After the Fight

The moment Lyra moved out of the stage, she feels the sudden onslaught of severe pain throughout her body. She presses her lips tight while cold sweat breaks all over her body. She stands there silently enduring the pain. Nina rushes towards Lyra commanding Herold to bring the medics immediately. The pain in Lyra's body reaches beyond her endurance making her slightly groan and close her eyes and clench her fist tightly to the point that her nails draw blood. Nina sees Lyra trembling and almost on the break of falling down, thankfully Nina reaches Lyra's side just in time to catch Lyra as she faints from the pain.

"Lyra!" Nina loudly calls out to Lyra as she gently wipes the sweat from Lyra's forehead with her sleeves.

"Nina, the medics are here already," Herold says as he walks towards Nina and Lyra. Herold gestures to Nina to release Lyra on the stretcher the medics are holding. Nina gently lays Lyra on the stretcher. As soon as Lyra was on the stretcher they immediately and securely moves Lyra to the colosseum's infirmary. Inside the infirmary, the medics quickly attended to Lyra's injuries with the latest technological types of equipment. At first glance, the medics don't look out of the ordinary but the truth is all the medics that the colosseum hire is the best of the best in their field of medicine. Even the Solaire family can't compete with the quality care that the colosseum's medic provides.

"Nina I hate to say this, but I was right." Herold with a sad smile says. "I knew Lyra couldn't handle Rank D fighters yet. So,...Would it be alright if I change her schedule to match that of Rank F." Herold tentatively asks Nina?"

*Sigh* "I guess it would be for the best, Herold. Lyra is truly not ready it seems. Physically maybe but emotionally and mentally...*sigh*" Nina states with sadness clearly shown in her face.

"Is it alright if I ask what's wrong with Lyra?"

"Sorry, Herold I don't have the liberty to tell you anything about Lyra right now. It's Cherry's orders."

"Hmm. And how exactly is Lyra connected to Cherry?" Herold asks while giving Nina a sharp gaze. Nina only shrugs and continues with silence. Herold sighs.

"Sir, your honorable guest has severe injuries all throughout her body. It's even admirable of her to last more than a couple of minutes without screaming from pain. But don't worry Sir, we're sure that we could help her heal faster than possible." The head medic with full of respect speaks to Herold.

"Good. Thank you for your hard work." Herold brightly smiles at the head medic and gives him a pat on the shoulder. He then looks at Nina as if silently asking what she would do now.

"I guess I have to report to Cherry what happened today and ask her if it's okay to let Lyra stay here to heal," Nina tells Herold with an annoyed look.

"Good, good. Don't forget to ask Madam Cherry to visit me too!" Herold screams while he waves his hand as Nina walks out of the colosseum. Nina only rolls her eyes at Herold's antics.

At Madam Cherry's office with the door tightly locked, Nina tells Madam about what happened to Lyra in the colosseum. Madam silently listens while working on some papers without interrupting Nina.

"So Lyra was actually defeated. I guess that's only to be expected since she's only seven years old. But still, I was hoping a little bit more from Fum's niece's performance." Madam Cherry puts away the papers she's working on. "It's fine to leave Lyra's health to the medics at the colosseum. I'm not against it."

"Cherry is it okay if I could often visit Lyra there?"

"It's fine Nina." Madam Cherry nonchalantly states. "But make sure not to neglect your duties though."

"Why of course I won't neglect my duties!" Nina looks at Madam full of disbelief.

"I was just reminding you, Nina. No need to get offended." Madam chuckles then she caught sight of some burned pieces of paper on the corner of her desk. Madam immediately turns solemn. "Make sure to take care of Lyra while she's healing Nina."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to take care of her." Nina seriously states as she too caught sight of the burned pieces of paper.

The longer Madam Cherry stares at the burned pieces of paper the quieter she gets. She even bites a corner of her lips. Even the corner of her eyes starts to moisten. Eventually, Madam stops staring at the burned pieces of paper. And yet once again the moonlight couldn't help conceal the glistening tears that silently fall down Madam's cheeks even as she looks away.

Only after a week, Lyra is completely healed. This shows that the medics at the colosseum are really the best of the best. For comparison, a normal medical facility in this country would require the medical staff to intensively monitor and treat patients that have the same degree of injuries as Lyra for several months or more. This also shows that this colosseum is nothing to look down upon.

For the past week, Nina was constantly dropping by to check up and cheer up Lyra. Lyra on the other hand only greets Nina with a shallow smile and a dazed look. Lyra throughout the week is often seen staring at her empty palms. She also barely responds to Nina's inquires. Even Nina's efforts to cheer her up by telling her stories about her bygone days on the battlefield don't work. Eventually, Lyra heads back to Madam's house.

"Lyra, make sure to tell me if you ever feel uncomfortable, Okay?" Nina nags as soon as they reach Madam's house. Since it's already evening when they returned, Nina tells Lyra just to rest in her room. Lyra nods. She silently goes to her room and takes a bath. After taking a bath she dries her hair and heads towards her bed. She just lays there. She stares at the ceiling for quite a while. Eventually, she closes her eyes and sleeps uneasily.

Before dawn approaches, Lyra wakes up. Even though she's awake all she's doing is sitting up on her bed and stares blankly at her door. After an hour passes she slowly gets off her bed and slowly walks to her bathroom to brush her teeth. As she brushes her teeth, she stares at her reflection in the mirror. She notices that her breath fogs up the mirror. She stares at her reflection covered by the fog and draws a horizontal line across her neck in the reflection. Quietly she whispers "Why am I still alive?"

Lyra in her room does her morning routine mechanically. Her movements are stiff. Covered in sweat, and yet there's no expression in Lyra's face even though her morning routine requires great effort to perform. After she finishes her routine she takes a shower and immediately heads to the kitchen to help Nina. Throughout the day Lyra quietly finishes her chores. In the evening, Madam Cherry tells Lyra to head to her office. Lyra at the front of Madam's office knocks twice.

"Come in." Madam's placid voice answers. Lyra goes in. "How's your injury?"

"I'm completely healed, Madam. I'm sorry to have worried you."

"That's good to hear that you're better." Madam looks away from the book she's been reading and looks at Lyra. Madam looks at Lyra for a good while. Then, she slowly gets up from her chair and picks up with slightly trembling hands the burned pieces of paper. Madam takes a deep breath and says "Lyra I have something to give you." Madam walks towards Lyra and gently hands her the burned pieces of paper. Lyra at last has an expression on her face. She's puzzled. She looks at the burned pieces of paper. The words in the paper are so faint from being exposed to flames but Lyra can faintly make out the words *Dear Sweet Lyra* and the words *Your Foolish Uncle*.

"I'm sorry Lyra, those are the only pieces I could salvage."

Lyra tightly holds on to the burned pieces of paper close to her heart. She looks at Madam with tears streaming down her cheeks then she bolts out of the office. She runs out of the house and onto the street. She kept running without caring where she might end up. She runs until she's too exhausted to stand up. As she slumps down to the ground, it started to rain. She looks at the sky with the rain and tears streaming down her face. She didn't know for how long she stayed that way. But then an umbrella blocks her view of the sky.

"Are you done crying?" Madam asks. Lyra can only blankly stare at Madam. Then, she started to cry in earnest. Then, Lyra once again notices the pieces of the paper clutch in her tiny hands. She could help but plead.

"Let me go back to Uncle, PLEASE! I beg you, please... Let me go back to Uncle... PLEASE!"

Madam suddenly slaps Lyra. The slap shocks Lyra.

"Do you think that going back to your Uncle's house will bring him back to life? Do you think that your crying will bring him back to life? If he sees you right now, do you think he'll be happy?" Madam angrily asks.

"What do you want me to do then? Live? What for?" Lyra shouts.

"Didn't you promise him something? Are you abandoning your promise just because he's gone? will you let your promise to him disappear like him?" Madam states sternly.

"I know I'm weak. And now there's no reason for me to get stronger since Uncle is not here for me to protect." Lyra stubbornly confronts Madam.

"Then let me ask you, are you willing to get stronger so that you could retrieve the remains of your Uncle? I told you before your Uncle died on the battlefield but his body isn't recovered. His letter was delivered only because the child he saved was able to send it." Lyra once again was shocked by the news. "I didn't tell you since I'm planning to retrieve it myself but then it seems you need to do it instead of me."

Lyra stops crying and stares at Madam. "I...I..."

"If you remain weak then you won't be able to even live to see your Uncle's house nor alone retrieve his corpse. Because your weak your Uncle's body will forever be unmarked and left to rot in an unknown place." Lyra grits her teeth when she hears Madam's description.

"How strong do I have to be to retrieve Uncle's body?"

"Hmm. If your able to get into the arena's top five in three years then you're strong enough to retrieve it."

"I get it. I'll get stronger. I'll definitely get stronger so that even in death I could protect Uncle and my parents." Lyra states with determination.

"Good. Now get up and let's go back."

"Yes, Madam" Lyra pushes herself up and shakily walks along with Madam back to the house.