Beautiful Qi - Chapter 15

After our morning meal, Aria and Brenna took me over to the clinic tent, while Leona had work to do elsewhere. On our way, my gaze kept straying about the place, searching for the figure of either Caleb or Felix. I couldn’t see them anywhere and wondered if perhaps they were busy with their soldiers, making plans and coming up with strategies for an attack or something. I personally had no clue how one went about tracking down bandits and the dispatching of them, but I assumed that would be the first step, wouldn’t it? Forming a strategy of some sort?

Once we reached the tent, Aria ushered me inside. I was surprised everything here was set up very much like a field clinic back at home, with rows of beds on each side of the tent, along with some medical equipment not that unfamiliar to me.

As we headed toward the back, I noticed two desks and some chairs, which I assumed were for the doctors and nurses. Farther back, I saw stacks of boxes, which I assumed were more medical supplies.

“Sit down, Alfie,” Aria said, indicating one of the chairs.

I obediently sat, and once I was comfortable, Aria started inspecting my eyes.

I asked, “Won’t you need to know my power?”

Aria asked, “Power? What power?”

I said, “For the glasses. You need to know how high it is, don’t you? To find the correct lenses?”

She chuckled. “No. We don’t need to know your lens power or whatever it is, Alfie. I’m just making sure your eyes are able to handle our lenses, that’s all.”

What does she mean by that?

She drew back and grinned. “Looks fine to me.”

“I’ve found a pair,” Brenna said from behind Aria.

As she came toward us, I noticed a tiny box in one of her hands. She carefully handed it over to Aria, who said, “Thanks, Brenna.”

I watched carefully as Aria clicked open the intriguing box. When she turned it around so that I could inspect the lenses, I felt my breath catch at the back of my throat.

Oh Lord! Was this just a pair of contact lenses? Not something that looked like a piece of very expensive jewelry in a safe box? But these lenses, they sparkled like diamonds, sitting there elegantly in the clear liquid encased in a steel box.

Aria said, “Let’s put them on you.”

I asked, “You don’t have glasses?”

Aria said, “We don’t do glasses here, Alfie. They’re simply not efficient on a battlefield. But those with bad eyesight do wear glasses in our kingdom, since they’re much cheaper. There are some who prefer glasses, and I know of one who does and is very particular about it, too.”

Hmm… This person sounded a bit like me, who preferred glasses, though I wasn’t as particular.

Brenna nodded in agreement with Aria. “He is, isn’t he?” she said. “Then again, he does spend a lot of time reading late into the night and doing his research, so of course he’d get bad eyesight.” She turned her attention to me now. “Our lenses last forever. You barely need to take them out. Maybe only once a year to get them checked to make sure they’re still working fine.”

Wow! The lenses were that good, eh?

I said, “Then wearing this is fine.”

Aria nodded and gently picked up the lenses.

I asked, “Will the lenses adapt to my eyes? I mean to whatever vision power I have?”

Aria said, “That’s right. It’s designed that way.”

“I see,” I said.

I leaned my head slightly back and opened my eyes wide as Aria put a lens into my left eye and then another into my right. Done, I did a couple of blinks, and immediately, my sight became clear.

“Wow!” I chuckled. “This is amazing.” I turned to Aria and said, “I can see clearly now.”

Indeed, Aria was even more beautiful now that I could see her better, what with her perfect English rose features: golden-blond hair, bright-green eyes, and rosy fair skin. Dressed in a long gown with a tunic on top, she was enchanting.

I turned my gaze to Brenna next, and she, too, was a pretty thing, with lush brown hair, chestnut eyes, and an English rose complexion that’d make any man fall for her. I shifted my gaze to Brenna’s cat ears. God, I just wanted to stroke them.

After I somehow managed to control my urge, I cleared my throat and said, “Thank you so much for this.” Then I thought to ask, “By the way, how much are the lenses? I mean, I can’t simply take them, right?”

Not that I had any money on me, since I had entered this world without a thing on me. Then again, even if I had some cash on me, there was no guarantee it was usable here. I had no doubt their currency would be different.

Aria chuckled. “Hmm… We’ll have to ask the higher-ups about that since they are quite expensive and are used only for military purposes.”

I was floored. These were very expensive and used only for military purposes?

Brenna said, “You can see in the dark with those lenses.”

Aria said, “They also have the zoom in and out function. It’s very convenient.”

“How?” I couldn’t help asking. “Then why?”

I meant to ask them why I was allowed to wear this very awesome military piece of technology but found I couldn’t finish my sentences properly.

In other words, I thought in daze, the contacts were very much like military night vision goggles, but without the heavy gear that came with them.

I said, “Is it really okay for me to wear them?”

Aria waved aside my concern. “It’s fine. Lord Felix suggested it, and Lord Caleb approved.”

I asked, “Felix suggested it? And Lord Caleb approved of it? When did that happen?”

Brenna said, “Lord Felix said something along the lines of we can’t let you walk around half blind, and I contacted Lord Caleb online to confirm it was okay for you to wear our lenses. He approved.”

Now my head was spinning. I asked, “Wait a minute. Online?”

Aria said, “We have an online communication system here so we can connect with anyone we know and—”

“Wait.” I cut her off. Online communication, eh? Yet I had not seen one cell phone nor laptop around the premises.

I continued, perplexed. “How? How do you connect and chat online?”

Pointing to her temple, Aria said, “Here.” Then she touched her chest where her heart resided. “And here.”

Now I was even more lost and expressed so on my face.

Brenna explained. “Every individual has qi, which is unique to them, Alfie. Once you know their qi, then you can roam and connect with them. You can even talk to them.”

Her explanation made sense, and I began to understand how this online communication worked in this world. Instead of the network working through power cable and radio wave, they use qi to communicate via their minds and hearts. To me, this sounded like telepathy.

I asked, “It’s like a Wi-Fi connection but with qi instead?”

Aria nodded. “That’s right. How did you know of our network?”

“Beg your pardon?” I asked.

“WIFI is our qi network,” she said.

“I see,” I said, nodding my head.

“Are your eyes comfortable, Alfie?” Aria asked, changing the subject.

I nodded. “Yes, very.”

“That’s good, then,” she said, smiling. “Now then, before you can go out and about on your merry way, we need to make sure you can operate the lenses.”

I nodded in understanding, since the lenses had the zoom function.

Aria said, “Now, to zoom in and out, you just need to do it like when you’re focusing between short and long distance.”

Her instruction sounded easy, but when I tried, shifting my eyeballs around like a maniac, I got dizzy.

Brenna was giggling, while Aria tried her best at hiding her amusement.

I said, “This is harder than I thought.”

“The fibers of the magic lenses are attached to your optic nerves and, hence, to your brain, which is where the command is,” Aria said in explanation. “So if you think about wanting to zoom your sight in and out between short and long distance, then it should be able to work.”

“Ahh, I see,” I said, nodding my head.

This time, I concentrated on zooming in by glaring at a small box at the back of the tent, imagining it getting bigger. And voilà! The image of the box enlarged before my eyes, and I shrieked as I found myself falling back, along with the chair, onto the ground.

Brenna came rushing over, asking, “Alfie, are you all right?”

I laughed. “Yes, I’m fine. I got thrown off balance because I zoomed in too fast, and the image just sort of jumped out at me.”

Pleased, Aria said, “Then you’ve managed to operate your lenses?”

I nodded. “I can kind of manage it but will need more practice.”