Special Chapter XX - Awaken (part 1)

Oh...

Did I… die again?

I hope I didn't... It sucks to die twice, you know.

I really couldn't feel anything. My whole senses just... disappeared.

Only my mind is left. Though, I do feel like I'm dreaming…

Is this… a dream? 

Was this whole thing really a dream?

Is me dying and transferred into a whole new world, a dream?

Is me trying so hard to live… a dream?

No… these memories felt very real…

Did I really get transformed into a female…? No way, right?

CLING!!

What was that!?

Gees, that scared the shit out of me.

What… What is this light…?

And just like that, my eyes were forced open.

Stuck on the roof, is the ceiling light made of a single light crystal, hanged by a rope. The light was bright enough to light the entire room, giving me the ability to see them. The roof alone seemed to be made out of thatch, with a little bit of wooden foundation.

Wait… Where am I?

I tried moving my eyes, and I can see the room I'm in. This seemed like a house, and I seemed to be on the bed.

There is a table right next to me, and a glass along with the spoon above it. The spoon is inside the glass, and I assumed that it must be what that sound from earlier was about.

Can I… move?

I tried moving my fingers, and they twitched a little bit. After trying some more, I was able to move my hand. 

So I can move my hand... Then what about my body?

I slowly pushed myself up. It didn't take long before I regret doing that, since my entire body was just in pain. But that pain immediately disappeared when I realized the condition I am in.

My whole body was covered in bandages. My hands are 100% bandaged, and my forehead was bandaged to the back of my head. I lifted the blanket, and I can see my legs were also fully bandaged.

I'm not sure that my body was that bad, or that the person who bandaged me was just terrible with using bandages that covered up my entire body. But after sensing them, I acknowledge that it was the former.

Something… felt wrong.

My hand… It felt weird.

I tried peeling the bandage on my hand open. As soon as I saw just a slight glimpse of what was on the other side, my eyes immediately shut close. I would rather have it stayed closed like it was before. 

I put the bandage back to where it belonged and tapped it.

"There, there, scar... Please heal."

I said to the wound calmly, then I turned my attention to the rest of my condition.

I'm wearing a different set of clothes now. A casual long yellow dress, for women. At this point, I'm not even surprised anymore. In fact, this looked pretty.

I looked around to see the environment around me. This house seemed to be quite poor, but the furniture was quite adequate. The table right next to the bed had a glass on top of it, and there was only a single glass.

I moved my body towards the table and picked up the glass to see the content.

Ugh. Smells like crap.

It's definitely a type of medicine.

I'll drink that later when I find someone who's responsible.

I threw the blanket away and stepped down from the bed. I can feel my body aching, but it's not that bad that I have to stay in bed forever. In fact, I feel like I'd be worse if I stayed in bed.

I used a little bit of magic energy to support my movement, and as a result I can walk properly now. As for the pain… let's not talk about it.

I walked to the door and checked out the house without creating any sound. And after looking at everything, I can deduce that this is not a house. It's like a hospital… that was made out of thatch.

Interesting.

The beds here were well made too, even though it was made of traditional materials. The tables, and other furniture are made of wood. I'm not sure why the glass is made out of glass, but somehow they are rich enough to buy glass.

This is definitely a hospital. There were multiple other rooms besides the one I was at, and it's quite weird how there is nobody else in this building.

Probably because I'm the only one sick or dying. After walking around, I finally found the door that leads to the exit.

"Fuh... Here we go."

I slowly opened the door, and the sunlight immediately burned my eyes. I used my hand to cover my eyes from the sun, and had a look around once my eyes were okay.

The first thing I noticed is the beach. Or rather, it's a village that was made right next to the beach, but it's still a beach.

It's a beach village.

I should have smelled the ocean from inside the building, and probably should have noticed the sands on the entrance. But it's still the beach!

It's a village next to a beach!

A perfect spot for holidays!

Wait, I'm actually not dead, am I?

A place like this can probably be counted as a heaven for some people. I'm totally not dead, right!?

Outside the building, there are people doing their own things. A lot of them are so busy doing their jobs that they didn't notice me opening the door. After all, this building seemed to be quite far from the rest of the buildings here.

"Wha-"

Right next to the door, a sound came out. No, it's a voice.

I turned to see where the voice came from, but I had to look down to recognize.

On my right, right next to the exit door I am at, is a single child. From his looks, he looked to be around five to seven years old.

But what's weird is his expression when he saw me at the door. 

I immediately put on a smile on my face and greeted the terrified boy.

"W-Well, hello there."

"M-Mm..."

"Mm?"

"Mama!!!!!"

The child immediately shouted as he ran towards the village. Everyone else stared at the child running, and then they turned their gaze at me. 

And everything just turned… hectic.

"She's awake!!"

"Quick!! Call them!!"

The villagers became somewhat restless. Some of them ran away, panicking, while two were running this way towards me.

"Y-You must b-be Rize, right??"

The young man who was carrying fruits on top of his head suddenly dropped his stuff and ran towards me. The other one also came running from the other buildings.

With great confusion, I answered his question.

"Y-Yes?"

"G-Great!!"

"Great…?"

The young man stared at his friend, and they both just didn't know what to do or say to me.

"Maybe we should... You should... go back inside."

The two young villagers asked me to enter the hospital again, into the room where I supposedly woke up and was being treated. 

Obviously, I had no clue what was going on, so I will just have to follow. I know that none of them planned to do anything bad to me, after all I wouldn't be covered in bandages if they did.

So I simply followed their suggestion, but those two didn't follow me.