Chapter 235 Volume IV - Chapter 80: After the First Battle
I found myself staring into the darkness. In an endless void, unable to take my eyes off it.
My mind was empty, I didn't even care to move my body.
The darkness was pulling me in. It was looking at me as I was looking at it. It was even moving, approaching me slowly... without speeding up, patiently.
Suddenly I had a feeling, a sweet feeling that I couldn't resist, that I didn't want to resist. A warmth, a comfort that spread throughout my body.
I slowly, forcibly lifted my arm, which was trembling all the time. I didn't even understand why I was trembling, I just wanted to follow that feeling.
I took a tiny, little step, and the endless darkness rippled with my movement. It was happy, and it too reached out its hands to me.
Thousands, hundreds of thousands, billions of hands.
However, at this very moment, a voice echoed in this dark eternity in which nothing should exist.
"I advise you not to do that."
Everything froze in an instant. The darkness, those black hands... they all froze where they were. They didn't even move, as if they were afraid.
I swallowed, even I was frozen. My body refused to move.
However, I still tried. And, after a while, I somehow managed to take my eyes away from the endless darkness and turned in the direction of the sound.
I saw someone, short, thin, and weak, standing like me. He looked weak, like if I blew on him, he would fall over backward. And yet, he was also strange. Something about him... wasn't as it should be.
His image was blurry as if something was trying to prevent me from seeing him. Even his voice was unintelligible, in fact, I couldn't even tell if it was a man or a woman. But somehow, he felt like a man.
Did he not belong here?
Maybe that was why this place was rejecting him, trying to kick him out. Maybe that was why the darkness was so afraid of him.
He didn't belong here.
However, after a short time, I realized how wrong I was.
"You shouldn't come here. It's not time yet."
He lifted his hand, then pulled it slightly to the side.
All this eternity, the darkness, the countless dark hands that froze in place... all at once literally ripped apart as if in absolute obedience to his movement. And the tears this basic movement created, like everything else, sucked me in.
That's how I understood.
My eyes widened slightly as I felt like I was falling through the tear into another infinity.
This person, whose face I couldn't make out for some reason, was not the 'extra' here.
He belonged here. He was a resident of this dark eternity.
No...
He was the darkness itself, its embodiment.
The real extra here, in this infinity that shouldn't have anything in it... was me.
*******
As my eyes slowly opened, a white ceiling was the first thing I could see through the blur.
Immediately afterward, a slight pain that spread throughout my whole body quickly made itself known.
"Agh..."
I tried to sit up in bed, but my whole body trembled as I did so. I did it anyway. After placing the pillow behind me to support my back, I was no longer lying down.
As I tried to relax by taking a deep breath in and out, I looked around and realized that I was in a hospital room, which wasn't very big.
I remembered what I had seen before I fainted, and then squinted.
That huge rune and then the white glow that enveloped my entire vision...
I quickly checked my body.
I am not wrapped in bandages or anything, not even a single one. If I ignore the slight pain everywhere, I can even walk.
I think it's best to wait at least for the pain to subside, so I'll stay in bed for now.
I slowly fixed my eyes on the floor, this time a different thought popped into my mind.
Did we win the battle?
I'm sure I'm not in the hands of the South. Otherwise, I wouldn't be in this situation. So whether the battle was won or not, I'm safe, that's for sure.
Then...
The door to my room slowly opened and my focus quickly shifted there.
A smiling doctor walked in.
"Glad to see ya woke up. Any issue with yer body?"
He waited for an answer as he quickly examined my body.
"No, nothing. I just have a slight pain all over my body, which I think is normal, I can walk right now if I want to."
The doctor nodded his head in agreement with everything I said, he was satisfied.
"Ya won't be feelin' a thing if ya take that painkiller I'm givin' ya. After that, ya can be discharged right away.
That's what he says, but... I was sure that a few bones in my body were broken. Those crunching sounds can't come from anything else.
"How many days has it been?"
"Not many, just one day."
One day... Haa, it's strange but I guess it's normal for me to be this better with the medical sophistication of the dwarves.
"So, what about the battle?"
"Oh, ya don't gotta worry 'bout that. General Darbal cleared the whole path with his own crew once he landed on the battlefield."
So it was the general who saved me? He looked like him in build, maybe. I owe him again, I guess.
"If ye ain't got any problems or other questions, I'll be askin' ya to rest for 'nother hour or so, and then ye can return to yer platoon."
When I nodded my head in agreement, the doctor put a big smile on his face again. So he left the room and this time two nurses came in.
They gave me a glass of water for the dryness in my throat and then a painkiller to drink. Then they too went out, closed the door, and after a short time, I was alone in my room once again.
I let out a deep sigh, then slowly lay down on my bed.
My first battle... I'm not sure if it was good or bad.
If every battle I fight will be like this, I am sure I will improve a lot as long as I continue. I have lost count of how far I pushed myself beyond my limits in this battle alone.
Another question though, if I keep fighting like this, will I always be lucky enough to survive like this?
I thought about how the dwarf in black armor got information about me instantly.
They know about me. They know I'm in this war and they want me. If they come at me in future battles, will I have a general to save me every time? Probably not.
~knock ~knock ~knock
My thoughts left my mind. I slowly turned toward the door, which was first knocked and then opened.
The face I saw belonged to a person I had been waiting for. So I couldn't help smiling slightly.
"Hello, Dorhud."
Dorhud smiled slightly.
"It's good to see ye're well, Aiden."
"Heh, I'm not going to die so easily."
Dorhud widened his smile, then clasped his hands behind his back.
"Ye've done good, that's all I'll say. Can't linger much, gotta head back to the platoon. When ye return there, ye'll naturally get to know the others, then ye can tell what's occurred. I only came to check how ye were farin'."
Now that I think about it... even though Dorhud is a captain, even though he is busy, he helps me a lot... he gives his time.
He's a really good person.
"Sure, I'll tell the story. I will be with you guys in one to two hours. I'm not badly hurt."
Dorhud kept his smile and looked at the clock hanging on the wall of the room, then back at me.
"I'll see ye in the platoon, then, Aiden."
"See you."
And with that, Dorhud left the room.
He had only been here for a minute, but it was enough to lift my mood.
Sighing lightly, I decided not to think about anything this time and closed my eyes.
I wanted to digest what I had seen in the battle, to get some real rest, and... I simply wanted time to pass quickly.
After all, what was the harm in sleeping for another hour?
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