Hospital Ward Admission #027
If I were their homeroom teacher, I'd seriously be considering suicide right now. How am I supposed to face their parents after this?
(Roughly a picture of a cat wailing in agony)
Starting with me lololol
(Roughly a meme of a thinking emoji from Paint 🤔)
Shut the hell up and say something that makes sense. Then what, did half the hunters pierce through the mantle to the inner core or something lolololol
Wishing for a speedy recovery. Or looking at us with pity. Or sending occasional glances of envy. Even though it was a pretty intense place, the reactions were surprisingly mild. Of course there were some weird responses too, but that much was tolerable on an internet community.
While scrolling through and checking out a few more reactions, I realized there were quite a lot of opinions saying that "we" had taken down the lich.
"But Cheon Mari basically did almost all the work and I just landed the final blow."
It was only because Cheon Mari had shaved off all the protective barriers that I was able to finish it. The word "we" felt rather excessive and distorted.
As expected, the internet folks were making a fuss. Things like whether I'd be able to live decently as a hunter, whether I should retake the hunter talent test, whether some guild would come scout me—none of that was ever going to happen. Still, it felt good. Not having to go to school, being stuck in a hospital room like this, the fact that I'd survived, and the news that there might even be compensation money coming my way.
I let out a faint smile and stretched. Thanks to muscle pain and aftereffects from the erosion, it should've hurt, but whatever strange thing they did during surgery had left me feeling incredibly good. It was like I could walk, run, and move around just like usual.
From the moment I woke up, I'd put the phone that had been left on the table back in its original spot. Then I slowly got up from the bed and did some light stretching.
"Hmm, not bad."
My eyes, arms, fingers, chest—nothing felt off at all. The only foreign sensation was the elixir IV steadily dripping down.
Just as I was about to look around outside the hospital room with the IV stand in tow, the door burst open with a loud bang.
"Hey there, hurry up and prepare a seat for this lady!"
Here comes the lunatic. I let out a deep sigh.
"What are you doing! Bring the table and chairs already!"
Cheon Mari kept urging them on. Soon, people in black suits came rushing in from outside carrying various pieces of furniture and hurriedly set them up. What the hell was all this? What kind of nonsense was this now?
While I stared in silence, I realized the furniture was a foldable table and chairs.
"Now that martial arts are no longer needed, close the door and get out."
"Excuse me?"
One of the suited men raised a question mark. Cheon Mari sat down on a chair and casually crossed her legs.
"Did you not hear me? This lady can take care of her own body. Your assistance is no longer required, so withdraw at once."
"B-but……"
"Did I not tell you to scram already? Ah, and while you're at it, call the waiter too."
"Our team leader said that the young lady is in the hospital……"
"Silence!!! Do you expect me, the next sect leader and the greatest of all time, to follow the orders of some mere branch head?"
Her attitude of looking down on others and her inexplicable antics. Beneath it all lay an ego as arrogant as her chest and pure evil. Cheon Mari shot a sharp glare at the suited men.
"Don't tell me you're planning to follow the branch head's orders over mine!"
"N-no, ma'am!"
The men scurried out, sweating profusely. Only then did I realize they were her personal bodyguards. The thought that this was beyond mere roleplaying and straight into abuse of power crossed my mind.
I was about to say something when a woman hesitantly entered the room.
"Hey there, waiter. Two bowls of the finest ramen made with water extracted from torturing a water spirit and broth from a dragon's tail."
"Y-yes……?"
"Y-yes?"
The words that came out of nowhere. But Cheon Mari shot her a look that could tear an S-rank hunter to pieces. As if she'd heard a completely wrong beat instead of the one she wanted.
The woman looked flustered, then bowed her head deeply.
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
Apparently satisfied with the answer, Cheon Mari beamed. A regressor whose mind had gone completely off the rails. I wondered if she'd been hit in the head wrong somewhere, but thinking about it, she'd always been like this. Her pride was disgustingly strong. Her personality was trash, considering how she fought with me every day back in elementary school. A human whose thought process was fundamentally incomprehensible.
Maybe dying together with this girl in the ruins would've been for the bright future of this world? Maybe I'd ruined the chance to drag this world toward a happy ending?
Even if it sounded like an overinflated ego, watching her endlessly roleplay as some martial arts novel character made it impossible not to think that way. So I furrowed my brows and snapped at her.
"Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing in someone else's hospital room? And why are you even here?"
"Why am I here? Naturally, to see the face of my benefactor and fellow half-Korean, half-Far North compatriot, this lady has personally come all this way."
"You just came back from the dead and you're already starting this crap again. And I'm not a half-elf, I'm a quarter-elf."
"Hah, crap? I came to share a meal with a comrade-in-arms who survived together, and you call that nonsense? To a refined lady like this lady?"
Refined lady. She claims to be elegant and modest. What a joke.
"Wow, can I just hit you once?"
"Hit me? Where in the world would someone raise a fist against their own comrade?"
"You would, you bastard. Don't you remember elementary school?"
"……Ahem, this lady has never done such a thing."
"Oh really now?"
"This lady was raised with proper successor education as the young sect leader, politically correct and all. Such unseemly acts are beneath me, and there's no reason to do them either. Perhaps Confucius ate the wrong millennium ginseng and there's an issue with my memory— Aaaahhh!!!"
Instead of hitting her, I grabbed both her cheeks and pulled. Cheon Mari let out a shrill scream, and it continued until the ramen arrived.
As always, the worst reunion possible.