Chapter 9: Healing

Chapter 9: Chapter 9: Healing

Jason stepped out of the shower and reached for the towel, and that was when he noticed it.

The gash the hound had left across his thigh the one that had been bleeding freely just hours ago was gone.

Not stitched. Not scarred.

Gone.

He stood there for a moment, staring at the unbroken skin where an open wound should have been.

’Okay. That’s either a miracle or a warning sign. Let’s hope it’s the fun kind.’

He turned in front of the mirror, running his fingers over the spot, half-expecting it to be some trick of the light.

It wasn’t.

"...Huh," he said aloud, more amused than alarmed. "That’s new."

He flexed the leg experimentally, half-expecting a twinge of pain that never came.

’No stiffness. No ache. Nothing. Yesterday I was bleeding on the bedroom floor, and today I could probably outrun a horse.’

He pulled up the system window with a thought, the familiar translucent blue interface blinking into existence in front of him, hovering in the fogged bathroom air.

STATUS

He scanned it slowly this time, not rushing past the details like he had in the exhausted haze of the fight’s aftermath.

’Let’s actually read the fine print for once instead of skimming through it.’

Talent. Attributes. Techniques.

His eyes drifted over each line until they settled on one entry near the bottom that hadn’t been there yesterday.

BLOODLINE: Azure Dragon (Nascent)

’There you are.’

He focused on it, and the window expanded without being asked.

Regeneration: Greatly Increased

Stamina: Greatly Increased

Physical Strength: Increased

Endurance: Increased

Jason let out a low whistle, equal parts impressed and mildly unsettled.

"Marrow cleansing, a dragon in my blood, and a forbidden technique crammed into my skull overnight," he muttered, shaking his head at his own reflection.

"At this rate I’m going to owe this system a written apology for ever doubting it."

’Sixteen years of being the family’s cautionary tale. And now I wake up with a bloodline that sounds like it belongs in a bedtime story.’

He huffed a quiet laugh.

’If eight-year-old me could see this, he’d probably ask why it took so long.’

"Still," he said under his breath, "free healing. I could get used to that."

He allowed himself a small, genuine smile the kind he hadn’t worn easily in sixteen years.

’Thank you,’ he thought, quieter now. ’Whatever you are. Whoever’s giving me this. I won’t waste it.’

’Though I’ll admit, waking up glowing like a jade statue wasn’t exactly on my bucket list.’

He dismissed the window with a thought and dressed quickly, then made his way back into the bedroom, already rehearsing how he was going to explain any of this to Novaria without sounding like he’d lost his mind overnight.

"Hey, so, dragon blood, apparently." Yeah. That’ll go over great.’

Novaria was awake.

She sat propped against the headboard, blanket pooled around her waist, her eyes finding him the moment he stepped through the doorway.

Even diminished by the damage to her meridians, her perception had once been among the best in her generation.

It hadn’t forgotten how to notice things.

Her gaze moved over him slowly, and Jason watched the exact moment her expression shifted from tired relief into quiet confusion.

His skin seemed to catch the morning light differently now smoother, faintly luminous, like polished jade beneath the surface.

She didn’t know what marrow cleansing was, but she knew enough to recognize that something about her husband had changed overnight.

"You look..." she started, then stopped, searching for the right word.

"Different?" Jason offered, dropping into the chair beside the bed. "Shinier? I’ll take either."

Novaria didn’t smile at the joke.

Her eyes stayed fixed on him, something heavier sitting behind them.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, leaning forward, the humor easing out of his voice.

She was quiet for a moment.

Then, instead of answering, she asked her own.

"Why did you put your life on the line for me?"

The question hung in the air between them, plain and unguarded in a way she rarely allowed herself to be.

Jason held her gaze, and for once, he didn’t have a clever answer ready.

He looked at her for a long moment, weighing how much of the truth he actually wanted to hand over this early, still sitting in a towel-damp shirt with a dead monster a few feet away.

"Would ’because I felt like it’ work as an answer?" he said instead, a faint smirk tugging at his lips even as his eyes stayed serious.

"No," Novaria said flatly, though something in her shoulders eased just slightly.

"Didn’t think so." He exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I’ll give you the real answer eventually. Just not while you’re still recovering from almost seizing to death, alright? Let’s not turn near-death experiences into a two-for-one deal."

She studied him a moment longer, clearly unsatisfied, but let it go with a small nod.

"What about you?" she asked instead. "You’re the one who actually fought it. Are you hurt?"

"Not anymore," Jason said, holding up his leg slightly. "Healed up sometime between last night and this shower. Long story, I’ll spare you the technical details unless you’re into that sort of thing."

Novaria’s brow furrowed slightly.

"You heal that fast now?" she asked.

"Apparently. New feature. I didn’t get a say in the update."

"Must be nice," she said dryly, glancing down at her own legs.

Jason caught the bitterness beneath the dry tone.

"Hey," he said, quieter now. "Whatever this is, whatever I’m turning into it’s not separate from you. You’re stuck with me, remember? For better or worse."

Novaria opened her mouth to reply, some retort clearly forming, when her gaze drifted past him and stilled.

Jason followed it.

The hound’s corpse still lay where it had fallen, sprawled across the floorboards near the window, dried blood forming a dark halo beneath it.

"...We should probably deal with that," Jason said, deadpan.

"You should fish out its core first," Novaria said, her tone shifting into something more clinical, more practiced. "A hound that size, even a low rank one, its core would sell for a decent amount. Enough to matter, especially for us, given where we’re starting from financially."

"How much are we talking, roughly?" Jason asked, now more interested.

"Depends on the core’s clarity and size, but for a hound of that rank, probably enough to cover groceries for a month. Maybe two, if you don’t buy the expensive coffee."

"The expensive coffee is non-negotiable," Jason said solemnly. "A man needs standards, even a disgraced one."

"Especially a disgraced one," Novaria said, and this time the smile actually reached her eyes.

He crossed his arms, considering the corpse for a moment longer before his expression sobered.

"Before anything else, though, we need to report this," he said. "If one got loose from that Gate, there’s a chance others did too. The Association needs to know, and probably sooner rather than later before some kid walking to school runs into one instead of a trained Hunter with an oddly convenient healing factor."

Novaria nodded.

"Agreed. An uncontained Gate leaking monsters into a residential district isn’t something to sit on. If it’s a containment failure, the Association will want to seal it fast."

Jason retrieved his phone from where he’d left it charging the night before, thumbing through the contacts until he found the entry he’d never actually expected to use.

He dialed the emergency hotline from memory a number every registered Hunter household kept on hand.

It picked up on the second ring.

"Hunter Association Emergency Line, please state your registration number and the nature of your report."

"Jason Veryon, registration number on file under the Veryon clan," he said, voice settling into something calm and precise. "Reporting a Gate breach. A hound-type monster escaped containment sometime last night and entered a private residence. It’s been neutralized, no civilian casualties, minor injury sustained during the encounter, already resolved. Requesting a containment team be dispatched to check the source Gate for further breaches."

He gave the address, the approximate time of the incident, and a clipped but thorough account of the fight.

The operator asked a few clipped follow-up questions ; time of entry, method of neutralization, whether the corpse had been disturbed all of which Jason answered evenly, watching Novaria mouth a correction at him once when he underestimated the hound’s size by a noticeable margin.

’Right. She’d know better than me. I just stabbed the thing, I didn’t measure it.’

The operator confirmed the report had been logged and that a team would be sent to inspect the Gate within the hour, along with a note that a separate agent may follow up regarding the core and proper disposal procedure for the corpse.

Jason ended the call and set the phone down on the nightstand.

"Done. They’re sending someone to check the Gate, and apparently someone else to ask about the core."

"Of course they did," Novaria said, unsurprised. "The Association takes a cut of any core recovered from an unregistered breach. It’s practically tradition."

"Naturally." Jason dropped back into the chair with a sigh. "Can’t even get eaten by a monster without the government wanting a percentage."