777 Trouble 1 (1/2)
They waited until the doctor and the others had left and Garen's parents had gone to work before Mina and the rest said a few words quietly and sat beside Garen's bed again.
”What did you want to tell me?” Garen was still unable to move his body. However, the nerves in his head were not injured so severely as they were located in the area that was protected by the Soul Seeds. Aier, who was beside him, helped to lift his head and lean it against the pillow.
Mina paused for a moment.
”Although the instructor forbade me from saying it, this is something that you'd need to know sooner or later. It's about the problems with your recent operation fees.”
”Oh?” Garen furrowed his brow.
”The cost of the operation wasn't reimbursed by the academy?” his younger sister Ker asked in a puzzled manner. This was a question that the others wanted to ask as well.
Mina shook her head slightly.
”It wasn't,” she glanced at Garen and his younger brother and sister around him. ”It's not what you're thinking. Nono, your medical bills were actually paid in advance by Instructor Hamm. The academy was completely against the application for your expenses and did not provide any funds.”
”Instructor Hamm?” Garen was slightly shocked.
None of them spoke for a while. His younger brother and sister did not know what to say. Meanwhile, Garen had never been one to reveal his emotions. He merely leaned against the sick bed as if he was pondering something.
Mina did not care about what Garen was thinking about and chose to finish talking about the things she knew first.
”Aier and I asked about these things in the academy for you. Initially, you could have sent in a request for your operation fees to be reimbursed. However, the family of Oscar, the student you injured, has connections. In order to punish you for injuring Oscar badly during the test, although they could not take revenge on you directly because of the school rules, they were able to pull some strings to ruin your medical fee application easily.”
Her expression was somewhat grave when she told them everything that she knew.
”The operation cost 1.5 million dollars. The cost of nerve restoration operations are certainly not cheap,” said Aier beside her. ”Even for Instructor Hamm who's earning a good salary…”
Garen glanced at Aier and Mina beside him. Both of them really had good relationships with Nono and were clearly his trustworthy friends. Most people would not put in so much thought for the sake of others.
The people whom Nonosiva came into contact the most in the academy were Mina and Aier. Although Instructor Hamm liked him a lot as well, his affections were distributed equally among the top three students in the class, not just Nonosiva. Frankly, he had never expected the bearded man to do something like pay for his operation fees with his own money.
The nerve restoration surgery had really helped him. The effects were even better than anticipated. Coupled with his self-healing abilities, he would only need to lay in bed for a month before he would recover completely.
”Thanks for reminding me. I will remember Instructor Hamm's favor,” answered Garen sincerely while nodding.
”Our instructor didn't do this just so you could return the favor, he was only hoping that you would not lose your future just because of this accident,” answered Mina honestly. ”It wasn't just you anyway. Instructor Hamm has helped many other students this way. He's a good person.”
”Is he? Good person…” Garen allowed his eyelids to droop while repeating the phrase once more.
The personalities of Garen and the previous Nonosiva were naturally different. Although Nonosiva was originally quiet and preferred to listen when he was with his friends, Mina and Aier merely assumed that he had changed after this incident. They found it somewhat strange but did not think that it was a major suspicion.
”That's right, your body will probably take a month to recover. Once that's over, come to class as soon as possible to catch up. Otherwise, we won't wait for you,” Mina stood up and smiled. ”It's time to go back to class. We're off. You should rest properly.”
Aier followed suit and stood up as well.
”Go on. Don't worry, I'll be able to catch up to you in no time,” Garen smiled.
”Goodbye Big Sister Mina and Big Brother Aier,” his younger brother Baylon and younger sister Ker stood up and sent them off as well.
******************
A month of recuperation passed by quickly.
Garen spent his days laying on the sickbed. At first, he was unable to move at all but could gradually move his hands slowly during the later stages. After that, he could get down from the bed and walk when his recovery speed increased.
He was usually supported by his family members, especially his younger brother Baylon. Occasionally, his parents would come over and help as well.
Garen did not share many sentiments with Nonosiva's parents. But in this world, Nono's parents were merely sincere people who had made quiet sacrifices without complaining. This gave him a slightly favorable impression of them.
After all, the money that was used to pay for his daily hospital stays were paid for by Nono's parents who worked from dawn to dusk. Therefore, he owed them some gratitude at least. Since he had occupied Nono's body, he would naturally be responsible to perform the necessary duties of a son to Nono's parents.
His recovery went smoothly. However, the places where that woman had brutally fractured his bones were still aching slightly. Although the restoration surgery had solved the problem of his fractured bones while his Soul Seed's stimulated restoration had been fully healed as well, the memory of the young woman with red eyes continued to appear in Garen's mind.
That person had nearly caused him to lose one of his Soul Seeds.
Moreover, the most pressing issue was his Willpower.
After Garen had occupied Nono's body, once the body had healed completely, he began to fully test out and understand the inner workings of the body structure at the first opportunity.
He did this in order to comprehend the true meaning of Willpower.
Meanwhile, the conclusion that he obtained shocked him greatly.
This thing called 'Willpower' was actually a force field that was condensed and formed by the entire body of the people here.
If the brains of humans could produce empty powers such as one's consciousness, then one's Willpower basically referred to treating one's entire body as a brain and producing a special force field using it.
Moreover, only people from this world possessed physiological structures that could produce Willpower.