"With this, the matter should be finally over. I can only repeat how sorry I am. Without my oversight, none of this would have happened," Commander Allvar said in an upright, yet regretful voice. He had specifically come to pick up Teo from school today to inform him of the latest news.
The masked assassin he had fought was caught last night and had been promptly executed without much of a trial.
Apparently, this had all been part of some desperate revenge plot an escaped criminal had tried to set up for Jack's father, but Teo did not care about the why anymore. He was sick of that question.
"Well, I won't bother you any more than necessary. Greet Jack for me, will you?" the Commander grinned and hopped off the carriage. He still had work to do near the town center and could not follow Teo to the hospital, even though he probably would have liked to.
"Thank you, Mr. Jumpheart. I will."
Teo performed a slight bow and bid the man farewell politely.
Some time had passed since the incident, and some of his scars had healed, mentally, and physically. Others had not.
Teo's leg was still wrapped up like a dumpling, supported by a solid scaffolding to prevent any mishaps.
It did not hurt as much anymore, and the healing was making good progress due to his extraordinary physique, he just hated to stumble around on crutches and could not wait to
Apparently, the constant Mana compression and supercharging over the years had improved the natural enrichment process of his body just as intended.
He had initially thought of it as pointless babble, but by now, he could already see its effects in action. Shallow wounds and abrasions healed in barely half the time it took a healthy youth, and his broken bones mended themselves at an extraordinary rate. He even had to lie to the healers during checkups, concealing his progress so as not to draw too much attention on himself.
Naturally, a gruesome injury such as this still took a tremendous time to fully heal and severely handicapped Teo in his daily life.
But there was good news too.
Jack's condition had improved continuously over the last month, and it was not long before he would finally be discharged. He must have gotten quite rusty from all the rest.
Goliath had also woken up around two weeks ago and had asked a lot of questions, once again stirring up all the emotions inside Teo. He was forced to relive that night again.
The small Golem had spent a lot of effort on consoling Teo since then, trying to reassure him that it was not his fault, that he had done nothing wrong — but it was too little, too late.
When Teo had needed him the most, he was not by his side. When he had needed someone to talk to, someone to share his burden and comfort him, Goliath had just been a mute rock in his pocket.
Of course, it was not his fault. He knew that. Teo did not blame him, nor was he angry at him for any reason. It was merely a fact that Goliath had been unable to soften the blow which his young mind had suffered from.
His "new" family had been just as useless. They had tried to be there for him, at least some of them, but it was just not the same. There was still an unbridgeable distance of some sort between them.
And meeting his parents... Teo did not dare to right now. He just couldn't.
They had been informed of his injury, of course, but Teo had literally begged his grandfather to leave out how exactly it happened — he feared, they might not take it well.
The carriage stopped abruptly, and from the small window, Teo could already see the large building he frequented lately.
He got off with the help of his driver, Phillip, and walked towards the entrance on his wooden crutches.
This was the largest and maybe even the only real clinic in Sigella. Of course, there were other healers, but many chose to work alone from home, opening their shabby huts at the edge of the forest for the treatment of patients.
It was the traditional way. In a certain sense, it was the clinic that was weirdly out of place here.
The Association had revolutionized and changed many aspects of daily life in the last hundred years. The establishment and promotion of public schools, clinics, and bathhouses in most major cities was a radically new approach to providing infrastructure that improved the lives of many people significantly.
Of course, "public" had to be taken with a pinch of salt since most faculties still demanded compensation for the operating cost, but considering the previous system, it was already a fantastic achievement.
As soon as Teo hopped through the door, he had already caught the eye of the female receptionist who was an especially big fan of his.
"Oh good day, little Mr. Grassdown. Here to visit your friend again, are we?" she said with a bright smile shining from ear to ear.
Gossip came as second nature to this lively, middle-aged women, and she was especially fond of this small patient standing in front of her. His dramatic and tragic backstory was just to her taste, bringing her close to tears every time she thought about it.
"Good afternoon, Theresa. How is Jack doing today?" replied Teo amiably when he finally reached the counter. He could not stand the women, but it brought no benefit to offend her unnecessarily.
"Same old, same old. He is being taken good care of; if you know what I mean," the lady said and gave him a wink.
Teo did not know what she meant.
He chose to abstain from further questions though, and passed straight through the white door beside her desk, entering the patient's ward.
It was a pretty modern facility, practicing traditional Light Magic, Herbology, and Medicine. They even had their own research unit to explore possible new treatments. In fact, less than half of the building was open for patients and even less for visitors.
The scarcity of healers with a strong Light Element Affinity had always been a problem when treating the sick, and Herbology had been the only affordable solution for most people, even given its low effectivity when used as the sole method of treatment.
After the rise of the Association, they had heavily supported the study of medicine and the other disciplines of what they called "science", and it spread over the continent like wildfire.
Healers began to study new unmagical ways of treatment, the makeup of the human body, and how the various herbs and diseases affected it. The number of lives it must have saved over the years is probably uncountable.
After passing through a long and sparsely decorated corridor, Teo finally stood in front of Jack's room. Number 143, yes, this was it. He gently knocked on the door and waited for an answer.
"Come in!" Jack's voice came from the other side of the door.
"Well, if it isn't my brother and savior. How was school today?" Jack said enthusiastically when Teo stepped into the small room.
Words like these still felt like burning needles digging into his skin, especially when they came from Jack himself, but Teo did not move a muscle on his face. Instead, he equipped a compelling smile and reciprocated the greeting. He had already become accustomed to it.
"Same as always. I brought you some of your favorite pastries today. You know, the ones with the meat filling," Teo said and put a small bag onto the table.
Angelika, who sat on a simple stool beside Jack's bed, greeted him as well. It seemed like she had been here for a while. This would at least explain why she had not been in school for the last two subjects.
"Hi, Teo. How is your leg doing?" she asked with her sweet voice while giving him a caring look.
"Still broken, but I think it's getting better," he replied.
The mood between the three had taken on a slightly awkward undertone since the unfortunate incident.
Jack did not put too much thought into it. He was just extremely grateful to Teo for saving his life and hovered on cloud nine most of the time as Angelika would take care of him a lot.
Teo, on the other hand, was still fighting with his feelings of guilt, which were only aggravated further by every word of gratitude coming from Jack, as well as the general lingering fear of death and emptiness. Unable to share his burden with anyone, he just continued to build walls around himself.
Meanwhile, Angelika was caught up in between the two and was just trying to patch things up and make it how it had been before. She would always worry about the boy's health and try to lighten up the mood —with little success.
Some things took a long time to heal, but eventually, everything would scab over —even if some scars would remain forever.