Chapter 405: How Are You Alive!?
Rindo had regained consciousness the day before.
Lian got the room number from the reception and stood in front of the door a few minutes later.
He knocked twice and a tired voice came from inside.
"Come in."
He opened the door and the patient was half-sitting on the bed.
His left arm was completely wrapped in bandages and hanging from his shoulder.
There were several healed wounds on his face and part of his side was also covered with bandages.
But he was conscious and as soon as Lian entered, he only looked at him for several seconds.
From head to toe, clean clothes, a healthy body, completely normal movement and then back to his face.
"Every time I think nothing can surprise me anymore, you show up." For a moment, he even rubbed his eyes.
He tried to consider the possibility that he was seeing an illusion, but he was not in such bad condition that he would see an illusion like this.
To the point that a dead man appeared in front of him.
So there was only one possibility, that dead man was not actually dead.
"I’ll take that as a compliment." Lian closed the door. He answered calmly.
"It wasn’t a compliment."
"This is also one of those indirect compliments."
Rindo stared for several seconds and then only sighed, this was something he had to accept.
"How? How are you still alive? We were all sure you were dead! We even saw your death with our own eyes."
"Did you know the system sometimes gives something called an Extra Life as a Quest reward?" Lian answered with a smile.
The head of the Student Council did not answer immediately, of course he knew what an Extra Life was, it was not an unknown reward, but it was rare and it was not something an Awakened who had not even gone through his First Evolution could obtain.
So it was natural that he had not expected this boy to be hiding something like that.
"So you were playing with all of us from the beginning, huh?" And he let out a deeper sigh.
"I don’t call it playing, I wasn’t even sure if the Extra Life would work in that situation or not."
Rindo nodded, it was a good point, after all, it was a strange situation and there was no way to know if the Extra Life would actually work or not, but it still would have been better if he had at least told them that he had one so they would worry less about him and hesitate less to kill him.
The conversation became quiet for a few moments.
"The others?" Lian asked, he had come directly to check this boy’s condition because from the first day they returned, he had seen that he was one of those in the best condition.
So he guessed that he would wake up earlier than the others.
"Cassian seems to have just woken up, I think he will be allowed to leave the medical center from today, Selina is better, her main problems were Mana exhaustion and burns."
"Liana woke up this morning but Seraphina is still under treatment, but she is not in danger of dying."
Lian became a little calmer for a moment, fortunately, all the members of the group seemed to be safe, Marcus and Ethan were also in completely healthy condition.
However, the next words made him frown again.
"Seris still hasn’t woken up."
That girl had burned everything she had, half of her permanent Stats, her life force, her body and in the end she had been seriously injured, more than all of them.
But she should not be in a life-threatening condition and she would probably wake up sooner or later as well.
Lian himself had forced her to drive the sword through his heart and when she woke up, they would probably have an interesting conversation waiting for them.
"Darian?" Then he asked after thinking for a moment.
"I don’t know, I heard he was discharged earlier than everyone else, I don’t even know if he is in the base or not, and thats your brother, shouldn’t you know better?" Rindo did not show any special reaction to the change of subject.
Lian smirked, that bastard would probably leave the base soon, he might have already left the base and be on his way to report the failure of his mission to kill him.
"What about Aren? Do you have any new information about him?" The last information he had was that the man was also under treatment and after that he would be taken for interrogation.
This time Rindo became a little more serious.
"I don’t know exactly either, but I heard some things from some of the officers who came to interrogate me and you could say it’s complicated."
"He was in the medical center until a few hours ago but suddenly the officers took him away, I don’t know where they took him but it seems they took him to the same place where they took that other native of the Ruined Realm."
Lian said nothing, the image of Aren without both hands, standing beside the Forgotten Tree and all the help he had given to him and the others came to his mind.
If he had not been there, several of those who had returned would be dead now.
Rindo nodded, he was also aware of this, but there was nothing they could do, the other native of the Ruined Realm who had been captured by Lian had been taken by the Federation and Aren was the same.
This was not something they would easily let go when they could get a lot of information from him.
"I have a meeting with the base officials today, I’ll try to talk to them about this." The young Vorhelm said at the end.
Rindo looked at him for a few moments and then pointed at the table beside the bed where several reports were placed.
"I’ll write it in my report too."
Lian nodded, this way they might at least make sure that the Federation would not torture or violently interrogate Aren.
Both of them remained silent for a few moments and then the head of the Student Council suddenly said.
"By the way, I hope you haven’t forgotten that after all this chaos, we’re still students."
Lian paused, the Academy, he had almost forgotten that there had been a life before the Special Area, so many things had happened to them at the same time that they had put this matter aside.
Rindo laughed when he saw his expression.
"I thought after saving a world they would at least give us a few days off." The young Vorhelm said dryly, he was not wrong either, by killing the Calamity they had practically saved the world.
"I thought the same, but we were wrong." Rindo replied.
"Our return has to be officially registered, we have to write a report and we will probably have a meeting with Professor Aldric, this is the normal procedure, but considering the situation it might be a little more complicated this time."
"Fortunately, everyone from our Academy is alive, I can imagine the families of the other Awakened are probably going crazy considering that the news has spread."
"A very large majority of the Awakened who entered have died."
"That’s normal." Lian also nodded.
One-third.
Only about one-third had returned and for most families, that opening had not brought anyone back.
"As soon as the doctors allow it, we have to return to the Academy and we also have to return to Base #3." Rindo let out a breath.
"There is no need to hurry, when everyone wakes up we can talk about these matters." The young Vorhelm said calmly.
They had almost nothing to do at Base #9 and it was logical to prepare to return to their country’s Base, Base #3, but he wanted to at least look around a little before leaving this place.
Maybe he could even find some valuable things with the help of the Celestial Book Of Treasure.
They talked a little more and after that Lian said goodbye, his main reason for coming was to check Rindo’s condition and he was safe.
Besides, it was time for him to go and meet the base officials.
Of course, he still had to wait until they informed him, so he returned to the inn to check on One.
But at that moment, the inn employee told him that the base guards had said to inform him to go to the command building to speak with the base officials.
Considering that they knew which inn he was staying at, there was a good chance that he had been under close watch during this time.
He had expected it and it was also considered a normal procedure.
Less than an hour later, he entered the command building and asked the employees and officers there, and it was clear that the meeting was being held on the third floor.
A formal and fairly simple room, a large rectangular table, six chairs, several floating screens and four people who had been sitting there before he entered.
Two middle-aged men, one woman and an older man sitting at the end of the table, none of them were wearing the official military uniforms of the base.
Their clothes were simple and dark, there was no obvious Federation symbol on their chests either.
But as soon as Lian entered, he understood, these people were different from the officers he had seen in the medical center.
The man on the right had almost no noticeable presence, not because he was weak but the opposite, his presence was too controlled.
The woman across from him also looked completely normal, but the way her eyes moved over him looked more like she was evaluating a target than looking at someone in an administrative position.
The older man? He was just sitting there but Lian’s instincts told him without any clear reason that getting close to him carelessly was not a good idea.
These people did not seem like simple "base officials" at all...