Beautiful When Together

"Mmh…"

Dignitas fumbled about for a moment before he opened his eyes–rather, eye. He could barely make out his surroundings, a side effect of the increased dosage from the medicine administered.

At first glance, his sight wasn't all that different from before. The room he was now in seemed to be an adequate size for a patient, and nothing was out of place.

His right, working eye noticed a few strands of hair hanging way past where they used to be. Indeed, the surgeons seemed to have changed up his hairstyle slightly while he was asleep.

Dignitas still retained his signature messy hair, but on one side, it stretched out a bit too far, covering one of his eyelids. It was going to be useless from now on, so he didn't see a reason not to leave it like that.

"Sleep well? They've just finished up on Miss Seraph's operation, and if calculations are correct, she should wake up with her vision restored by tomorrow."

Professor Shib was sitting on a chair beside Dignitas' bed, in the middle of drawing something that resembled a fruit.

Woosh! Like a magic trick, one shiny apple randomly appeared out of thin air. Shib did the same again, this time drawing a small knife and plate, which he used to cut the apple.

"Say, if you could draw this well, couldn't you have just made Lorelai an eye?"

"I'm sure Doctor Neil already told you about Divine Blessings. As good as I am with Reality Magic, I wouldn't be able to replicate the All-Seeing Eye no matter how much I wanted to."

"Right…" Dignitas sighed. Ever since the operation, he felt as if his memory was quite fuzzy and unclear.

"Did you forget? Well, that shouldn't matter much. Doctor Neil also mentioned short term amnesia as one of the side effects. Don't worry, you'll remember more soon."

"For now, just take it easy and rest. Before you know it, you'll have a lovesick girl by your side by dawn."

"Heh, I didn't do this for her affection, but hearing that makes what I went through slightly easier to take in."

"I'll leave you to it then." Professor Shib stood up from his seat and handed Dignitas the plate that was filled with perfectly cut apple slices. "Just put the plate on the nightstand when you're done, and Otto will pick it up."

Otto was the name of Shib's owl. It was quite rare to find wild beasts that possessed goodwill towards humanity and wanted companionship, especially with how unstable the races' relationship were if you didn't live in Fihndreik.

"Yeah, thanks."

Professor Shib merely nodded as he made way for the door and left.

But seconds later, the door suddenly burst open, and the figures of his teammates walked through. Rokas, Alter, Percivale, and Elliott were talking up a storm, and their cheery atmosphere had just about invaded Dignitas' secluded hideout the moment they entered.

No one seemed to be worried about Dignitas, as they had already been informed about his decision a day beforehand.

They seemed to have visited purely for the sake of checking in on his well being.

"Looks like I won't be having time to myself." Dignitas chuckled as he raised his hand to greet the four.

"Not with us around here, Leader." Rokas returned the greeting with the same gesture.

"What were you thinking, giving away your eye? And to her, no less?!" Alter complained.

"Sister, I think mister Dignitas had a reason…" Percivale tried to calm her down.

"You look like a wreck. Sounds like the name "Deadeye" fits you more than me now, heh." Elliott chimed in, poking fun at Dignitas.

"Yes, yes, thank you all for coming." The author laughed as he enjoyed the company of his friends.

For the next hour, the five of them continued chatting. Rokas had taken to cutting open another apple that Shib had handed him when they passed each other.

Alter sat on the chair beside the bed and uttered some mindless insults, all in good intent, of course.

Percivale, meanwhile, was ecstatically explaining to Dignitas about a recent new breakthrough he had made with his Spatial magic. In short, his casting time had improved drastically, and he learned to infuse more power in those short windows.

Elliott, on the other hand, was at the other side of the room performing maintenance on Spiritshot. He had quite a nervous look on his face, but still made sure to join in on the conversation.

During this time, they dined on the sizable feast they had delivered to the room. For some reason, food deliveries weren't prohibited here, so they were free to spend as much money on the many delicacies available in the District, plus some of the medicine the doctor had prescribed Dignitas so that he could recover quickly.

Not even two hours later, Dignitas had already fully recovered. Unlike Lorelai, his eyes weren't forcibly taken out. Plus, the body of a mana user always had a higher regeneration rate than those who didn't use mana.

Once Dignitas could fully stand, he followed his teammates outside, where he bid farewell to them. He wouldn't be going home just yet; he wanted to stay and wait for Lorelai to recover.

And so he returned back to his room having been granted full permission by Doctor Neil to stay until she was ready to be sent out.

***

It was the next day. Dignitas got up before the sun even started rising. After finishing up the leftovers from yesterday, he went straight to the emergency room, where they were keeping Lorelai. A small text message from Shib had notified him that she was finally awake.

The door to the emergency room opened, and Dignitas' figure walked through. The makeshift room they were keeping Lorelai in was actually just a small bed that was surrounded by curtains.

As of now, the curtains were still closed to prevent any unwanted visitors, but Dignitas could already hear the voices of Professor Shib and Doctor Neil conversing.

He didn't bother to listen into the conversation and instead got on the tips of his toes as he snuck closer.

As he neared the curtain, he stopped for a second.

"...why am I nervous? I'm just coming to see her." He whispered to himself.

Taking a deep breath, Dignitas donned a somewhat neutral expression that leaned on the positive side. He tried his best to keep his mouth from curving upwards, but it was rather difficult.

He reached into his pockets and pulled out the small mirror one of the nurses had given him. It was small and barely fit into the palm of his hands.

Once he was confident that he wasn't smiling too much, Dignitas took one deep breath and pulled the curtains open.

Beautiful, and entrancing. The first thing Dignitas noticed when he pulled the curtains apart was Lorelai's enchanting smile as she listened to Doctor Neil tell her she was good to go.

The next thing that caught his gaze was the two different colors her eyes were. Technically, this was an artificially created heterochromia case, so that added to the surprise factor.

On her right side, Lorelai's beautiful, lustrous emerald eye shone brightly under the light. Sparkling like a star, it beckoned him towards her. It couldn't even be compared to a gem.

On her left side, a stunning contrast to her mesmerizing green eye, a pupil cloaked in the darkness of the night. It gave her an almost enigmatic allure, and further amplified the beauty of hers that Dignitas held so highly.

As if Lorelai had already perceived his entrance before he even entered, tears began flowing down her unkempt visage as she held her arms open, silently asking Dignitas to embrace her.

The author obliged, thinking he could spoil the girl's wantings. She had gone through a lot, and it was a miracle that she could even see again.

"I'm so glad…"

Seeing the already escalating intense atmosphere in the room, Professor Shib and Doctor Neil silently nodded to each other with smiles on their faces. They muttered something about young love as they exited the room, leaving the two to their own devices.

The two's hug seemed to continue on for hours, although barely even half a minute passed before Dignitas decided to let go. Lorelai seemed to pout at that, almost as if she wanted him to stay for much longer.

"Right… I did say you would see how beautiful you were again. Here." Dignitas handed the girl the mirror in his hands.

He placed his calloused fingers on Lorelai's own, and brought the mirror to her face level.

The girl's features perfectly reflected itself on the mirror's smooth surface, allowing her to see how she had changed.

"How is it? The person in the mirror looks beautiful, don't you think?"

"She is." Lorelai nodded. "But I think it'll be even more beautiful if the man beside her is there as well."

Without warning Lorelai pulled Dignitas in view of the mirror. Her strength was nowhere near enough to actually force the author to move, but he didn't mind and simply followed her orders.