In Another World I Become a Healer With Purple Hair

The tension around the room grew heavier. Vale looks at his friend, trying to guess what kind of trouble that he had brewing. Xavier on the other hand, just kept pacing around the room, having a hard time conveying his feeling to Vale.

“Oh, Gods! Xavier, just tell me what exactly happened?!” Gruntled Vale, who’s already suffered from a headache, not to mention having a fight with Henry, and now, Xavier was weirded out, while Justice wasn’t around.

Xavier turned to his friend, but before he could muster any words, a knock came from Vale’s front door. They heard a sweet voice of a young lady from the opposite side of the door.

“Vale? It’s me, Anne, are you alright? Can I come in?” Said Anne with a bit of hesitation in her voice.

The two men inside the room were quite surprised. Xavier rushed into the window, trying to escape from the room. Vale looks at him and asked him about his stunt act.

“What are you doing?!” Whispered Vale with a frown on his face.

“Going out of here, I don’t want to see her face… Not right now!” Said Xavier with gritted teeth.

“But Xave, this is the third floor!” Vale already yelling a bit because of how frustrated he was right now.

.....

“Vale? Are you there?”

Anne must be hearing his voice, and with hesitation, Vale tells her to come inside. When he looks at the window, Xavier already missing. Anne carefully open the door and saw Vale sitting on his sofa trying to smile properly at her.

“Ah Anne, how… how may I help you?” Asked Vale with a grin on his face.

With a mouth gaped open, Anne looks at Vale and just couldn’t believe how calm he was. “How you can help me? Vale, look at your face!” She rushed to his side and check all the bruises on his face. “How are you feeling right now? Any discomfort on the face? Headache? Blurry vision?”

“Anne, I was fine, really!” He then smirked. “You should see my opponent’s face, though.”

“That wasn’t the point here.” Said Anne with frustration in her tone. She then let out a sigh and tried to calm herself. “Let me give you some salve for the blackened eyes, and here, drink these. It’s good for your headache.”

Vale smelled the drink first. It has some sweet and pleasant aroma in it. “What is this?”

“A meylatee and rosemaryberry tea, good for a headache.” Said Anne with a smile.

Vale drinks the tea and felt the result almost immediately. “Wow, this is amazing. I feel so much better already!”

Satisfied with the result, Anne was grinning at Vale. “Good… Now, don’t forget to put this salve every three hours, and the bruises will heal in two days.”

“Two days?! But I have my shift tomorrow!” He was basically screaming in desperation at Anne.

When she heard the complaint, Anne put her hands on her hips and glared at Vale, “Well, good thing I was coming here uninvited then! Because if I wasn’t here, those bruises will heal in one week and not two days!”

“Oh, Okay, thank you by the way.” Muttered Vale, while shrinking on his sofa. Anne could be so hard-headed and pestering if it involved her patients.

After she was done treating Vale’s wound, right in the middle of her putting her medicine back into her basket, she glances at Vale and tried to start a conversation, “Vale, may I ask you something?” Anne asked Vale a question but her eyes were fixed on her medicine basket.

“Yes, what is it?” Said Vale with curiosity.

Her hands were still busy fixing her medicine basket, but Anne determine to ask Vale, a question that already lingered on her mind, “Why are you being nice to me?”

“What? Anne, what kind of question is that?” Vale was chuckling after the questions were revealed to him.

“I am serious!” She was firm in her question, making Vale surprised by it. “I… I mean, I know I was wrong… Even Henry, he… the point is, why are you being nice from the very first time we’ve met.”

The only answer that Anne was getting from Vale was another question. “What did Henry have to dine to you? Seriously?!”

Anne waved her hand several times, “No… No… He wasn’t doing any serious threat… Look, just tell me, why are you being so nice? While the other two even refused to see my face.”

The green emerald eyes of Vale immediately stared at our heroine. “Why… are you?”

“Justice as my sponsor was the only one missing when I was here in the first place, while Xavier… I can smell his scented wood aroma when I go inside this room,” Anne gave him the reason about how she knows about the other two who avoided her presence, she then pointed at the open window, “I was convinced he jumped from the window with the obvious fresh dirt on the window frame.”

Letting out a sigh, Vale just smile bitterly at Anne, “I couldn’t hate you, Anne, I don’t know why… I… I felt sorry for you.”

“You feel sorry for me? Why? Because of my past as the person that got thrown into another world? Because I was losing my parents?! My village?!” Said Anne with frustration on her face, “I… I don’t need your pity!”

Shaking his head, she warmly smiles at her, “I know, but… how about this, instead of being so distance from each other like a stranger, we can be a friend, right?”

As the two of them look into each other eyes, for Vale, the feelings were there, but vague and didn’t have any meaning besides his admiration towards her beautiful face. For Anne, her feeling is actually deeper, but knowing the consequences of her action will be so severe for everyone, she will remain as platonic as she can be, although it will hurt her.

“Yes, we can be… friends, Vale.” Anne gave him a smile, a smile that never reached her eyes.

She excused herself after a short while, and when Anne closed Vale’s door, tears came from her eyes. She wiped it immediately and run as fast as she could from the captain’s barrack. Friend, as much as Anne wanted their feeling to be entangled once again, she knew that her lies and also the fate of everyone else makes it impossible to even dream of it.

She took a deep breath and walked into the central carriage station to go back to her own barrack. She had so much to do, and crying over a spilled milk was not one of them.

After Anne was gone, Vale glanced at his room and shouted at Xavier, “You can go out now, coward! She was gone already!”

The bedroom door creaked open, and the big man with golden eyes walked towards Vale. “How do you know I was hiding in your bedroom?” Xavier asked his friend with a tilted head, confused that Vale could have guessed it correctly.

“It was easy actually,” Said Vale, while his head lies on the cushion, “I never heard any screaming from the outside, man as big as you would have made a commotion if you jumped from the window of a third floor.”

“I sometimes forgot how sharp you are.” Chuckles Xavier, his hand picking the salve on the table, “But I guess, so does she.”

“You heard her? Good, why do you feel the need to avoid her?” He asked Xavier, feeling that his friend was being ridiculous, just like Henry was.

Xavier took the salve in a bottle and throws it repeatedly on his hand, “Vale, you’re the kindest and the most sensitive of the four of us, I know you’re never mad at her.” Xavier told his friend, with a slight smile, “As for Henry it was a rage, and anger because of the lies, Justice… well, Justice is in denial.” He chuckles when he remembered how pale his face was when he knew Anne would come back to the capital. “I can assure you, he will be tried to avoid her like a plague.”

“How about you?” Asked Vale blatantly at Xavier, “How will you describe your feelings for Anne? Sympathy like mine, or anger like Henry? Oh, I know, you’re also in denial.”

“No… My feelings were something else, and even though I tried to avoid her, but I will never deny her presence like Justice.” He said to Vale with much confidence in his eyes.

Vale snickered at his best friend. “Yeah, right? You can’t even describe your own feeling right now. How would I know if you’re actually still in lo…”

“Vale, I’m going to be engaged soon.” Xavier immediately cut Vale’s sentence. His face wasn’t even happy when he announced the news to his friend.

His friend, Vale, sit properly on the sofa and asked Xavier, “What?! You’re joking, right? Tell me you’re joking?!”

A bittered smile came into Xavier’s face, “No… I… I got her pregnant.”