Let’s Block the Ruined Route in Advance Chapter 82

“Eileen, are you awake?”

 

Eileen struggled to open her eyes, clutching at her throbbing head, to find Cordelia staring at her with concern.

 

“This is…”

 

“We’re in the hospital, Felix’s gone to get a healer right now, just wait a minute.”

 

Eileen said groggily, realizing that the view outside the window was bright.

 

“How many hours have I slept now?”

 

“Not hours, three days.”

 

“What?”

 

Cordelia sighed in exasperation and placed a hand on Eileen’s forehead.

 

“You stayed asleep for two more days after the festival, and we were all so worried about you, wondering why you wouldn’t wake up if there was nothing wrong with you.”

 

As Cordelia ran her hands over Eileen’s face, checking for a fever, Eileen remembered the horror.

 

‘I was out cold for three days. The future, the monster. What the hell was that?’

 

Her memories had been centered around Cordelia’s point of view, so what happened after her death was unfamiliar.

 

‘Was there an epilogue, or was there a part two I didn’t know about?’

 

Eileen’s mind raced; what if the original had a bad ending, with the world ending? The horrible speculation grew in her mind.

 

“…Eileen, Eileen!”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t have a fever.”

 

Eileen took a moment to catch her breath, her stomach churning.

 

“Eileen!!!!”

 

Laquerta burst through the door of the room with a loud bang.

 

“Are you all right!”

 

His white gown, with its mauve lines, the symbol of a healer, fluttered wildly with his steps. Andrew called after him.

 

“Laquerta! Tail, tail, tail! Calm down. Ah, Eileen. Are you okay?”

 

A moment of anxiety. Eileen, who had been frozen by the sudden commotion, snapped out of it at Andrew’s question and nodded.

 

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine.”

 

“You’re not okay! You’ve been asleep for three days!”

 

The way Laquerta’s face contorted as he exclaimed, Eileen could tell how surprised he was, and seeing his clear expression calmed her nerves a little.

 

“I’m fine, really. I guess I was just more tired than I thought I would be, with Jessie’s case and all the preparations for the festival.”

 

Eileen lifted her hand and patted his forearm.

 

“I’m fine now, so just relax, Laquerta.”

 

The cracked boy’s pupils dilated and contracted. Not one to be easily calmed, Andrew pulled his robe to cover his still-hanging tail as Laquerta carefully examined Eileen’s body.

 

“Trainee Laquerta, is that the reaction you want to show to a patient who has just woken up after three days? Always calm. I thought you said that was the most important attitude for a healer?”

 

Through the open door, a man with dark circles and dark hair stepped in, thick glasses on the back of his head, pushing Laquerta’s forearm out of the way with the file he carried.

 

“Answer.”

 

“…I apologize.”

 

Eileen watched with interest as Laquerta obediently stepped aside, then turned her attention to the man.

 

Looking world-weary, he spoke in a slow, sleepy voice.

 

“We must be acquainted, I’m Aaron, professor of healing arts and administrator of the Academy’s wards.”

 

Eileen suddenly remembered that he was the healing arts professor who had come to her aid during the commotion in the mercantile district.

 

“Hello.”

 

“Wow, you have a very nice greeting, unlike anyone else.”

 

Laquerta’s shoulders slumped beside her and she glanced out the window, but Aaron, who shrugged him off, extended his hand to Eileen.

 

“If you’ll excuse me, then.”

 

The hand, shrouded in a faint green glow, brushed up and down her body at a distance, and Eileen felt her headache fade and her body lighten.

 

“Wow.”

 

“Well, I see there’s nothing wrong with you other than a headache from lying down for so long. I’m going to give you a quick prescription for some medication, mostly tranquilizers, and send you on your way.”

 

He scribbled something on the chart and looked up as if he’d forgotten something.

 

“Oh, and you should eat nothing more than some porridge and warm water today, as it’s not good to rush food when you’ve been starving for so long.”

 

“Yes, I’ll do that.”

 

Aaron nodded as Eileen obediently replied, then turned his attention to Laquerta.

 

“Laquerta, you know what I’m saying, don’t just feed her anything.”

 

“Of course I know that much…!”

 

“What do you mean you know that much?”

 

But Aaron didn’t let go of his skeptical stare.

 

“Really?”

 

“Well,… is fine. Meat and fish based, as nutritious as possible.”

 

“Light, light, light, something that doesn’t weigh down your stomach! Meat soup and rice don’t make porridge.”

 

Aaron’s forehead bulged with tendons as he jabbed Laquerta’s arm with the filing chart, but his biceps, perfected by the manual labor of the construction site, didn’t budge.

 

“Meat soup is not porridge.”

 

‘Meat soup is not porridge,’ Cordelia reflected, stepping back and realizing an important fact. She quickly abandoned her plan to feed her good meat to speed her recovery.

 

“At the School of Swordsmanship, we recovered on protein without fail.”

 

Leaving the two unhelpful people behind, Andrew jotted down a list of good patient foods in a small notebook.

 

Eileen chuckled at the little mess, each with its own distinct personality. These were friends who didn’t give her a chance to be depressed.

 

“Ah, what happened to the others?”

 

Eileen asked Cordelia as Aaron closed the hospital room door behind him.

 

“Lucian and Felix stayed, but were kicked out by Professor Aaron for being too much of a crowd. Rosalia and the Duke kept worrying too, but they came back for work.”

 

“Ah, they must be really worried. I’ll have to send a separate message to Rosalia and the Duke.”

 

A small sigh escaped Eileen’s lips as Cordelia looked at her.

 

“What happened to him, the guy you danced with?”

 

“You’re wondering about him in this situation?”

 

Cordelia smiled unnecessarily at Eileen’s glare, and when Eileen urged her to answer with a glare, she opened her mouth with an unwilling expression.

 

“I don’t know. He left before we had a chance to say goodbye, you know, after you collapsed and I was out of it, and then he-”

 

Cordelia paused, staring off into space for a moment. She considered her words for a moment, then shook her head.

 

“No.”

 

“Yeah, what is it?”

 

Eileen asked curiously, and Cordelia stood up without answering.

 

“Well, let’s get you ready for discharge. Tomorrow is the weekend, so you won’t have to go back to class right away. Oh, and Jessie’s pretty freaked out.”

 

Eileen watched Cordelia for a moment as she turned away, then nodded. She wasn’t sure what had happened between them since she’d fallen, but it didn’t seem like much had happened.

 

“Eileen, if you can’t walk, I’ll carry you!”

 

“Laquerta, you’re too stiff to ride. Eileen, what about the palanquin?”

 

“It’s noisy and you both need to get out, we’re going to the girls’ dormitory, I’ll take her there.”

 

After shoving a disappointed Laquerta and Andrew out the door, Cordelia dusted off her hands and began packing.

 

Eileen watched her back in silence as she packed bags of prescriptions and clothes, thinking.

 

‘Why the change in perspective? Was it simply because Cordelia had died? Was it because the hero had become the center of attention? If so, what was the original ending?’

 

A hero who loses the woman he loves, overcomes his pain, and saves the world.

 

Or maybe the world falls apart in the end and the world ends.

 

Or maybe the hero dies, but someone stops the catastrophe and becomes the new hero.

 

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of possible outcomes flashed through Eileen’s mind.

 

And as she calculated all of them, predicting the most likely endings, her mind suddenly lit up with a red light. A primal, most bizarre question flashed through her mind.

 

‘So why did I assume that the future I’ve seen so far is the world of a romance-fantasy novel?’

 

She couldn’t remember the title, the author, the publishing platform, or even whether it was a novel or a manga. But Eileen had firmly believed that the future she had seen was in “some work”.

 

It was a “setting” that she recognized as natural to her, like taking her first breath unconsciously.

 

‘It’s weird,’ she thought, ‘I’ve read so many web novels and manga, but I don’t remember anything like this?’

 

It was even more bizarre when she realized it was too late. Eileen followed Cordelia out of the ward, her heart pounding in her chest.

 

The sound of cicadas, the blue sky, the well-polished sidewalks of the Academy. The world was unusually clear today.

 

This world was not just a creation.

 

As if to say so, the world was coming to life.

 

“Chew!”

 

Star that had emerged from the lawn of the schoolyard scurried over and landed at Eileen’s feet. Scooping up the young spirit, Eileen stroked Star’s soft fur lazily as he rubbed his head in concern.

 

“If there is no original in this world, and I am not reincarnated in the original, how do I explain this situation?”

 

Eileen looked down at Star absentmindedly. Its large golden eyes were looking up at his contractor with concern.

 

Those eyes reminded her of someone in her mind. The owner of the glittering golden eyes, the mysterious man with the unknowable demeanor, Aire.

 

“I must meet him.”

 

The conviction that the key to everything must lie in his hands blossomed within Eileen.