Under the Bandages

Whilst they were waiting for the other doctor and the nurse Alexander took the chance to look around a bit more. He tried to see if he could make out any of the writing on the books on the shelves. Unfortunately it was all written in some unknown script. No magical spells having been placed on him to allow him to read during his unconscious period. Even if he had learnt about the existence of magic it didn't seem like that meant he would suddenly gain powers. At least no powers that allowed him to read whatever script had been used on the spines of those books.

The doctor noticed Alexander was looking, well more accurately staring, at the bookshelves.

"I see you are interested in books. Do you know how to read the script?"

"Yes sir, I am very interested in books, but I don't know how to read at all. From what I have learnt mostly everyone from Holther is the same. Which you should have remembered from guessing where I was from yesterday."

"Haha, yeah, forgot that in the moment, it isn't everyday you experience someone apparently healing as rapidly as you have. And no need for the sir, you can call me Doctor Linden if you like. I must say I am somewhat surprised that you would be interested in books, I assume you haven't seen any before joining the military?"

"I think the inn I worked inn for a few years before enlisting had a ledger at least. But yeah, I haven't really seen any books before I arrived at Fort Exor. They just seem really fascinating to me. Someone's thoughts or speech being accessible long after they have died. Being able to experience that is some of why I would love to read. Though I don't think I will ever have the opportunity to learn to read, I was found as a baby by a priest and given to a orphanage run by a monastery. There I stayed until they closed down and had to travel to Tirmandal where I ended up being caught trying to take food from an inn. Then I stayed at that inn until hearing about the army recruiting. I wanted to enlist since it would be my only real opportunity to make something of myself I thought. But now here I am a prisoner of you."

Doctor Linden smiled bitterly at what Alexander had said. And he could understand why the kid had enlisted. From what he had heard back in Miran there were few to no opportunities for the normal peasant in Holther. If you were to be a orphan as well you would basically only have two options. Option one was to do what Alexander had done and enlist. The second option was to become a pickpocket and hope you didn't get caught.

"I'm sorry kid, I wish I could help you, but as you yourself stated, you are a prisoner."

The sound of the tent flap parting could be heard. Alexander turned his head to see a man and a woman dressed in similar white robes as Doctor Linden entering the tent.

"Good, now that you two are here we can get started. Alexander please go lie down on the examination table over there."

Alexander nodded to Doctor Linden before moving to the examination table and lying down. Whilst the two doctors and the nurse gathered a bit further away from him. Unfortunately he couldn't make out what they were saying hearing as they were speaking Lareen. For a second it appeared as if the two doctors deferred to the nurse, but that wouldn't make sense.

Looking closer at the nurse she seemed to be in her late twenties or early thirties. She was about 1.60-1.65m tall and seemed to have light brown or dark blonde hair. It wasn't possible to determine the length of her hair since it was tied up and somewhat hidden inside her nurse's cap. From what he could make out due to the distance her eyes seemed to be a dark brown colour. The proportions of her face was almost perfectly symmetrical. Though it seemed to be a face that could easily be lost in a crowd.

What surprised Alexander however was that he didn't feel any kind of sexual or romantic attraction towards her. Thinking about it he hadn't really experienced any such feelings so far in this life. Sure when he was younger he would have ascribed it to his age, but now. When he was 14 in his previous life he quickly fell in love and easily got aroused by women. Could it mean he had a different sexual preference in this life? But then again he hadn't felt anything about men either.

He had heard about people during his previous life that didn't have any sexual or romantic feelings or attraction towards other people. Could it be that he had become asexual or even aromantic? Did he think that it really mattered however? Especially at this point in his life? Perhaps he just had to wait until he was older.

Whilst he was thinking about all this Doctor Linden, the other doctor and the nurse had finished their discussion. They made their way over to the examination table with Alexander on it.

"Are you ready Alexander? We will be removing the bandages on your left arm and hand first to see how it looks okay?"

Alexander nodded to Doctor Linden. They asked Alexander to lift his left arm into the air. Once he had done so they started to remove the bandages with care. Even if he didn't feel pain at the moment and could move it, that didn't mean they should risk causing any problems by rushing it.

When the bandage was finally removed up to his elbow both doctors and the nurse just stared at it. Alexander seeing their stares also looked closely at his arm. Nothing. The only indication of any sort was extremely pink skin. As if his skin had just recently grown in. There was no signs of any burns nor was there any signs of the two bullet wounds.

The two doctors and the nurse started discussing between themselves the moment they snapped out of it. Again Alexander had no real clue as to what they were saying, some words sounded familiar but that was all.

"Okay Alexander, I think we should remove the rest of your bandages and see how the rest of you looks. Are you okay with that? If it looks like it should we will reapply a new set of bandages immediately of course."

Again Alexander only nodded to what Doctor Linden said. They then proceeded to have him stand up so that they could remove the bandages with ease. This time they weren't careful, seeing as they were somewhat excited to see how it looked.

Thus it didn't take long for them to remove the rest of the bandages. Once more the two doctors and the nurse was shocked into silence. When he looked around his body this time Alexander could only see fresh pink skin. If he had ever wanted to shave away the hair on his body, this seemed to be one solution. Given that he ended up healing the same way that was. He didn't really think getting blasted by a ball of fire was a smart way of shaving.

He felt the top of his head and noticed that he also had become bald. Not that it was much of a surprise.

Both of the doctors and the nurse started to carefully touch different parts of his arms and legs to feel how his skin was. It was extremely smooth and Alexander didn't seem to feel much if any discomfort.

"Alexander, could you please step onto this platform here?"

Doctor Linden indicated for him to step onto a large weight. Once he stepped on his weight came to rest at around 36 kg. Doctor Linden nodded slightly at this.

"Hmm, your weight is even back to what within what we expect for someone of your height. And you are sure still that you don't really have any pain except when you are off the drug right?"

"Yes Doctor Linden. At least I think so, I haven't felt anything much really since I got the drugs this morning."

Once more the two doctors and the nurse started talking amongst themselves. Now it was quite obvious that the doctors were deferring to the nurse. She seemed to say something that the doctors wanted to disagree with at first but they quickly changed their minds.

Doctor Linden quickly made his way to one of the bookshelves after the nurse had said something else. Whilst the other doctor bowed slightly to her and hurried out of the tent. Alexander could only stare at their sudden actions. What had she said to them? After a minute or so Doctor Linden pulled a specific book out of the shelf and brought it over to the nurse. She accepted the book and said something to him.

The nurse then leafed quickly through the book before stopping on one of the later pages. She seemed to scan downwards on the page before stopping. A minute or two went by as she was reading what she had looked for in the book. She then lifted her head and stared into Alexander's eyes.

"Alexander. It seems that I will be getting to know you quite well over the coming days. And I would like to officially introduce myself. I am Grand Magus Alice Firestorm, Colonel of the Miran Army, commander of the 3rd special company."