Rehabilitation Therapist for the Broken Warrior – Chapter 40

“Hop Harvey? What are you doing with that blanket?”

“I’m going to carry Zion from now on, and since I have to use my hands while carrying him…”

Thank goodness there are several blankets here since it’s a hot spring.

A thin, long, and comfortable blanket that’s just right for what I need. And also…

“This waist tie is perfect. I’m really glad this is here.”

“Don’t tell me… you’re planning to wrap me in that blanket and carry me around like a sack?”

“Of course not. I clearly said I would carry you, didn’t I?”

With the preparation of the props done, I got ready to go and sat on the floor, turning my back to Zion.

“Hop on, Zion. Let’s go.”

“Uh… yeah.”

Zion, leaning against the wall, shifted to a prone position, grunting as he crawled towards me, draping his arms over my shoulders.

Since it wasn’t straining at all, I adjusted Zion’s limbs, pulling them snugly against my body.

“Ugh.”

I stood up, leaning forward to prevent Zion from falling, and tossed the blanket over my back.

Then I pulled up the ends of the blanket to support Zion and tied a knot in front of me, looping a long string around my body again to secure him even more.

“W-What is this?”

“What does it look like? It’s a baby carrier. Don’t you know what that is?”

“I don’t know such things! But more importantly…!”

“What? Is it uncomfortable? If it’s uncomfortable, I can do it again.”

“That’s not it…”

Zion, bewildered, turned his head this way and that, checking how he was wrapped up, then sighed deeply, seeming to resign himself, wrapping his arms around my neck and dangling there.

“I knew I’d end up looking ridiculous, but this feels too clingy, doesn’t it…?”

Clingy? Hearing Zion’s words, I thought it might be true.

Given that I had pulled Zion tightly against me with the carrier.

Feeling Zion’s body against my back, which felt light and warm, almost soft, it struck me that his muscles had become so thin and weak.

But there was one part that felt heavy and big pressing against me. Could it be…?

“Are you feeling pressed or in pain from this?”

They said women find it quite painful if this area gets pressed. Is that why Zion’s showing discomfort?

“What? Pressed? Where…?”

But Zion seemed puzzled, asking back once, then pausing to think…

“Ah!”

Suddenly, he lifted his head and began smacking the back of my head.

“Ouch! Ouch! Why the sudden attack, Zion!!”

“How can you not know this? A real doctor shouldn’t joke around with a patient’s body like that!!”

“Ah! How is asking if it hurts a joke?!”

“So you really think that was a diagnosis? Was that even a consultation?”

“Well, I mean… Aah! Just in case, Aah!!”

Since Zion was bound to my body, I couldn’t get him off, and he was right behind me, attacking, so I had no way to guard myself.

“Wait… You weren’t looking at me like that until now…!”

“Looking at you like what? I think Zion is seriously misunderstanding something here…”

“Misunderstanding?”

“Ah!!”

Every time I tried to say something, the back of my head would get hit, making it impossible to speak.

Maybe I’ve gotten hit too much; my head felt slightly dazed…

“Ugh… my head…”

“Hop Harvey?”

I suddenly felt a cold sensation, making it hard to keep my balance.

With someone hanging on me, it was only natural to find it difficult to stand if I got a headache like this.

I stumbled slightly, and in an instant, my balance tipped, causing me to begin to fall.

“Whoa? Teacher?”

– Thud.

“Hop Harvey!”

Fortunately, I managed to somehow fall forward without Zion getting hurt.

“Are you okay, Teacher?”

“Whoa? This can’t be happening?”

No way, even if I got hit on the back of the head, I shouldn’t just suddenly collapse like this?

Did I just lose consciousness for a moment?

Oh, this is…

It’s not a big deal, but it’s that feeling—something’s definitely happened. This is…

************

“Overworked.”

Zion, the hot spring manager he hurriedly called, Elder Leonard, and the doctor Leonard brought…

The four of them were now sitting side by side, looking down at Hop, who was neatly laid out in the blanket.

“Overworked?”

“Yes, that seems to be the case. Usually, he wakes up after half a day, so he should be up around dinner time.”

“Ugh…”

Zion sighed deeply upon hearing the dwarf doctor say it was overwork, relieved it wasn’t something worse.

“It’s a big deal that someone fainted, but it’s a good thing we’re on vacation. So let’s take it easy.”

“That sounds right. Thank you for your help, Elder.”

“It’s nothing much. If you need anything else, just call anytime. We’ll be on our way now.”

“Take care on your way back.”

As soon as they heard Hop had collapsed, the grateful dwarves rushed off, leaving just Zion and Hop in the room.

Hop lay unconscious on the thick blanket spread across the floor.

Zion sat beside him, gazing down at him with a distant expression.

“To think Hop Harvey collapsed from illness. Looks like I’m nursing him today.”

Though it was nursing, Zion was neither a doctor nor a nurse, so he just sat there, unsure of what he should do.

He placed a hand on Hop’s forehead to check for fever, but there was none; Hop was simply collapsed from accumulated work fatigue.

As time passed, feeling helpless and frustrated, Zion struggled with his emotions.

“Calm down, Zion Laurel. Hop Harvey will wake up if I wait.”

Trying to steady his breath, which was getting more rapid due to frustration, Zion suddenly began to see Hop’s relaxed, upward-facing face as belonging to someone else.

As if it looked like someone he used to fight beside…

“No, no, this is just an illusion… I’m not even able to watch over someone lying still? Am I so useless that I can’t even nurse someone properly…?!”

Seeing the face of a dead person was just a trauma-induced mirage,


Zion thought that it was merely the result of his heart weakening due to Hop collapsing, solidifying his resolve.

But even so, the tightening in his heart persisted, and Zion, with his head bowed as if about to fall forward, placed his hand over his chest, clenching his fist as if he wanted to pull out his heart crying in agony.

“This isn’t a corpse. He’s definitely alive. I need to check his breathing. Since the Teacher is alive, if I check his breath…”

Zion, determined to escape this illusion and pain, found the courage to lift his head.

What appeared before his newfound courage was none other than…

“Now… Hanamana…”

His two comrades stood before him.

Surely this too was a mirage, but upon seeing their faces, Zion unconsciously stopped thinking.

“Zion. Iris is already…”

“Ugh, because Hanamana couldn’t treat properly, Iris is…”

“……”

Zion’s eyes widened in shock, frozen with disbelief.

“No, no… this isn’t reality…”

With the unparalleled mental strength that only a hero could possess, Zion silently repeated to himself that this wasn’t real,


but her body and voice were already trapped in fierce pain, unable to move.

People scream in pain. But someone experiencing pain so extreme that it can’t be described can’t even scream.

Even the nerves responsible for reflexes become paralyzed by agony. Zion was feeling that level of pain throughout his body.

Unable to move a single finger, it felt as if he was trapped in a suspended time.

And the face of Hop, who he barely turned to look at, no longer looked like Hop to him.

“Iris…”

The face of his most treasured comrade, pale-skinned and unresponsive.

And that cherished face disappeared from Zion’s sight the moment Now covered Iris’s face with a blanket.

The moment of accepting a comrade’s death hit Zion once more.

This sensation, no matter how many times it is experienced, never becomes familiar or tolerable.

This moment, be it in dreams, reality, daily life, or illusions… If there is even the smallest trigger, it always manifests before him.

The sensation the memories weaved into reality to taunt Zion, bringing back the past he wished to forget endlessly.

Trauma.

The wound that was etched into Zion’s soul.

Like a memory sealed off by barbed wire,


it suddenly flies toward him without warning, as if to remind him not to forget, inflicting countless wounds on his whole body with its sharp thorns.

“Ugh, ah… Aaaah…!”

And in front of such irrational pain, Zion was always just a powerless being, eyes tightly closed, unable to even scream.

**********

“Ugh…”

When I opened my eyes, an unfamiliar ceiling greeted me.

The comforting sensation of being wrapped in a warm blanket.

Damn, to faint from overwork.

The doctor said that just before fainting, one realizes why they’re about to pass out, and it seems like that’s true.

I thought I had managed to endure well over the past three years, but breaking my routine recently while on duty must have toppled the precarious balance.

‘But more importantly, what happened to Zion? It must have been difficult for him to spread the blanket and lay me down…’

Moving my sore body, I felt…

‘Huh? My body feels heavy.’

It felt as if something was pressing down on my chest.

No, it wasn’t pressing down. It was pushing down on me with all its strength.

What the heck happened? I managed to tilt my head at a right angle to look forward, and what I saw was…

“Zion!”

Zion, trembling, was sprawled on my body, clutching his head.