35. You look terrible when you cry…
Alicia gently caressed his hair and wiped his tears with her fingers.
"Do you remember how I used to say, if you make a mistake, it's okay as long as you learn from it and grow from it?"
Nova nodded in understanding but remained silent, listening to everything his mother had to say to him.
"We may not have been born to fight for our survival, to live in constant danger like this, but... we'll adapt and grow into something stronger, something that will ensure our survival, something that will ensure we can live a happy life with peace of mind..."
"All we have to do is try, no matter how many mistakes we make along the way... and as long as we continue forward and never look back, we'll definitely find the way out of this nightmare."
Alicia's words were filled with conviction, determination, and confidence that her son found himself feeling assured, calming down little by little.
"Don't cry, my lovely baby boy... You look terrible when you cry... Smile for Mommy, alright? Smile so I know we'll be okay. No matter what happens or how bad things get... As long as you're here, Nova, I'm never alone, and I'm never scared. And it's the same for you... right?"
Nova stared at Alicia for a long moment, taking every single word she said to heart.
Then he nodded slowly, managing a small smile and embracing her back.
"Yes, it is..." He replied with confidence, his smile widening and his tears ceasing to flow.
After that, the two turned their heads to look at the wounded woman sitting on the ground not too far from them.
Hilda looked up at the two with a helpless look on her face as she hugged her own body. "Is it over...? Are they dead?"
"Yes, they are." Alicia confirmed while taking a few steps toward Hilda and holding out her hand to heal her wounds.
The moment she saw that, Hilda began sobbing uncontrollably and crying in a pitiful voice.
"It's finally over... My god, it's really over... I can't believe it... I thought for sure we were going to die here... I was sure I'd become a prisoner for life..."
Alicia sighed as she used her power to heal Hilda.
"Don't cry anymore, Hilda... You are safe now, alright? Let's head to the town and get away from this dangerous place first."
After saying so, she offered her hand to Hilda and helped her stand up on her feet.
Hilda wiped away her tears as she gave Alicia a thankful look before turning to face Nova, who had walked up to them with clothes in his hands.
"Here, take it. It's cold here."
Alicia shook her head and pulled Hilda with her.
"We are not going to wear clothes before getting ourselves cleaned up. There was a stream not too far away. We are going there to get ourselves washed before putting on any clothes."
"But we don't know if those men will appear again... We should hurry and get far away from this place..." Nova protested, but Alicia just smiled. "Do you want us to continue walking around with those men's filthy stinks stuck on us? Besides... it will not take long."
Hilda nodded in agreement. "I don't want to go around with this smell either."
"Fine..." Nova gave up as the two naked women began walking ahead of him.
It wasn't long before they arrived at the small stream flowing through the forest.
It was barely waist deep and a few meters wide, but it was enough to serve their purpose.
They got into the cold stream one by one and started cleaning their bodies.
Alicia stood behind Hilda to scrub her back with water, and Hilda did the same after a moment, helping each other while Nova was washing himself separately on one end.
As the blood and dirt came off, he thought about the battle he had just endured against the two attackers he had lured in a different direction.
He was confident in defeating them with ease, but things had not gone according to plan.
Instead, one of them was the main tracker that was able to locate him and attacked him at the best possible timing, allowing his companion to join in on the fray.
This had made things difficult; he couldn't hide with his invisible skill, and so he was forced to face them head-on.
It was a tough fight, as he didn't know any martial arts, and all he could do was stab and slash at the attackers, trying to avoid their weapons.
Still, Nova managed to beat them in the end with the help of his teleporting ability.
His speed was on a different level, and that allowed him to kill the tracker first in surprise and then kill the other one soon after.
Despite that, he was injured badly in the process, losing quite a bit of blood during the fight and even getting his ribs broken.
He couldn't have done it on his own without using his teleportation skills.
In any case, he was glad it had gone well, but it had taken longer than expected to take care of them, which had cost Alicia.
Nova wasn't able to help her.
He just hoped that he'd be strong enough to protect her next time so nothing would ever happen like that again.
He promised himself to train as much as possible to become more powerful.
Learn martial arts, train in combat, learn to use magic, and practice everything he could think of so nothing could go wrong.
Because once you are stuck in a bad situation, it is almost impossible to escape from it without suffering consequences.
Consequences that were too painful for him to see anyone close to him go through.