The Black Panther’s small squad of four had returned to Iron Tank City. Under the help of the close connection to the castle border guards belonging to Andy’s father, all of them were admitted to the hospital under the wing of Chialunar Academy.
This was the best hospital in the entire Iron Tank City, and had the best doctors.
In the ward.
Garen laid down on the bed, feeling bored.
Up, down, left, right, the floor, everything was white. On the bedside counter was a vase filled with lilies, and among them, some petals had slightly withered.
On the right side of the bed was a metal rack, on top of which was a bottle of medicated drip. The medicine flowed into Garen’s vein drop by drop through a thin pipe.
He could clearly feel the cold medicine seeping in through his wrist. The room was pin-drop silent, only some echoing footsteps could be heard from the corridor outside the ward.
Garen was lying alone in the middle of the ward bed From his angle tilting his head and looking out, he could still see the trees outside that had blossomed into many white flowers. The noon sunlight beamed down, through the leaves, forming mottled golden geometries, rustling as the wind blew.
Gacha.
The door was opened slowly, a chubby nurse dressed in white walked in. She was pushing a medicinal cart, and when she reached the side of the bed, she tapped the medication that was finishing soon, taking it down and changing it with a fresh bottle of drip.
"Pretty good body." This middle-aged lady looked at Garen, "such a large surface burn could heal this quickly."
"I have had a good body since young."Garen laughed. "Right, may I know how are the few friends that were admitted together with me?"
"I don’t know." The nurse simply answered. "I am not in charge of them, you can try asking the doctor."
"Then it’s fine, I will rest a little bit more and then try looking for them." Garen said, and remained silent thereafter.
The nurse left immediately after changing the drips, closing the door as she left.
Garen turned on his side, his body having felt stiff from the inactivity and staying in bed all day.
Soon, the door squeaked once again, and a fairly young, 14 or 15-year-old girl walked in. She was also wearing a nurse’s uniform, and on her hands was a large plate, which had a lot of white lunch boxes on it.
"Lunch is here, sorry to keep you waiting."
The girl placed the plate on the bedside counter, took one lunchbox from the plate and placed it on the countertop.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"The menu for lunch is carrot and potato…. Potato stewed with pork skin, white bread….. unlimited. Please enjoy your meal."
The girl looked pure. As you looked at her you’d notice some naivety; she dared not make eye contact with Garen, who was on the bed, and she stuttered some as she spoke.
"May I know your name?" Garen looked at the girl funnily, suddenly thinking of Ying Er, his younger sister in the previous world. His eyes showed gentleness. "Can you do me a favor?"
"My… My name is Wei Xi. What do you need?" The girl seemed more comfortable, but she still dare not look at Garen.
Wei Xi is a student who worked at the hospital, she had just entered the Chialunar Academy this year, the best medical academy in the city. Although it was renowned in the suburbs only, it was considered to be a good place to be already.
Unexpectedly, among all the nurses that were interning, she’s the only one who was chosen to the advanced care area due to her nice appearance. Especially to care for rich patients.
Inside the advanced care area, if it weren’t nurses with a lot of experience, would be nurses like this; who had very attractive appearances and bodies. To the patients here, the experienced nurses are in charge of practical tasks, while attractive nurses served to soothe the heart and emotions.
Before Wei Xi came, she already heard from others that the patients here are either rich or noblemen; she could easily bump into anyone and meet someone with an immense background.
As she thought of this, she cannot help but feel anxious.
Would he request for something inappropriate from me?
Even though she was thinking that way, but the helpless romantic teen in her couldn’t help but to fantasize that perhaps she could meet a nobleman’s young master. Handsome, charismatic, gentle, compassionate, or he may just like someone like her type, who knows.
At times where she was in a tight spot, he would stand out, shielding her with a tall stature, beating some villains from somewhere, then turned back to gently lift her chin…
The girl was stunned, her face blushing red, occasionally smiling like an idiot.
"Could you help me check on the situation in room 235 and 257? My friends are staying in those wards."
Garen speechlessly sat there as the girl smiled like an idiot, he lightly used his finger to push the girl’s arm.
"Hey, hey, you alright?"
"No… Nothing!" The girl snapped back into focus, "I will immediately check on it for you." Her face blushed red, taking a peek at Garen on his bed, she was shocked and lowered her head again.
"Am I that scary?" Garen picked up the lunchbox, he touched his face with confusion.
Lunch was great, the meat was stewed tender and the soup was very thick, very fragrant.
After hurriedly finishing the lunch, he placed the lunchbox aside.
Garen wiped his mouth, lying against the bedframe, both his arms thickly rolled by rounds upon rounds of bandages, much like a white baseball bat. Only his fingers could move freely
"Was I that scary?"
He was confused, so he picked up a small mirror from a drawer in the bedside countertop, to take a good look at himself.
Looking into the mirror, was a bald head, no hair, no brows, no beard, nothing.
What was a handsome, good-looking appearance, had indeed become appalling under these transformations.
Garen touched his smooth bald head. His hair had been shaved off during the treatment; beard and brows as well. As the flame’s high temperature had burnt off the follicles, rather than a black patch stuck onto the face, they might as well had just shaven it all off.
He touched his own brows, he felt like an alien in an Earthling movie., except he had white skin and facial features.
Not having any eyebrows did make him look slightly fierce. No wonder that little girl would be so afraid.
Over ten minutes later, the girl called Wei Xi knocked on the door and came in again.
"Sir, the two patients in those wards are fine, their situation is under control. The sir called Andy asked you not to worry."
The little girl stood by the door, fearing to approach.
"Do me another favor, I will appreciate it." Garen tries to let himself smile more warmly, so that he doesný scare this little kid. "I am feeling bored; can you grab me some of the latest Global Weeklies?"
"Global Weeklies? Su…. Sure!" Wei Xi, hurriedly agreed. "There’s some in the reading room, I will take it for you immediately."
There were actually free magazines inside the ward, but not the latest ones
Garen didn’t have to wait too long before Wei Xi came back with a stack of newspapers, passing it to him.
"Here’s your newspaper."
This little girl’s smooth brown hair was tied in a ponytail, her pubescent figure had become apparent, as she breathed heavily from all the running to and fro Garen’s bedside. She carried the mild, refreshing fragrance of a teen.
Garen’s warm tone seemed to have worked, Wei Xi are also not as afraid as before, her guts seemed have grown too.
"Anything else that you would like?"
That’s it for now, thank you, cute little one." Garen smiled as he flipped the newspaper.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAs he flipped, his first glance landed on a surprising headline.
"Ender’s Ambassador: Orlando’s Diplomat killed."
He continued reading
"Orlando faced a large-scale terrorist attack on the 15th this month; Orlando’s royal guards were defeated in a night, the Royal Family held hostage. This terrorist organization made a public announcement, claiming to be an organization called the Obscuro Society.
During this assault, Diplomat Quelia, who was in talks with the Prince Edinberg of the royal family, was killed.
The Ender Kingdom has issued an emergency press release. The death of Diplomat Quelia is a direct challenge to the integrity of the Ender Kingdom, which the kingdom will not forgive. At the time of the press release, Ender’s third column General Veron has led the Third Military Division towards Orlando, to assist the local royalty in suppressing the terrorists. General Veron had made an announcement before leaving for Orlando, he views the current situation as…."
Garen put down the newspaper, exhaled slightly and did not continue reading.
"So it has begun…"
Even though the newspaper did not do a follow-up coverage, if he hadn't guessed wrongly, what happens next would be General Veron’s team being completely annihilated. Three more small empires will continually be engulfed in unrestl. Obscuro Society’s warring locations will exponentially increase. Heading towards the East Continent’s strongest territories; the three strongest empires.
Canbria, Kovitan, Ender; the three empires comprised the strongest alliance in the East Continent, and also served as the RAL’s main congregation point of power. The strongest totem users were within the Three Departments of the three empires.
The Three Departments may seem like a tool used to iron out administrative or national issues, but it actually consisted of the Luminarists of the RAL.
He flipped through the Global Weeklies, and in the third publication there was a news piece that grabbed his attention.
"Appearance of horrid creatures assaulting humans in Canbria," Under the title was a piece of black and white photograph. This world already had technology similar to photography technology on earth, the research prowess of the Luminarists may not be any weaker than Earth’s scientists.
On the image was a mouse carcass the size of a basin, being held by its tail by a strong man. The men held the mouse on one arm, and showcased the injuries caused by the mouse’s bite on the other forearm.
The flesh on the forearm was bitten badly, the flesh looked mushy, completely red.
"Recently, Canbria had many sightings of strange creatures assaulting humans.. These animals have odd shapes and sizes, and are much more violent compared to normal animals. The Canbrian biological researcher, Eddier, believes that this is a rare reversion symptom, where these creatures will sometimes reverse due to an unknown cause, causing gigantification, and became more violent. According to research estimates, the most likely cause of this reversion is likely pollution.
At the time of the writing of this publication, the Canbrian environmental protection agency had launched spot checks on three separate provinces on the pollution index.
Garen realized that the mouse in the image had something shining in its iris. He squinted and suddenly thought of the howling wererabbit that has successfully evolved, having similar scary looking eyes.
He looked up to his surroundings; The girl called Wei Xi had gone out, and closed the doors behind her.
He got up, walked to the doors, hung up the "Do not disturb "sign, quietly locking the chain of the door.
He pulled up the curtains as well, then sitting on the bed. Garen took the clothes hanging on the rack, taking out a red crystal ball. The sphere was only the size of a fist, and looked like a crystal decoration.
Garen took the ball and lay on his bed.