Finally, the man returned with a black shirt and blue bootcut trousers. Coupled with my boots, I guess I can make it work, even with my burned face. At least he didn’t cheap out on me too much.
My burned face reminded me of how was I supposed to answer them when it finally healed.
’Do I have to burn myself purposefully every night?’ The thought sent a shiver down my back as I grimaced in phantom pain. The left side of my face itched and I had to hold myself back from not touching it.
Then the captain of the ship came and arranged a room for me on the lower floors. Reserved for the operators, and the men and women working here, they keep an extra room in cases of emergencies.
Apparently finding stranded people deep in the seas is not a rarity. The government has thus issued a law that dictates every boat should have extra rooms for any survivors they find.
Guess it’s just a common day for them.
So finally alone by myself in a room, I had time to plan about things. But first of all,
‘How the fuck did I get here!?’ I screamed internally and punched the wall. Dammit was it annoying how much I hated being stuck in the dark.
‘So I was in the Canvas or whatever that place is. Then a lookalike of mine appears, and he jumps in somewhere. Okay so, either it was his doing somehow. Like teleporting my body through the Canvas or whatever, or somebody sent me here, somewhere far enough, and then erased my memory?
‘The latter seems way too much. Why would someone so strong even bother to do that to me? It doesn’t make any sense, but neither did all the sudden destruction in Cipetel. I wonder how many people survived it.’ I felt extremely guilty about it.
Having to endure a slaughter as a man of my age and era was hard on my conscience. But I knew it wasn’t my fault. Not completely. I might have somehow signaled those people by my sudden awakening, or I might not have.
But I couldn’t have done anything about it. I had no idea this was gonna happen. And maybe they were attracted by my reincarnation. Nothing I could’ve done about it either. It’s just this fucking world!
‘Fuck fuck fuck! That’s it! Not my fault, yes! Fuck this world for bringing me here! Moving on.
‘So somehow I’m here, now what?’ I thought angrily. No matter how I came here, it doesn’t change the fact that I was here and I’d have to plan as so moving forward. I’ll perhaps get my answers with time.
‘My plan needs to go in two directions. One is short term, and the other for long terms.
‘Currently, my only long-term plans include finding a way to go home and for that, I need to get stronger. Progress in the Path of Questions is the only way to do that.
‘That leads to my short-term plans. I need to find the next question! I doubt I’d be getting any questions while I’m on the ship, but I can try looking around. Maybe if I’m lucky enough, I’d get the question myself. Someone had to start somewhere right? If they can do it, so maybe I can too.
‘Okay, so even more immediate goals. What to do with my face?’ I wondered as I walked towards a mirror hanging on the wall.
My face was a grotesque mess of flesh. My skin was charred, black pieces of skin among the skin which was stretched. It deformed my neck as if it had melted in a single piece of flesh.
My eye sockets looked bigger, and my lips drooped a little bit. Nothing which can trouble me daily, but gnarly for sure.
The red flowing sand through my wounds did not relieve me. The deep blood-red sand unsettled me more than the fact that I was out in an unknown dangerous world on my own.
“[Stratum Corneum Burn: Severe], [Keratinocytes Burn: Severe], [Basal Layer Burn: Severe]”
Written in layers over my skin, they were followed by deeper layers of [Dermins Burn: Severe] and [Subcutis Burn: Partially Severe]. I could zoom in even further and know the degree of burns to every individual blood vessel, every single nerve, every sweat gland, and every fucking cell. But that was pointless.
I was fucked. Not ‘cause I was so heavily burned, but cause I wasn’t recovering!
Not even the slightest and the sand said so itself. It had never been wrong till today, and I had no reason to believe it’d shortchange me right now.
‘Then why the fuck!?’ I cursed. This could be bad, bad, bad.
Did I lose my accelerated healing? I worried. That was an amazing boon I had received and I did not wish it to be gone like that.
I looked around the room, trying to find a sharp object, a knife preferably if I could. But all I found were transparent glasses by the table. I opened the cupboard and found a hand towel in it. It was red in color.
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I took that, picked up the glass in the other hand, and sat on the floor. I covered the hand with the glass on by the towel as tightly as I could and clenched my fist hard.
The glass shattered in my hand and bloodied it. Blood dripped down and also covered the already red towel. The shattering noise was successfully reduced. This way no one would be nosy enough to find something they shouldn’t.
Slowly plucking my hand out of the cover, I picked out the glass shards for my healing to kick start. When I looked at it and found not a sign of healing, I panicked. Quickly standing up, I even discarded the fact that I used the hurt hand to apply force on the ground, I walked to the mirror and held my hand out.
“[Lacerated Skin: Deep, Recovering], [Lacerated Skin: Shallow, Recovering]”
The only two variations of wounds and they were recovering. I released a sigh of relief before realizing it might just be my natural recovery! Wounds like lacerations can be recovered, but not the burned ones which have already settled.
I had to sit and wait. Taking my seat back on the floor by the drops of blood, I waited for the regeneration to kick in. Safe to say, those were very strenuous minutes.
I checked the clock every second and panicked more and more as time passed but nothing happened for the first minute. After that, it itched.
I looked closely, and could barely make out my skin retracing its path back as the deeper wounds turned to shallow ones. When it reached the dermis layer, where the blood vessels were ruptured, I saw drops of blood float from the ground and retrace a parabola back to my palm before everything was stitched together in 5 minutes. My hand, new as ever.
‘Hahhhh gave me a fucking heart attack there man.’ I sighed in relief as I spread-eagled on the floor itself. I felt tired, not much physically, but mentally I was drained.
So much had fucking happened on this day that I had no words to describe it. Initially, I had planned to plan some more and maybe use my new powers to get used to them, but I was just too sleepy after this episode that I could do nothing except sleep.
Picking myself off the cool floor, I opened my wet shirt and pants and threw them somewhere on the floor. I thought of keeping my boxers on, but seeing how wet everything was, I threw them away too. Stark-naked, I tossed myself in the bed, which creaked under my weight a little but thankfully didn’t collapse, I tucked the blanket over me and finally felt the approaching sleep in the corners of my eyes.
But before sleep could claim me, I had one last thing to do. Closing my eyes, and trying not to fall asleep, I focused on the mist rolling inside of me and grasped it, metaphorically, but it slipped away.
I tried harder and harder, trying to shape it instead of holding it like sand, and even directing its flow but it escaped my grasp. Finally, the added mental pressure got to me and I was claimed by the ever-familiar darkness, leaving a single thought,
‘I gt yo nes ime.’
- - - * - - -
I woke up feeling so much better, if you don’t count the existential dread of living with a deformed face for who knows how long.
Anyway, things felt much better, and getting off my bed, I finally donned the clothes given to me by Aries. Sadly my boxer was still better, and his clothes did not include one (not like I’d ever wear his!!), so I had to go with no boxers for now.
‘Well, at least the clothes fit me properly.’ Something about the fact that we had the same cloth sizes irked me and I quickly changed my mind to something more positive. Food. Yes, food. I need dinner, I am starving!
Checking the clock again, it was a little over 9 pm now. I had landed here around 5:30, when the sun was still setting, and had gone to sleep around 6:30, so a 2.5 hrs of sleep is good enough.
Considering I seemed to be recovering stamina much faster than I used to, which I partly credit my accelerated healing for. Only if it could heal my burned face too.
‘Hahhh happy thoughts, happy thoughts.’
Walking out of my room, I looked around and no one was there. The ship sounded almost silent, and I worried that dinner might be over already.
Quickly making my way to the dining hall, I found the buffet still alive and only a few passengers getting dinner.
‘Am I too early or too late?’ I wondered as I took to the buffet. Almost empty containers of rice, some shrimp dish, fried fish, chicken, and some unknown vegetable dishes were spread across the hall in a L shape, with the central area for sitting.
Taking a little bit of everything, except some of the vegetables which just grossed me out, I took my plate and walked next to a man I remembered giving me water in the evening.
“Ah, Tolkia Stefan, you look much better now. Please sit down.” Taking him to his offer, I sat on the seat next to him. To which he changed to a seat next to him immediately! Rude!!
“I apologize Tolkia, but I am a man of veggies and can’t smell the smell of roasted animals. But do not worry, I do not condone people who enjoy them. I can see the appeal, but it never appealed much to me.
“Not to mention, I feel much worse when out on a boat. I hope you don’t take anger at my reaction.” He apologized, looking a bit guilty.
“It’s okay,” I reassured him, “I can understand. Are the others done with their dinner perhaps?”
“You are not from here, are you Tolkia Stefan?” He asked.
“Why do you ask?”
“Well, a local would’ve known about the Volà custom of early dinners. We enjoy an early dinner and an early bed. That is the reason behind our strong bodies.” He said with a laugh.
“Ah, I see. I did not know about that. Well yes, I am a traveller. After this incident,” I said pointing to my face, “I felt the need for some fresh air. As such I’ve been traveling ever since, using the money I saved for my marriage. Cause, who’s gonna marry me anyway now.”
“Don’t say it like that Tolkia Stefan, I’m sure someone would find you charming in your own ways. So where have you been from originally?” He asked in an attempt to change the subject.
“I’m from Suriasna Empire.”
“Quite a long way you’ve come my friend. A pity about what happened there. Another one bites the dust.” He sighed in defeat as he slumped in his chair.
“What do you mean by another one bites dust?” I asked, a little confused. Is this supposed to be a common occurrence? Being attacked by super-strong Artists?
“A Void Town. A new one was produced a few days ago. How did you not know that?” He asked, confused.
“Where?!” My heart skipped a beat as a bad feeling overtook me and I asked a little bit more forcefully.
“The Servouz Viscountcy, a week ago.” He answered, timidly.
My fist crashed into the table as my table cluttered on the floor. My heart dropped and I found myself reeling with shock at what I’ve just heard.