Noticing my face, Hilda asked a question.

  "How much are the starved ones that aren't crippled. My man has work with the Knight scrapyard, he could use some cheap bour." He gets an evil smile.

  "30 gold."

  She nods, then replies. Looking at me.

  "Get Yerg to give you an advanced payment, you can pick them up next week."

  I knew I didn't need to get an advance, this was a misdirection. To make the man think we didn't have the money on hand. Not to mention letting him know that me and Hilda were close enough to the Knight shops owner enough to be on a nickname basis. This made us not worth the hassle. Just an apothecary and her boy toy. This was the image she wanted to portray. Thanks to preperation, I mostly looked to her or asked the air. She was taking charge, she even had the money on her. This made it look like I was a kept man, and Hilda was scary. She carried the woman in her arms, while I carried the man, his hands were amputated and his legs disfigured from constant beatings. I was already angry about svery existing in the first pce, but they were treated so badly it definitely stirred a deep hatred for sve merchants in my heart.

  We arrived back at the apothecary pretty quickly, The first thing to do was to feed them. I had already removed infection, disease and internal damage. So they would be mostly fine. While they did that, I went outside. I started restoring my knight. First I slipped the shard into the wreck, then i looked at the blueprints, they overpped nicely. I started by restoring the internal structure, although I didn't know what some of the materials were. I did understand their properties, which I combined and fused. Basically, I was fusing materials to make an improved version. The older ones hips came in more, which looked better overall. It could have a tail, but decided not to build it yet. I knew getting their energy up would be essential, I had to eat 5 times normal after fixing myself for a few days. Hilda was simir after her restoration. I know Hilda was giving them pain reducing herbs, I would do small recovery sessions, focusing on the most painful things first, then working on the rest. I then realised I had restored, the whole knight on accident. I was too busy in my thoughts and got carried away. I felt wetness under my eyes. Touching my cheek I saw blood on my fingers.

  "Well, that isn't good...."

  The st thing I heard was Mi screaming my name, as my world turned dark.

  SKILL UPGRADED: MANA FORGED VEINS LEVEL 3. YOUR MANA VEINS CAN NOW CONDUCT MORE MANA.

  .......

  I groan as my body ached, as my eyes opened to the hell that was natural light.

  "Gah, I now understand those vilins wanting eternal darkness."

  I was aching everywhere, but I couldn't help but feel the weight on my wrist.

  "It's a mana nullifier, you have been unconscious for 2 days. I came to check your mana veins."

  It wasn't Hilda, it was the voice of a man. He looked like a healer, and he was shooting me a gre.

  "Those two downstairs are beyond my help."

  I realised his misunderstanding.

  "Gah my body hurts and I feel like I have the worst hangover. I didn't do that to them, I should be able to undo most of what happened to them though. Not sure what was done by the sver or their situation."

  I try to sit up, but I just don't have any strength.

  "I don't know what you did, but you somehow stretched your mana veins. You could have ruined your ability to use magic, or worse. You could have died. You are lucky your wife loves you like she does."

  I smile at his words, thinking about all the things Hilda does for me.

  "Yeah, Hilda is amazing. I am really lucky to have her."

  The healers eyebrow raised a little bit, but says nothing. Getting to work on checking me over.

  "Other than you should be dead, but instead got better at using magic. You are normal, sore and achy for a the next day at least. I recommend no magic, none at all for at least 24 hours."

  I sigh at my foreseeable uselessness, I could only do one thing without magic and Mi was heavily adamant about me not cooking. I managed to tweak here and there, or give suggestions. However it wasn't the same as cooking from scratch.

  "I won't, Hilda would kick my ass."

  He clicks his tongue as he leaves, I didn't have the sensitive nose like Mi. However, even I could smell the anger and jealousy from that man. I groan as I was still in pain, I could force it. Mana nullifiers didn't work on me, just made my mana slightly harder to move. I wouldn't though, I would let myself recover properly. I couldn't move due to how weak I was, so it looked like I was on bed rest.

  As you can guess the next 48 hours was boring, I managed to get out of bed by dinner. I managed to sort my chores for the day I could work. I checked on my knight and nearly named it my first wife, instead I settled for Leviathan. It was gorgeous. I also managed to get the cores together for my work at the knight graveyard.

  Yes that was what I am forever calling it. I am a knight necromancer. I have been bored, can you tell I have been bored. I was too sore for sex. You have seen my Hilda and Mi right? This is torture. I did take measurement and draw up a blueprint, so now a carpenter was putting rooms above the horse and cart half of the stables and in the top half of the warehouse. I could probable do this myself, but the problem is I would need the wood to have been like that before. It wasn't likely. Hilda was counting how much this increased her shops value. A lot, it increased it a lot. The outer parts had already been given a face lift, mainly for insution. However the fract the upstairs and down were completely separated when finished. That made the whole thing also work as bedsit rental spaces. We however would be using the space for sves. There was even more spaces for carriages under the overhang. it did cost me a bit, but we would get it back double when Hilda sold up shop.

  While on my forced 2 days off, I instead checked maps. Looking for abandoned territory, that was never cimed. I found a few. However there was one that stood out, it was a castle surrounded by a rge walled city and fields. The whole thing was perfect. However a rge monster had attacked the people living there. Wiping it out, this was before people started having knights. There was also the fact the artifact was damaged.

  "I can fix it, but from the details it sounds like a forest lord. A weird giant stag. Red and wet. Antlers that moved. Okay circling back to that, but they had no knights. However, I could easily have 10 or so if I can get enough people to pilot them."

  I look between the 2 sves. My mana nullifier came off a couple hours ago. The mans legs were straight and repaired, I also fixed his internals. He would probably wake up and be up and about in a few hours. I had done considerably more work on the woman.

  She was a white tiger woman, that was huge, easily over 7 foot tall. She had beautiful white hair, fluffy ears and tail. The bck stripes on said tail is what screams tiger. I quickly measure her with my tape measure, my mum told me to stop taking my stuff everywhere, but this coming over was a godsend.

  "7 foot 6!? She is a beast of a woman!"

  Her muscles used to be like carved stone. Unfortunately her emaciated frame didn't hold a candle to her true self. I brush her hair from her face, I had repaired it the best I could for now. I was on strict limits to power usage the next few days.

  "Wish I could do more for you sexy kitty, but I have to recover a bit more. You should be able to wake up tomorrow, I restored your eyes. That right one was badly infected and you would have lost it in a couple days."

  I pat the man on the shoulder.

  "Get well soon buddy. I will fix the rest ter."

  I stand up and in a moment of spontaneous cringe, I take the tiger womans hand and kiss the back softly.

  "I look forward to fluffing your ears ter midy."

  I cursed myself in my head as I went to the kitchen, I had won the bid to cook once. I was going all out. Steak au poivre, dauphinoise potatoes served with veg, bnched then sautéed in garlic butter.

  ...

  

  Clenching her fist, she looked around the room. Her right hand, her dominant hand, the hand that was lost all those years ago. It was back, her eye she lost in her fight with her mother in her youth, both back. She noticed there were scars missing, especially inside herself. She could still feel the mans lips on the back of her hand.

  Was he her first master?

  She didn't know, but she did have hope. He smelt different, sure he was attracted to her. That was an easy scent and one she hadn't smelt on a man in many years. Her aunt took the man she loved, but never got to be with. She looked over her body, her legs were still missing, but he was working on it. She knew he wasn't simple healer.

  "He's a wanderer, me being a sve is, well linked to his coming here. My words the day he arrived, carried a bit too far. I'm lucky to be alive."

  She looked over at the man, who while answering calmly, was looking at his stumps where there should be hands.

  "He fixed my legs, almost cruel he didn't give me my life purpose back."

  The mans stump gained a light floating above it.

  "How? He fixed my ability to fix mana? That shouldn't be possible."

  He flopped back down onto the bed, looking over at the woman.

  "He is special, the most special thing that fat spoiled little.. well anyway. She messed up, he didn't look the same before. He is younger, his hair fuller, taller and looks to have lived a better life. She would have been happy with the current him, but I am gd he avoided her."

  His green eyes burned with intensity. Her ear flicked.

  "He is pnning on returning your hands tomorrow, along with my legs. He is apparently still in recovery for nearly bursting his mana veins four days ago."

  The man looked at her then down at his body, shock written on his face. Then looked to clench his none existing fists.

  "This, what he did. For you, for me. In that stage of recovery? He would have been in agony. He suffered so that we wouldn't."

  This made her lie down and look at the ceiling. Then she heard the man say.

  "I will serve my new master with my very soul, with everything I have."

  Then the mans breathing steadied, as he succumbed to exhaustion and the remedies took effect.

  She looked at her own situation, she had lost her eye young in a fight with her mother, during she lost the matriarch challenge, she lost her arm and leg. The torture she received after that from her aunt, did the rest. The other leg and arm, then the breasts. She even punctured her internal organs which were healed enough to keep her alive, but not enough to remove all damage or pain.

  She could feel it, she was fixed. She also felt something else, it was like when she started to become an adult. Her body felt hot, her emotions were crisper and more intense. Then she heard them, she sniffed and immediately regretted it as her body burned. They were having sex, the human man was having loving and lustful sex. She could smell them, hear them. Her body burned and then she realised she was aroused, she hadn't been able to get aroused in so long. Even if she was tall enough to be considered a woman, the other women in her family were taller. Not much, but in tiger beastfolk society. Even a little bit extra height matters to males. She was literally in the middle of females normal height. Now though it was overwhelming lust she felt, as she closed her eyes, the mans blue eyes, light skin and flowing brown hair made her heart clench.

  She didn't understand what this feeling meant. She wanted to know.