Chapter 152 - Back Home

"Relax, man."

Jack quickly stopped Oliver from getting closer to Leo. It was clear that Leo would suffer Oliver's wrath, considering how foul his mood was.

"Look, I just followed Rynold's orders. I assume that you guys were going to do the same."

Leo said as he dusted the grime off his clothes. He himself wasn't in any better mood than Oliver was. The actions that he so clearly made were based on a desperate need to save everyone here.

Obviously, it was ill-received.

"Orders?! What orders?! When Rynold landed here, he couldn't even move, let alone talk! Whatever he did to help your ass, he clearly didn't hold back in doing it."

Oliver's mood was perfectly reasonable. To find his best friend returning after two and a half weeks a complete mess and bloodied to a pulp was rather distasteful.

Whatever risks Rynold had partaken in was no joking matter.

"Now's not the time to do this, man..."

Jack acted as the voice of reason, whispering the words to Oliver to calm him down.

The people around them were terrified. The mercenaries had disgruntled looks on their faces as they looked over the injured bodies of their comrades. Additionally, the orphans clearly didn't respond to Oliver's attitude well, either, as the children seemingly cowered away from him.

"Fine. Call for help for the people injured. Can you handle this? I need to talk to Leo privately."

Oliver sensibly gave in. This might not be the best place to wring someone out for being incompetent.

"Sure. Just don't try to be too hard on him."

As Jack answered, he immediately got to work. He called for whatever medical staff available while internal affairs took the mercenaries and children.

"Let's go."

Oliver's words were directed towards Leo, coincidentally containing some hostility in his tone.

The two left separately, all the while Jack directed the elves that had come to help. The help seemingly knew what they were doing. In fact, they appeared way too fast, as if anticipating these things to happen.

In reality, Leo's quick thinking seemed to have paid off.

Just a few hours before, Leo was able to send his sister first. Which effectively warned Margareth of what's to come. The simple decision had been effective in managing what could have been a crisis.

Regardless, Oliver and Leo left towards the medical ward. Even though Oliver didn't really tell him where they were going, Leo expected that they were going to visit Rynold.

"It hasn't been an hour since I sent Rynold here first."

Leo decidedly broke the silence as he stared into the tunnel walls. He hasn't spent much time in the Tree of In-Between, but he considered this place his home more than the castle he had spent years living in.

"Yeah, he's still unconscious. Whatever he actually did to help you, he clearly didn't think twice about the consequences."

Feeling an inch of guilt, Leo didn't know what to say. On the one hand, he hadn't expected things to turn out this way. Even he himself had been close to death at least once during this past 48 hours.

"Don't get me wrong," Oliver added, "I'm this close to killing you. The only thing stopping me from doing that is Rynold."

Oliver felt his blood boil as soon as he got the report that Rynold had gotten back, unconscious and heavily injured.

When he got the message, he was in the Library along with Lissa, who he had just recently met. During which, they were discussing their next plan of action.

Lissa discussed what happened to Rynold and the series of events based on her perspective. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of blank spaces that made the other people in the room worry.

Margareth had suggested sending Oliver and Jack along to find Rynold and bring him back. It was initially an operation oriented in searching for Rynold, assisting him whenever he might need it.

Unfortunately, the mission was instantly cut as soon as they received news of Rynold's arrival. His condition was far from stable. He was rushed to the medical ward because of his current condition.

Aggravated, Oliver ran towards the teleportation room. Jack followed to make sure Oliver doesn't do anything extreme.

However, as soon as they were about to leave, lo and behold, Leo showed up.

"We're here."

The two alighted the Floating Platform and entered the medical ward. Upon entering, the place seemed eerily quiet.

Leo assumed that most of the medical staff had gone towards helping the others that were injured, especially those mauled by the shadowy figures.

"Which room is he in?"

Oliver asked as he approached the reception desk. His expression was blank, to the point of ominous.

The receptionist, reacting to Oliver's expression, flinched as soon as she saw the look on his face. She quickly stumbled as she pointed at a nearby room.

"Thank you."

With heavy steps, Oliver and Leo walked towards a room at the very corner of the medical ward. Oliver stopped just before the door and knocked.

"Come in."

A woman's voice answered as Oliver turned the knob on the door. From there, Neana waved with a smile on her face.

"How is he?"

Leo was the first to ask, much to Oliver's annoyance. He might have lost the right to ask how the person who had risked his life to help Leo. But Leo couldn't help it.

"He's actually in a much better condition than he looks. The top healer said that his injuries were superficial, with no permanent damage whatsoever. But, recovery would take some time."

Neana was sitting on the bed that Rynold was sleeping in. She had grown deeply attached to this person that she had known for nearly a year now. Case in point, she even rushed here as soon as she caught wind of Rynold's arrival.

"Guess you don't have to die after all. But I'm still pretty pissed at you."

Oliver's expression quickly eased up when he heard the good news. But, the man's anger still wasn't quenched in the slightest. As far as he knew, Leo was responsible for putting Rynold in such a state.

"I'm sure Rynold wouldn't want you to be like that. He's fine. No need to be so hostile."

Interrupting, Neana felt responsible for keeping watch over the two. Even before Rynold had left to help Leo, Oliver had his reservations about the guy.

Clearly, the two wouldn't be friends any time soon. And, somehow, Neana had to at least stop things from escalating further.

However, instead of fighting or arguing back, Leo didn't say anything. The expression on his face spoke volumes of relief but somewhat tied with grief all the same.

Considering his personality, his lack of response was rather unexpected to both Oliver and Neana. Both of them had extremely variated responses to Leo's silence.

"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?!"

Oliver was pissed. He didn't really do anything to hide it. In fact, his current mood was the opposite of his normal and silent demeanor. For him to be so angry, even Neana felt a chill run down her spine.

"Calm down, both of you."

A weak voice came from the bed. Rynold woke up. Actually, he had been awake for a few minutes now. Rynold just opted to stay silent.

As much as he appreciated the company, Rynold didn't want to talk to anybody right now. His current condition was a mess, and pity was something he'd accept. What's more, his thoughts were wildly scattered. Rynold needed some time to collect them.

He couldn't really do any of that when Neana was staring directly at him all this time. Nor could he do something like that when other people are present.

"You're awake!"

The three of them celebrated with smiles on their faces. Particularly, Neana was even tearing up.

"Alright, calm down," Rynold said as he struggled to sit up. "Can you actually give me some time alone? I'll talk to you guys tomorrow."

"Sure, man. Whatever you need."

Oliver quickly understood what Rynold meant. He had often experienced moments like these where Rynold wanted to be left alone. More often than not, the guy would have a rather fantastic mood the very next day.

Without a wave goodbye, Oliver grabbed Leo and left. He knew that leaving Rynold to himself would be best. Knowing the guy for so many years, Oliver knew what Rynold was like.

Unfortunately, one person didn't seem to want to leave.

Neana stared openly at Rynold as tears ran down her face. She had a big smile on her face, extremely glad to find Rynold awake.

'Why isn't she leaving?'

Rynold was confused. He thought that he was clear that he wanted to be left alone.

Despite his incredible insight about a lot of matters, Rynold had often overlooked things when he was preoccupied with something else. This was one of those times.

"Um..."

Speechless, Rynold didn't know what to say. Neana looked happy. Rynold didn't really want to ruin that.

"Right," Rynold decidedly broke the silence after a little while. "How have you been?"

Breaking the silence was one thing. How tastefully Rynold broke it, however, was another thing altogether.

But, Neana didn't seem to mind.

"I'm fine," she said as she wiped a tear off her cheek. "It's been pretty boring without you here, y' know?"

"Please. With Jack around, I'm pretty sure you haven't caught a break. Chris and Oliver didn't bring you any trouble, did they?"

Rynold was curious about the state of things. He had left so abruptly just a few weeks ago. Especially with his goodbye with Neana, things were bound to get awkward.

However, he planned on doing this when he recovered. Doing this right now in the medical ward wasn't anything ideal.

"Jack's always out with the Rogue Elves. Oliver randomly disappears in the middle of the day. And Chris is spending time with his little brother. I spend a lot of time with Eileen, but ever since she got friends..."

Laughing, Rynold suddenly interrupted Neana. He was happy to find that things weren't awkward between the two of them. But, what's even funnier was the fact that she had been acting differently when he was out with Leo.

But, his laughter ended up getting cut short.

The laughter turned into rough coughs. Rynold's injuries managed to make even laughing painful for him.

Neana worriedly grabbed a glass of water and gave it to Rynold. Clearly, she had been watching Rynold closely ever since she got to the medical ward.

"Ehem...," Rynold recovered after drinking a mouthful of water. "You sound like a mom. It's like the kids are out living their own lives, and you don't really know what to do without them, huh?"

Rynold had a light smile on his face as he teased Neana. But, more importantly, he actually felt like he could rest easy whenever he would leave for a mission.

In other words, there was a person he could trust to take care of things while he's gone.

"Thanks for taking care of things while I was gone," Rynold added. "Really, it hasn't been an easy couple of weeks out there. I'm kind of glad that nothing went wrong here."

Neana smiled back and blushed slightly, not that Rynold would notice any of that. The guy casually laid back down on his comfy bed, with a relaxed expression on his face.

"What happened out there, anyway?"

Recovered, Neana asked with a somewhat straight expression on her face. She tried not to show any worry or concern, as she knew that Rynold would only take it the wrong way.

However, Rynold was silent. The look on his face seemingly turned cold as his eyes filled with grief. Whatever did happen out there, Rynold was certain that he wouldn't let it happen again.

"I... uh...," Rynold finally said something after a few seconds of tense silence, only to bumble at the words. "I don't think that talking about it is a good idea."

Rynold, instinctively, held back in answering. It was a self-defensive coping mechanism that he had developed a long time ago.