37 Kindness

Frederick's mind raced as he was at a loss. His options were limited.

'I can perhaps remove my clothes in a corner of the room and hope they won't look into it?' thought Frederick. But he quickly discarded this idea. They will surely look into it at a moment or another.

After some thinking, he ultimately decided to risk it and slowly removed his coat. It would be best if he could keep it on him for the process, but it was very likely impossible. Instead, he should directly reveal it to show his goodwill. In the worst case, they would take it away and use an excuse to keep it.

As his coat fell to the floor, he began removing his clothes until he was completely naked. Thomas looked at him in surprise while the other woman looked at him curiously. They did not expect Frederick to be so ... fit. He seemed completely normal, but his impressive build was a testament to how hard he worked in Dyrroth.

"Don't be nervous, and try to relax as much as you can- Mmh, what's that?" she asked, taking a closer look at Frederick's stuff.

Eris noticed a blue screen on one of Frederick's clothes. Thomas seemed to have seen it, too, and as he tried to read the item status, Eris quickly stopped him.

"Stop, Thomas. Don't pry on others' stuff," she reprimanded firmly while watching elsewhere.

"... Sorry." Thomas quickly stopped before apologizing and also looked away. It was normal to be curious about an unknown item since It was pretty uncommon to have an authority item.

Frederick didn't comment and didn't know if they saw the status of his coat or not. But he did not expect this reaction. He did not know their personality much, but they looked pretty noble in some aspects. Perhaps it was only in front of him, and they would take it away when he started the process.

"Let me ask you. Your coat is an item, right?" asked Eris with a heavy tone.

"Yes," responded Frederick honestly. It was too late for denial. He would rather be honest since there was nothing to lose.

"Hmm. You can put your belongings in the corner of the room. We won't touch it." said Eris as she looked at Frederick. It was impossible not to notice her serene gaze. It seems like she understood why Frederick was hesitant to remove his clothes.

Thomas, who heard her words, seemed to hesitate but ultimately agreed. He was still curious about Frederick's item, but his morals stopped him. However, Frederick's following sentence shocked both of them.

"Please take it as a gift. I think you might need this more than me since-" But Eris quickly stopped him before he could finish his sentence.

"No, keep it. I know what you are thinking. You fear that I will purposely kill you to get this right? Don't worry, I won't."

This answer surprised him a bit. Frederick was ready to give up on this item for the bigger picture. He was not delusional. He knew he couldn't keep everything, and he would sometimes lose.

He was determined to try his best in each life and live as if it were his last while taking all risks if necessary. If giving up on an item would make him stronger, so be it. In his mind, this coat was precious but worth less than attribute points. So, giving it up in exchange for attributes was not a bad deal. He would just have to be careful next time.

Upon hearing Eris speak these words, Frederick's face lit up with a profoundly moved smile as tears welled in his eyes.

"I ... I ... Thank you... You are probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. I will remember this in the future," responded Frederick as tears slowly started pouring from his eyes

Seeing this, both Thomas's and Eris's expressions were weirdly astonished. "I don't know what kind of life you lived, but seeing how you react to something this simple... But it would help if you stopped crying," said Eris with a compassionate tone while Frederick's tears didn't stop falling.

After a while, Frederick finally wiped out the tears falling from his eyes, "Thank you again."

Thomas, who was next to Eris, had a guilty expression. From what he had seen, Frederick was telling the truth. Thomas planned to take a closer look at Frederick's item secretly, but seeing this, he couldn't bear to do it anymore. Frederick seemed to be a good guy who went through many hardships. This item was probably the fruit of his efforts in a side-story, so trying to peek at it would make him feel like scum.

If only they knew ... Frederick was emotionless internally. He did not expect a group this laughable to show up. Without considering reciprocating such kindness, he instead schemed to exploit their naive mindset for maximum personal gain.

"But I am curious. Why did you ask for Thomas?" asked Eris while looking at Frederick curiously as he moves his stuff into a corner of the room.

"Oh, yes. I wanted to talk to him a bit. But that won't be necessary anymore. Sorry, Thomas."

Thomas responded to him with a weird smile, "Eh... No need to be sorry? I would have liked to chat with you for a bit, too, but I am busy with ... you know what. So I can leave, right?"

"Of course. Thank you, Thomas." Frederick answered very nicely and brightly with an angelic expression.

"... Good. See you after the process, and good luck." Thomas seemed a bit disturbed as he had a bad premonition, but with a sigh, he left after glancing at Eris and Frederick.

Talking about Eris, she was a bit puzzled by Frederick's reasons to summon Thomas for seemingly no ultimate purpose but decided not to dwell on it anymore. It's not important, she thought.

After Thomas left, Eris looked at Frederick again, and with a last warning, she asked, "Are you sure you want to undergo the procedure? You already know the risks. It will be excruciating, and I won't listen no matter how much you ask me to stop since stopping midway would mean death."

"Yes," Frederick responded quickly.

After a bit, she sighed as if she knew his answer and proceeded to do a rapid checkup of Frederick's body. She then pointed at the iron table where multiple iron restraints could be seen.

"Get on, then. Try to be as relaxed as you can. As you already know, the process is more internal than external, so there is no need to sterilize anything." said the woman as she wore a mask.

Frederick did not say anything and quickly lay on the cold table as Eris put the restraints around him. It was so tight that Frederick could not move anymore, even with all his strength. But Frederick did not panic because he knew he could still strike using Blood Dominion if she tried to do something. Now that he had a total of 17 in mind and 15 in dexterity attribute, Frederick was sure to be able to hit her anywhere in this room.

The woman began talking as Frederick looked at her, "You should be fine, but just in case... I will start now... Here's something to bite...Good luck."

Eris gently put a thick gum that solidified as soon as it entered Frederick's mouth and matched perfectly his mouth's form. She then positioned her palm on Frederick's chest. There was a long pause where nothing seemed to happen. However, Frederick suddenly felt a warm, gentle energy entering his body. It was slow initially, as he could barely feel it, but the gentle feeling soon intensified.

Eris seemed to concentrate hard as she was focused. Her gaze did not move away from the location of her hand as the warm feeling invaded Frederick's body.

After some time, a soft purple light began emitting from her palm.

As the warm feeling peaked, Frederick suddenly felt like something inside his bones was pulled simultaneously. It was a dreadful sensation. As he frowned in discomfort, an extreme pain began radiating from all his bones. The feeling of something being pulled soon became something breaking apart.

His bones, which had always felt like hard and solid parts of his body, felt like they were slowly tearing apart and disintegrating into fine dust. It was an agonizing feeling, and he felt a searing pain spread all over his body.

Surprisingly and to Eris's shock, Frederick did not seem to react that much to the process.