The Diagnosis

The two are going silent. Krilo does not know how to respond, hearing Niva's statement. The boy too waits for what the compfreund is going to say. Uneasiness clearly written well in his young face. He somewhat regretted what he said earlier.

"What happened after that? Did something strange happen?" Krilo is once again curious. But now is for the sake of extracting information.

The boy's index finger and thumb rubs gently on his chin. He is now thinking more intensively than when he formulated the word from the previous statement. "No. After that, The Richter is captured, and some months later, It's The Colossus' turn to get captured by the blues."

Krilo fixes his position in bed steadily. The two questions he asks Niva is basically a toe-dipping act. His initial purpose is to know how willing his companion is to share the history with Krilo. But maybe he overestimated the secrecy of his question.

"How many casualties are there?" Krilo asks again.

"I don't know. History tells that over 800.000 people died during the invasion." The boy nonchalantly answered.

Krilo's eyes widened. From the book he read, the region alone has 600.000 inhabitants. But Krilo refused to swallow all the information he received. Especially when the information comes from the perpetrator kingdom itself.

"Wait? What village are we in again? You didn't tell me the details earlier."

"Oh yeah, almost forgot," exclaimed Niva. "We are in the village of Sari. It is east of Nucleo Town, region capital of Centriol."

Krilo never heard the name of the village before. A small settlement hidden in the forest he thinks.

"Wait, how the hell did you get past the reds? Aren't we a fugitive now?" The compfreund finally knows something was amiss. There is no way The Reds haven't made a search party, especially when the fugitives are a member of the big house and a criminal.

"Family matters are settled by each of their own families. It is up to stepfather and mother to gather the search party. But if it concerns me, mother … usually dispatches her own compfreund. A three headed green hawk, a strong one, I hope you can stand a chance against her."

"Green compfreund. Where does your mother come from anyway?" Krilo can't help buat asks anyway.

A knock on the other side of the room immediately distracts the compfreund. It is loud so he cannot dismiss it. "Someone knocking outside, won't you open the door?" asks Krilo politely.

There is a hint of sadness in Niva's eyes. 'Is he trying to hide something from me?' Krilo knows this but keeps to himself.

"Oh really? Wait for a sec, okay buddy." He smiled for a bit and rushed outside, not forgetting to close the bedroom door.

'Wait, does my hearing sense increase?' Krilo finally thinks of another way to gather information. Unsatisfied with what his companion tells him. Talks behind his ear might work.

Footsteps of the boy can be heard by Krilo. The door handle opens. The sound of a woman greets the boy. This tone of voice … It's Lula's. There are several large footsteps behind her. Sounds like Shervo.

Suddenly he remembers about Fergus. Last time, that guy saved Krilo whilst whispering obscure words. Niva never mentioned about him since. 'Who and where the hell is he?'

Lula asks Niva about Krilo condition. The boy told her that Krilo is fine. Just fine. But Lula sounds upset. She is upset because of how cowardly Niva is for not telling Krilo the truth about the compvet diagnosis.

'Compvet? Is it the pseudonym of companion vet? Just like the companion freund/friend?' The play on words never crossed his mind until now.

The damage to Krilo's body is severe. The compvet grimm statement is that … Krilo half expecting this. The movement in his foot feels funny but not hurting him very much. Just as he thought, the problem is the almost minimal movement generated.

He cannot walk again for the rest of his life.

Krilo then closes his eyes. Thinking about what would happen then. He will be forever stuck in this heavy armor. In this very room. While Niva feeds his useless miserable compfreund. Forever with a pity on his face. I will be his chain until he is bored and leaves me to die.

Forget about revenge. He is too weak to actually punch someone, let alone kill a person. Lula said that he cannot regenerate health as a level 1. His quest to find the yellow essence made him impossible to level up.

One dangerous act crosses his mind. How about he killed himself. Maybe it will bring an easy way out against these circumstances. Or maybe he will be reincarnated/transmigrated once again. And hope that he is fortunate enough to be a free individual.

They stopped talking. Their footsteps are getting louder. Door handle turns and opens, two people now enter the room. Krilo hopes that they don't tell him what he thought they were about to tell him.

Lula shoves the shy Niva in the hip.

"Umm, Krilo, buddy. There is something I am going to tell you as a companion." Niva gets closer to the side of the bed and goes into a kneeling position. The impatient Krilo tries really hard keeping eye contact towards his companion. Even though he already knows what he is about to say.

"Your condition is worse than we thought. It seems that you are incurable and might be paralysed for life. I am sorry for everything." His gentle hand rubs Krilo. The boy really wants to hug the compfreund, but the current condition of the poor Krilo prevents Niva to do so.

"So … our adventure is over then, huh? What happens from now on?"

"I don't know, but I promised …" The boy in front of Krilo is starting to shed tears. His speech becomes unintelligible.

Niva sobs uncontrollably. "I-I promise that … you … will be remembered as … one of the craziest, weirdest, yet kindest compfreund ever lived."

The bed sheet drench in tears from the blue haired boy. A genuine tear that broke a man in pieces. Lula behind him went outside the door. Irregularity in her breathing shows that she is as sad as Niva.

Krilo drags himself with his functional arms toward Niva's head. He rubs the blue wavy hair of his.