Lilia's Tale

Chapter 10: Rehabilitation

As he was chanting, I could feel something happen all throughout my body; a pleasant feeling, relaxing me. It started from my feet and slowly got higher, until it reached my neck. I felt choked when it arrived, but then it moved up, and I instantly lost consciousness.

I came back to my senses, not feeling much of any pain. Tanaka-sama was talking to Ayane, who was somewhat hidden behind a wall. She noticed I woke up, pointed my direction, and they both came over to my bed. I sat up, still struggling. My head was awkwardly not painful.

"Lilia...was it?"

"Yes?"

"You were right. Your magic circuits have an injury somewhere in your head. I do not know if it will heal by itself, so I will be going to do some research on this topic. Until then, do not use magic."

"I understand. It is best I don't injure myself any further while the one person that can help me is away."

"I am glad to see you understand. I was also invited as testimony for Jirou's case in front of the Emperor, so I will testify that he indeed did what he should have. He will not be able to escape punishment, but hopefully it will severely reduce it."

"Alright. Thank you for helping him," I said, gloomy.

"He did something righteous, although it wasn't within the confines of the law. It is only natural I help him."

"Again, thank you."

He simply left afterwards, without any further comment. Ayane-san then said she would get me some dinner and left, coming back with more soup. I asked to eat it myself, so she let me try, but my hands were still too weak to hold a spoon so I had to be hand-fed. It hurt that I had to, but there wasn't much other choice. She then left to let me sleep for the night, so I tried. To my surprise, my mind wasn't particularly active.

The next day, I was woken up by Ayane-san, who had brought breakfast. I tried again to hold onto the spoon, but wasn't able to, so she helped me once again. Afterwards, she told me to wait in the room as she requested some things from the health care unit. She came back a long time later, saying she had obtained agreement from the principal to start rehabilitation.

I recognized the word, but since I never went through it, I wasn't sure exactly how it would go. I could not deny that I needed it, but I didn't feel very comfortable having to go through it. I requested that the first courses I went through were arms and hands, so I could eat and drink myself, and she agreed. For the next few days, she had helped me, alongside another nurse, to regain use of my hands and arms.

After these, I had gained enough strength that I could grab onto utensils and eat alone. However, I could easily understand that it wasn't enough, that my body was capable of much more. I asked we keep on training, which they accepted. Ayane-san was alone doing so, but I did not mind. Shortly after, what they had given me for training my grip wasn't enough, and I asked for something more robust. This kept going for what felt like a month, to the point I was capable of crushing hard rocks in my hand with ease. My arms had obtained very similar strength, which scared Ayane-san whenever she was to supervise my training.

One day, early in the morning, while I was training my arm with two hundred kilo dumbbells, the door opened. My appointed nurse was already in the room so I wondered who it could have been. It was Tanaka-san, coming back with a few books. I had trouble recognizing him at first.

"Hello, Lilia. It has been a while."

"Oh, you're the elf who has been helping me when I first woke up."

"Well, at least you recognize me," he said with a slightly annoyed voice. "I've done the research I said I would do regarding your situation."

"Oh?"