Chapter 5:
Aftermath
THE TWO CARRIED ZIG TO BATES’S DESIGNATED DOCTOR. The Wadatsumi clan were frequent patients of the small clinic where Zig had been treated before. Although it was past operating hours, Dorea, the head doctor, accepted him without complaint.
“Thanks, doc. I’m in your care again.”
“All part of the job. It won’t be cheap, though.”
“Please go easy on me.”
Dorea let out a soft belly laugh while Zig winced at the thought of the impending medical bill. “You’re still in good shape if you can worry about your wallet. I’ll take care of him.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
Siasha rented an empty room so she could stay the night, while Isana readied herself to report to Bates and the others.
“Thanks for all the help, Isana.”
“Hmph… Just get better. The two of us will have a problem if your skills get rusty.”
With that, she turned around and left the clinic.
“My, my, quite a mess you got yourself into. Folks usually die from this even with healing magic.” Dorea was both impressed and exasperated as he inspected Zig’s injuries. After performing the necessary treatment, he examined Zig’s complexion, then looked into whether he would lose any of his existing bodily functions.
“I’m tougher than average because I’m bigger.”
“Even so. Here.” Dorea gave Zig what looked like a plate. “It’s a little too early for you to have solid food, but you did say you were exceptionally hardy.”
“What’s this?”
“Special patient food. Healing magic takes a lot of energy, but so does digestion. This is solidified paste, highly nutritious. Easily digestible and a complete meal.”
As he listened to the doctor, Zig tore through the wrapper and inspected its contents.
The pale biscuit smelled somewhat medicinal. He nibbled at it.
“Hmm.” It was hard, crumbly, and incredibly bitter. Grainy like sand and scratchy going down. Yet, an oily sensation filled his mouth as he chewed.
In a word, it was horrible. “Tastes awful,” Zig grumbled.
“And yet you’re still eating it. No one likes this stuff, you know.”
“Mercenaries can’t afford to complain about food.” Mercenaries would eat rats and drink sewage if they had to. This hardtack was at least nutritious, so it was a luxury by comparison.
“It’s made of monstrosity offal.”
“It doesn’t matter if it was made out of their reproductive organs. I just need the nutrition.”
Dorea laughed with amusement. He could tell Zig wasn’t putting up a front. It was refreshing to see him eating the highly nutritious food without flinching. It was the same food that made his previous patients beg for death instead.
“Excellent. It’s actually quite pricey so it’s nice not seeing it go to waste.”
Zig’s eyebrows twitched, though he stayed silent. Seeing a man who didn’t care about taste yet was highly worried about price was quite comical.
Dorea held in his laughter, said, “Get well soon,” and left the room. As he walked away, Zig gave him a bitter look, and it wasn’t just from the food. He wasn’t completely satisfied, but he knew he should prioritize his recovery and get some rest. His enemies certainly wouldn’t wait for him to get better.
He was all right for now, but the world was a dangerous place.
Turning off the lights, he settled in to get some sleep. However, he sensed someone outside the door. Realizing who the figure was, he smiled wryly to himself and called out to her.
“Did you need something?”
She seemed surprised but slowly opened the door. The back of Siasha’s hand slowly slid into view through the crack. She took a small stone from her pocket and charged it with mana. The stone began to glow faintly. It was a magic item she bought the other day to read books by. She stopped charging it with mana so it wouldn’t be too bright for Zig and set it on his bedside table.
She sat on the chair at his bedside, the one Dorea had occupied. “How are you feeling?”
“Not great, but I’ll manage. Apparently, healing magic works great on me.”
“I know you respond to it better than I do, and I’ve always thought it was because of a difference in physical strength, but it’s still surprising. Heinz barely got better when I healed him the other day…” Heinz was the first time she had used healing magic on anyone other than themselves. Zig had also thought it was due to a difference in physical strength, but it wasn’t a complete answer.
“Why does it work so well on me?” he asked.
She leaned in to share her hypothesis. “The people here heavily rely on magic. They recover faster than you do, but they’ve built a resistance to healing magic. I read the other day that because the body relies on it to recover, it stops trying to heal itself.”
As an unused muscle would atrophy, so did the natural healing ability of people who relied on healing magic to get better. They probably wouldn’t last long if they only relied on their body’s natural way of recovering. Discarding unnecessary functions and enhancing the ones that were needed… These were the principles of evolution.
“So, my ancestors decided they didn’t need magic?” Zig’s ancestors took to training their bodies instead of using magic. That still left some questions, though.
Although it had its shortcomings, magic was still widely useful. Starting fires, making water, blocking off storms; using magic outweighed not using it. Even with his naturally powerful recovery, the people of this land still recuperated faster because of their healing magic. As strong as the human body was, it would still get blown to pieces if a spell hit it directly.
Zig couldn’t imagine the circumstances that led to his ancestors deciding magic wasn’t necessary for survival.
“I don’t know. There is such a thing as atavism. Really, this is the first time I’ve seen humans use magic.”
“So, we didn’t have it to begin with?”
“That’s one possibility.”
Either they never had it or they lost it. Was it really such a drastic change from merely moving continents? It was an interesting thought, but he wasn’t smart enough to keep thinking about it. “Guess we’re back to square one. But I’m guessing that’s not what you wanted to talk about.” Zig urged her to get to the point.
She looked down and said with a low voice, “That man… Yaesar. You don’t usually talk that much when you’re fighting.”
“Yeah…” Zig’s gaze seemed to look far away as he recalled what had happened. After Isana told him the origins of the remitter, a thought had formed in his mind.
Yaesar the remitter. He was strong. Just purely strong.
And Zig barely got out alive. One wrong move and he would’ve been the one to join the corpse pile.
“He was me in a different environment.” His thoughts found the words and spilled out of him. Never had he found ones so appropriate. “Awful upbringing, little to no options.”
One was an orphan led into warfare. Another was a tool presented by his parents to serve the faithful.
“Even so, he chose to fight.” He wasn’t a product of his environment. No one forced the choice on him. He, and no one else, chose to walk a path littered with corpses. He brandished the blade of his own volition.
“He looked so happy when he was dying.” He had accepted his own death with no regrets. He held no remorse for what he had done but did not turn his back on his actions either.
“I… I wonder if I’ll be that happy when I die?”
Those were the words that left Zig’s lips. Aimed at no one in particular, the words evaporated into the air like smoke. In the ear-piercing silence, Siasha spoke up with a quivering voice, desperate to hold down her emotions.
“Zig… You won’t die.” Her hand held his finger. “I won’t let you.”
The warmth of her wavering voice was enough to bring Zig back to reality. He turned his unfocused gaze toward Siasha, toward her trembling shoulders. He didn’t see a witch. He saw a little girl who was afraid of losing what she had.
What the hell was he getting all sentimental about? So, he almost went down into the abyss. So what?
I’ve got a lot to learn if I’m making my client worry this much. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Within the darkness, the firm grip on his fingertip became that much clearer.
He opened his eyes. The old mercenary had returned. “My job isn’t finished. I’ve got no plans of dying until I’m done.”
“Oh…”
He placed his palm on Siasha’s head and felt her trembling through his warmth. His fingers fell through her black hair and he stroked her cheek. Taking comfort in the softness of her skin, he then brought up the ever-prominent subject of their schedule.
“You can get to adventuring again now that that mess is out of the way. Wait for me to get discharged and stay sharp.”
“Okay.”