The Nightshade Terror (BL Harem)

Valentius clutched his stomach. Those were no red berries…

He whimpered, as his mana grew and grew under his skin. Faster than his blood could contain it!

Was he going to die?

He rolled on the grass; the fever that had gripped him worsened.

"No!" He yelled. Darn it, he was a man! Maybe not a hero, he told himself. Murder was not heroic… but he was a man! "One, two, three!"

As soon as he got on his feet, he swayed dangerously. His hand managed to take a hold of a tree's trunk.

"Ok," those berries were no red berries, he had found that out through the pain in his limbs.

The common people called them mana berries, for obvious reasons.

It was said that, should one survived eating one of them, then there was nothing which could stop them.

Valentius had eaten so many that his lips were red!

"This is not my death!" He hissed. The pain from the expanding mana pathways was making him throw caution to the wind.

If the guards found him now, before he died screaming, it was going to be a mercy… if he was still Valentine, and not Valentius!

He had an old name. One from the glory days of Nightshade. Before the Archdemons had taken over the country and forced the new names on the inhabitants.

His parents hadn't been royalty. Nor wealthy.

No, Valentius forced himself to think about his heroes, as he began to run around the clearing.

 They had been herbalists.

And their son hadn't even been able to tell red berries from mana berries. Man, his mother was going to tug his ear off when they saw each other next.

"Mom!" Valentius yelled, as he began to run faster. If he had too much mana in him, then he was going to use it to get stronger! "I will never see you again!"

It was a cruel thing to say. Valentius hoped that the spirit of his mother had moved on and was not listening.

"But I love you!" he yelled, just to be on the save side.

He ran as the forest grew dark. He ran as his stomach began to make him think that there were wolves nearby.

When his legs finally caved under him, he laid there, on the soft green grass, and stared at the darkness overhead.

A soft wind blew in the clearing.

Valentius caught a glimpse of the night sky. A precious moment. The North Star was twinkling overhead.

"Nothing's changed," the boy realized. The world hadn't crumbled just because a lord had died. The stars were still up there, even if the trees were hiding them.

Valentius let out a sigh and blinked.

He wasn't burning up from the inside anymore. His mana pathways were bigger! Not by much, for all that he had nearly died, but they were bigger!

His brown gaze locked on that dreadful bush that had made him run in circles the whole day.

"You and me, Pal," he told the plant, as he grinned. "Will be roommates for quite a while!"

The wind rustled the bush. Valentius chuckled.

He was snoring soon after. The final nights of summer gifting him with warmth.

0000

Valentius hurt all over.

 He really should have guessed that exercising the whole day without a break was going to land him in a bedridden state.

But he had no bed under him. No soft pillows under his head. No mother to bring him warm soup.

There was grass under him. A bush with berries which could either make him stronger or kill him near him.

The branches of the tress were blocking the sky again.

"Well," Valentius didn't dare eat any more mana berries as he was at that moment.

For all he knew, they could make him run again!

And if they did, then he might die. There was nothing to be done when his legs felt so, as if they were going to fall off.

He looked at the bottomless backpack he had taken from the… murder site.

It looked innocent enough. Brown, worn leather and iron details.

Something one might expect on a rich hunter. One who sold trophies to rich lords who had never gone to a forest but still wanted to showcase their wealth.

Valentius took a hold of the backpack and opened the clasp. He looked inside.

There was the saying that if one fell into a bottomless bag, or a backpack, or what-have-you that had the strongest and rarest rune in the world on it, the bottomless rune, one was sure to fall forever…

Or die from lack of air.

The boy looked at the berries once more.

One dangerous thing could make something dangerous less dangerous!

 Besides, Valentius wanted to see what he had to work with!

The boy tried to stand up, only to fall flat on his ass. His entire body protested.

He gritted his teeth, then began to use his protesting arms to prop himself up.

"I am Valentius!" He roared, for he was sure that even if someone was searching for him, they weren't combing this patch of the forest.

He would have surely heard the hunting hounds otherwise, he told himself.

"And I will be a hero!" He finally got up. One wobbly step after the other, he made it to the bush. The backpack in his left hand.

"Ok," he told himself, as he prepared to do the stupidest, and yet most genius thing he had ever done. "Time for some unpacking!"

He ate a berry, poured the mana from it into his hand, and then began to pull.

A bow so finely carved it was going to fetch a good price on a goblin market, Valentius decided, was his first catch.

Then, as he saw the parcel with the beef jerky, he wanted to weep!

"Food!" He cried out.

Only for the voice of his instructor to play out in his mind:

"Salty food makes one thirsty! Never stuff yourselves with it if you don't have water!"

Valentius didn't want to test that pearl of wisdom. The mana berries were going to feed him for now.

He dug his hand inside the backpack once more. His eyes shining at the prospect of finding a coin pouch!