As my eyes slowly twitched, the first sound that whispered in my ear... was the sound of machines beeping incessantly.
Strange, I thought. Usually, I would wake up to the non-existent chirping of non-existent birds, the sensation of the gentle movent of the fake soft grass beneath my body. Then there would be the fake sun on my face, a brief mont of silence... and then two people reminding that I was not alone.
But now, it was different.
There was no grass, just... a comfortable bed. No sun, just the LED lamp on the ceiling. The silence was replaced by the sounds of machinery. The two people who reminded that I was not alone... were simply absent.
Normally, I would have sighed in such a situation, but I didn't. I just... watched the ceiling, not moving a muscle.
There were too many things going through my head.
Three months. Three months since the end of the war. So... I've been in a coma for three months, too. But the ti I spent on that dream... is four days at most. Maybe not even that.
But in those four days alone, I learned so much. About myself, about caora, about my next step.
But the problem is... in these four days, I also learned almost nothing I actually wanted to know.
Aiden has kept so much from , telling that there are things I shouldn't know and that it's for my own good... but I don't know. Even though I've chosen to trust only myself, there are still so many things I'm not sure about.
~knock ~knock ~knock!
I sighed lightly, straightening my posture as I slowly sat up in my bed, trying not to put too much weight on my right arm. Then I turned to the door of my room, which was quite spacious and had a very relaxing atmosphere.
"You may co in."
The door opened slowly as an elderly dwarf in a lab coat walked in.
"Good mornin', Mr. Tenebra."
I put a slight smile on my face, bowed my head slightly, and replied in kind.
"Good morning, doctor."
The doctor approached , but instead of looking at my body, he focused on the machine right next to my bed. He clicked on sothing on the screens that suddenly appeared on it, checking different values one by one, and asked in a soft voice.
"How be ya feelin'?"
"Fine, just a little numb in my right arm and right foot. Other than those two... I'm literally as good as new."
The doctor nodded his head. Then he pressed one last button on the screen and all the lights on the machine in front of him went out at once.
As soon as the lights went out, the temperature in the room changed a little, and it beca a little quieter as well. Up until now, everything felt extrely comfortable... breathing, moving my body, basically everything. But as soon as the machine turned off, everything went back to normal as if I had been thrown out of heaven.
The doctor took a few steps back. He looked straight at with a serious expression on his face.
"I'll be truthful, Mr. Tenebra."
That's exactly what I wanted, so I nodded without saying anything.
There was really a lot I didn't know about the general condition of my body, which I would eventually find out.
"Thanks to the potion Mr. Caleo brought, yer body's in better shape than it could ever be. But... not so much, at the sa ti."
My eyebrows raised slightly as I focused even more on the doctor's words. He finally sighed, as if it was difficult for him to talk like that in front of .
"Ye swung Durandal without a shred o' protective armor. In truth, the sensible outco would be that ye shouldn't even be breathin', yet here ye stand. And now... even that potion has failed t' fully nd yer body."
Oh, so I'm not fully healed...
Well, it's not sothing I can't predict with the feeling in my right arm and leg.
"Yer right arm 'n leg will be feeble compared t' normal. Ye can't stroll properly without a cane. And... yer whole body's gone hypersensitive to mana, so ye best be restrictin' yer mana usage."
There was a brief mont of silence between us. I felt myself getting tense with each passing second, because this conversation... was not going anywhere good.
I asked in an involuntarily shaky voice, afraid of how it would continue.
"H- how much do I have to limit my mana...?"
"As much as ye can no longer partake in any fight or battle. Livin' yer life as a regular human bein' would be the most beneficial choice. 'Tis best that ye utilize almost no mana."
Silence, truly absolute silence.
I couldn't say anything as the Absolute Mind spontaneously activated, quickly sweeping away all my tension, fears, and anxiety. I just... stared blankly at the doctor in front of .
It was funny, because.
I can't fight again, huh?
It's best if I don't use any mana, is that it...?
He's telling I'm a cripple. With the fate of literally all of Lunerra in my hands...
"I... I understand."
But I didn't say anything to him, I couldn't. He wasn't guilty, after all. On the contrary, he had probably done more for than I could have imagined.
"Now, please lay yerself down on the bed 'n wait for t' remove yer restraint."
I did as he said, while stretching out my left arm in his direction.
The doctor took my arm in his hands and ran them over it. There was a tiny glow, and then it receded.
The first thing I felt when my mana flow, which had been restricted for my own good, was suddenly free... was how strange it felt.
I didn't even need the doctor's words. The mana in my body was in a real ss. Before, it had a flow that didn't bother , even though I never spent any effort on it. Now... it was the opposite.
But I didn't care about that. I did what any human in my position would do, since this was the first ti since I woke up that I had access to my mana. I opened my status window.
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