Chapter 36: What He Wants

Caelan didn’t know how long he had been unconscious. However, the first thing he noticed when he finally regained his consciousness was how comfortable everything felt.

He felt the softness of the mattress at his back and the blanket covering half of his body.

"Hmm..." His eyelids slowly fluttered opened and the first thing that greeted him was a white ceiling.

Caelan stared at it for several seconds without moving, his mind still too tired to understand what he was looking at.

Where the fuck am I? He blinked a few times before slowly turning his head.

That was when he saw that he was lying on a large bed inside an unfamiliar room. Sunlight entered through the curtains in front of him. On the side, there was a small table nearby with medicine and several rolls of clean bandages sitting on top of it.

Caelan tried to sit up, but as soon as he did...

"Ah!" A sharp pain immediately shot through his body.

"Fuck..."

He quickly dropped back onto the pillow. It was a bad idea. His entire body felt like it had been beaten repeatedly. When he looked below, he saw that his arms were wrapped in bandages. There were also several smaller ones covering the cuts he had received during the fight.

Caelan slowly touched his chest. There was a thick bandage wrapped around his torso. The wound from the sword was gone thanks to Life Thread, but the area still hurt like hell. Not to mention all the other injuries that Life Thread hadn’t completely healed because the connection became severed.

That’s when he saw someone on the side.

"Eveline?" Caelan turned his head as he saw her.

Eveline was seated on a chair beside the bed, fast asleep. Her arms were resting on the edge of the mattress with her head lying on top of them. Her blonde hair was slightly messy, and judging from the uncomfortable position she was sleeping in, she had probably been there for quite some time.

Caelan stared at her. For some reason, seeing her there made him relax for a moment. At least she was safe.

His eyes moved around the room again. But where exactly were they?

The last thing he remembered was telling the members of the Night to save them and bring them to the city.

Did that mean...

Are we in the capital? Caelan slowly reached toward Eveline. He hesitated for a moment before lightly tapping her head.

"Hey, Eveline."

"Mmm..." She moved slightly before settling back onto her arms.

Caelan’s eyebrow twitched. He felt quite bad that he was waking her up.

"Eveline, wake up."

This time, her eyes slowly opened.

"Hmm?" She raised her head, clearly still half asleep. Her blue eyes wandered around the room before eventually landing on Caelan. For several seconds, she simply stared at him.

"Good morning?" Caelan awkwardly raised a hand.

"CAELAN?!" Her eyes suddenly widened.

"Ow! Fuck, don’t shout!"

Eveline immediately stood from the chair, not listening to him at all.

"You’re awake!"

"Yeah, I am."

"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Are you dizzy? Can you breathe properly?" She completely ignored his response and leaned closer to him instead.

"Wait, wait, wait." Caelan raised his hand. "One question at a time."

Eveline stopped when she realized it while Caelan only let out a sigh.

"Where are we?"

"The capital." Eveline stared at him for a second.

"We made it?" Caelan’s brows furrowed at it. Just how long was he sleeping?

"Yup. We arrived three days ago."

"What do you mean three days ago?" Caelan immediately looked back at her.

"You’ve been unconscious for the past 4 days. We arrived here in the capital 3 days ago. The guys have brought us here and now I don’t know where they are."

"4 days?" Caelan muttered in disbelief. Does that mean he had basically slept through their entire arrival in the capital?

"Wait. Where are they now?"

"Oh." Eveline shook her head. "I don’t know."

"You don’t know?"

"When we arrived here, some of them carried you inside and made sure someone treated your injuries. But after that, they started leaving one by one." Eveline looked toward the door.

"I haven’t seen any of them since that day."

Caelan frowned. That bothered him a little. He hadn’t even gotten the chance to properly talk to them before passing out. Now, he don’t know how to contact them.

But he also knew that there wasn’t much he could do right now.

Caelan tried moving his body again, only for him to regret it once again.

"Ah, fuck," Pain immediately spread across his back and chest.

"I told you. Don’t move too much!" Eveline quickly said.

"Hah..."Caelan slowly settled back against his pillow.

His body was definitely better compared to what he remembered from the forest, but that wasn’t saying much. Every movement of his still hurt like hell.

He could probably recover normally if he waited long enough. But...

Caelan slowly glanced toward Eveline. He realized that there was a much faster solution sitting right beside him.

Life Thread.

[Life Thread connection remains severed.]

[Protection Effect: Inactive.]

[Life Thread connection is available for restoration.]

Caelan’s eyes slowly moved from the screen toward Eveline. She was still sitting beside him, completely unaware of the notifications floating directly in front of his face.

"Ahem." Caelan awkwardly cleared his throat.

Eveline immediately looked at him. "What?"

"Uh..." Caelan opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

For some reason, asking her suddenly felt much harder than fighting those eight people in the forest. His eyes briefly moved away from her before returning.

"Caelan?" Eveline’s brows slowly furrowed.

"Well..."

"What?"

"I was just thinking..." He stopped again midway.

Eveline stared at him, clearly becoming more confused by the second.

’Just fucking say it.’ Caelan mentally cursed himself.

It wasn’t like this was the first time they had talked about Life Thread. Eveline already knew about their connection. She knew too that it had been severed when it protected him. However, he still couldn’t dare bring it up.

What if he was branded as a weirdo because after waking up, that was what he’d ask all of a sudden? Especially since she knew how they had restored it before.

That somehow made asking even more awkward.

"About Life Thread..." Caelan finally managed to say.

"Oh." Eveline’s expression immediately changed.

"Oh?"

For a few seconds, Eveline simply stared at him. Then, to his surprise, a small smile slowly appeared on her face. Eveline leaned slightly closer, resting one arm on the side of his bed.

"You want to restore our Life Thread, don’t you?"

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A/N:

Shout out to JakobR1975!! Thank you for dropping a Golden Ticket!