of a resistance against the tyranny of the order, and the father of a princess's daughter. I had another reason to fight, I wanted a world for my daughter that would not be one full of fear. I would make sure that the order fell.