Staring at the flawless white interior, the clean dustless floor, the unrusted metal walls of the room, he was now sitting in. The atmosphere felt completely out of touch with the surrounding city, the occasional breaches, the rampant crime, and the high suicide rate.
It was simply unreal.
At the moment, he was in the special wing dedicated to authority wielders, but overall, the hospital was quite clean, even if this particular part might have been especially so.
Letting out a deep sigh, Noctis leaned his head back, as far as he could manage to without completely falling back, his hands, just on the sides a bit behind his rear end, stabilizing the position.
At the same time, he started swinging his mostly squished leg forth and back a bit, still astonished at the fact that he felt almost nothing.
Those painkillers they gave me were truly effective.
He was completely alone in the pristine white room.
Little Lightning wasn't with him at the moment. They were split up after arrival. The doctors' expressions were simply priceless when they saw the two of them. Especially when with little lightning, whose reddened skin had lost a bit of its color, making it look a bit darker bronze. Paired with the not-quite-expensive-but… unusual clothing he wore, the doctors gave him the VIP treatment.
He was escorted away before he could even utter a single one of his crazed, exotic phrases.
Whether it would have destroyed or reinforced the image of the hermit rich man was unclear.
Ohhh, what I would have given to see their expressions when they find out that he's simply from the middle class.
"Hm, hm, hm"
For now, Noctis simply had a bit of time to himself until the attending physician came over.
This could take a while, since only a few in Athe byss City knew how to take care of Authority Wielders and what they needed. Additionally, Authority Wielders were generally considered a bit more robust than common people, which was another reason they were actively neglected at times like these.
Noctis, in particular, had yet to undergo many obvious physical changes, but he was no doctor.
So who was he to say that he wasn't a freak from a medical perspective?
Simply letting time pass by, Noctis looked at his disfigured foot from time to time. At other times, he created threads, playing around with them.
That foot of his looked truly disgusting. Now that the shoe was off and the dust, grime, and blood were washed away, it did not look any better.
His toes had fused and squished together, while the leg bone was showing a bit. Noctis would have expected that even under heavy medication, he would feel disgust and nausea at the sight.
Weirdly, he had a strong desire to poke it with a stick, to see what would happen. He had always been curious, but to this extent?
Did the drug affect my state of mind aswell?
Taking the mind off the matter, another sigh escaped his lips, his gaze wandering to the future.
After a while of silence, he finally muttered more to himself than to anyone who might have been listening.
"Let's hope they'll have it look halfway presentable at the end of this."
Staring at the fleshy mess of a foot for a while, he was reminded of the creature… the fleshy amalgamation of four people he had just slain.
His foot was looking a lot like one of the numerous protidion-like limbs of the creature at the moment. Looking a bit more deeply, as if ensnared by the sight, a golden shimmer is hidden beneath his gaze. Below the skin, a few of his veins were bulging, taking a darker tint. Was it growing necrotic? Already?
Shifting slightly, the golden luster in Noctis' eyes intensified by a bit, as his unusually slit eyes opened just a bit more.
The golden threads didn't seem to be too different from their usual state. They… just wrapped around his leg a bit more numerous. It was almost like a golden second skin was wrapped around his leg. Watching the threads with wrapped attention, they seemed to be subtly shifting to the side...
A thread at a time, the leg that one could almost describe as defiled was in his line of sight once more. Nothing seemed to have changed, with the only thing he could put his finger on being the strings of fate. The veins spanning along his leg seemed a bit pronounced aswell.
Why were the strings of fate drifting away from his leg?
It was almost as if fate no longer recognized it as a part of his body. No, it seemed more like it was repulsed by it than simple apathy.
"What is tha…" Reaching forward half consciously, his hand flinched back shortly before touching his leg.
Something moved—not the threads, nor his fate as a whole. Something beneath his skin, something had just moved!
Feeling his heart rate shot through the roof, for a quick moment there. Noctis tried to stay calm as he blinked repeatedly. Not finding what he had or had not seen a moment ago, His foot looked just as it did before. At the same time, the edges of his vision started to blur.
Was it a side effect of the drugs? Did I hallucinate it?
A bit dizzy yet still unsettled, Noctis resisted as best he could. His eyelids, however, grew heavier, despite the willpower he could muster. His body inevitably leaned against a wall, his hand reaching to prop himself up the next moment.
This failed. His arm suddenly went numb aswell.
Bang!
Lying on the bed face-first, halfway buried in a pillow, his legs still on the floor. He tried to reach for the panic button to call a nurse. This couldn't be normal.
Finger… just… a bit.
"Need…Help"
Eyes growing heavy, the last thing he saw was his finger weakly pressing down on a button.
His eyes fell fully shut the next moment.
Engraved on their reflection was the pressed-down blue button against a pristine white background that complemented it, ensnared by a myriad of loosely floating golden threads.
"…Mam, are you listening? Your assets are the property of the state. You are privy to a grace period of three days, before confescati..."
"W-What?" A woman in her late twenties asked, her voice first confused, then angered. Neither her appearance nor her deadish eyes showed her youth at this moment.
"You can't do this—this is not right! My husband… can't be… he was the owner of the apartment. He— he had full ownership!"
In response, the man in a black professional suit did not argue or bite back. He simply started cramming his briefcase. The calm, controlled movements had an intimidating edge, but it did not matter. The woman was fully convinced of herself, and couldn't be shaken so easily.
The angered fire that could intimidate the gods showed it clearly. She was on the side of justice.
Finally, the man pulled out a stack of papers, completely unaffected by the burning stare. Pulling out a specific one, the disbelieving and rebellious woman suddenly fell silent.
Watching from the back, I found it difficult to tell what Mom was talking about, but I had never seen her so uncomposed. Furious, annoyed, or saddened, maybe. She had never lost her fuel, firing on her spirit so completely and utterly.
It was really uncomfortable to watch.
When she tried to rebuke, her voice was weak, uncertain. When the man pulled out the next document, the only word I could decipher was debts. She finally broke down, her body shaking, a sound I had never heard before coming from Mom .
Taking a step forward, I tried to see what was happening. Unluckily, I tripped on one of my old toys, lying on the floor.
At once, the eyes of the woman I admired most were locked onto me.
Snot and tears running wildly, her eyes reddened, wimpers and suppressed cries escaped her lips uncontrollably. All the while, she was clutching a piece of paper like it was her lifeline.
The first time in my life, that unmoving pillar of safety was shaken, it shattered. The brittle reality lay before.
—
"Mhg"
Feeling a wet substance build on his face, Noctis heard muffled voices ringing in his ears.
"Sir?"
"Ohh, it seems like he's waking up earlier than expected."
Steps accompanied the words, loud, resounding, echoing steps. Steps that felt so familiar, yet at the same time so alien.
"What…?" Noctis muttered, not quite understanding the words. His eyes slowly blinked a few times as the tears that had built up slowly cleared.
Slowly sitting up, watching as the blurry siluets of two people became clearer by the moment.
The strings of fate that had now encompassed him for half a year were nowhere in sight.
One was clothed in lighter white tones, while the other was in darker, almost fully black ones, its head looking deformed, a bit elongated, and sharp.
The darker-clothed figure did not stay long enough for Noctis' eyes to adjust to the bright room.
When his blurry vision finally started to clear. A man in a white coat stood before him, his mouth obscured by a thin mask.
Oh, right, I was at the clinic.
"Looks like you recuperated." The man said in a friendly tone as he noted something down on a clipboard.
He then calmly lifted a hand, holding up four fingers.
Before he said a word, Noctis answered, accustomed to such procedures.
"Four"
Watching the doctor note something once more. From Noctis's perspective, it almost felt like he was the most interesting lab rat at this moment.
Not letting the question-and-answer game continue. Noctis interrupted the man just as the man held up three more fingers, his voice unusually disgruntled, irritated even.
"WHAT happened?"
First, a bit surprised by the flurry of emotion-filled words, the noted something down once more. Afterward, the doctor did not think long, speaking in a calm tone, his expression hidden behind a mask.
"I'm truly sorry, but it seems a little mistake occurred when you were taken in."
Rubbing his head silently while listening, waiting for the details. A bit perplexed by his blunted feelings. Noctis would have expected to be more out of it. He wasn't known for being the most trusting person, and waking up being watched would normally evoke greater emotions in him.
"One of our interns gave you a dose meant to calm an Authority Wielder later in the latter stages of the first rank.
It seems your body reacted rather strongly to the medication."
Again, we are truly sorry for any discomfort that this intern may have caused.
You may proceed with him as you like."
Simply waving the words of. Noctis wasn't in the mood to make some ruckus or let some idiot who might just be a scapegoat pay for this.
This situation was annoying enough. He didn't need to weigh down his consciousness even more than it already was. The remnants of that dream linger.
Taking his mind off the matter, Noctis asked about what he had originally come here for.
"Take a look and see."
Not resisting in the slightest. There, his foot looked fine. The gruesome, fused-together stump of the wound it once was had disappeared. In place of it, there was a perfectly normal foot. The only difference he could spot was that his skin was still a bit reddish. It was truly inconsequential.
How was something like this even possible?
It was truly difficult for Noctis to grasp how they had achieved such a feat.
Blurring out the words of the doctor, simply half heartedly listening. Noctis understood bits and pieces.
"It was good that the foot stayed in one piece…
looked quite grueling, but as a whole it wasn't that bad…
You really were lucky…"
Was what he had seen truly just a hallucination? Was there nothing wrong with his foot? In the end, he had no choice but to take it as he got it. Who could be more specialized in this field than a doctor?
"Am I fine to go home?" Noctis finally asked absentmindedly.
"Well, it would be good to watch…"
"Yes or no?" Noctis interjected before the Doctor could fall into a long-winded prattle once more.
Staying silent for a moment, the Doctor looked at his clipboard once more and nodded with a bit of hesitation.