Chapter 16 - The Echo of War

Birmingham. April 4 , 1914

Time [6:27:54]

It was early morning. At this time, a middle-aged woman was sitting in the living room. Her voluptuous body was wrapped in a bathrobe, and her flushed face was proof that she had just taken a bath.

After taking a sip of black tea, she put the cup on the counter and picked up the newspaper. Her gaze skimmed over the words written on it. As she read each line, her face became paler and paler.

- "Oh my God.. Horror!" - the woman did not even notice that at that moment her voice was so loud that everyone who was in the apartment heard her.

In the bedroom, Victor was lying on the bed with his eyes open. He didn't sleep a wink that night. There was only calmness in his head.

He heard Elizabeth's voice on the other side of the door, but he didn't pay attention to it because he didn't care about this woman.

After activating the system, he looked at his statistics, skills, abilities, even every information about the item that was in his inventory. When he finished looking at every detail, his gaze darted to his HP parameter.

At the moment, it was 15 points, which was almost 1.5 times more than what he had when he first received the system along with his memory.

- 'System, can this really work? Victor asked the system. Although he knew that the system would respond with the same response as before, but the system's response made him feel calmer.

[Right.]

{Are you sure you want to exchange your 10 HP for a healing potion?}

It might be a crazy decision for another person, but for me it was like a mountain off my shoulders. Turning to the girl who stuck to my body like a koala, I took her lock of hair and inhaled.

This smell is really special.

"'Yes,' I said.

[Ding!]

[An exchange is being made.]

[The host is advised to prepare, as the process will be painful.]

I knew about this, so I quickly got out of bed and sat on the floor so as not to disturb Emilia's sleep. The sun was shining in my face, showing its sunrise. But also the day when it will be the last pleasant sunrise in this city.

After the system finished speaking, my body seemed to shrink in a vice. My bones began to crack, as if all the energy was being squeezed out of them. Sweat trickled down my body as if I had just stood in the pouring rain.

- "Ugh.." - holding back the scream, I threw my body forward, since I could no longer control the sitting position.

After a minute, the pain finally stopped, but I had the feeling that I had lost something. Feeling the coolness in my hand, I saw that there was a small test tube with a red liquid in it.

[Exchange completed.]

[The Healing Potion has been successfully obtained.]

"Is there supposed to be a stupid smile on my face right now?" I muttered, looking at the ceiling.

{Yes.}

- 'Fuck you.. I think you're getting more and more human. I thought to myself.

It took 2 fucking years for me to be able to do this. How much I had to endure intense training to bring my body to the limit. Every step towards raising at least 1 HP point was a hell of a test. But it was worth it..

Somehow getting to my feet, which were shaking uncontrollably, I walked slowly to the desktop. Taking a white sheet of paper out of the drawer, I began to write.

I don't know how long it took me, but when I finished the last line, my hand was already shaking.

After hiding the piece of paper back in the drawer, I looked at the test tube with the liquid and decided to look at the information through the system.

________________________________

[Item – Healing Potion]

[Rating - ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆]

[This potion is able to cure any disease. If a person is near death (1HP), this potion is able to restore his health to the maximum. ]

[Number of uses - 1 ]

________________________________

The price of the item with the maximum rating is 2/3 of my life. Maybe I'm really crazy to do this.

- "It doesn't sound very..." - I said out loud and put the potion in the drawer.

I looked out of the window for a while enjoying the last calm morning, which can hardly be called calm anymore.

April 4, the time when Great Britain declares war on Germany. Together with Great Britain, its dominions — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa and the largest colony of India - enter the war.

Turning my head, I looked at the sleeping girl on the bed for a long time. I tried not to miss the smallest detail on her face. Especially noteworthy was her mole near her lips, which made her even more attractive.

Maybe when I come back, this girl will already find a boyfriend. Given her appearance, I'm afraid to imagine how many grooms will run under the windows and shout words of love about her.

It had been a long time, but the weakness in the body was just as strong. Heading to the closet, I took out all my things and packed them into a large bag that I had prepared yesterday.

I kissed the girl on the forehead and left the room with a quiet step.

- "I hope you won't forget me.." - I said, looking at the bedroom window from the street, where now every first passerby was in a state of fear.

...

...

- "Viktor Romanov! Didn't I tell you to wake Emilia up at 7 in the morning already?! Have you read the news?!" the woman shouted the moment she opened the door.

But instead of seeing the boy, she saw her niece who was looking at her with open eyes, as if not understanding what was happening.

- "Aunt, where is my brother?" Emilia asked.

"How do I know where your Victor is?" - Elizabeth answered the question with a question, but she was also a little surprised not to see the boy.

Emilia, who was sitting on the bed, touched an empty spot on the bed that was still warm, which meant that her brother was with her that night. But this is the first time in several years that she hasn't seen him after she woke up.

She was used to seeing his soft face every morning. But now she was clearly panicking from misunderstanding. For her, not seeing her brother was a fear she never wanted to think about, but now that he was gone, it was like a terrible dream.

- "Aunt? Didn't you see him this morning?" The girl asked with panic in her voice.

- "No.. I thought he was here with you." The woman said and turned to check on him in the other rooms. But after searching for a while, she never found it. So she went to the closet with the boy's things and when she opened it, but it was empty.

The only thing that came to Elizabeth's mind was that the boy found out about what was written in the newspaper and decided to run away. Her cold gaze was getting stronger, so after a little thought, she returned to her niece's room and noticing how she was looking at her, after a little hesitation, she still said: - "He's not here.."

- "It can't be... I-I.. I do not believe.. He wouldn't leave me... no.. I won't believe it for anything.." - now the girl was clearly in a mess.

The woman did not wait for her answer, but put the newspaper in front of the girl and left the room.

Noticing that Aunt Elizabeth had put it down, she immediately picked up the newspaper and began to read. When she was done with it, her whole body was trembling, and a stream of tears began to flow down her delicate cheeks.

* Sob * * Sob*

- "Victor.. I-I can't do it without you.. N-don't leave m-me alone.." - just saying his name, her voice broke and she began to cry hysterically.

The sounds of her crying could be heard even by Elizabeth, who was sitting in a chair and could not gather her thoughts.

- "First the war, now Victor.." - the woman muttered.