CHAPTER 2 – Getting treated.

(When there is no defined POV, then it's the third-person POV.)

"Urgh…"

A muffled groan left the lips of a boy with red hair and golden eyes.

He couldn't help it, even if he had a high pain tolerance, it was still painful when someone deliberately pressed the bullet wounds on your body.

"Hm, these are going to leave more scars on your body…."

The boy looked up at the person who muttered those words.

He observed the man as he lay on the bed.

Black hair, black eyes, and a pretty average face—not something that would leave a lasting impression on someone.

That was what the boy would describe the looks of the man as.

That man's name was Gulshan Singh.

He was the chief of this secluded village, a village that was 'self-sufficient', or so Gulshan told the boy.

But the boy was not just anyone; he was the greatest assassin ever seen in the history of the world, so he easily noticed the signs of malnourishment on the man's body.

Thin, dry, inelastic, pale, and cold skin—the boy noticed all this the moment Gulshan touched his body to check up on his injuries.

Hollow cheeks and sunken eyeballs—those two features were as clear as day to the boy.

Then there was dry and sparse hair on Gulshan's head, and they looked like they would fall out easily.

However, did the boy care about all of those things? No.

He was grateful that they saved him, but that was all.

He didn't ask for their help; they did it on their own accord.

Yes, he had hoped for someone to save him when he was dying before, but now it was different.

'Hm?'

Just then, the boy felt a pair of eyes looking at him curiously.

'Misty Singh.'

The boy recalled the name of the girl.

She was the daughter of Gulshan, which automatically made her the daughter of the chief, and that means she was pretty well known in the village.

Not like there were many people in the village to be famous among.

She had black hair just like her father, while her eyes were blue, which were inherited from her mother, or so Gulshan told the boy earlier.

Misty was the one who found the boy in his almost-dead state, and she was the one who shouted when she saw him awake.

If not for the girl, the boy would've died.

She was the one who called for her father, and that was how the boy was saved.

Misty was a teenager, just like the boy, but unlike him, who was in his late teens, the girl had just entered her teen years.

The boy noticed that, unlike Gulshan, Misty was perfectly healthy, and the boy could tell why it was so.

'These villagers probably fed their children better even if they had to sleep empty stomached.'

The boy hasn't seen anyone other than Gulshan and Misty, but he could guess the situation of the village just by looking at these two.

"So, Alex, what do you do for a living?"

Gulshan, who was using a stone grinder to grind the herbs for the boy asked without looking away from the grinder.

He had seen the injuries on Alex's body before, and he was shocked to the core when he saw so many bullet and knife scars on a teenager's body.

Although Gulshan lived in this secluded village, he was not a fool.

So, he had some guesses, but he still asked Alex about it.

And yes, the boy's name was Alex Matthew.

He had to introduce himself as a common courtesy when they introduced themselves, so he told them about his name before.

However, just as the boy turned to look at Gulshan and saw him grinding medicine, something strange happened.

[Basic Royal Medical Arts detected.]

[Replicating the methodology….]

*Swish*

Alex, who saw the strange golden screen in front of his eyes, had his eyes widen before he jumped up on the bed. He was lying with his knife, ready to attack.

No one knew when he picked up the knife, but the knife that was kept on the bedside table was now in his hand.

*Gasp*

*Crash**Clatter*

Misty gasped in fright as she clutched the door she was holding harder, while Gulshan stood up in fright, ignoring the precious herd that fell to the ground.

'Who's it?!'

Alex asked out loud in his mind as his heart raced against his rib cage.

[The Host's condition has been deemed unsuitable for continued procedure.]

[Beep]

[Beep]

[Operations will be suspended until the host returns to an optimal state.]

'Who are you?!'

Alex questioned again as his grip around his knife tightened, causing his knuckle to turn white.

"It's all right, there's no need to tell me anything, I won't ask anything, I'm sorry!"

Gulshan hurriedly spoke in fear as he raised his arms in surrender.

'Ah….'

Alex broke out of his hyperventilative state and started trying to calm his breathing.

'What was that?'

Whatever sound he heard in his head was gone now; it was not responding.

Although he wasn't sure, he felt like his heart rate increased because of whatever the hell that was.

However, as he looked at Gulshan and Misty, all he saw was fear in their eyes.

'Sigh….'

Alex sighed inwardly before he sat down on the bed.

"I am sorry for the sudden outburst."

Alex spoke as he kept the knife back on the bedside table.

He didn't talk about what happened because he was sure that whatever that was, it was only visible and audible to him.

Gulshan and Misty exchanged a look of hesitation and uncertainty before Gulshan took a deep breath.

'He was breathing rapidly while his heart was beating so loud that I could hear it even though I was standing this far out…'

Gulshan looked at Alex as he recalled what happened a second ago.

'Is it a past trauma? Trauma so deep that the mere mention of it might cause such a huge reaction from him?'

Gulshan didn't know what happened, but from what it looked to him, he concluded that his words caused a deep trauma inside of Alex's mind to surface.

Gulshan took a deep breath again before walking toward the chair, ready to start another round of grinding herbs for Alex.

"Um…"

Misty was scared right now. The look in Alex's eyes when he picked up the knife was scary, so she tried to stop her father, but Gulshan just smiled at her.

'It's fine.'

He didn't know if he was trying to reassure Misty or himself, but he thought that it was for Misty.

'Just leave me to my own devices.'

Alex saw all of that, and he didn't understand why they were even helping him in the first place. 

But how would he have known that Gulshan and Misty saw their late son and brother in him, respectively?