Chapter 291 Volume V - Chapter 9: Comatose Student
The color of the snow-white corridors was so simple, the space I was walking in so... empty in this all-pervasive color, that a strange feeling of discomfort overcame me. Still, I didn't let myself get too carried away by this feeling, instead, I decided to be patient.
I sighed lightly, turning my eyes this way and that, wondering if I would see anything different in the corridors we had walked so far, and this time I looked at the two people walking slowly in front of me, the dwarves.
The first was a built dwarf. He had black hair that looked like it was starting to gray slightly and brown eyes with a strange sparkle in them. He looked... different from normal dwarves. He had his own presence. He didn't feel weak, even though he belonged to a race that couldn't use mana. His name was... Darbal Gen'dai, if I remember correctly.
Right next to him... was another dwarf I never thought I would see face to face in my life. He was tall for the average of his race, perhaps the tallest dwarf I had ever met. With two scars on his face, his eyes were so hard that there was a strange... tension in the people who looked at him.
This was Houdhin Gargel, the President of the North Holar, or rather of the Holar Republic, which now claimed the whole continent.
But no matter how important these people were... there was no reason for me to feel nervous. At the same time, there was no reason to be afraid.
We continued walking for another minute and a half or so, passing many dwarves in lab coats, and the corridor, though rather plain, was busy. And so... we finally reached our destination, a large door at the end of the white corridor, darkened by the whiteness of the walls to a gray color.
The armored guards on both sides of the almost three-meter-wide door bowed respectfully as they saw us.
General Darbal spoke to them.
"General Darbal Gen'dai, President Houdhin Gargel, and... Calvin Gladio."
The two sides of the door slowly opened into the wall as the armored guards checked our identification. It revealed the large room behind it.
It was as I had expected. A huge room indeed. Just like the corridor we had passed through on the way here, it was white in color, but not as simple as before as it was filled with different screens and devices.
The dwarves in lab coats that we had occasionally passed in the corridors were here in abundance. Some of them were walking around with files in their hands, some were checking the parameters on the screens in front of them, others were tending to the devices in the center of the room.
On the wall at the end of the room was the largest screen in the room. It showed a place beyond this room, a room that almost no one was allowed to enter... including me.
On the screen was a large, gray bed. On this bed, a human being, his whole body wrapped in different cables, lay quietly with overly white skin and closed eyes.
His jet-black hair and what I felt when I looked at his face... it was the same. If I had ignored everything and just focused on his face, I might even have thought he was just sleeping, he looked peaceful.
But... it was very different from that. Because the moment I took my eyes off his face and turned them to his body, it was clear that he was not in a normal sleep at all.
The right half of his body, especially his arm, was black as if charred. His body was not weak due to constant nourishment, but the same could not be said for the charred parts.
His right hand and right foot were emaciated, with prominent veins that looked as if something other than blood was flowing through them. These veins were not only in his limbs. They extended up to his chest as if trying to cover his entire body, revealing veins that should not normally be visible in a purple-black mixture of colors.
It seemed to be the result of overlapping mana overload, with the caora trying to patch it together and the ordea trying to heal the same place. And then there was the work of that legendary sword.
When I thought about it, it was a miracle that he was alive. His chest was rising and falling so slowly that if I hadn't seen the parameters on the screen, his heartbeat, and other things, I would have thought he was dead. But... he was alive.
I paused for a moment, my eyes squinting. I lost track of why I was here, if only for a few seconds. I recalled memories from not so long ago, just a few months ago.
The day of the weapon selection... I remembered his demeanor the day he bet with me. He didn't even know how to take a stance during our first training session. He couldn't even hold a sword properly... he was weak. He was just... a little bit smart and he analyzed his mistakes well, that's all.
But he developed so fast that it was shocking. In just a few months this young man, who knew nothing about fighting, had survived a real war. Not only that, he had made a name for himself, he had even become a war hero.
It didn't feel real. It was all just... like a dream. It was hard to think that the person in front of my eyes was really Aiden Tenebra, my private student.
But... it was him. Without a doubt, the person I saw on the screen was Aiden. Aiden, who was not only my student but also a wiera... someone who, strangely enough, was also chosen by the ordea.
While I was lost in my thoughts, President Houdhin slowly stepped forward and approached the big screen. The sound of his footsteps was what brought me back to earth. And as he looked at my face, I remembered again why I was here.
For a brief moment, there was an emotion in his eyes that I couldn't make sense of, but it wasn't long before he turned his gaze back to the screens. As his harsh voice slowly left his lips, I was at his side again, General Darbal right behind us.
"How is he? Tell us, don't leave out any details."
One of the dwarves working here waited, bowing slightly at first. Then he answered the president's question while one of his eyes involuntarily shifted to me.
"Durandal's mana never left his body, it even seeped into his veins. That be why his life was in constant danger. His mana was stabilizin' day by day, but since it was far beyond the limits o' his body... we didn't expect him to live. We reckon the only thing that kept 'im alive was them purple and blue energies he was usin'. Now he's out o' the early stages. His mana has calmed down, so his weakened body has regained a bit o' its shape. But his body ain't fully recovered from the trauma, so it's still unlikely he'll wake up."
After the employee's brief summary, this time General Darbal spoke. He had adjusted his accent when he was among the dwarves, but this time he ignored it and spoke in Lunar, which I could understand easily.
"And is there nothing that can wake him up?"
The dwarf shook his head from side to side.
"For now... no. We can only search, wait. We do what we can."
And with that, the eyes turned back to me. President Houdhin, his hands behind his back, this time directed his question to me, without a trace of emotion in his voice.
"Mr. Calvin Gladio, what do you think?"
I had expected him to be more skeptical, more uneasy... After all, we had only known each other for three days. That's how long it had been since we had told them, including all the Lunerra leaders, what ordea and caora were, the wieras and Saligia, but also what we were and our purpose.
We were stepping into a new era, a new era with Aiden at the center of it all... It was serious.
But... there was nothing. Not a sign of trust, not a trace of fear that couldn't be hidden, not any other emotion. Despite the situation he was in, he was impossible to read. He lived up to his nickname of a legendary leader.
I sighed lightly, reminding myself again why I was here, this time in a confident tone.
"Caora is a destructive energy due to its nature. Therefore, it cannot be used for healing, but it can be used in a special way to create a temporary patch. I guess before his body was torn apart by Durandal's mana, he used caora to hold his body together. But... it's not enough, it can't be enough."
So far, everything made sense. But... then the straps snapped.
"When caora alone wasn't enough, he used ordea... or ordea responded to his desires. It could also be something else entirely. In short, caora held his body together while ordea healed him. But using both energies together put too much strain on his body. Because of this burden, the mana circulating in his body became even more violent and the following situation occurred. At least... that's my guess."
I sighed deeply again as the dwarf waiting next to us took note of everything I said, and I continued.
"But that's the strange thing. People who can use caora are called wiera. And a wiera... cannot use ordea. So this is something we have never encountered before either. Saligia might have something to do with it, but we can't speak until we know for sure. That's why we're asking you to let us check his body... but you won't agree to it."
The President nodded without changing his expression one iota.
"And we will continue to refuse. The agreement between us is not only temporary, but neither side trusts the other. The fact that you can even set foot here is a risk we are taking."
"And because we understand that, we don't say anything, as long as you follow this 'temporary' agreement to the letter, we will too. That... is fine for now. As the Guardian of Diligence, I was the one who came up with the idea of the agreement in the first place."
He nodded his head once more in agreement. What followed was a brief silence. The dwarf, who had been listening from the sidelines until now, broke this silence by asking a question with curious eyes.
"We don't got a way to help 'im recover... But..."
I replied quickly.
"The honest answer is no."
I saw General Darbal and President Houdhin's eyebrows twitch for a moment. Maybe they expected me to come up with a solution... but what they got was nothing.
But I did not stop.
"The reason I came here was to verify his identity, but also to see his condition up close and get information... Even we don't have anything, unfortunately, that can wake him up. At least nothing beyond what you have tried. But working together, we will find a way, at least that is our goal."
My eyes shifted back to Aiden's body, lingering on it for a while.
"To wake him up... and to help him, apart from the answers we want to get. Or to find out if he's an enemy to us, but also to you."
Again, silence fell over the area. This time no one broke the silence for a while and I had time to think. So... I decided to make the most of this time, taking a deep breath as I looked at his face on the screen.
It was like a dream... but no matter how I looked at it, it was real. My student, whom I had taught to wield sword and mana with my own hands, was a bearer of 'chaos'.
Had it happened in the war, or had he been hiding himself all along? Maybe he had other secrets, but none of them would be revealed because he was in a coma... for now.
I clenched my fist, narrowed my eyes.
No... he will wake up. I'll wake him up myself if I have to.
I'll find out if he's been deceiving me all along, if he's just another Aiden impersonating my student, or if there's something else at work.
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