Hospital Stay [1]

Pitch-dark in the forest, and his phone being almost out of battery, Lami was sitting cross-legged on the ground.

He decided it was best to practice his mana control so he could activate the dimensional ring.

He removed the obsidian-black ring from his left index finger. It felt as if the ring was sucking the faintest light away, even in the absolute darkness. 

The sight of the eerie ring was giving Lami a bad premonition.

"Must be my imagination."

Brushing his thoughts aside, Lami spun the ring a few times and returned it to his finger.

It had to be expensive.

The price of the dimensional devices varied depending on their capacity. It was old technology, but with somewhat recent improvements by the help of Aurelio and others, its usage had risen massively.

While the capacity had increased, the mana consumption for each activation decreased significantly.

"Huuuu."

Lami took a deep breath…

"Haaaa."

…and exhaled.

"Ready."

It was time to practice his mana control.

'Concentrate, feel the mana, and slowly circulate it around your body.'

Lami repeated his mother's teachings.

'Visualize your body; visualize the pathways; circulate your mana along the pathways throughout your body.'

Pathways were like blood vessels, reaching every part of the body. One could feel them after pushing the mana into their body and circulating it around the body. 

With this method, they could visualize the pathways and learn to target a specific point in their body.

It had to be repeated until getting the perfect visualization.

To Lami, this whole process felt like a new vacuuming robot mapping the whole house.

.

..

…

"Haaa, haaaa."

After a few hours, his heart was working at full throttle, and his breathing was heavy. Lami had stopped circulating the mana around his body.

It was a lot harder than it sounded, but Lami at least got the knack of it.

It was almost 7 o'clock. Lami hadn't realized how much time truly had passed since he was too immersed in his training.

After packing his stuff and making sure not to leave any rubbish behind, Lami walked to the bus stop and entered his bus.

His gaze once again fell onto the dimensional ring.

He wasn't sure if activating the ring now was a good idea. A bad omen was making its presence known.

Lami was quite hesitant.

'What if it wasn't given by Mom?'

It was Lami's paranoia talking. 

He was certain his mother gave it. 

As various thoughts raced through his mind, he concluded.

'I will activate the ring in the hospital. If it somehow injures me, at the very least I won't die.'

That last thought sent shivers down his spine. Although he had a bad feeling about the ring, he also felt it was something important to him. 

It scenery might have shocked others, but he was used to it. For Lami, the outskirts he lived in were nothing but a shithole.

The same kind of familiarity he felt from the tattoo was also lingering around the ring. 

It was a hard feeling to describe.

Lami observed the change of scenery as the bus ventured deeper and deeper into the city.

For the past few years, he had lived in the northern slums of Crownspire, the continent's capital.

The city was named after the spire-like towers surrounding the royal palace. 

The Union was the official 'government' of the continent, but every law and order had to be approved by King Alaric Silverblade and his wife, Queen Isabella Silverblade.

[NEXT STOP: CENTRAL HOSPITAL]

Lami was brought back to his senses by a neutral, robotic voice. He hadn't realized how much time truly had passed.

Central Hospital was close to downtown. Being a state-funded hospital, the facilities didn't utilize state-of-the-art technologies like those in privately owned ones. 

Lami had heard that the clinics at the academy were also top-notch.

Lami entered the hospital and waited for his turn. Soon, his name appeared on the holographic screen. 

He briefly explained his problem to one of the doctors before proceeding to the room he was assigned.

The room was meant for two patients, but luckily, he was the only one there at the time. Shortly after, a doctor arrived accompanied by a nurse.

Usually, in cases of broken bones, doctors would apply a serum with healing properties.

Since potent healing potions were rare and extremely expensive, they were often diluted with other medications and then applied as a serum. 

Depending on the severity of the injury, the time needed to fully heal would vary—broken bones usually took anywhere from a day to a week to heal.

"Mr. Stern, I will administer the serum to you now. You should be as good as new in two days," said the middle-aged doctor, holding the serum bag.

After the doctor and the nurse left the room, Lami was left all alone with his thoughts.

He was anxious as there was no single mention of the attack.

Absolutely nothing.

Although his mother was confident they wouldn't kill her, Lami couldn't shake his fear of the worst outcome. 

He certainly didn't want her to die, but he was also aware that some fates were worse than death.

He wasn't an unreasonable person who couldn't stay logical under stress. At least, Lami didn't think he was.

It was clear that whoever the Apostles were, they didn't do things officially. 

But Lami still couldn't understand how no one batted an eye at the ruckus and chaos. The worst part was that there was nothing he could do about his ordeal.

'For now, the less I know the better."

Lami was extremely weak at the moment; carelessly trying to learn about the Apostles could get him killed.

He didn't know how far their arms reached so he needed to collect the information without raising suspicion, confidentially.

Sigh-

Having nothing else to do, Lami started training his mana control once again.

…

A day passed with Lami training most of the time. While his pain subsided within this time, the hospital food made him feel even more sick.

"I want to throw up and wash my stomach. …What did I even eat?"

Lami contemplated his past choices and begged the gods for forgiveness of his past sins. He was disgusted by what he ate, but the feeling went away.

Suddenly.

Lami's eyes were locked onto his left index finger, where a dark ring was sitting.

"Now or never," Lami pushed a small amount of mana to the ring and closed his eyes.

It felt like it was time. 

"I am safe…"

Seeing he was safe, he decided to check for the contents of the ring, and what he saw inside made him freeze.

Pat! Pat! Pat!

Lami's voice was full of surprise and shock. In front of him were clothes—a lot of them. Pants, t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, a couple of suits, jackets, and more. 

There were at least two hundred pieces of clothing laid out before him.

Most of them were menswear, but he could also see a bunch of dresses and other stuff for women. As far as he could tell, all of them looked high quality.

"This is everything Mom and I have made in the last couple of months."

His mother worked day and night to make the highest quality clothing possible. They had finished so many products together, and Lami was supposed to buy an ad space this month. 

They were somewhat hopeful of their future.

Lami tilted his eyes, frowning.

'How things turned out to be... But, seeing how she put everything in the ring, was she aware of what was to come?' Lami mused, but he couldn't come to any conclusion.

There was a note among the clothes. Picking it up Lami started reading it out.

"Dear son, wear what you want and sell or gift the rest. The best dress is for the one you will fall for, smiley face."

Lami's face fell abruptly after the last sentence.

"For the one I will fall for, a smiley face? I am not gifting anyone anything; the dresses can go for 500- each. The material is top quality, and so is the craftsmanship."

Lami wasn't amused. He promised his mother to make the business work after all.

"But still… Even if I sell everything, I won't be able to start the business as there won't be any new stuff after emptying the stocks. I need to get better at sewing," Lami said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

His eyes locked onto the paper once again, and Lami's pursed lips turned into a small but mirthful smile.

"..."

For a short while, Lami's mother had lost all her usual blissfulness, but with the help of Lami, she slowly got her old self back. She was someone full of hope, and that radiated happiness wherever she went.

Storing the clothes back, Lami once again pushed his mana into the ring; this time imagining the dimensional space in his mind.

He could vividly see the remainder of the last three items and summoned the first one.

t was a small polished brown wooden box. It didn't look that interesting from the outside, so Lami decided to open it.

Tak!

Thud!

As soon as he had opened the box, his grip went loose, and the box dropped to the ground flatly. 

Nothing came out of the box after dropping, but Lami was even more frozen than the last time.

"I didn't see it wrong, did I?" 

Lami's voice was shaky.

In the box were banknotes, a lot of them, each of them being 500 Crowns. Lami shook off the daze and picked up the box from the floor.

"1, 2, 3, 4, …, 16, …" 

"398,399,400!" he shouted. There were 400 banknotes, which meant…

"200,000 Crowns. What the actual fuck, where did she get all this money from?"

He lingered for a while then turned his attention back to the wooden box; there were two more things inside. 

"Lami, you probably asked yourself where I got this money from. The answer is easy: I killed and robbed when you weren't around; some of it is also from laundering and illegal fight clubs. You know, the shady ones." 

Lami stopped reading immediately.