178 A princess or a cocroach?
“Hey!... Boy...”
Kairen could hear some voices through his fading consciousness.
“Take deep breathes... Deep... A few times more...”
He heard an unfamiliar voice telling him to take deep breaths.
“Ha...aa...a!”
But that was impossible. He couldn’t do as he was told.
‘Damn I don’t want to faint...’
Kairen had been passing out so many times recently that he was starting to feel like the main character, the princess, in one of those romance-drama transmigration webtoons when the MC would get poisoned here and there and collapse three times a chapter. So no, he refused to pass out ever again for a while.
But he just couldn’t resist any longer.
.....
Closing his eyes, Kairen cursed his life for the last time before losing consciousness.
The next time he opened his eyes, he found himself in a familiar room.
He was in SMF’s hospital again.
‘This place is starting to feel like home...’
And he hated that fact.
“....”
Kairen looked at the IV stuck to his arm and at the oxygen mask that was placed on his face. He still had a heavy chest but breathing was easier and his mind was much clear.
‘They make it seem like I’m about to die!’
The thing that he didn’t know was that he nearly died, or at least that’s what the doctors said.
Kairen nagged inwardly and glanced at the man beside him who was restlessly moving around in circles. Noticing his gaze, Kain stopped moving and hurried to Kairen’s side.
“When did you wake up? Kairen? Can you hear me clearly?”
“....”
“Are you feeling pain? Can’t you breathe easily? Should I call the nurse again?”
“....”
Kain placed his shaking hand on Kairen’s temple.
“Your fever hasn’t gone down yet! Does your head hurt?”
“....”
“Are you sleepy? Do you need anything?”
“....”
“....”
“....”
“Oh!”
Kain raised one eyebrow as if he just realized something and took one huge step back.
“I-I’ll piss off then!”
“....”
That was not what was in Kairen’s mind. He simply couldn’t answer because of the huge mask on his face, but... anyway.
Kain walked to the end of the room and started walking in circles again while peeking at Kairen once a second with the most worried face someone could have.
‘But what happened?’
Kairen was in the hospital and was feeling better than before, but it seemed like he was unconscious for a few hours. What in the world happened to him this morning?
“Mmm...”
With a groan, he grabbed the mask and attempted to pull it away, only to fail miserably.
‘What? Why do I feel so weak...’
His body was so weak that he couldn’t even lift a single mask.
“WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING?”
Kairen suddenly shivered at the cold and threatening voice that he heard from the other end of the room and had no choice but to look at the man who was approaching him.
“WHO. SAID. YOU. COULD. TOUCH. THIS. THING?”
“....”
Kairen looked at Kain’s suddenly scary face and shuddered once again.
‘But I wanted to talk!’
He thought.
“THERE IS NO NEED FOR YOU TO TALK!”
“....”
Kairen gulped.
Did this man just read his mind?
“....”
“SLEEP!”
‘But what happened to me?’
“....”
Kain sighed. He then started to explain, his voice slightly shaking.
“You...fainted. They said I had to... bring you to the hospital... Good thing it was close to the library...”
He looked down at Kairen with a nervous face.
“The doctors said that... they don’t know. They said it was complicated... and that they had to examine you thoroughly...”
Kain bit his lips.
“They even brought some healers, but none of them could help... not even the medicine...”
“....”
Kairen blinked.
‘No wonder I still feel like shit!’
Kairen thought before closing his eyes.
Creek
After about half an hour, the door opened and a man wearing a white doctors-coat entered the room. He examined Kairen a little bit before picking up his pen and writing some things down.
“Did you have an accident recently?”
That was the first thing he asked Kairen while looking at him with a serious face.
‘Can you please move this thing from my face?’
As if reading Kairen’s mind, the doctor moved the oxygen mask.
“Ahem!”
Kairen moved his body to sit up straight. As he was still feeling weak, he had to rely on Kain to do that.
“Cough- Ahem. What kind of accident?”
Asked Kairen as there were too many accidents in his life he didn’t know which one he was supposed to tell.
“Anything that might’ve made you hurt your body.”
There were still too many! Kairen nodded his head almost immediately and told the most recent one.
“I was kicked down from a bunch of stone stairs.”
“....”
.....
“....”
The doctor and Kain both looked at him with blank faces.
“K-kicked down from the stairs? When? Where?”
Kain stuttered, his face bewildered.
“In the... mission?”
Kain’s eyes widened even more.
“Did you... Did you fight Philomns?”
“....”
Kairen tilted his head.
“Philomns? Nah that was actually a friendly fire.”
“....”
This time Kain tilted his head.
“Friendly... fire?”
“Yeah, it was my friend who wanted to save me by throwing me out... Anyway.”
“....”
“....”
The doctor and Kain both looked at him with blank faces once again.
“Ahem. Was there anything other than that?”
The doctor asked again.
“Um... I hit a huge pillar and I guess my bones shattered.”
“What???”
Kairen and the doctor both ignored Kain.
“No, what I mean is... an accident where you were in a fire... or something like that.”
“....”
Kian closed his mouth and looked at Kairen with suspicious eyes as if he would explode if Kairen nodded his head once again.
“Fire? No.”
Kairen shook his head.
“But why do you ask that?”
The doctor looked at Kain.
“According to the scans, some of his inner organs seem to have been damaged. It is almost like some parts of them were burnt. I had seen such cases before in the people who were trapped in fire or explosion done by Philomns... but it’s strange that there are no injuries in his skin...”
“....”
“....”
Kain turned his head to Kairen with a robotic movement.
“In. The. What?”
“....”
Kairen could feel shivers run down his back after seeing Kain’s face even though he was in a fever.
“But I thought it was due to the impact of hitting the pillar-”
Kairen paused.
‘Fire? Burnt?’
Wasn’t there something like that in the temple?
That red light blast just before the statues turned into monsters, that blast only hurt Kairen, and it looked like his skin was burnt.
“But I was fine after that blast? Why did this happen two days afterward?”
The doctor moved his pen and wrote down something.
“So you were in an explosion.”
“Not an explosion... but yeah something like that.”
“Hmm...”
The doctor nodded and wrote again.
“YOU. WERE. IN. A. WHAT?”
“....”
Kairen avoided eye contact with Kain again, although he couldn’t do something about the cold gaze he felt and the scary voice that he kept hearing.
“IN. AN. EXPLOSION?”
“....”
“BY. PHILOMNS?”
“....”
“DIDN’T. YOU. SAY. NOTHING. HAPPENED. IN. THE. MISSION?”
“....”
Kairen warily looked at the doctor, hoping that he would say something that would calm Kain down.
“Cough- B-but sir, cough! The blast wasn’t that powerful and I only got some scratches on my skin and nothing more, which was healed soon.”
Kairen avoided Kain with all his might and only stared at the doctor. He didn’t say anything for a while and looked at his papers and the scans. After a few moments, he finally spoke up.
“I don’t really understand. If you were affected by anything, there was no reason for the side effects to show up two days later... unless something had been preventing the effect from showing up till now. I would say the effect is similar to the ones who were exposed to the explosions done by Philomns but different at the same time.”
“Something had been preventing it?”
What was that supposed to mean?
“I don’t really know.”
The doctor paused for a moment.
“I checked your medical records, and there was another case like this if I’m not mistaken.”
“....”
“....”
Kairen sweated under Kain’s gaze and tilted his head with the most innocent face he could muster.
“What are you talking about, sir? Cough!”
“....”
The doctor looked at his sudden innocent face with a ‘Wtf is wrong with this fool.’ kind of expression while answering him.
“A few months ago there was an incident with some Philomns members and a politician, I guess? You were hurt there and hospitalized for a few days.”
“Oh!”
Kairen nodded.
“The results of your tests are similar to back then but less intense.”
Similar to back then? How? More importantly...
“But... I didn’t feel like this back then?”
“You were unconscious for a long time after that incident.”
“Oh!”
Kairen nodded again. He fainted right away so he didn’t have to suffer like this.
“But that too was a friendly fire-”
Kairen shut his mouth. What was he saying, revealing everything to a doctor... and most importantly to the vicious creature beside him?
Also, that was not friendly fire back then, he literally killed himself after using his power.
His power?
‘Oh yeah. I’m not even surprised that the effect of that shitty power on my body is similar to the effect of that red light blast. Nothing is impossible for me anymore!’
Anyway.
“So, what should he do? Take medicine or stay at the hospital?”
Kairen jerked his head to Kain with his eyes wide open.
‘What do you mean stay in the hospital bastard I will not stay here even for an hour!’
Kairen was ignored by that vicious dude.
“I’m not sure.”
The doctor shook his head and touched his glasses with a frown.
“....”
“....”
Seeing the doctor’s reaction, Kain and Kairen glanced at each other.
‘What is with that reaction am I going to die?’
‘What is with his reaction are you going to die?’
“....”
“....”
“Actually...”
Fortunately, the doctor started talking again before the two of them held Kairen’s funeral in their minds.
“...Back at that time, he recovered on his own.”
“....”
“....”
“The medicine didn’t do much on the wounds and the healers also couldn’t help. Your condition even got worst for a few hours, before it started to get better on its own.”
“....”
“....”
Kairen and Kain glanced at each other again.
‘Why is he saying such creepy things am I a cockroach?’
“....”
“....”
The doctor didn’t notice the meaning behind their gazes and just continued.
“I am not sure what is wrong with you but I recommend you to stay here for now-”
“No.”
Kairen strongly shook his head.
“I’m fine I don’t want to stay here.”
“But sir, your-”
“No. I-”
Kairen had to close his mouth and turn to his side as he sensed something really creepy there.
“It’s alright sir!”
Said Kain with a smile as he patted Kairen’s shoulder.
“We will stay here for as long as you want.”
“....”
Looking at Kain’s devil- Ahem- pure smile, Kairen really wanted to cry- shed tears of joy.
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