Chapter 73 – Sacrifice (3)

“In the end, I lived…”

I, who opened my eyes while breathing and living, let out a sigh of relief.

Jeremy and Natasha, who had appeared right on time at the critical moment, had succeeded in saving me.

I had been surrounded by mutant wolves in the front and back, destined to die without a choice, so it was truly close timing.

Looking back, shooting myself in the arm was a crazy act, but because I did not give up until the very end, such an opportunity must have come.

“Speaking of which… what were those two doing?”

However, there was a point that I could not understand.

I thought they had definitely headed to the Magic Engineering Department or the leadership department, so where and for what on earth did they go to appear outside Section 12?

If they, who were the greatest combat power, had held down the fort with the hunting squad, they would have been able to minimize the damage.

‘There must be a reason.’

Since neither Jeremy nor Natasha were irresponsible people.

After organizing my thoughts, the view of the place where I was lying finally entered my eyes.

Under a yellowish tent, dozens of sickbeds were lined up in a row.

Because the battle with the mutants had been intense, it seemed they had expanded the ward to accommodate the wounded.

“Was the battle that intense?”

It was not a normal scale.

As far as I knew, the original ward had a maximum capacity of around twenty people, but now it looked to be about five times that.

Even so, did the fact that the beds were not fully occupied mean that the total casualties did not exceed three digits?

Or was it because there were many deaths?

“It has to be the former…”

I was more worried about that than my own body.

In the first place, the reason I had overexerted my body like this was to save even one more citizen.

However, it was not simply a matter of labor.

The problem was that the headcount was decreasing.

One might say it was the same thing, but it was different.

While labor could be filled with magic engineering power, the promotion to a small city hung on the headcount.

The minimum requirement was securing twenty thousand citizens.

However, due to this appearance of mutants, the difficulty of entering and crossing the snowfields had doubled, and our Ember, which had zero military force, had no capacity to escort immigrants.

And since even the city was no longer a safe zone, there was no reason for immigrants to choose our Ember.

Although they said citizens had to protect the Ember, what use was an Ember that could not even protect its citizens?

As it was already difficult to secure citizens for our Ember, since we had faced such a situation, we had to protect the people we had first.

‘Is increasing military power first… I do not know.’

I could not make a judgment easily.

In , there were no mutants to raid the Ember, nor other Embers to compete with.

Without external threats, I just had to build the city well, eat well, and live well by myself.

Of course, could not be expressed so simply.

But the important thing was that, as a leader who had to govern the Ember, I was experiencing this kind of situation for the first time.

‘Threats from mutants and other Embers…’

Both were unknown variables and tangible variables.

I could not help but prepare, but since I did not know how great the danger was, I did not know how much or to what extent I had to prepare.

However, I was soon able to make a judgment.

“For now, maximizing military power is the correct answer.”

Even if we stopped the development and growth of other fields, this was correct.

Since a threat that might raid the city tomorrow had appeared, preparing military power to protect the city was the highest priority.

Something like this would surely happen in the future, so would we produce this many casualties then too?

‘I can never let that happen.’

If so, the Ember could not be sustained.

It would be entering the path of ruin that I had feared so much.

However, this was also important from a political perspective.

‘If we cannot calm the anxiety of the citizens, it is over.’

When complaints accumulate or anxiety reaches its peak, citizens will surely flee or start a rebellion.

Whether they abandon the city and leave to migrate to a better Ember, or overthrow the Ember under the name of revolution.

Either way, the Ember could not avoid the conclusion of downfall in the end.

“Sigh…”

Sighing, I raised my body from the sickbed.

My body felt stiff.

Having lain there for how many days, my joints even made cracking sounds.

Seeing that they had expanded the ward to this extent, it was clearly not a work that would finish in just a day or two.

Considering that, I had slept for at least five days.

“But my body feels refreshed, though.”

Perhaps because I had taken a long rest for the first time in a while, apart from my stiff physical condition, I felt more refreshed than ever.

However, there was something strange.

I had stood up by supporting myself on the sickbed with both arms.

“What is this…?”

I had clearly shot myself in the right arm.

No matter how faint my consciousness had been, there was no way I could not remember shooting my own body with my own hands.

Above all, Jeremy’s mana gun used large-caliber bullets.

It was truly a terrible pain, to the extent that it would not have been strange if one side of my arm had been blown off, so I could not forget it.

“How could this…”

Yet, there was sensation in my right arm wrapped in bandages.

Although it creaked, there was no hindrance in moving it.

*Rustle.*

When I unwrapped the bandage, my right arm, where new flesh had already grown, was revealed.

The large hole pierced by the mana bullet had vanished before I knew it, and white flesh and skin were filling that space.

“…!”

I could not believe it.

This was not some game, so there was no way such an absurd thing as bones and flesh regrowing could happen.

‘Ah, of course, it is inside a game, but…’

There was only one answer to explain this incomprehensible phenomenon.

“Mana…?”

It was mana.

I could only see it as the mana I possessed somehow restoring the wound through some principle.

There was something that proved my assumption to be correct.

It was the sight in front of me.

“…”

Dozens of patients were lying on the lined-up sickbeds.

They were missing an arm, a leg, or both.

It was a sight that proved how fierce the battle with the mutant wolves had been, and evidence that this phenomenon was a result of the presence or absence of mana.

Unlike me, they were ordinary people who did not possess mana.

Otherwise, why would only my arm, which was physically no different from theirs except for having mana, regenerate?

This was all the utility of the mysterious power called mana, magic power, or magic.

Anyway, the problem was not anything else.

It was that there were so many people who had acquired disabilities from this battle.

‘I must use whatever means necessary…’

Even before this, there were many people who had frostbite or had to amputate parts like fingers or toes due to accidents during work.

There were so many such people that missing a single finger was not even considered a disability.

But this time, it was not just a finger, but a whole arm that had vanished.

‘The sense of loss must be immense.’

It was not a reality that could be accepted with a normal mind.

When they woke up, they would be gripped by despair and frustration, and their families would be the same.

As much as that, it would adversely affect the Ember and the labor force would also plunge.

‘To think I have to run gun development and prosthetic hand production in parallel.’

Developing mana guns through military magic engineering research, and making prosthetic hands through mechanical magic engineering research.

It meant two tasks that had to be handled with the highest priority had been created.

‘It will take a long time.’

The mana gun was one thing, but prosthetics was a field of extreme difficulty beyond comparison.

Although it could be made at a novice level, its utility was very low, and only when reaching the intermediate level could it truly be used like a part of the body.

‘I will have to do it with Will Ford, just the two of us.’

In the end, that meant there was no choice but to do it with Will Ford, just the two of us.

Of course, there was also the method of working with the Magic Engineering Department.

That was a more efficient way to save time.

But right now was not the time for the Magic Engineering Department, but the time to raise Aylen Vale’s approval rating.

There was no need to share the credit for developing the prosthetic hand with them.

*Wrap, wrap, wrap.*

Re-wrapping the bandage lest I arouse unnecessary suspicion, it was just as I was about to leave the ward.

“Aylen Vale?”

Pushing open the ward tent, someone approached.

She was a woman with short black hair wearing a white coat.

I could tell without asking.

This woman was the only doctor in the Ember, Mia Silas.

And she was the very person who had treated my arm.

“When did you wake up?”

Approaching with a patient chart, she asked.

Strangely, resentment and anger were embedded in her voice.

It was clearly directed at me.

“I have just regained consciousness. Thanks to you, I was able to save my arm. Thank you.”

I expressed my gratitude first.

Although I did not know what had happened while I was unconscious, there must be some reason for her acting like that.

No, actually, even if something did happen, I could not understand it.

I was someone who had made sacrifice after sacrifice to save the citizens, so should I not have received treatment as a hero?

Even so, since Mia, the only doctor in the Ember, was someone I had to get on the good side of, I bowed my head first.

However, she still spoke with a stiff expression.

“To save that single arm of yours, someone had to throw away their life.”

“Pardon?”

“Give your thanks to Mrs. Katrina. Not to me.”

I frowned.

Did someone have to die because of me?

I could not understand what she meant at all.

Also, who was Mrs. Katrina?

‘It is a name I am hearing for the first time…’

The one who had to throw away her life was probably her.

I tried to throw a question to grasp the situation, but before I could do so, Mia spoke.

“Since you look perfectly fine, please check out now. In the first place, your arm was not even severed.”

It was an eviction notice.

It was not something to say to a patient who had barely regained consciousness after several days.

“…I will do so. It would only be a nuisance for me to stay here any longer.”

However, changing into my civilian clothes placed on the side table, I obediently stood up.

For whatever reason she was angry at me, I did not want to displease her, and my body was truly fine, so there was no need to stay here.

I had to go out and move immediately.

To me, time was gold.

“Then, please keep up the good work.”

“…Hmph.”

Leaving her, who glared at me until the end, behind, just as I was about to step out of the ward.

Someone lifted the tent flap a step ahead of me.

“Lord Aylen, you have finally woken up!”

It was neither my mother Rebecca nor my father Demian, but Natasha McGrain.

“Let’s go outside.”

“Pardon? Are you not going to recuperate more?”

“My body is fine. The ward is quiet, so it would probably be better to go out and talk.”

Taking a bewildered Natasha, I came straight outside.

I had intended to ask the reason Mia was acting that way, but since her eyes were still burning the back of my head, there was nothing I could do.

“Did something happen while I was passed out? Mia spoke as if someone died because of me.”

“That is…”

When I asked, Natasha wore a troubled expression.

The story that followed was a regrettable matter for me as well.

“Mrs. Katrina Vengard yielded her turn to receive treatment for the sake of Lord Aylen. Thanks to that, we were able to avoid amputating Lord Aylen’s arm.”

“…”

“And Mrs. Katrina is the wife of the blacksmith David Vengard, whom Lord Aylen rescued. In a way, she repaid the favor to Lord Aylen with her life.”

“…!”

It was the moment Mia’s gaze, which had stared at me resentfully, became understandable.