Aria kept her face buried in his chest, crying, and Zilu clung to his arm with red eyes and trembling ears.
"I really am fine," repeated Mark in a softer tone. "I just need some water and something to eat."
Then Aria lifted her face from Mark's chest, revealing how tears still ran down her cheeks.
"Master..." she said with a broken voice. "You were unconscious for a week."
"...What?"
Mark fell silent.
'Well... that explains why I feel like a truck ran me over,' he thought, looking at his own hands. 'And also why they're so affected.'
Because one thing was falling asleep for a couple of hours and something completely different was being unconscious for seven days without showing any signs of life.
Then he looked at Aria, who still had puffy eyes from crying so much, and then at Zilu, who looked at him with tears still accumulating at the edges of her eyes.
"I'm sorry for scaring you all like that," said Mark in a soft tone, putting on a smile.
