"Lea is doing well. The physical therapist is very impressed with her progress."
A little further away from his team's tent, Alan listened to his mom over the phone without interrupting her.
"That's right, Al, do you know when you're coming back?"
He didn't immediately answer.
At a distance, he swept his gaze at the collection team busily pushing a total of five carts full of materials collected from the rift. Not too far away, another team consisting of experienced people was engaged in processing the corpse of an anaconda.
After a short pause, Alan gave an estimate, "Nothing definite yet but maybe in a week."
"Okay, give me a call the second you take off. We love you."
"Love you too."
After the call with his mom, Alan kept staring at his phone screen. His thumb slowly scrolled through the family group chat.
There were tons of photos and videos sent by his parents. It would take him all night to get through them.
He knew it was all about Lea.
At first, he was only going to take a quick look but after seeing one photo of Lea looking very much awake, he was unable to take his eyes off the screen.
The very last time he saw his sister's lively face flashed before him and that brought a sad smile to his face.
In the corner of his heart, he felt responsible for what happened to his sister.
The primary trigger for Hibernation Syndrome was exposure to mana particles. A non-awakened like Lea who never had a close encounter with rifts as they were growing up, he naturally blamed himself.
As the only Awakener in the family who brought this predicament onto them.
He felt even more hopeless as there was nothing he could do to help his sister recover.
Alan played on a recent video sent by his dad.
"What do you think about the cane?"
Lea looked up from the cane to the camera and said, "Now I know how Young Master Ciel feels."
The video lightly shook as their dad failed to muffle a chuckle behind the camera.
"Lea, you shouldn't compare yourself to a fictional character with a vendetta."
The video then zoomed close to Lea's face with their dad asking Lea a second question.
"Do you have anything else to say to the camera? A message to someone maybe?"
"I'm looking forward to the dessert buffet you promised to take me, Al."
Lea smiled at the camera.
The corner of Alan's mouth slowly lifted into a brotherly smile towards the end of the minute-long video.
Just that one video washed away the years of his accumulated exhaustion, though the guilt was still there.
"Leader, how long are you going to stand there like that?"
Alan looked up from his phone and saw Mateo covered in muddy water.
The first thing he said to Mateo who had just come out of the rift was not the usual, 'you made it back safely' and instead, gave him a weary look.
"Mateo, I'm not going to receive another report of complaint, right? Sapphi already told the guild executive that there won't be any incident this time."
"I didn't cause anything to explode this time if that is what you're asking. One of Nolan's kids found a half-fallen tree and we thought we could bring it back with us."
Right as the older Awakener said it, Alan heard the loud clamour.
"Make way! Extra, extra, extra large tree coming through!"
"Push the cart away and bring out all the chainsaws we have!"
The collection team swiftly moved under the commanding voice of their chief.
Awakeners who had been resting in their tent until now came out to take a look. It didn't take long for a loose semi-circular crowd to form in front of the rift.
"Anyone with a free hand, please help out!"
When Alan heard the big boss's voice through the megaphone, he promptly escaped before he could be forcibly dragged with the heavy lifting.
.
.
.
"Miss Carter?"
During her newly added daily routine of walking around the hospital to adjust walking with a cane, Lea unexpectedly came across a familiar face.
When she tried to remember their name, the other person spoke first.
"I didn't formally introduce myself last time, I'm Daniella, an Awakener from the association."
"Hello, you can just call me Lea."
Daniella nodded then looked around, checking to see where the nurses were, before turning back to Lea.
"Are you allowed to be out of the ward unattended?"
"My dad is over there."
Lea pointed to the far end.
Daniella followed the direction where Lea's finger was pointing.
From this distance, she could only discern a man's physique. Her eyesight may have been enhanced after her awakening but not to this extent.
"You can see him clearly from this distance?"
Daniella could not hide her amazement but quickly realised how inquisitive she may have sounded and uttered an apology.
"I'm sorry, you don't need to answer that."
Lea remained silent.
She had no reason to hide the extent of her skill but she learned that Awakener's don't particularly reveal the specifics of their skill because it could be used to target their weaknesses by unsavoury individuals.
"I have something to ask you if that's alright."
Lea simply nodded, indicating to Daniella to continue.
"About your Awakener status."
Lea tried not to show her nervousness when it was unexpectedly brought up.
"If you still haven't checked it yet, are you willing to do it at the association?"
Lea tilted her head with a puzzled face and wondered, 'Was there an update to the system that Awakeners can now publicly show their Awakener status?'
As if she could read what was on Lea's mind, Daniella added an explanation, "I'm not telling you to reveal the details of your Awakener status. We just want to do a simple scan to see if there's been any changes to the mana particles in your body since your last assessment. It won't take long, an hour at most."
"Oh."
Lea became at ease.
"You don't have to give me an answer now, discuss it with your doctor and parents first."
After a bit of contemplation, Lea said, "My parents are busy preparing for my discharge so…can I give you an answer around next week?"
"You're already going to be discharged from the hospital?"
The shock was evident in Daniella's voice.
"Yes."
"I see. Congratulations on your discharge, Miss- Lea."
She corrected herself at the last second.
"Thank you."
Lea pretended not to notice that she was almost called Miss Carter.
Whenever people called her by that title, it always felt like they were calling her aunt on her dad's side.
'I wonder how Auntie is doing now. Come to think of it, I haven't heard anything from them yet.'
Given the varying boisterous personalities of their extended families, it was strange that Lea hadn't heard anything from them.
Daniella turned serious after checking her x-watch.
"I have to leave now. Regarding what I said earlier, there's no hurry."
"Okay."
After saying all that she wanted to say, Daniella walked away.
'Even her back looks cool.'
Lea honestly thought as she watched Daniella picking up her speed, almost running to the nearest escalator.
.
.
.
"Let's use that, Lea!"
She was in the middle of recounting her meeting with Daniella to her dad when he suddenly raised his voice.
Because of that, people were staring at them.
"Eh?"
"Did that Awakener lady leave her contact information?"
Lea blinked her eyes, unable to keep up with her dad's sudden burst of enthusiasm. That's why it took a while for her to answer.
"…She gave me her contact info last time."
"Where is it?"
"I use it as a bookmark."
"Lea." Her dad got closer to her face and said, "Let Dad borrow it for a bit."
"S-sure, it's-"
"I'll be right back."
And just like that, her dad was gone.
"He didn't even wait for me to tell him which book it is."
Lea watched her dad's quickly disappearing back before shaking her head.
"He even left his sketchbook open."
The open page showed he was in the middle of a panoramic sketch.
Eventually, her dad didn't come right back as he said he would.
Lea waited for half an hour until she decided to do one more round of walking around, holding the sketchbook her dad left behind before heading back to her room.