Rehabilitation Therapist for the Broken Warrior – Chapter 71

Serin woke up early as usual and went to the Baker’s bakery.

Zion typically woke up around the time Serin delivered the bread to Hop’s house and greeted her on her return.

“Hmm…”

But today, Zion was not awake.

Serin approached Zion’s room and knocked on the door.

“Zion, are you awake?”

No response from Zion.

Serin quietly opened the door to check on Zion’s condition.

What she saw was Zion curled up on the bed, hugging a ladybug cushion, staring blankly ahead with no expression.

‘He looks just like he did back then.’

The image that came to Serin’s mind was from the morning after Hop’s first business trip, when Zion had shown a similar appearance.

Since Zion started dating Hop, he seemed stable and okay, but Serin suspected it was only because Hop was always there with him.

Whenever separated from Hop, Zion quickly revealed such anxiety.

“Zion, are you okay?”

“…”

Zion silently stared ahead, turning his eyes to briefly glance at Serin before looking away again.

“You’re here, Serin. Where’s the bread?”

“The bread? Well…”

Since Zion asked for bread, Serin hurriedly left his room and returned with the bread basket she had left on the living room table.

“Here it is.”

“Give it here.”

“Yes, here.”

With her curled-up form, Zion took the bread from Serin’s outstretched hands, eagerly munching on it from the end.

“This bread is really good. It’s warm. I always ate bread that was hard as a rock, but I realized that freshly baked bread could taste this good that day.”

As the bread entered his mouth, Zion finally put on a small smile.

“When I first arrived in the kingdom, everything felt so anxious and unfamiliar. I was living in the home of total strangers, going to an unfamiliar center, facing strangers in an unfamiliar environment… I was drowning in worries and anxieties with a body that was completely wrecked, yet I tried to act cheerful, thinking ‘I’m a hero.’”

Zion’s story was new to Serin, recounting the three weeks he had been apart from her.

The freshly baked bread was soft enough to vanish quickly in his mouth, so Zion could only keep swallowing and putting more bread in to feel its warmth.

And while he continued to eat, he kept talking.

“But the moment I took a bite of this bread, it was so sweet and warm and amazing that… my mind just went blank. It felt like everything in my head had been cleared. And then Hop said that this bread was made by the mother of an adventurer he treated, who brought it here every day, and do you know what I thought?”

“Well…”

Thinking back to that moment made him laugh, and now he was chuckling a little and moving his shoulders in amusement.

“I thought, wow, I’m receiving something so great in return. This person seems to be an incredible person, just as Nao stated. Maybe I can trust them a bit more? Isn’t that funny?”

“That’s an interesting story.”

“Hehe, anyway, every time I eat this bread, I feel how amazing Hop is. It may not seem that relevant, but thinking about him makes me feel good. It’s kind of like an excuse, I suppose…”

“Zion.”

“Yes?”

Why, even though Zion likes Hop so much, doesn’t he want to meet him?

This had always puzzled Serin, so she decided to suggest that Zion visit Hop again.

“You look really troubled. How about just going to see him? He might be busy, but if you visit, he might have a moment to see you.”

“Serin.”

“Yes?”

The moment Serin heard Zion softly call her name, she felt she was being rejected once more.

Preparing herself, but Zion continued to speak.

“Our bodies have a natural recovery system when they suffer damage.”

“…”

That was quite a sudden topic.

“And rehabilitation and exercise use that system. When our bodies sustain significant damage and can’t heal themselves, we create small amounts of damage repeatedly so the body can slowly regain its memory—it’s amazing, right? How did Hop find all this out?”

Serin knew that humans had natural healing abilities, but to think it was something we could intentionally utilize?

What Zion shared was indeed fascinating.

But why was he suddenly talking about this?

“And I think the mind works the same way.”

Zion had been smiling gently while talking about Hop, but that smile vanished at this point.

“Like you said, Serin, I’m really struggling right now. I want to rush to the center and hug Hop, but I’m forcing myself to hold back. Even during rehab, I purposely say nothing and focus solely on exercising. Hop seems too tired to pay much attention to me. But, in a way, that’s good. I’m deliberately causing myself pain.”

Zion, still curled up, started trembling and eventually buried his face in his knees.

“If I intentionally create small pains, I believe my heart will be okay someday as well. So I’m purposely avoiding seeing Hop. Serin, please don’t insist that I go to see him until after the ball. Rejecting that is just too hard for me. If I hear those words, I can’t help but imagine meeting him. And the fact that momentary imagination is not reality hurts so much. Just hearing his… name right now is…

Zion’s words trailed off, and once again, his shoulders began to shake.

And soon, Zion’s sobs began to escape.

“I’m so… weak…”

Serin could no longer find any words to say.

The only person who could comfort Zion right now was likely just one person in the world.

“Understood.”

All she could do was to comply as usual.

Leaving a brief response in Zion’s room, Serin eventually had no choice but to leave and close the door, leaving him alone.

***

“Doc? Are you okay?”

“Ugh, ugh…”

What’s going on? Did I just wake up from a nap, and why do I hear Mirae’s voice?

“Are you coming to your senses?”

“Mirae? Why are you in our house?”

“Looks like you’re still a bit out of it. This is the clinic room.”

The clinic room, huh? Looking around, it indeed seemed Mirae was right.

Then what time is it? Checking the clock, it was right in the middle of afternoon treatment hours.

Oh, I must have dozed off while seeing patients.

“I’m fine, just let the next patient in.”

“Not happening. I really think you should just rest.”

“What? Mirae, you really need to follow my orders…”

“Sleep.”

What? Did Mirae just cast a spell on me?

Suddenly, drowsiness rushed in, and my eyes began closing.

“Don’t worry about the patients, we have plenty of trainees. Just rest easy~”

Mirae’s voice faded away.

I only dozed off, and she goes this far? What on earth…

***

“No way. It can’t be…”

The streets were filled with screams from demons and people, wyverns filling the sky, torrential black magic, and explosions erupting everywhere.

In the northern sky, an endless black pillar shot up, dividing the heavens, and every color in sight was either black or red.

Black demons, red blood, and raging flames… Even the sky was losing its blue, suffused with dark red.

“I hate red. Red. I can’t stand red…”

From somewhere, I could hear Zion’s voice.

Turning quickly towards the sound, there was Zion crouched beside me, clutching his head and trembling.

“Hop, everything’s gone red. What’s happening? What on earth is going on?”

Is that really Zion?

Is that trembling figure staring blankly into space, with fear-filled eyes and messy hair, really him?

Zion should have fully recovered; why was he now suffering a seizure, expressing trauma?

Well, whatever, now isn’t the time for that.

I need to get Zion out of here fast…

“Damn it, a gate. The gate is opening again.”

What? I didn’t say anything, yet words just tumbled out.

“No, it can’t be, Hop. That’s impossible. How could the gate open again…”

“Let’s get out of here fast. We need to retreat south and regroup…”

“AAAAH!!”

Zion screamed, pointing somewhere, and I turned just in time to see a monster wielding a sword charging at us.

“Severance.”

Reaching out my hand toward the monster while chanting an incantation, it stopped advancing, as if an invisible wall appeared before it.

The monster swung its sword at the suddenly appeared wall, but it was pointless.

The sword made no sound, didn’t hit anything, but it was stuck, unable to advance further.

“Creating a Simplified Space Movement Array.”

Once again chanting, I pressed my hand to the ground, and as my palm made contact, green light spread out, and three lines began to stretch across, drawing something on the floor.

Simultaneously, the wall blocking the monster disappeared, and the sword-wielding beast rushed towards us again.

“Zion, hold that creature off! Just for a moment, fast! You have to move your body using your abilities!”

“Hop, I can’t… I can’t fight anymore…”

Zion remained curled up, trembling, and the monster wasn’t going to wait for him.

In an instant, a knife pierced my back, and my body was engulfed in pain, causing Zion’s face to turn bright red as we locked eyes.

“Hop!!”

“J-just… finished the drawing. Activating…”

I felt my mind getting hazy.

Creator, please let Zion at least be safe…

***

“?!”

Coming to my senses, I found myself back in the empty clinic room.

Was that just a dream?

“Gasp, gasp…”

I absentmindedly touched my chest where I’d been stabbed, but of course, it was fine.

“Hah…”

A dream about a gate opening? What a strange dream…

Maybe I was troubled by deceiving Zion, so my subconscious wished for it.

A gate opening again with Zion being wrecked? Completely a collection of my subconscious desires.

Checking the time, it had just finished with my work hours.

Mirae must have cast a spell to wake me up exactly at this time.

Casting a curse and managing to time it to when the other person wakes up? Truly insane skills.

Mirae had participated in the nursing maid recruitment drive right after the center opened, where her vibrant personality and magical abilities shined, earning her the top maid position.

She was the same age as me and had no prior social experience like me.

Thinking back, it’s truly amazing, isn’t it? Why would someone with that level of magical skills work as a maid…

But then, in this post-war world, working in rehabilitation medicine is likely a promising career compared to adventuring.

Anyway, how dare she put me to sleep like that? While Mirae probably didn’t mean anything bad, it was still annoying.

Did I really look that bad? It’s better than collapsing from overwork like last time, but still…

Bunch of unnecessary worries.

Anyway, today was my day off, so I should be going home to relax.

It had been a suffocating schedule with creating invitations, etiquette training, dance lessons, venue walkthroughs, and rehearsals… All of that was already done.

Because tomorrow is…

“The day of the ball on Saturday. Today is the best day to rest and get in peak condition.”

Now that I had some free time, I thought about visiting Zion, but tomorrow was just as good.

Since I dozed off during treatment today, it’d be smarter to rest.

Tomorrow, above all else… absolutely no accidents must occur.

The most luxurious and esteemed ball in the world.

Zion’s discharge celebration must conclude successfully, no matter what.