Chapter 51: Chapter 51 – Guilt
Nick took a deep breath.
"Thank you. I will do just that," he said.
The doctor nodded.
After a bit more talking, the doctor left the warehouse.
"What's your plan?" Wyntor asked.
"What I said," Nick said. "I will support Horua until he wakes up."
Wyntor furrowed his brows. "Nick, I need you as my Chief Zephyx Extractor. I can't have you take care of the boy if you can't do your job properly."
"I have to," Nick said with a tone filled with conviction. "This is my responsibility, and I am the one that has to pay the price."
"If Horua dies now, everything would have been for nothing."
"I have already hurt Horua immensely, and I can't even imagine hurting him even more."
"This is all my fault, and I am going to deal with it."
Wyntor frowned.
However, he wasn't actually mad at Nick.
The entire incident with Horua had given Nick something that he had lacked.
A sense of responsibility.
A Chief Zephyx Extractor needed a strong sense of responsibility, or the entire Manufacturer might go out of business.
If something happened, Nick had to deal with these things and take responsibility.
"As long as your work does not suffer, it doesn't matter what you do in your free time," Wyntor said.
"Thank you, Wyntor," Nick said with a sigh.
"However," Wyntor added, "I don't want him here. I will rent a room somewhere, and he can stay in the bed there. The room will be pretty close to the company, which should make it easy for you to take care of him."
Nick wasn't the biggest fan of Wyntor's help, but he knew that he needed to accept some help if he wanted to deal with this issue.
"Okay," Nick said. "Thank you, Wyntor."
Wyntor nodded. "For now, you should work. Pator will deal with Horua for the next eight hours."
Nick felt guilty that Pator had to do more work because of his mistake.
But Nick also knew that he didn't have any other choice.
He couldn't let Horua stay alone for eight full hours.
So, Nick just nodded.
He threw one last glance at Horua.
Whenever he saw Horua like this, Nick felt an intense pain in his chest, and breathing became more difficult.
Guilt.
Such heavy guilt.
Nick released another sigh and entered the Dreamer's Containment Unit.
As always, the Dreamer just stood in its corner as it looked into Nick's eyes.
"He's still alive," Nick said.
The Dreamer showed no reaction.
Nick snorted. "I guess you don't really care."
"For now, I will be mainly working with you, but in the future, I will bring in more people. However, these people will be more resilient than the last person you worked with," Nick said.
The Dreamer showed no reaction.
A moment later, Nick sat down near one of the walls and closed his eyes.
"Let's get to it," he said.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
Nick heard the Dreamer's footsteps, and he knew that it now stood just beside him again.
The Prephyx in the room became denser, and Nick started to feel sleepy.
A minute later, Nick fell asleep.
In his dreams, Horua was dying in increasingly more painful ways as he screamed for Nick's help.
Naturally, it was always Nick's fault that Horua was dying.
Eventually, the Horuas even started to come alive again and told Nick that he was at fault.
Even the world turned into living bodies of Horua, and whenever Nick walked, the Horua he stepped on screamed in pain and died.
The world was screaming at him, telling him that he was the reason why suffering filled all of reality.
Nick broke down again and again.
Nick had uttered The Sentence so many times, but Nurse Alice had never come.
Nick tried to kill himself, but he couldn't.
No matter what he did, he survived.
His suffering was infinite and eternal.
And then, Nick woke up.
All the memories of Nick's dream became hazier and hazier by the second.
Just a moment later, Nick had forgotten nearly everything.
He only knew that his dreams had been related to Horua and that he felt very guilty.
That was all he knew.
Nick looked around in the Containment Unit and saw the Dreamer looking at him from its corner.
Nick sighed and stood up.
After leaving the Containment Unit, Nick was intercepted by Wyntor.
"Nick, we need to talk," Wyntor said with a serious expression.
As soon as he heard that, Nick felt anxiety and fear rise in his chest. "Did something happen to Horua?" he asked.
"No," Wyntor said. "This is more of a good thing."
"Oh, okay," Nick said with a sigh of relief.
"Look at this," Wyntor said as he pointed at the Zephyx gauge.
Right now, the gauge was at ten grams of Zephyx.
"What about it?" Nick asked.
"Every day, the Zephyx tank gets emptied," Wyntor said, "which means that it was at zero before you and the boy arrived."
"Okay?" Nick asked.
"Nick, the boy only produced three grams of Zephyx."
"That means you produced seven grams just now, 40% more than the last time you worked with it."
Nick's eyes widened. "How?"
"That's what I am asking you," Wyntor asked. "What has changed?"
Nick furrowed his brows.
He had no idea.
"I don't know," Nick said.
Wyntor nodded. "Then, find out. It's your job."
"Well, okay," Nick said with uncertainty.
How was he supposed to find out why the amount of Zephyx had changed?
"The boy is in the house across the street," Wyntor said as he took out a key. "This is one of three keys. The owner of the hotel has one. Pator has one. You have one."
Nick took hold of the key and looked at it.
"Thanks, Wyntor," he said.
Wyntor nodded. "See you tomorrow," he said before he grabbed his suitcase and left the building.
Apparently, Wyntor had remained here just to talk with Nick.
Now, Nick was alone.
After some seconds, Nick took a deep breath and left the warehouse.
It was time to visit Horua.
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