Chapter 45 - Aftermath and Recovery

It only lasted for a day, but the damage caused by the demons' attack rivaled that of few months' length of warfare.

About half of Barchen was destroyed, with the damage most concentrated at the heart of the city. Not only the residential area and the business establishments, several notable monuments and military installations got caught in the tumult, save for the ones situated near the lake.

Adding salt to the injury, the corpse of the behemoth causes the rescue and restoration efforts to become even more difficult.

And by sunrise the next day, almost all of the evacuated residents have gathered at the area.

"I can't believe all of these unfortunate events happened in just a day", a soldier lamented while sihing deeply, as he gazed from a distance the residents being treated with first aid.

"Nope, the whole thing only lasted for a few hours." Another soldier sitting beside him commented bitterly.

"Ah! It doesn't matter whether it only lasted for a few hours or a century! The important matter is, Barchen still took great damage!" The soldier glared angrily at his comrade. "This city--this city which we considered impenetrable from both inside and outside...just got its defenses undermined by those loathsome creatures that easily. Compared to the lousy ones that were stationed at Arteim, aren't we supposed to be more prepared for this situation than them? What happened with all of those years of training we had?!"

Judging from his expressions, this one soldier felt extremely disappointed with everything that has happened so far to the city that is his hometown, the place which he vowed to protect with all of his life. Not just him, but many of his comrades who has the same fervor as him also feel the same thing.

"Well, it's not that the situation here is much worse than that of the capital", his comrade replied. "In fact, we're still fortunate to have those people sent by His Majesty the king."

Gazing at the scenario at an even farther distance from them, the soldier's comrade let out a dry smile.

"If not for them not only Barchen, but the whole country would probably be erased from the maps by now."

-----

"Sir, some of our men found a young woman lying down the middle of the street just outside the business district!"

After greeting him with a salute, a female soldier wearing an armband indicating that she's a medic reported the discovery to James, who is currently in charge of retrieving the remaining residents who are still missing.

"A young woman, you say? What does she look like?"

"A-Ah, errm...the young woman is about sixteen years of age, wearing a light-colored sleeveless blouse and a black vest, and her long hair's tied in a ponytail", the soldier nervously answered.

"Eh, ponytail?! Could it be Rin?" Iza, who is about to doze off from too much fatigue at that time, became awake instantly when she overheard the report.

"Please bring her here immediately", James said to the soldier.

"Understood!" The soldier saluted at him again before immediately leaving.

After a few minutes, two soldiers came while carrying a young woman on a stretcher, and presented her to them.

"Waaaaaaahhhhhhh!!! It really is Rin!!! Waaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!" Iza instantly broke into tears when she saw her classmate Rin as she lie down on the stretcher.

However, in contrast to her outburst, Rin's condition isn't that severe. Thanks to the miraculous light from the evening before, the only notable condition she's suffering right now was dehydration and fatigue.

"Move away, move away! This one is an emergency!" Another group of soldiers came as they tell the people not to block their path. Lying down on their stretcher, was Karen.

"WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Not only Rin, but also Karen is in danger!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Iza almost fainted by the sight of her friend being unconscious.

Although Kai's injuries are also of great concern, Iza cared a lot more for her female friends especially Karen, whom she considered to be like her precious little sister. With her not being able to do anything to help them, all that she could do was to cry.

"We'll go with you to the medics", James said to the soldiers in a hurry, as he tried to help Iza calm down.

-----

"Uuuuuuuu...my head hurts like hell. How long did I fell asleep?" Rin's pained voice resounded inside a medium sized tent that serves as a temporary hospital for the injured people like her.

But instead of a bed, she's lying down on a thick mattress. In front of her was Karen, wearing pinkish-white pajamas, while also lying down on her mattress.

"It's been a week already since you lost consciousness."

"Eh, seriously? A week?!" Rin widened her eyes at the girl lying down on the bed next to her, surprised with the current turn of events.

"Nn." Karen nodded. "I only regained my consciousness yesterday so I'm not quite sure, but the medics told me that it's been a week already since the demons attacked the city."

"So I was asleep for that long...wait, what about the others?"

"Other than us, Kai also sustained considerable injuries after his mana almost went zero. He should recover after a few days inside his own ward. As for the others they are fine, but Iza's been crying ever since." Karen answered while looking down, slightly depressed.

Karen then told her the reason of them being bedridden for a week. Although Rin already knew everything on her end, her jaws almost dropped when she found out that the girl in front of her had it worse than she could even imagine.

"Man, what a shame. Even though you are the one who defeated that huge monster, others had to take the credit. Why the hell are they treating the savior of this city so unfairly?!" Rin grumbled angrily when she heard her story.

"Please calm down, Rin. Honestly I'm fine even if others would take that credit, so there's no need for you to grind your gears over that matter. For me, the more important thing was I managed to save a lot of residents and minimize the number of dead people", Karen smiled shyly while scratching her cheek.

She also told Rin about the situation outside the tent which were also told to her beforehand by the medics, like how Mari helped the officials in restoring the city, and the provision of temporary shelter and relief supplies for the residents who had their houses destroyed by the incident.

"To think that everyone's lives almost flipped upside down one week ago...I'm happy that everyone's ready to recover again..."

*grrrr* Suddenly, a faint growl echoed inside the tent. The two girls looked at each other blankly for a while, until Rin couldn't hide her hunger any longer.

"D-Do we have food over here?" Rin asked.

"It's almost time for lunch now. Just wait for the food to come", Karen replied, trying not to laugh because of the sound.

A few minutes later, a middle-aged woman wearing an apron entered the tent, and prepared their meal for them to eat while on their mattresses.

While Rin is busy biting a large chunk of meat like a ferocious animal, Karen asked her. "The meat you're eating...how does it taste?"

Rin, licked her fingers as she answered, "Chewy, but not that hard to bite into. As for the taste, not bad but it tastes a bit strange, like lizard meat?"

Karen let out a faint chuckle.

"Congratulations, what you're eating right now was the flesh of one of our enemies--a behemoth!"

Pfuuhh--!!! Rin spat the meat inside her mouth in surprise.

"Apparently, in order to increase the supply of food for the affected residents, the soldiers decided to extract the meat out of the slain behemoth, and cook it. They said the amount of meat they harvested was enough to feed the whole city for two months", Karen explained.

At first the residents thought that the soldiers' minds have gone loose, but after realizing their current situation they decided to try the strange meat altogether.

Hearing her explanation, Rin let out a sigh. "Well, it's not that bad after all if that's the case, at times like this everyone shouldn't be fussy about what they eat."

After lunch the aproned woman returned and took the dishes and utensils out of the tent, and a pair of medics came in her place.

"Lady Karen, Lady Rin, it's time for your checkup."

The medics then began their checkup in the two girls.

First was Karen. Being a [Healer], the medics only did a quick assessment of her condition and instead, only measured her current mana amount using a specialized magic instrument.

"As expected of Lady Karen. Even without using magic, your recovery is really astounding! We medics should really learn a lot from your prowess!" One of the medics exclaimed.

"E-Eehhhh...b-but as you said I didn't do anything..." Karen blushed while feeling embarrassed.

"Next is Lady Rin", the other medic spoke.

The medic then quickly unbottoned Rin's blouse just below her neck.

"W-Wha--What the hell are you doing?!"

"Physical checkup."

"Y-You can do it even without unbuttoning my clothes, right?!"

'Also, why am I the only one receiving this kind of treatment? Shouldn't Karen also experience the same thing? That's unfair as hell!' Rin kept on complaining inside her mind.

"Compared to Lady Karen, your recovery rate was slower, and the mana inside your body is just below the minimum range for our instrument to detect. In order for us to accurately assess your condition, it is required for us to remove the patient's clothes before we proceed with the checkup." The medic calmly replied.

At the clap of her hand, the other medic stood behind her, and quickly pulled Rin's clothes upwards.

"W-Wha...--"

The medic's hand was so fast that it caused Rin's cheeks to instantly turn beet red.

"Well then, we shall start your checkup."

While shrieks and wild shouting resounded inside the tent, those who are outside are not aware of the situation. Karen, on the other hand, watched in horror as her friend's vital statistics are being measured by the medics in a very 'professional' way.

'Rin...whether those things are a blessing or a curse, I'll support you 'til the end! Do your best!' Karen silently cheered for her, while trying not to compare Rin's measurements to her own.

"That ends our routine checkup for today. All that's left is for the both of you to continue resting, and avoid the use of magic as much as possible. Have a good day, ladies." The medics immediately left after the checkup.

"Hehehe..."

Karen waved her hand lightly at them. She gazed at Rin, only to see that her complexion became paler as before.

"Rin? They left already, you can rest easy now."

Rin, on the other hand, kept on puffing her cheeks as she hurriedly fixed the blouse of her pajamas while facing away from her.

"Those two...the next time they come here, I'll really kick their asses outta this tent!!!", she said angrily while raising her fist in the air and shaking it.

Actually, she doesn't have any problem with the checkup procedure itself, but the way the two medics handled everything made her really furious.

"I think it might be because they admired your figure, Rin. You may not know it, but compared to everyone else in the class, you looked more mature physically wise", Karen said to her.

She surmised, if Rin were to act and dress more girly-like, she could easily make any men spin around the palm of her hand even without saying a word. Even if Karen is also a beauty on her own, she's aware that the difference between a cute girl and a mature woman is just like heaven and earth.

"Even if you say that...still, it's not a valid reason to mutter all words with the same meaning as the word 'big' every five seconds while looking at my bare upper body! Like okay, okay I get it, but please just do your job in a professional way for heaven's sake!"

Rin kept on complaining to her about what the two did to her, until she heard a flapping sound coming from the tent's opening.

"Looks like the two of you are okay now", the person spoke to the two of hem.

""Mari!!!"" The girls shouted happily in unison.

Mari sat on a chair placed between them. "Although it may not be obvious, but I was worried this whole time for both of you. I thought that your recovery would take much longer, so I'm really happy right now that you're both fine now."

Looking at Mari's expressionless face, Rin also agreed that her words didn't match the emotions she's trying to convey.

"Nn. The medics have just checked our condition and said that in a few days' time we could finally go back now", Karen said to her.

"What actually brings you here, Prez?" Rin asked.

When she asked that question, Mari's gaze grew more sharp as she looked at them.

"Though the main reason why I'm here is because I want to check both of your conditions, the other one is because there's something that I thought that I needed to ask both of you, especially Rin."

When Mari's eyes met hers, Rin instantly felt a cold shiver coming from her back.

"Tell me, what do you know about [The Fool]?"