Chapter 119
Chapter 119
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 119
Chapter Title: In the ICU
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Unlike last time, when I closed my eyes and all the treatment was done, this round of treatment was extremely difficult.
The wounds were deep, sure, but more than that, at some point, healing with divine power just stopped working properly.
Maybe that's why, in my delirious state, it felt like my room had changed once.
“Ugh…”
My position was uncomfortable, so I shifted unconsciously, and the seeping skin tore open again, sending sharp pain through me.
The problem was that this was happening even after they'd numbed my senses with heavy-duty painkillers...
Anyway, I knew full well that saltwater wasn't great for severely burned, festering skin.
“Wh-where... is this...”
“Ah, there wasn't time to explain. I'm sorry. With so many wounds not improving, you were moved to the ICU yesterday.”
I'd thought that since I could speak fine on the first day, communication wouldn't be an issue, but I'd been wrong.
The day after, I writhed in even more agony than right after waking up.
Especially once the burns started oozing pus—that was true hell.
They'd dressed the burned skin, which was fine, but the exudate stuck to the bandages, and peeling them off felt like ripping off raw flesh.
“Yuu...dith...”
“Cadet Spencer can't visit. This is the ICU—no one's allowed in.”
“...”
“Now, can you describe the pain level for me?”
I told the nurse standing by my bedside that it was about the same as before, then closed my eyes.
The burns were concentrated on my legs below the knee and my hands, where I'd struggled to remove my uniform.
Fortunately, I'd jumped into the sea before the flames spread further, so no other severe injuries.
“Ah, the cadets again...”
The nurse heard the singing drifting in through the open window and looked back and forth between me and it.
Her expression asked, *What should I do?* I just nodded slightly.
*Tap.*
She caught my gesture, closed the window, and drew the curtains.
Since the accident, my larynx and trachea had been badly damaged, leaving me unable to speak properly.
“There are crowds outside the window waiting for the Executor.”
“...Is that so.”
“Maybe because your defense of Aegis's cross to the very end was so impressive.”
“...”
Is that how it looked?
I'd just unconsciously gripped what was in my hand and wouldn't let go.
But for those calling me Aegis's Executor, the reason didn't matter.
What had made them so anxious that they clung to me, a fake idol?
*...Wait, what did she just say?*
I looked at the nurse, who was diligently checking my bandages.
Obviously, she was an adult woman in her mid-to-late thirties.
So that comment just now was strange.
*She saw me hugging the cross and jumping in herself?*
Academy festivals didn't involve adults except cadets.
It was one of Aegis Academy's peculiar traditions.
Adults lived in a separate world and never mixed with us.
How could a nurse from the hospital dorm—one of those 'adults'—talk like she'd seen it firsthand?
“I have a question—”
“Shh. Your trachea and larynx are both damaged. Speaking must be hard, right?”
“But.”
“Now, Executor. Rest. If you keep straining your throat, we'll have to take measures.”
The nurse gently placed her fingers on my neck.
Her cool fingertips brushed my windpipe.
My arms were wrapped tight in bandages, my legs too.
In other words, I couldn't use my limbs, and now my voice was gone too.
“Yes, good. Just stay still a little longer... It won't take long to heal fully.”
Her movements were tender and devoted, but my situation made them fuel my fear rather than reassure me.
*Huh...*
Had I ever been this unable to control my own body before?
Sure, every couple of months, I'd end up a critical patient here.
But back then, Judith or Shirley—or even Makina—was always by my side.
I didn't know about during my coma, but once I regained consciousness, I'd never been left alone like this, unable to move my limbs...
*This person...*
To anyone unaware, her attitude was the picture of selfless dedication, which made her all the scarier.
I'd never seen a nurse in the hospital dorm serve a patient with such fervor, nor did I have any reason to deserve it.
“Don't worry too much about divine power not working. Among the new drugs in development at the Labyrinth Tower, there are top-tier ones that produce similar results despite having the opposite nature to a priest's divine power.”
“...”
“It breaks my heart. Why does this keep happening to the one who hears Lord Aegis's voice?”
“...”
Ah, right. This was it.
The incomprehensible side I'd sensed in Logan, the Literature Club, Eugene, and sometimes even Makina.
Blind devotion to something sacred and absolute.
And that devotion was now directed at me, not a god.
“Executor. You know more, don't you?”
The nurse's voice whispered in my ear.
Only then did I get a good look at her face, which I'd been avoiding.
Her jet-black hair was tucked perfectly under her white nurse's cap, and her sea-blue eyes gave her a sharp, predatory impression—like a raptor with hidden talons.
Our eyes met, and she softened with what looked like emotion, eyes glistening.
Then, very slowly, she buttoned my collar. It felt deliberate.
“I'm the only one who changed your wet clothes.”
“...”
Only then did I remember the magic circle engraved on my chest.
Obviously, Collette, a civilian dispatched from the mainland, was no expert in magic.
I didn't know how she'd interpreted it, but she clearly seemed pleased to share this secret with me.
I looked into the nurse's eyes and finally spoke.
“I'm—”
I planned to say I wasn't really the Executor.
But what flashed through my mind was the realization that this magic circle etched on me couldn't be seen as something bad by a zealot of the Aegis faith bordering on fanaticism.
When this devotion turned to betrayal, where would that rage go?
Especially since I was a patient, limbs bound in bandages.
“...For now, your name...”
“Ah.”
She fished something like a dog tag from her pants pocket.
“Collette Gardner. I'm on your side, Executor.”
She dropped the bombshell casually, like commenting on the weather, then loaded the soiled bandages and towels onto her cart and turned away, humming.
Her white medical uniform was stained from tending to my filth.
Yet Collette looked satisfied, as if she'd done something utterly routine—or even noble.
“If you need anything, ring the bell. With your hands like that, I hung it in midair—just shake it.”
I was exhausted.
I nodded, hoping she'd leave soon.
Collette smiled contentedly, hummed a hymn, and wheeled the cart out.
*This is... more serious than I thought.*
Apparently, my Executor persona was raging out of control, beyond my expectations.
Now that I realized it, hymns poured endlessly from the closed window outside.
It didn't sound like the same group the whole time—more like one person sang and left, only for another to take their place.
*And even civilians, not cadets, calling me Executor.*
Should I have squashed the rumors from the start?
I regretted it briefly, but even if I could go back, there was no better option.
After that day, I'd been swept into incident after incident nonstop, holed up at home during the storm, nearly overtaken by the guardian angel multiple times.
*Yeah, even if I went back, nothing more I could've done.*
Reflecting, ever since the dream where I shot Theodor in the head, I'd reviewed everything I'd done.
And I realized that even knowing the current situation, there was nothing more I could've done.
By the time I had the dream, Cael Ace was already dead, and the guardian angel's erosion had begun.
Getting hit by that stone from some unknown entity, shot by the suddenly appearing 'unstable memory Arthur,' and all the other trials and threats—I couldn't have stopped any of it.
“Haa...”
The deep sigh escaped unconsciously, but it irritated my trachea, triggering a cough.
It felt like everything was going according to *its* plan.
The biggest issue was this body of mine, helpless without help.
In this state, where I could barely lift an arm, what could I do?
*Come to think of it, this bracelet was a huge help.*
I looked at the magic tool I'd received from the Spencer family as thanks for saving Shirley.
The bracelet, woven with red and black threads, was said to share and mitigate fatal wounds that could lead to death.
They'd obviously removed accessories for bandaging, but since this was an active magic tool, they'd left it on.
*'Shares and mitigates fatal wounds.'*
That meant my ICU stay might drag on longer than expected.
I recalled Collette's loaded words and her devoted care.
My conscience pricked, but I had to use her devotion toward me, at least short-term.
To keep her warped anger from turning on me...
To that end, I wanted to test Collette first.
*Jingle jingle.*
I nudged the bell hanging in midair, and less than five minutes later, Collette entered the room.
She lifted the curtain around the bed and smiled at me.
“I have... a... request.”
“Yes, Executor.”
“New semester... soon... prep for it...”
“Ah. You want to prep for the spring semester? But you can't write yet.”
Collette pointed at my bandage-wrapped hands on my stomach.
I nodded and replied.
“Just... looking at books...”
“Ah. What book should I bring? You wouldn't have the textbooks yet, so if there's anything you need, I'll check it out from the library in your name.”
She deciphered my slurred speech effortlessly and was quick on the uptake.
I cleared my throat, soothing the tearing trachea, then said.
“...Hazard Island's geography... and ecology...”