109 Chapter 109: Hospitalized (1/2)
Beep. Beep. Beep.
”Oh, cut that out,” I growled.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
”All right! I'm awake! Now switch that off!”
”I'm afraid I can't do that,” a gentle, feminine voice spoke up next to me sounding amused. Blinking my eyes open, I jolted upright in bed.
”Alicia?”
”Richard.” She nodded, wiping tears from her eyes. ”You're finally awake.”
I squinted at her, barely able to make out her features, but Alicia gently helped me up when I grimaced from phantom pain that surged through my body.
”Easy now. You haven't fully recovered yet.” She then reached out to the table next to my bed and handed me a pair of glasses. I put them on, and my vision sharpened back to comfortable clarity. She smiled and nodded. ”Your dad brought you a pair of new glasses. He said you'll need it.”
”Right.” My old pair of glasses had been destroyed during my fight with the Crastrate. It was a good thing I had mastered the mind's eye, or I wouldn't be able to fight properly against that rank B monster. Not with my vision obscured by myopia.
”Your dad left for work. He's been visiting you everyday, so he'll be back here tonight.”
I nodded, already aware that Dad couldn't possibly spend 24/7 by my side. Even though he was usually watching anime or playing games when I got home, I knew that he usually did some work when I was in school. The benefits of being your own boss (a freelance, solo mage-mercenary) was that you decide your own schedule. Obviously, even with that flexibility, Dad still had work to do. I had no doubt he would return in the afternoon…
…speaking of which, I didn't know what time it was. From the window, I could tell that it was still daytime, though. Late morning, early afternoon, maybe? There was a digital clock that beamed a holographic display of the time. About two in the afternoon, so my estimation was almost right on point. Unfortunately, the clock did not display the date or day, so I had no idea how much time had passed.
Glancing around, I saw that I had been hooked up to a machine, which was monitoring my vital signs and all that. An IV drip extended from a vein, feeding me fluids. I still felt a little weak, despite the enormous amount of mana spent on advanced healing spells to literally bring me back from the brink of the dead.
”How long have I been out for?” I asked uncertainly.
”A week.” Alicia looked at me sternly. ”You were extremely lucky. Pearl decided to go back when we all saw the gigantic explosion in the valley. She found you lying just outside the mountains. Fortunately, she was able to apply emergency first-aid treatment with healing spells, or you would have died mere seconds later.” She held her thumb and finger a millimeter apart. ”You were this close to dying, you know.”
Actually, I was surprised that I wasn't dead. Plot armor for the win. One of the perks of being a web novel protagonist, I guess. Unless the author got bored of this story and decided to kill me off to end it quickly.
”Is everyone all right?” I asked, as the events of that night suddenly came flooding back. So many of my schoolmates were dead. ”Craig…he was seriously hurt. Dong Fang Yue Chu too. Jin Hao. And the rest…what about Harvey?”
”I'm all right!”
As usual, Harvey was his bubbly, excited self, dashing into the room when he overheard Alicia's conversation with me. He practically bounced to my bedside, his eyes wide in wonder.
”Vice-president! You're finally awake!”
”Yup.” I studied him, but he didn't seem hurt. Neither did Alicia, when I took a good look at her. They must have benefited from some healing spells. The last time I saw them, they were pretty banged up. ”I'm glad to see that the both of you are fine. What about the others?”
Alicia glared at me sternly. ”Fancy you worrying about everyone else when you're the one who suffered the worst injuries.”
”Hey, at least I'm not dead.” I suddenly turned pale when I remembered seeing the corpses of Stan, Wang Fei, Elliot, Nicholas, Miranda and the rest. A wave of nausea slammed into my gut like a fist. ”Sorry, that was insensitive of me.”
”If anyone deserves to be insensitive, it's you, Vice-president Richard!” Harvey exclaimed vehemently. The guy really thought that I was a god. ”You risked your life and nearly made the ultimate sacrifice to save all the survivors!”
”No.”
”…eh?”
Harvey turned to look at Alicia. So did I. she was trembling from anger, even though her voice was still calm and level.
”I won't allow it. Richard, you must treasure your life more. Even if your father isn't upset, he was still worried. So was I. so was everyone else.” She leaned closer, her expression strict. ”Don't ever do something like that again, please. Don't put your own life at risk for the sake of others.”
”Tell me honestly,” I countered coolly. ”Would you have done the same if you were in my shoes?”
Knowing her personality, I was sure Alicia would have sacrificed her own life to save Black Rose members.
Alicia lowered her head, knowing that she wouldn't be able to hide the truth from me. She sighed and shook her head.
”Just…promise me that you won't go get yourself killed, all right?”
”I'll do my best.” I frowned. ”And neither of you have answered my question yet.”
”Oh! Yeah, everyone's fine!” Harvey smiled broadly. ”President Dong Fang Yue Chu has healed up a few days ago, and Senior Lily is helping him. Same with President Craig, and Senior Sheila is helping him.” He shrugged. ”And you have President Alicia helping you, so you'll be fine soon.”
I ignored that last sentence and focused on garnering more information. ”How about Jin Hao and Aoi?”
”They're all fine,” Alicia assured me. ”They got healed by Teacher Cure. You're the only one we weren't sure about. We all thought you might not make it, even though Teacher Cure tried her best with her most potent healing spells. She barely managed to keep you in medical stasis. Your life was hanging by a thread.”
”You literally pulled off a miracle, though,” Harvey added with a grin. ”Rarely any student mage would be able to go toe-to-toe with three Crastrates and win, never mind survive.” He punched the air. ”Boom! You nuked all three of them to oblivion! Hell, I bet that ultimate nuke spell of yours can even destroy a rank A monster!”
”That's what it was designed for,” I muttered.
”Why are you designing spells of mass destruction?” Alicia asked with a frown. ”Are you preparing to conquer a country or something? You've just become a walking weapon of mass destruction. A lot of the mercenary guilds and even the Federation Military are trying to recruit you now. Your dad has been holding them off, but you'll more than likely be approached by them soon.”
”Wait…” something occurred to me. ”How did you guys know there were three Crastrates? When you left, there was only one.”
”One of the people who came to the campfire party was from the Newspaper Society. He recorded the whole event with a remote-controlled drone.” Alicia giggled a little. ”He was upset when your nuke spell ended up destroying his drone along with the Crastrates.” Then she turned grim. ”But…you also ended up destroying the bodies of all the students who were killed. Their parents are…upset that they couldn't even get a body back for burial, but…Brother Hai and the Federation Military stepped in to explain that you had no choice. They…understand, but they still find it difficult to accept.”