Stacey heard the room door open and then a startled footstep.
"Lady Huo?"
The footsteps hurried into the room and searched it. The bathroom door was pulled open and then the guard sank to the floor in front of her with relief. If Stacey didn't remember wrongly, the bodyguard's name was the one called Miao. Maybe. She wasn't sure.
"My lady, are you injured anywhere?" Miao asked her in a tense voice. "Would you like me to call a nurse for you?"
Stacey nodded. May as well go to the toilet before returning to bed. She was so tired it was hard to walk straight.
"You sure you didn't fall?" the nurse reiterated for the umpteenth time.
"I was tired and sat down," Stacey repeated tiredly. "I didn't fall. I didn't hurt myself. I just squatted and then sat down. That's all."
"You gave me a fright," the nurse patted her chest, helping Stacey back into bed. "Next time press your call bell, so that if anything happens, at least I'll be nearby."
Stacey nodded and shut her eyes.
"Looks like the filming has knocked the stuffing out of you," the nurse said. "You're very pale. Shall I let your husband know?"
"You're going to tell him anyway, right?" Stacey lifted one shoulder. "Why ask me? It's fine. It's better if he knows."
"We don't have to tell him everything," the nurse patted Stacey on the shoulder. "You're pretty much an adult now and entitled to some privacy of your own, however as long as he's still listed as your guardian and you're still underage, there are some things we have to tell him. Like falls or events that completely tire you out."
"I'm listed as underage?" Stacey pointed at herself. "But I'm twenty-three!"
"We have you down as nineteen," the nurse told her. "So, twenty-three? You look pretty young for twenty-three. Doctors still reckon your bone age is younger than twenty. They thought nineteen was already pushing the boundaries of what's believable."
"Isn't eighteen the legal age of adulthood?" Stacey rubbed her head.
"No. Twenty is the legal age of adulthood. It's the same across the world. Eighteen is the legal age of marriage if one partner is more than three years older," the nurse frowned.
"How does that make sense? It's ok to have sex before you reach adulthood?" Stacey wrinkled her nose.
"Physical maturity doesn't have anything to do with mental maturity," the nurse shook her head with a laugh. "Where'd you get such funny ideas from? Children can get married as soon as the doctors confirm physical and sexual maturity and that they are ready to have children - but only if one of them is already an adult and considered mentally mature enough to raise babies. If not, the babies are taken to an institution or by adult relatives until the children come of legal age. It's important for us to start bearing children as soon as we can in order to keep up with the birthrates of the beastmen and aren't overrun by them. So it's everyone's responsibility to help bring up children. Not just the parents."
"I don't know," Stacey raised her hands in exasperation. "I've forgotten everything anyway. Who knows if I've remembered my age wrong. It's not like my parents are here. Why aren't they here, anyway? Surely someone has called them? I told someone their names, address and phone numbers. They must be worried sick."
"Stacey," said the nurse with an awkward expression, "I'm sorry, but no one's told you? There's no such phone numbers or address. The places and phone numbers you gave us don't exist."
"Don't exist? What about my address?" Stacey asked.
"That… doesn't exist either," the nurse told her gently, sounding very hesitant. "The doctors think that your mind made up some fictional data in order to try and make sense of everything."
"Does that mean that my name might not be Stacey Wright?" Stacey demanded.
"Well, according to the doctors, a person's name and identity are ingrained things. A person doesn't normally forget their basic information easily, so it's very likely that your name is correct. As for everything else, no one's sure," the nurse explained. "As far as people have worked out, you were definitely well cared for prior to you waking up outside town. You already had a brain injury then and doctors seem to think it was some sort of trauma that resulted in a huge seizure, given your test results from that time. Your mental health according to your records wasn't very good from the day you joined the program and it was at its worst just before the battle. According to your doctor's report, before the battle, you were no longer in your present mind and were somewhat manic."
"Are you telling me I'm bipolar - some sort of manic-depressive disorder?" Stacey sat up, rubbing her head that was starting to ache again.
"No," the nurse said with a small smile. "Well done on remembering such a difficult medical term though. You definitely don't have that disorder, but," the nurse lost her smile and looked a bit afraid, "the report said your symptoms had been induced via berserker training. That is, someone purposely drove you over the edge, supposedly so that it would increase your chances of surviving the battle."
Stacey thought about it for a while. It had been a good thing but at the same time, why did she feel a bit like she'd been violated? What she felt and what came out of her mouth didn't match up, although she tried to change her words.
"Maybe whoever did it was right? I definitely wouldn't have survived the battle like this. I'd either be long dead or have been carried away by those beastmen. Why do the beastmen carry women away though?"
"Because the Ancients and beastmen don't always have enough females of their own," the nurse shuddered. "They do something to the women, otherwise it isn't possible for humans to give birth to other species. After they've done that, the women who have been kidnapped will become docile and able to give birth to whatever Ancient or beast type they're forced under. Even if they escape and return to us, they can't give birth to normal human babies anymore. That's why most girls prefer to kill themselves. It's alright if it was during a battle, the beastmen wouldn't have had time to do anything and so those girls can still be saved. But the ones who have been to the beastmen towns or clans, those ones usually come back just to die."
Stacey shivered.
"The only exceptions are wildlings."
"Wildlings?" Stacey echoed. She'd heard this word somewhere before. Where had she heard it from again?
"Stories say that they're humans who came through black portals from another world. Those people who have been through the stones have been changed in a similar way to whatever the beastmen do to the girls. Not all of them, but the majority of them. The Ancients and gods liked the wildlings the best because they were more likely to bear successful offspring - especially the shapeshifters. Apparently the dragons like them too. More for sex toys than reproduction in the case of the dragons. It's said that any kits born of a human would become slaves or lesser dragons and used as slaves or servants to be sold. There've been no wildlings for decades, so people don't think they exist. They think the ancestral home of the humans is gone. Wildlings are so sought after that nobody cares if they've been married before and aren't virgins - they're that rare. Besides, they're not covered under the Gaius Immortal, Ancient, Human and Beastman Convention."
"Wow," Stacey took a deep breath that made her chest hurt. "Beastmen can shapeshift? Is that like werewolves and stuff?"
"No," the nurse replied, getting ready to leave with her trolley of things. "Werewolves are just myths. Like vampires, fairies and demons. But shapeshifting beastmen are real. Some beasts are just that - beasts. Animals. Some have slightly higher intelligence although they can't shapeshift and those are still considered beasts but intelligent beasts. Intelligent beasts usually will have formed a crystal core or beast stone within their abdomens, although some will develop their crystals in their sinuses. For example, in fully mature female dragons, their crystals will protrude out from the bone just above the space between the eyes," the nurse pointed at the glabella. "The ones that can shape shift are rare high level, intelligent beastmen. The normal shapeshifting beastmen can be hard to identify and some of them may even live among the humans as domesticated animals until something triggers them. You can never be entirely certain an animal is just an animal. The shapeshifters are considered true beastmen and are the highest ranked beastmen with a supression and intimidation effect on lower ranked beastmen. They're smart and cunning and usually quite handsome in human form. They're good at convincing young girls to be with them, so be careful around animals until you consummate your marriage with your husband. You won't be completely safe until then."
Stacey rubbed her forehead. That was a lot of information. It was almost too scary to think about.