A Precious Reunion (3)
A laugh escaped me. Hmm, no, it didn’t.
This was a little awkward.
The corners of my mouth seemed to lift, but then they started twitching on their own.
Not a single sound of laughter came out either.
I’m alive.
Ah, I could see a faint light. Probably the mana lamp hanging from the ceiling?
It felt like I’d gone through something similar before. Was it when I’d been abandoned at the orphanage?
Thinking about it like that, I really had come close to dying.
Why did my life have to be rerun so often? One life-or-death crisis should be enough.
“…Ah.”
My voice barely came out.
My throat felt like someone had ground it raw with sandpaper. As a bonus, my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth.
Well, I could figure out the details of my condition later. For now, I decided to savor the fact that I was alive.
If it were up to me, I’d shout it from the rooftops.
Too bad I couldn’t.
Tragic.
Anyway, I’d survived. Buried in snow, pinned under corpses, chewing magic stones, and ruining my leg, but I’d survived!
...Move.
Now that I’d confirmed I was alive, it was time to see whether I could move my body.
I focused as hard as I could and tried to move a finger, but apparently I wasn’t in any condition to move even one.
The moment I tried, pain flared everywhere—from my fingers to my arms, shoulders, ribs, lungs, lower back, and legs.
It felt as if every organ and every part of my body was taking turns introducing themselves.
Hello. I’m the nail you lost.
Nice to meet you! I’m the lung that’s half-frozen from hypothermia.
Pleased to meet you. I’m the broken leg.
I was an orphan, but apparently the organs in my body weren’t.
What did I mean by that?
Well, orphans usually don’t get proper family education, so they can’t do introductions.
I inhaled slowly.
Just that alone made my chest ache.
Ugh.
Nausea rose up, but nothing came out.
I didn’t know how long I’d been lying in this bed, but apparently it had been quite a while.
There was nothing left in my stomach.
Ah, wait.
Only then did my fingers come back to me.
Nails ripped out, eyes gouged, scraped against ice and dirt… a hand stripped raw, bleeding, and left in ruins.
No.
There was no way such a slender, white, pretty girl’s jade-like hand could be ruined.
I immediately tried to lift my hand to check, but naturally, it didn’t listen.
Why is it that in this damned world, there’s never a mirror or an audience when you need one?!
I rolled my eyes as hard as I could and began searching for anyone nearby.
Honestly, I had a little hope.
At least one person had to be beside me, right? Hm? A beauty like me was lying in bed here.
Senior Sergeant Misty, maybe.
Lieutenant Mauer, perhaps.
Sergeant First Class Muller... no, why had Sergeant First Class Muller suddenly come to mind? There was no way he’d be here.
At that moment, the curtain beside me was drawn open.
The light was harsh on my eyes, so I narrowed them and decided to watch what happened.
Two people appeared beyond the curtain.
One was Lieutenant Anke Mauer, hovering slightly in the air, and the other was... someone I had absolutely not expected.
Klaus Muller.
...Why is he here?
He was clearly a recruiting officer, so why had he come all the way to this outpost where the northern reconnaissance platoon was stationed?
Setting that question aside for the moment, I decided to make the most of the situation.
“Oh? You’re awake?”
Lieutenant Mauer looked down at me and spoke.
Sergeant First Class Muller, unlike what I’d hoped, said nothing. But his eyes were on me.
This was a good sign.
I got the chance to study his expression closely.
I couldn’t see very well, but if I narrowed my eyes as much as possible, I could make it out, faintly.
Ah, that was a little unfair.
Because of this damned body, I had to enjoy such a lovely expression in blurry low resolution.
—
[ Noise ]
Your expression was the best part.
—
Surprise, relief, anger, annoyance, exhaustion... ah, yes. So good. I felt like I might truly fall in love.
Senior Sergeant Misty’s expression had depth too, but she broke down far too easily to be all that satisfying.
But you were different.
You were the kind who endured. You weren’t honest about your feelings, so you always held them in, pressed them down, hid them, pretended they weren’t there.
A good adult. A strict adult. The kind of adult who couldn’t quite bring himself to ignore a child collapsed by the roadside in the end.
Thank you for reminding me once again why I’d marked you as good toy material.
I couldn’t let this chance slip away.
I moved my lips at once.
I probably wouldn’t be able to get my voice out properly even if I tried. I intended to use that.
Very small, very weak, barely audible.
“…Sergeant First Class.”
A miserable voice slipped out.
Perfect.
Sergeant First Class Muller’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly. A good sign.
Let’s get a little greedier.
I tried to sit up. But, naturally, there was no way I could.
The moment I put strength into my shoulders, pain like my whole body was being torn apart came hunting me down.
“Hngh... ”
A small cry.
Honestly, I’d considered forcing out a pathetic scream just so I’d look a little pitiful, but I didn’t even need to act. It came out on its own.
It hurt so much. Still, if I wanted to become a true performer, I’d have to put even this sensation onstage.
Breathing hard, I let myself sink back into the bed.
Muller opened his mouth immediately. At last, the moment I’d been waiting for.
“Do not move. That is an order.”
An order, he said.
You know what? You’re so obvious.
Wrapping concern in the stiff little word order and tossing it at me—this was, admittedly, pretty tasty.
I answered with a tiny nod and swallowed my smile inside.
I had to work hard not to laugh.
“…That will do, then.”
Beside Sergeant First Class Muller, Lieutenant Mauer tilted her head.
“So? You woke up early, huh? They said it would be a miracle if you made it through just tonight.”
“Lieutenant. Patient present.”
“Hm? I know that. Do I look stupid?”
She ignored Muller’s warning without a second thought.
Muller might be a good adult, but he wasn’t the kind of man who would outright defy a lieutenant just because he was a sergeant.
He’d grit his teeth and endure it.
After confirming that his expression had gone rigid, Lieutenant Mauer shifted the topic back to me.
“Anyway, isn’t it crazy? This kid’s got a real knack for not dying, doesn’t she?”
“…….”
“Is making people uncomfortable your hobby? This auditor isn’t very fun.”
I remembered when Lieutenant Weiss had explained the Stars with Lieutenant Mauer before.
To become a Star, something in you had to break. A normal human couldn’t become one. That was how they’d put it.
Could the broken part be social skills? That sounded about right.
Well, who was I to talk? If we were grading social wreckage, I was hardly one to score others.
Then a loud noise rang out.
Crash!
Thud!
It sounded like something had fallen over, right beside me—very close, on the neighboring bed.
“Winterland!”
Senior Sergeant Misty shoved the hovering Lieutenant Mauer aside and pressed close to my bed.
Her blue hair was a mess.
Judging by her appearance, Misty must have been injured in the avalanche too.
Looks like she’d forgotten she was a patient herself.
Ah, losing interest already. This isn’t fun.
She grabbed my hand.
Since it was bandaged, it stung a little.
“Are you conscious? Can you hear me? Can you see me?”
There were plenty of questions, but I had no strength to answer them.
If I were being honest, I didn’t even feel like her questions were worth responding to.
That meant she’d lost value.
I blinked slowly, and that alone was enough to make Misty’s mask collapse in an instant.
Her mask broke again.
Not the face of the polite, composed senior sergeant, but the face of ordinary spirit Misty.
A good expression. Definitely a good expression, but...
The sensation wasn’t exactly unpleasant either. Cold hands, trembling fingers, an exceedingly careful attitude.
Yes. Taken as a whole, it was certainly a delicacy.
Oddly enough, though, I wasn’t interested.
Maybe because I’d already tasted it before?
Ah, or maybe because there was someone more interesting beside me?
I let my eyes drift and looked at Sergeant First Class Muller.
He really was a fragile, conscientious sort.
I could see him clenching his jaw as he watched Misty cry. He was holding it in again.
People who endure dutifully make such lovely noises when they finally break down and cry.
When would you break, I wonder? Klaus Muller.
“…Sergeant First Class.”
“Don’t speak.”
“…Cough.”
One small cough was enough.
I was a little disappointed that the cough wasn’t cute enough, and the taste of blood at the back of my throat was another minus.
The problem was... the first cough had been an act, but the second one hadn’t been.
“Kheh, keh...”
Ah, my chest hurt too much. The convulsions that started near my chest spread throughout my whole body.
Senior Sergeant Misty immediately called for the military doctor.
Well... I wasn’t sure she literally called him. That was just my guess.
Once the spasms started, I couldn’t hear clearly anymore, so I had to rely on my blurred vision.
Sure enough, before long, a man who seemed to be the military doctor started checking me over.
Pulse, breathing, pupils, temperature... just a routine inspection of that sort.
Unfortunately, he didn’t bring anything that would make my coughing and spasms stop.
“Looks like you’ve mostly stabilized.”
“...Stabilized, did you say?”
“Yes. At least you won’t die today.”
“Hah.”
Sergeant First Class Muller looked at the doctor with a somewhat irritated face.
Some time passed after that, and by the time the convulsions and coughing had eased, the military doctor started talking again.
It was like a boring morale lecture.
“For now, speaking and moving are both forbidden, and no water yet. Use magic as little as possible too—your circuits are a mess, so if you push them wrong, you could end up in danger again.”
“…You heard him, Winterland.”
I answered by blinking.
Lieutenant Mauer laughed and cut herself between Muller and me.
“All right! Then once she recovers, she’s coming back to our platoon, right?”
“That is not something I can allow.”
“…Sergeant First Class Klaus Muller, what exactly are you saying?”
Now this was getting interesting.
---