Chapter 48 (1/2)
Ch. 48: Resting After Waking
“Of course this is where I end up.”
Loren was lying on top of a hospital bed, listening to Lapis, who seemed to be in a bad mood. He silently looked up at the ceiling, trying not to look at her.
The location was the city of Kauffa.Loren was lying in a room in one of the few hospitals in the city.
“Do you know how hard it was for me after that? You’re way too heavy for me to carry with these thin arms of mine. Plus, you’re way taller than me, you know? Your feet were dragging even when I carried you on my back.”
“Yeah, my boots have cuts and sc.r.a.pes all over. I might have to get a new pair.”
His expenses would increase, but a pair of boots wasn’t that expensive.
While he was thinking about the cost of the boots and asking Chuck, who seemed like he would know much about this kind of thing, if he knew a place to get a cheap pair, Lapis’ scolding continued.
“You were heavy enough, but I had to drag your great sword as well, you know? I believe that it would be fair for you to make up for this service, don’t you think?”
Loren’s great sword was something a normal warrior would have trouble holding with both hands, but Lapis said that she was able to drag it, so he was able to get a general idea of how strong she was.
“Let’s talk about that later. Anyways, hey Lapis?”
“Yes, what is it?”
Lapis had been complaining the whole time, but when Loren spoke in a tired voice, she stopped doing so and answered him.
Maybe she wasn’t that mad, and she just wanted to complain.
Or maybe she was just fast and clear when switching over.
Loren had no idea, but he asked Lapis the one thing he had to know.
“What happened after that?”
Shayna, who had become a No Life King.
Loren had shattered the jewel on its chest and defeated it.
Apparently normal No Life Kings didn’t have weaknesses like that, so Loren knew that he wouldn’t be able to defeat other ones in the same fashion, but anyways, he was able to defeat it and while it was disappearing, Shayna’s consciousness returned.
He remembered up to the point where he reached out to her to comfort her and took her hand.
At that moment he felt that Shayna had whispered a few things to him, but he blacked out right after so he couldn’t recall what they were, and so he decided that he needed to check with Lapis what happened after.
“The thing is, I’m not sure.”
Lapis pulled up a chair next to the hospital bed and sat down.
“Loren, you went up to it as its body was crumbling, but that was really careless, you know? A > doesn’t exactly die even after its body disappears.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do you know that every living thing has two different bodies, Material and Astral?”
Loren immediately shook his head.
“Material is the physical body. Astral can be considered as the spiritual body. The two of these merging together makes up the existence of a living being. This can be slightly confusing, but even if you damaged the material side, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you damaged the astral side.”
Lapis peered into Loren’s face, wondering if he understood.
The explanation that Lapis gave was simple enough for Loren to understand, and he nodded for her to continue.
“There are only a few beings that are aware of both of them. The logic behind growing back missing limbs by using high rank Divine Arts is in this area, but I won’t go into that. So, unless both of these bodies are destroyed, they won’t truly die.”
Lapis then said that for beings that are not aware of the two types of bodies, the death of the material body is the definition of death.
In that case, since the astral body is still alive, it is possible to revive them with the highest ranking Divine Arts, >.
But even the astral body will weaken and eventually die if its material body isn’t alive, so there is a time limit for reviving people.
“What is the difference between that and a ghost?”
“A ghost is an astral that has been rooted to this world, although it is but a shadow of its former self. Since it is but a shadow, it is impossible to resurrect it. Although it seems that necromancers are still researching this.”
“I got what you’re saying. But if the material dies, the astral will die as well, right?”
“But the thing is, if the being is aware of the two, even if the material is destroyed, it can live on for a while in its astral state. A > is one of those few beings.”
So what Lapis was trying to say was that although Shayna’s body started to crumble from the recoil of the jewel, but that was just the material body, and was unsure of whether or not it was the same for the astral body.
If the astral side was untouched, it was impossible to say that the No Life King had truly died, so Lapis was angry that Loren was too thoughtless.
“Well, you don’t need that kind of information when you’re a mercenary. I’ll admit that I was careless, though.”
“Yes, indeed. But in any case, the disappeared, and you only lost consciousness, so it seems that the recoil was powerful enough to destroy the astral body as well.”
Lapis voice had a bit of relief mixed in it.
That meant that although she was angry about Loren’s actions, she was worried about him, and Loren coughed, starting to feel slightly embarra.s.sed.
But then something caught the corner of his eye.
The only thing in front of his eyes was the ceiling, but at the corner he saw a small girl with wings wearing a dress. She was floating there, without needing to flap her wings.
The girl, who was hovering in his sight ever since he regained consciousness, looked very similar to Shayna, and it seemed like Lapis couldn’t see her at all.
“Falling unconscious…was that really all that happened?”
Loren asked Lapis, worried that he hit his head really hard and something was wrong with his mind.
Of course, he didn’t mention anything about seeing a girl in the corner of his eye because he didn’t want anyone to think that he had gone insane or something.
“You’ve gone through a few examinations just in case, but you’re quite healthy. But this time you were a lot more weakened than last time. You were one step away from dying, to be exact.”