Chapter 105 - 104: What is a Disciple?

"What’s an apprentice?" Rose blinked, her face full of confusion.

"Uh, an apprentice is... Well, I’d be your master. I would teach you how to read and write, how to be a good person, and how to improve your Ability," Rick Kaye explained, trying his best to use words she could understand.

"Oh, I get it now. An apprentice is your little sidekick who cooks your meals, washes your clothes, and massages your legs and shoulders," Rose said, looking as if a lightbulb had just gone off in her head.

Although she was young, she knew there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world. Mr. Kaye was going to teach her so much, which meant she definitely had to do a lot for him in return. Only then would it be a fair trade. Therefore, she had to stay by his side and serve him, just like the little maids serving young masters in the stories she had heard.

Rick laughed so hard at her words that his stomach started to hurt.

Hearing the voices coming from the bedroom, Sev Steele knew that her two patients, one large and one small, were both awake. She quickly ladled out two bowls of hazel mushroom milk custard and brought them in. However, Rose rolled off the bed and said with a serious face, "Mom, I’m not sick. I don’t need to eat in bed."

Rick felt like he was being indirectly roasted. He also wanted to say that he wasn’t sick and could get out of bed to eat at the dining table, but half of his body was completely stiff. He had absolutely no ability to get out of bed on his own.

The feeling of losing control over his own body was incredibly frustrating. However, the foodie in him was quickly comforted by the delicious food, and his mood brightened considerably.

Rose pulled over a small stool and sat by the bed with her little bowl. The adult and the child ate happily.

Hearing Sev mention that the hazel mushrooms in the custard were picked near the site of his recent battle, Rick couldn’t help but sigh. "Ah! What an absolute waste of nature’s gifts! There were such delicious ingredients right there, and I somehow managed to miss them completely!"

He looked as devastated as if he had just lost a winning lottery ticket. Sev couldn’t help but chuckle at his dramatic reaction.

Looking at Rick’s lively expressions, she realized he no longer seemed like that aloof and untouchable Seventh Tier Strong Person. Instead, he was just a simple-minded, boyish young man. A wave of bitterness washed over Sev’s heart. Such an exceptionally talented young man should have had a bright and limitless future ahead of him. His life shouldn’t be coming to such a premature and incomplete end.

But even Brandon Stone, the Sixth Tier Healing Element bigshot, had practically given him a death sentence. Who could possibly save his life now?

Even though she couldn’t save his life, Sev wanted him to at least regain the ability to take care of himself before he died. She remembered that gastrodia tuber could treat limb numbness and hemiplegia. Whether it was exactly what Rick’s symptoms required, she couldn’t say for sure. But since he was already dying anyway, there was no harm in trying, right?

In her memories, gastrodia stewed with meat was the most common recipe, but she didn’t have any meat at all. Wait, she suddenly remembered that they still had some roasted aphids and roasted ant eggs at home. Those could barely count as meat, right?

With that in mind, she cut off about a pound of the mutated gastrodia tuber she had dug up that day. After washing and slicing it, she tossed it into the pot along with five roasted aphids, five roasted ant eggs, and a dash of salt. Once the water boiled, she let it simmer for ten minutes before taking it off the heat. Gastrodia wasn’t suitable for long cooking times, as it would cause its medicinal properties to fade.

Once the gastrodia meat soup was ready, Sev brought it over to Rick in bed.

Having just polished off a bowl of hazel mushroom milk custard, Rick looked at the large bowl of soup made from unrecognizable ingredients she had just handed him. He couldn’t help but wonder if this place was truly The Slums. Were Sev and her family really starving, impoverished Scavengers?

"You just hit the jackpot by riding on my coattails, kid," Sev thought to herself.

Beside them, Rose’s large eyes fluttered as she stared fixedly at the soup bowl in Rick’s hands.

Rick scooped up a spoonful and was about to feed it to her, which scared Sev into hastily stopping him. "No, no. If kids eat too much at night, they’ll get indigestion."

Rick froze. He had never even heard of the word "indigestion" before and couldn’t comprehend it.

Sev also realized her slip-up. This was the wasteland. Starving was a daily routine; whose kid would ever get indigestion from overeating?

"Uh, what I mean is, kids don’t know when they’re full. If she eats too much, her stomach will hurt," she hurriedly explained.

"Oh, that was indeed thoughtless of me," Rick said guiltily.

In the end, he ate and drank everything himself, polishing off every last drop right then and there.

Seeing that he had once again eaten the food she gave him completely unguarded, Sev couldn’t help but sigh. She wondered why this bigshot didn’t have an ounce of caution. No wonder he ended up as cannon fodder. With this level of naivety, it was a miracle he had even managed to survive into his twenties.

In truth, Rick wasn’t actually naive; he was just accustomed to dropping his guard around people he approved of. Previously, the only people he trusted wholeheartedly were Lana Florian and Jared Jenkins. One was the sweetheart who had been by his side for over two decades, and the other was a man who had freely offered him help back when his status was still very low.

As for Sev, first of all, she was someone Jared approved of. Secondly, he had eavesdropped on the conversation between the mother and her children. An adult might be able to wear a mask constantly, lying and pretending to be friendly behind his back, but three kids under the age of eight couldn’t possibly pull that off. She was their mother. The fact that she could raise her children to have such strong moral compasses was proof enough that the mother herself was upright. Furthermore, he was already dying anyway. What could she possibly gain by killing him?

Sev decided to squeeze into bed with the three boys for the night. She planned to go to the trading hall first thing in the morning to buy a sofa bed.

The boys were both nervous and a little excited. This was the first time their mom was sleeping with them.

Firestone worried that he was a bad sleeper and might accidentally kick their mom in the middle of the night. So, he was the first to climb all the way to the innermost side. He pressed his tiny body tightly against the wall, practically turning himself into a wall relief.

Zephyr slept on Sev’s right side. He carefully snuggled up to the crook of his mom’s shoulder, greedily breathing in the warm, comforting scent of an adult woman radiating from her. Before falling asleep, in a hazy state of consciousness, he wondered if this was what a mother smelled like.

Rusty was the calmest of them all—though he was definitely faking it. He deliberately kept a fist’s width of distance between himself and their mom. Sev looked at her eldest son’s little body, which was hovering a mere four inches from the edge of the bed, and couldn’t help but find it amusing. Once he finally fell asleep, she simply picked him up and moved him further inside, taking the spot on the edge of the bed for herself.

The mother and her three sons all fell into a deep slumber, but on the other side of the room, Rick couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

Beside him, Rose couldn’t sleep either. She had been unconscious for two whole days and wasn’t sleepy at all now. Seeing that Rick was also awake, she recalled his earlier promise to teach her skills and make her his apprentice. When she had said an apprentice was a little sidekick who served him every day, he had laughed so happily. That meant she must have guessed the meaning of "apprentice" correctly.

Since he was currently half-lying in bed, massaging his shoulders was obviously inconvenient. She decided she would massage his legs instead.

Rick watched as the little girl quickly crawled to the foot of the bed, having no idea what she was trying to do. Then, he saw her kneel beside his leg, raising her small fists to earnestly pound against it.

He was just about to stop her when he noticed a faint green light lingering around her little fists. When that green light came into contact with his stiff, numb leg, a slight prickling sensation actually shot through it.

Was it just an illusion?