“All right, time to strip him!” The angel(?) giggled as she knelt before the king.
“E-Emma? Wh-What’s happened to my father?” After having seen his father squished by the cat, Prince Edward was doing his absolute best to remain as calm as he could.
“It’s okay! He’s just knocked out. There’s still some monster blood on his clothes that hasn’t dried yet, so you should probably stay back, just in case, Your Highness.” Touching any of the wet monster blood could cause those negative status effects to arise again, after all.
“But then you need to back away too, Lady Emma!” Arthur slipped in front of the prince to get him away per Emma’s warning, but also reached his hand out to help Emma stand. They’d thought the king was dead for sure, but Arthur could see now that his chest was faintly rising and falling with his breath.
Emma gently shook her head as Arthur extended his hand to her. “No! I’ll be treating the king!”
“You can’t. You just said it yourself. It’s still dangerous. If you can tell me how to do it, I’ll do it for you.” Emma shouldn’t have to put herself in harm’s way. If the king were to wake up and start going into a frenzy again, an injury or two would be the least of her worries.
“No, I’ll do it. Lord Arthur, if the monster blood doesn’t dry, it could very easily cause a negative status effect again.” Emma pointed at the large quantity of blood splatters still on the king. “If you, the prince, or George were to start acting out like the king did, we couldn’t easily stop you. But if I did, you could easily pin me down and I wouldn’t be able to move.” It was a rule set in stone that a weaker person would treat someone who’d been infected by a mad rat to prevent any further damages.
“P-Pin you down?!” the prince cried behind Arthur. It was true that if someone as dainty as Emma were to go into a frenzy, she would be easy to subdue. But she was so frail, it seemed to him that even the slightest bit of tension could snap her wrists and spine. To pin someone so fragile down... It would be...
Emma briefly averted her eyes, then hesitantly looked back up at the prince and Arthur to plead. “But, um... If I do go into a frenzy like that...could you please...be gentle with me?” She wouldn’t let them treat the king, but if something bad were to happen...she wanted it to be as painless as possible.
“Hnngh!” The prince hadn’t realized just how hungrily he’d been looking at Emma, but when he saw those watery eyes staring up at him so pleadingly, as she said those words, his face went bright red in seconds. He took a step backward. Then another. Then another. Then he fell back onto his butt as though he’d been struck by a shock wave. “Wh-Wh-Wh...!” The prince had completely lost the ability to speak. He couldn’t move. He just kept hearing Emma saying those words over and over in his head.
“Be gentle with me.”
“Be gentle with me.”
“Be gentle with me, Your Highness.”
“Well, if you really insist.” In contrast to the prince, Arthur took a couple of seconds to respond, then curtly stepped away from Emma and the king.
What the hell was that? How could a thirteen-year-old be saying such things?! Even Arthur, the well-known playboy, felt his cheeks reddening.
“I’ll help too, sis!” William said as he rushed up to his sister, almost like he was trading places with Arthur.
“I’ll be fine on my own, William...”
“It’s totally fine! I’m just as frail and weak as you are!” William didn’t even give Emma the chance to finish replying before speaking over her.
“Why is that something you’re proud of?” Emma pouted, not really happy William was rubbing it in.
“We can’t have any more victims, right? And we don’t need any weird middle-aged ulterior motives at a time like this.”
“Now, what could you possibly mean? I’m just treating the king in the most efficient way, out of the kindness of my heart, based on what we know about monster countermeasures...” While William was getting louder, Emma’s voice was steadily getting smaller and smaller.
“You just want to strip the king so you can gawk at his pecs and abs. Then you’re gonna touch him all over, memorize every last detail, and draw him shirtless over and over when you get home.” Having known Emma for over thirty years in his previous life and over ten years in this one, her ulterior motives were clear as day to William.
“Tch.” Emma clicked her tongue in a way most unbefitting a young noblewoman. It was the perfect chance for her to get to strip the king (a rugged, battle-hungry silver fox) and touch him all over under the guise of cleaning the blood off of him.
“Ugh, what is with this world? It’s not fair! Why is it that Emma always gets these kinds of perv-out scenes?” William muttered under his breath as he expertly pulled out the gauze, water, gloves, and more from the first aid kit hunters always carried with them.
“Oh, I don’t need any gloves. I need to feel his muscles with my bare hands or...”
“Or what?” William threw the gloves at his oh-so-frail sister, not willing to hear any argument.
“Oof! Okay, fine! I just have to wear the stupid gloves, right? Oh, but wait! Wait! Just a button! I swear, I’ll just do one button, so...”
“So, what?”
George heaved a deep sigh as he stared at his freak siblings from a short distance away.
“Everywhere you look, it’s hell on earth.” On one hand, he had his sister trying to grope the king’s muscles and his brother refusing to let her have her way. Then on the other hand, he had the prince, who had been knocked flat by Emma’s puppy dog eyes and innuendo-laden words and Arthur, who was wondering if he’d suddenly lowered his strike zone. And for some reason, all the knights and hunters were praying to Emma too.
“Lady Emma’s so fast and efficient, isn’t she, Caitlyn?”
“Lady Emma is so fast and efficient, Catherine!”
“I need to work hard on my Monster Studies so I can help people in need like Lady Emma does.”
“Interesting... Knights in the future may need to know more than just how to fight. Being able to perform first aid on the field is quite important as well.”
Meanwhile, all the girls behind George were praising Emma’s efforts without a touch of insincerity.