Chapter 10: Resting & realizations

When I woke up I found myself laying on a sofa in front of a fireplace.

A girl with a ponytail noticed me, she said something about working here and then guided me back to the dorms, up the stairs. When I asked her about the time she didn't give me an answer, instead she said that I should rest.

In front of the door, she gave me a key. She said it belonged to me and I could use it for the chest underneath my bed.

I nodded even though I did not catch entirely what she was trying to say and took the key.

When I glanced outside the petite window on my way to the bed I saw the same dark sky. But, if I wasn't wrong, somewhere around the horizon, between the numerous houses, it was getting clearer.

I fell asleep immediately again as soon as my head made contact with the pillow, I did not even bother to put the key away and simply held it in my hand.

I had to blink multiple times until my eyes got used to the light inside the room. Most of the people had already left the room but some were awake but sat around or looked over their stuff.

When I finally gathered the strength to get out of the bed the first thing I noticed was the key in my hand from the night before. And so, following the example of others in the room, I opened the chest underneath the bed.

Although the chest was not that big with the few things that were kept inside it looked almost empty.

I most frowned upon a brown jacket made out of wool.

That could have helped so much with the cold last night. Thanks.

What lifted my spirits though, and what I protected like it was my entire treasure further on, was a sack with coins in it. That had to be mortha, probably.

It didn't weigh much, and even if its worth was ten times smaller than the jacket I couldn't help but feel as if a small weight had been taken off my shoulders.

As I put on the jacket I noticed something in a pocket. It turned out to be a mirror that was smaller than the palm of my hand.

The person who looked at me through the reflection was someone I didn't know.

A round face. Dark short hair. Green eyes. Bright green eyes.

No, don't look at me.

—

The mirror was thrown onto the coin sack. After that, the chest was closed once again and „clack" it was looked at.

Footsteps, the sound of a door opening and closing. Then muted cracking of the wood faded more silent as she walked the way down the stairs.

—

There wasn't even a comparison that could be made so different was the sight downstairs. The light shone through the windows and a clear blue sky could be seen.

With envy, I glanced over to the food that some ate. Except for some snacks during the card games I had barely eaten anything.

And while enduring the crunching of bread being split, meat being cut and water being poured into a glass, I looked for the woman from before.

I encountered her as I was leaving the room through a corridor ( the smell of freshly cooked food in the bar area was about to make me crazy). It was Jonathan. When he saw me he greeted me with a bright smile and asked me if I was okay. He apologized many times that he had just fallen asleep so much had made us do all the enormity of bringing him back and also about a thing called „anoria".

When I asked him what that was he was so baffled and felt so sorry for me that he dragged me back to the place I came from to sit down at a table to order something to eat.

Apparently, anoria was this liquid that one would add to drinks. It had a similar effect to alcohol but one got drunk faster and the after-lasting effects weren't as bad as with alcohol. And because the anorias effect was much stronger and quicker than it, it was important to keep the rations small.

So what happened to us was quite unfortunate as we drank it in its pure form.

When a waiter came Jonathan ordered some water and bread slices with supplements. He asked me if I had slept well and I told him that after I left the fireplace I fell asleep immediately.

While we waited for our food he told me about what happened after I fell over. One of his employees had heard the noise from outside and came to help as soon as she had seen me unconscious laying there. Jonathan told me that the three of us got wrapped up in a blanket to warm up, and lucky for us, since it was him he got us some tea made. Well, for him and Jeremy, I was asleep after all. The food arrived and thanking the waiter he continued to apologize once again, that they left me alone on the couch. I tried to comfort him, that it wasn't a problem at all but he insisted that just asking his employee to keep an eye on me in case I woke up wasn't very nice for me, not his worker.

Casually ignoring the fact that he had heavily implied that he not only worked here but also may be the owner, he took one of the bread slices with cheese on it and ate it.

Our conversation carried on to me asking about Jeremy.

„Ah, he's probably home. Or helping out at the tailor's shop, " he said.

You could see a light bulb going on as he said that. He asked me if I had nothing big planned today I could maybe go over and inform him that the schedule today was changed and he would not sing today. I told him that I would do that and after chatting some more, when the bread was all eaten up, we walked through the corridor once again and he parted with a „ see you!" and disappeared into another room.

I then looked around some more and finally found something that seemed to be some sort of reception. They told me that I had arrived yesterday morning and paid to stay for five days. So that was relieving to know. But what then?

Where should live? I have no place to stay here, and I don't want to be a bother to those two. Heh, maybe I should just go live somewhere in the woods haha. Become like an expert at everything and stuff. Yeah, that would be funny, wouldn't it? Not like anyone would search for me, so I could have infinite time becoming the isekai protagonist everyone loves to see. I even have a wonderful backstory! At least life in the hospital paid up for something.

Talking about „pay" I sure hope that aspect didn't inconvenience my family all too much…Ah! And uh, I- I hope that aunt Miriam baked that apple cake at my wake. Erik and I used to eat all the time when we were kids and stayed over at her house. In that well-kept garden of hers, with the swing uncle Connor built himself. That old thing always had to be oiled, it never stopped creaking. haha.

Poor, poor Erik, my dear brother, who will play card games with you now?

Those afternoons when he got off work to visit me even though he didn't need to. I do hope he gets that promotion, he deserves it like no other. Ah, A-and mom and dad they, they-

…

I, I…I- just hope that they, all of them…don't make too much of a fuss out of it. I caused them enough problems already…I died, nothing out of the ordinary, kinda. People die, that's normal. It's just like, I took a trip overseas but we will never meet again, nor see each other. And without any…without even saying goodbye.

Yeah, we will never see each other again.

---

She managed to force herself to take the few steps out of the door. After she was outside the pub-hotel she closed the door. Twice did the door handle slip through her grip before she was able to finally close the door. She walked towards the other houses. Carrying the jacket in her right arm. She had forgotten to put it back on after she ate with Jonathan.

And then, when she couldn't hold the tears any longer, she hid away in a corner, which was out the sight of bystanders, and cried.