Waking Up

Sitting by the bed side, Francis did not know how much time had passed. First he looked after Kaleb, someone he knew from back home. But now also James was out. The wound in his shoulder was infected, causing it to spread to his whole body. The past few days James was agonizing in pain. His head even felt warm to touch.

From time to time, some of the church priests visited the infirmary to pray for the wounded. Not knowing if it's because of these prayers, or something else, but since this morning color returned to James his face. His body temperature also dropped significantly. The medics told that these were good signs.

With that, Francis had more hope to the wellbeing of James. Yesterday Kaleb even left the infirmary after a long time of being looked after, so if James also woke up and improved his health, which would be a good period of time for Francis.

Looking at James, who was lying on the bed in front of him, Francis noticed that James' shoulder was wrapped in cloth bandages. He remembered how it all looked without the bandages. He even remembered the scene where bone was exposed. It sure was a deep bite mark that was left behind. In his heart, Francis felt anger towards the demonic beasts as he thought to himself, "No wonder that these are the spawns of hell! As they can even infect people with their bites."

"What are you thinking about?" a soft and distend voice called out to Francis. Being distracted in thoughts, Francis did not notice that James had opened up his eyes. Looking at James, Francis noticed that James was looking at him with a weak face.

Happiness filled his heart. Opening up his mouth, Francis was speechless for a moment, before he responded, "I was thinking about the things you told me on the battlefield. About why the demonic beasts even attack us."

Hearing this, James remembered how he acted back then. It was clear that James felt ashamed by his behavior, as he tried to avoid eye contact. Coughing a bit, James looked back at Francis and said, "Well, I should apologize for my behavior back then. I put you in a lot of danger." After those words, James tried to look at the other side as he softly said, "Also, thank you for saving me."

With those words, James also remembered that he had to also apologize from Sir Edward. He was actually the one that risked his life to get him out of the situation. Moreover he was also the one that pulled him back from the darkness. With that, James asked, "What happened to Sir Edward? Did he survive the fray? What is he doing now?"

Hearing those questions, Francis' face turned dark. Trying to avoid eye contact, Francis said, "Well, about that… because Sir Edward put the whole army and the even the city in danger, he has been removed from power and is absent for the past few days. No one actually knows what happened to him afterwards. There are even rumors that the prince has exiled him from the army."

Hearing these words, James' heart sank. He did not know how to respond to this. Thinking how it all went, James felt that he was responsible for Sir Edward being removed from power. As guilt crept up in his heart, he started to think about what happened, "If only he did not make that stupid mistake. If only he did not make Sir Edward risk himself in order to save him. It was entirely his fault."