Ray spent these past three months lying in bed. She only ever got up when it was time for her to be wiped down by Lily with a wet rag or when it was time to eat. Lily, who personally took care of her best friend insisted that the girl sit up when she needed to eat.
The incident had left Ray's legs half eaten and burnt by acidic saliva. Healers from the city had been called over to do their best to save the girl's life. Though they succeeded, they had to amputate her legs. Following this, the girl loses the rest of the enthusiasm she once had from being reborn in a fantasy world.
The harsh world stripped her of her delusion and optimism and left the girl properly depressed. Even Lily's bright and happy aura had been muted when she saw her half-dead best friend.
Monster attacks were a rare thing on this side of the empire. Though, the orphanage was at the edge of the empire and was surrounded by a forest. The forest itself was actually in the middle of the empire and a foreign kingdom. It was unthinkable for such a well-explored forest to have a monster infestation.
This incident caught the emperor's attention. Though the population had expected their ruler to send a legion of knights to investigate, they had not expected the emperor to personally leave to investigate with his imperial knights. He had even brought 3 of the 15 Enlightened to this rural area.
It was the 50th day of the 9th month of the year 2,053,413, the emperor showed up with his legion of knights on horseback. They scared the adults, Brother Jake and Sister Maia who had been clearing up the plates after lunch. The moment they saw them in the distance, the two had herded all the children into the building.
Thankfully, when they arrived they explained that they were not in fact there to close down the orphanage to settle their debts. The emperor was a rather young-looking man who was well-built. He wore several Enlightened made tools all over his body. Their functions were known to the couple who took care of the orphanage.
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The emperor was furious to learn that the debt collectors had been turning up to the orphanage to collect money. He had known Grandpa John personally. His father, the previous emperor had gifted this plot of land to him as a retirement gift. Grandpa John, also known as John Jacobs, was the former leader of the imperial knights and had at one point taken care of the current Emperor Brian Graken as a child. He also eventually befriended the current emperor.
Emperor Brian Graken immediately reassured the couple that the orphanage was not being rented to them nor was it ever going to be closed down as long as he reigned as emperor. It WAS in fact the only orphanage in his empire. The emperor swore internally to have at least two more orphanages built.
As Emperor Brian had asked to see the girl who had been attacked by the monster, he was promptly brought in to see Ray. Though Ray was informed of his arrival the depressed girl refused to get up to see pay respects to the emperor and had instead closed her eyes to sleep.
Emperor Brian opened the door to the room that Ray, Lily and 2 other girls, Sam and Catherine, were living in. Walking in, the emperor immediately noticed Ray who was a sorry sight. The skinny girl was only wearing a thin singlet. The rest of her body was uncovered, where her legs used to be connected there were only bandaged stumps.
Ray hugged her large teddy bear like a bolster trying to ignore the dull thumping aches from where her legs used to be. The emperor leaned down and rubbed the sweating and half-asleep girl on the back gently. Lily was sitting on a stool by Ray's bed. She gaped at who she recognised to be the emperor. The emperor held a finger to his mouth gesturing for Lily and the other two girls who sat on their beds respectively to stay quiet.
At dinner, Ray was woken up by Lily and was presented with a present from the emperor. A wooden wheelchair made by one of the Enlightened that the emperor had brought along. A twenty-year-old woman named, Julie had made the entirely wooden wheelchair. It was imbued with magic to make the wheelchair more durable and its wheels turn more smoothly.
Though it was a wonderful present in Lily's opinion, Ray looked like she was on the verge of tears. As she looked at the chair she was reminded that she was never going to walk again. With a heavy heart, she let Lily carry her and put her into the wheelchair.
No matter how sad she felt, she had to admit that the chair was rather comfortable for something made entirely out of wood. Was this the power of an Enlightened? Ray later rolled herself to Julie and thanked her for making Ray's new mode of transportation. The young woman simply smiled and told the girl to take care her creation.