Chapter 65

Even when the organized defense continued, people never stopped coming to the cots in the treatment area. After the Flame Emperor Dragon destroyed the walls and the keep with its breath, Ayane closed her eyes in fatigue, feeling that the previous busyness was mere play.

Triage was being conducted to select who would receive treatment. It was an ironic outcome, but to avoid the necrosis of the whole, priority was given to soldiers who could return to the front lines, while injured citizens, children, and women groaned in unbearable pain.

The feeling of lives that should have been saved in normal times overflowing from her hands was wearing down Ayane's mind and body. Her already drained magic power was running low, and dizziness and nausea came in waves.

"Please, save this child, save him!!"

"I understand your feelings, but go back to the line."

A father and mother, likely the child's parents, tried to bring their suffering child to Ayane, but were sent back to the waiting line by the Haiselk soldiers.

It was indeed a severe injury. Scratched and torn by a wolf, his back was shredded, and his arm was crushed. Still, if the bleeding was stopped, he could hold on. There were other lives that needed to be prioritized. At that moment, Ayne realized something.

What difference was there between her and the Haiselk soldiers she despised, who prioritized lives and could not save those who could be saved?

A large adventurer rushed into the treatment area, carrying a man on his back.

"Move! Clear the way!"

"What's going on?"

A Haiselk soldier, slightly delayed, pushed through the crowd. Moritz, who had been taking care of and monitoring Ayane, asked the soldier what was happening.

"The knight, the battalion commander!"

Though the name was not shouted, there was only one person who could be referred to as a knight in the besieged ancient city. Moritz, with a changed expression, moved to the back of the adventurer with the large shield and groaned.

"...Lay him on the cot. Gently."

Ayane felt her heart rate quicken at the heavy tone of Moritz's voice.

"Oh, no... Mr. Worm."

The man laid down was someone she knew, but his appearance was drastically different from the last time she saw him.

When Ayane looked directly at Worm's face on the treatment table, she struggled to suppress the rising nausea.

Worm's eyes, which had once pierced her with malice and sometimes smiled, were gouged out, leaving two dark, deep holes. The holes were so deep that she hesitated to probe them, and a mixture of what seemed to be brain matter and blood was oozing out. It was almost a miracle that he was still alive.

"This is too much..."

Even Maya, an experienced healer, could not hide her panic.

"Sir Maya, can you heal him?"

"..."

Moritz asked in a suppressed voice, but Maya did not respond. Silence was the answer. The soldiers waiting in line shouted.

"We need Battalion Commander Worm! Without him, the city will fall!"

"The battalion commander, concerned about the soldiers and civilians caught in the melee, fought the Ogre Lord alone."

"The enemy's command is broken, but they are hungry and targeting humans. The city gates are about to be breached. Without the knight, we can't hold on."

One of the soldiers threw the head of the giant ogre, with whom Worm had fought to a standstill, to the ground. The head rolled, and despite being decapitated and dead, the ogre king's face did not show agony.

Instead, it bore a disturbing smile, its mouth twisted grotesquely. There were exceptions, but Ayane felt that, ultimately, monsters and humans could not coexist.

Amid the chaos in the treatment area, a whisper barely audible over the surrounding noise was made.

"Is Mr. Worm conscious!?"

Ayane regretted leaning her ear close to his mouth. Not hearing might have spared her the cruel reality. But she heard it.

"Ah, den, sha, the train, it's time. I'll be late for work, ah, ra, the light, it won't go away, it won't disappear. Step on it? Ah, ka, the shadow, it's coming. Stop it."

To the people of this world, these were meaningless words on the brink of death, but to Ayane, a transferer, they meant something different. She used words like "high school student" and "clock," which she shouldn't have known. The oddities in their previous conversations began to make sense.

Words that Ayane, from the same hometown, likely used in her daily life, pierced her. How could a simple citizen, uninvolved in the war, be so injured and fight to the brink of death?

"Help, me, fu, uu..."

"The blood won't stop. Ah, someone, stop it!"

"It hurts! It hurts so much!"

"My arm, it's gone. My arm is gone!!"

Even now, behind Ayane, the voices of thousands pleading for help echoed. In terms of survival, Worm's chances were one in ten thousand. His priority should have been low.

"Oh? Ah? Oh, I have to fight, the city, the people, the country, ah, ah, I can't see anything. It's cold, it's dark."

His trembling hand searched the air as if looking for something. Ayane grabbed it firmly with both hands.

"Mr. Worm, it's okay. It's okay."

"Aah..."

When Ayane grabbed his hand, his delirious words stopped, and he weakly squeezed back.

Ayane mocked herself for being selfish. She had discarded the excuse of prioritizing treatment and was trying to help someone with little chance of survival or recovery, simply because she wanted to.

Their first meeting had been terrible, but their current relationship was comfortable for Ayane. Whether it was due to the suspension bridge effect or the nostalgia of their shared hometown, Ayane herself didn't know.

"I will close the wounds. I promise."

Ayane spoke her resolve.

"Lady Ayane, even if the wounds are closed, the eyes..."

Maya said sadly. The eyeballs that should have been in the hollow eye sockets were gone. Even Ayane, with her healing abilities, could not regenerate the complex structure of the eye.

"Can you heal the eyes!?"

"...Use my eye! My eye!"

"I can navigate the underworld with one eye!"

Soldiers who had fought under Worm, even for a short time, stepped forward one after another.

Maya tried to calm the soldiers, who were caught in a mad rationality.

"The difference in magic power is too great. Even if the eye is transplanted, it will rot. The eye must be able to withstand Worm's magic power and be compatible."

There were probably only a handful of people in the Haiselk Empire's army with magic power comparable to Worm's. After repeated losses, there were no such soldiers left in the city.

The group surrounding the treatment table lowered their gaze at the strict conditions. Among them, Moritz looked at the rolling head.

"What about the eyes of the ogre king, the monster?"

"Moritz, are you out of your mind!?"

"You're talking about the one who gouged out the battalion commander's eyes. It's impossible."

The soldiers confronted Moritz, shouting at him. Only Maya and Ayane were considering the idea.

"Sir Maya, is there a precedent?"

"There are legends of transplanting monster eyes as dark magic, but there are no successful cases in the Creist Kingdom."

"Transplanting a monster's evil eye into a knight..."

The Haiselk soldier spat out the words of rejection. Ayane faced him.

"Anyway, this is the only compatible eye. Is there any other way to save Mr. Worm?"

She knew it was selfish, but Ayane wanted to save Worm. The soldiers, intimidated by the girl who lifted the ogre king's head, hesitated.

"I will heal him, I will heal Mr. Worm."

Ayane, who was only as tall as a Haiselk soldier's shoulder, exuded an authority she shouldn't have. There were no more objections.