6.
A few hours pass and it's now early evening. Alice wakes up and looks at her arm to see that her burn has completely healed. She stares at her arm with widened eyes and wears an expression of wonder on her face. *Magic does exist in this world. Wahaha, this will be interesting.*
"I see you're awake now miss Howard. Did you rest well?" The husked voice of the doctor grabs Alice's attention and she looks over towards his direction.
"I did, thanks."
"Your arm appears to of healed well, does it hurt by any chance?"
"No, it's just a little numb. Is that normal"
"Yes, of course, that's normal, nothing to worry about it'll just take a little time for the numbness to go away. As is normal with Hanryoku based procedure."
At these words, Alice starts to look confused and asks, "Sorry if this sounds stupid but what is Hanryoku?"
"Sorry, I assumed you knew the technical name. It's an Anti Lifeforce liquid."
"What's that?"
"How do you not know about that? Everyone should at least know about this from childhood. Well anyway, all it does it weaken Lifeforce energy and as it's the base for life, we can use it as an anaesthetic in a small dosage as well as deal with damage caused by it. Your arm was burnt from your Lifeforce, therefore, we can nullify the effect as we deal with the burn itself. Be warned that I just dabbed a little bit on your arm and as it enters your bloodstream you passed out, so a lot of this stuff can kill you, after all, you can't live without some Lifeforce left in you."
"Thanks for the info, I'll keep it in mind." Alice's head drops as she tries to process the information she just received.
"I hope you at least know what the aloe vera is for." the old doctor speaks as if talking down to her.
"I know that of course, it's used to treat burns and stop infections and stuff." Alice snaps back with a frustrated look.
"Well, at least you know that." Just as Stevenson responded the door open, "Sir Gotwald, it's good to see you."
Sir Gotwald is an older gentleman who is 47 years old. He is of average height and has the build of a fat cat. What remains of his hair around the back and sides of his head are short and grey. His dark blue eyes hold a cold, lifeless look in them and are kept behind a pair of small round spectacles. His sour expression is rarely broken. He wears a black 3 piece suit with a white shirt along with a dark blue tye and a polished wooden cane with a gold, rounded handle in the shape of a leaf engraved into it. Alice thought to herself *He looks like he owns this place. And he was referred to as "sir," which means that he's at least very important, I probably shouldn't piss him off.*
"Good evening doctor, how's the hero of the hour doing?" He responds, by Alice's surprise, in a chipper tone and continued to say, "You must be this Alice girl that I've heard so much about from my daughter and guards."
The old doctor responds "Ah, yes good timing sir she has just woken up and appears to of recovered well."
The two continue to talk and discuss the events that had transpired earlier that day while Alice just sat there confused as to what is happening. Looks like I'm on his good side for now. Guess what I did earlier was something of note. They continued to talk and started discussing Alice's ignorance of the situation while she is still sat in the room listening. *Could you at least talk about how dumb I am when my back is turned and not right in my face, yare yare daze.*
Finally, the doctor states that Alice is free to go for now and Sir Gotwald turns to Alice with a gaze that made her freeze on the spot before saying "You, do you have somewhere to go?"
"N-No, I'm not from around here" Alice stumbles over her words in a quiet voice.
"Well do you have anywhere you have to be? What's your business here in Britannia?" his deep voice keeps a calm tone to it.
"I don't know how I got here or where here is for that matter."
"Well if you have nowhere else to go, then you are more than welcome to stay here for a while."
"Thank you, um, Sir -"
"Gotwald, Gerald Gotwald" he raises his hand to shake Alice's and she does the same.
"But why are you helping me, may I ask?"
"Well, if you are telling us the truth about the Orthus that you fought then it means that you are pretty strong even though you're a woman so it wouldn't hurt to have someone like you around and add on the fact that you seem not to know much about where you are, you are not going to get very far on your own without at least some knowledge."
"I guess that makes sense, I am going to need to learn about this new world before I decide what happens next. Thank you again for helping me." *Did he just say "even though you're a woman," I guess that's something I'm going to have to deal with in this world, maybe it's not that bad everywhere?*
"No need to thank me, after all, I think you may be a useful asset to me as my daughter's personal bodyguard."
"Wait, hol' up do you really think I'm that strong?"
"Well you seem strong already and Alexandra rarely goes out these days apart from when she is at boarding school, which just finished for the year so won't be going back for six weeks.''
"So you want me to keep an eye on her while at school just in case something happens." Alice takes a deep breath before continuing to say, "and we're around the same age so I would be in the same year group meaning we can be in the same classes."
"Exactly. It works out perfectly seeing as she can't have her regular guards on the school grounds or dorms." his voice becomes more lively the more he speaks.
"And you assumed straight away that I would agree before even knowing that I had nowhere else to go because " Alice hangs her sentence expecting Gotwald to finish it off but he remains silent for a few moments.
"Alexandra spoke to you quite openly, a stranger. She doesn't even speak to me in such a relaxed manner." His head sinks and he begins to break from his upright posture.
"When did you hear us speak?" Alice looks a little concerned at his words.
"The driver of the cart you were in said that it was quite lively in the back, he said it scared him a little." He looks up and meets the eyes of a young-looking man with a darker complexion who was fairly muscular and dressed in rags. "Ah, Franklin just the one I was looking for," he shouts over to him.
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