The man was trying to identify the mess and things in-between. There were all sorts of things, but the majority of them were monetary and things that would be highly valuable to anyone in common sense. Metals, gems, crystals of color and brightness, it was obvious that what was before him was something incredible, and perhaps most was hidden underneath this mess.
But, in fact, he couldn’t tell most of them around the surface. It seemed the sheer weight and value of them were just too much to handle, and he couldn't recall if he had seen them before or not.
“This... There are so many things that I am out of breath”. The man left speechless. Things that lay there were no things that someone like him could have or even think about.
He backed out and slipped into some debris. As he landed on his back, he could see shiny and glowing metallic ingots hidden behind the soil and some debris. They were deeply shoved to the ground as if their sheer weight of them was too much for the soil to handle. It was unknown what could had happen here. It all seemed that the metal itself was shoved into the ground or fell from the sky.
“Huh? What do we have here?” He approached and tried to pull them from the soil. Unfortunately for him, they didn’t move at all.
“As expected. Considering they are rather big. They must have quite a few hundred kilograms or even more. They glow with some faint aura. What in the world is that made of? It is definitely not in this world.”
Upon these discoveries. He came to a shocking conclusion, one that he did not expect at all.
“This boy? Was he in some conflict between some figures which he shouldn’t anger? Did he steal it? I highly doubt it. He is just a mortal boy. That I’m sure of as former military personnel.” A man speculated as he wasn’t sure about it himself.
After some decision, he chose to dig it up. His curiosity and worry were in the right place. What came to view for him was a pile of a few dozens of such ingots. Most of them were a few meters long, a few dozen centimeters wide and tall, while all of them had in common that on their surface were sharp-looking claw marks. These claws penetrated deeply into the glowing metal and left dust and light behind. It was hard to say if it was because of the attack, or if the light it left was the cause of the insides of the metal itself.
The man fell speechless for some time. Upon looking carefully at each of them, he found that one smaller one was almost cleaved in half. Handful pieces of metal fell off from the clawed mark, one which could be manageable to put on hand.
He tried to take a better look at it and hold it in his palm.
“Ugh... That’s heavy. That is unnaturally heavy for such a small pebble.” He tried his hardest, but in the end, he lifted it to his chest.
“Damn. This is too much for me.” He cursed to himself.
By this time, his daughter was already done with the stretchers for Allan. She took it and tried to lift Allan up, but failed as his diary slipped off. She would not manage it herself.
“Hey, Sarey. Left some dignity to him. At least for his spirit.”
“Then please take off your cloak and cover him, at least. I don't have one.” She told her father.
“Eh? It will be all bloody.” He complained.
“I will wash it for you when we come back home.”
“Alright.”
He took off his cloak and covered Allan's body. His daughter and he used the cloak to lift Allan’s body to stretchers. While doing so, Sarey noticed another book covered in thick hide and chain cover around it. It limited the curious eyes to look at the information hidden inside. It was all covered in crimson red. Allan was laying at it just a moment ago. Blood was on the cover and chains alike.
She took a glance at it, as it looked rather mysterious and expensive.
“What are you going to do about all this stuff, father?” She asked as she took the book under her armpit without her father noticing since she faced his back.
“Not notify the officers for sure. This is beyond me, but there shouldn’t be too much of a problem with concealing this mess. I will hide everything for now and see if this boy will live or not.”
“What sort of reasoning is that, father? This is probably some unreasonably valuable treasure from some royal family or something. Why not hide it for now and ask some government officials for some information about lost treasures?“
“That is a wrong thing to do. Some officials are good people, but a lot of them are just greedy dogs whose greed for wealth for themselves and their bosses is the only thing they care about.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Besides, I have a feeling this treasure is not something that we can talk about willy-nilly. If someone discovers it behind our backs and tracks us down, we would be in a risk of our lives.”
“You sound reasonable for once. Hehehe.” Sarey found his father rather logical, for once.
“Of course I am. This is just incredible. I wonder now about our sleeping boy to wake up. I have a lot of questions now.”
They walked for a quarter of an hour and a big wooden cottage appeared around the small hill in the forest. It was situated outside of a suburb of a city and a few people lived there. They were mostly woodcutters and farmers who lived on the land, but not even ten people were in these mountainous regions which spanned around the city.
“Whew. we are finally here.” Saray joyfully said.
They opened the door and put Allan on a table in the living room. Sarey fell tired to the floor from the journey here. It was obviously hard for her to carry this boy all the way here for at least a kilometer or two.
“Now, everything is yours. It was your decision to take him, so reap what you sow.” Said the man with crossed arms. He did not make a room for an argument as everything was the idea of his daughter.
“Fine by me. Would you even let a man or woman die if you saw them on the streets like this? So heartless.” She asked.
“Maybe.. probably yes. Every normal person would mind their well-being and not get himself into other problems. Especially if it involves some terrifying attacks or deaths.”
“Hmph. I will make sure he will be alright then. You and the world abandoned him, but I shall not.” She firmly decided and started to treat the injuries. To her shock, they were hardly anything she have seen before. Her youth and experience were still passing by and the time she spent on such things was small, to say the least.
“Well, good luck then. I will go get your deer and try to conceal the impact of this boy. It will take some time, so don’t expect me in just a few hours.” He left without expecting an answer from his daughter.
“Bloody abyss. What is this mess? Dear, I hope that your daughter would not end like you, but it seems like all things that one wants will go in the opposite direction.
He helplessly sighed as he walked into the forest. No amount of experience would prepare him for growing a daughter.
“Aaaaaaaahhhh!” He screamed out loud. Probably to vent some of his frustration and other problems.
“Damn it all. I will contact a doctor. What else I could do? Perhaps she will give up when someone will give her a harsh meeting with reality? That boy can't possibly survive for a long time with such injuries.”
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Inside of the cottage. Sarey stared at Allan with sadness in her eyes. She was unable to help him herself too much. From the initial check, she found quite heavy injuries. Most of his injuries comprised broken bones with possible internal bleedings and twisted limbs with abnormal blunt marks on his whole body. They were probably the cause of the broken bones and most injuries, apart from the chest wound of unknown origins and destroyed eyes.
It was hard to notice that this boy was still alive and if someone with an absent mind would decide on his life, they would surely tell that this boy was dead. Slight breathing could still be felt from his mouth. And his beating heart did not stop since the moments in the forest. Thuds reached out and even Sarey was unaware of what this could mean. She felt her own beating, but the strength of these thuds penetrated as if someone was hitting a tree with a big metallic pole in the forest a couple of hundred meters away.
Unbeknown to her, the wound on Allan's chest was noticeably different from before the crash caused by a red orb, but there was no way for Sarey to know any of this. All familiarity or notice of the red orb was no longer present and the flesh that emerged from the still flowing blood. It showed nothing strange to Sarey, who was checking and cleaning his body. She cleaned his bloodied body with quite a few towels and revealed Allan’s body in the bright sun.
“My world... He looks like he is around my age. How terrible! He looks like someone who worked a lot, besides the horrible wounds. Well... what then... How to save his life? He could hardly stay like this for a prolonged period of time. He needs to eat and drink. And it seems like I need to get a hold of some doctor. This will be rather troublesome. Or maybe my teacher will know someone?”
Sarey was deep in thoughts about the possible chances she would get him. Her stubborn nature already gave up with any giving up and she would try her best to preserve his body from getting worse. No! She will make him alive even if he died, was what she would say if she had the mood for it. Normally, it was clear that the wounds were nothing short of a miracle that he was still living.
She continued with everything that her head came up with. Bandages and some pastes which were good against bloodied wounds were still left in their storage, and she used everything that she found. Allan's body was left all bandaged and cleaned with wet towels.
She did her best with the treatment she could give Allan. There were no longer any external bleedings, but lots of scars and hits that would heal over time, or with some healing factors involved, such as herbal pastes, bandages filled with medicinal waters, and others would treat such wounds. That was a redundant problem for her, as the treatment of some scars and others were showered in her care as well. She would not leave one out, in the worry of some infections.
His chest looked quite normal now, and he had straight branches around his limbs to fix and make sure his limbs would be healed in a natural way. Bandages were around his eyes and pretty much across his whole body.
To put it in another perspective. He no longer looked like on a brink of death. His messed-up body from before was hardly recognizable now. Miraculously, his body healed considerably. Compared to his state what Cendirr has seen.
“Well, this is the best I could do. I will try to check with my teacher if he has some ideas. Father will not be back in a bit anyway, and I doubt he will do something to him, or even something... for this boy” Sarey sighed for her helplessness and also for the fate of this unknown boy.
She did not regret one moment of her decision, but who knows what sort of things went behind the scenes of this boy?
Sarey's mind reached outside to the marvels of ideas and speculations of the sights she has seen. The monsters did not matter to her, as the sight of the treasures around Allan left her amazed. Her own thoughts were unknown to anyone, but she still was able to smile with wonder in such a situation.