Chapter 1709 - 237 - The Moral Regret (7)

Chiaki's POV

"Fortunately, your blood has a very good compatibility with the patient's, so we managed to save her in time. Although, she won't be waking up until all of her life force has regenerated completely," Doctor Trisha explained.

She was one of the doctors who had helped sustain Sakai-san's life after everything that had happened, and she was also the doctor who had assisted Doctor Natasha while they were working to bring her back.

"That's a huge relief..." I said, finally feeling some of the tension leave my body.

I hadn't realized just how tense I had been until that moment, because hearing that Sakai-san was going to survive made me feel as though I could finally breathe properly again. The fact that she still wouldn't be waking up anytime soon was concerning, but compared with the possibility of losing her completely, that was something I could accept.

"It really is," Doctor Trisha replied. "If Master hadn't arrived as early as he did, everything would have been for nought already, and she would have reached the point where even revival would have been impossible."

She's calling Leon-san Master...

For some reason, hearing her refer to Leon that way made me think about something else entirely.

Well, I suppose that when I really stopped to think about it, Leon must have had quite a lot of women in this world, huh?

There was King Myrcella, of course, but there were also the Commander and the Vice Commander, and from what I had heard, those weren't even all of them. Apparently, there were quite a few more women who were connected to Leon in one way or another, although I didn't really know the details about all of them.

I probably shouldn't have been thinking about something like that right now.

Sakai-san had only just been saved from death, after all.

Besides, there were much more important things to worry about than figuring out exactly how many women Leon-san had managed to become involved. Somehow, I had a feeling that the answer would probably be more complicated than I wanted it to be anyway.

"Can I ask you a question?" I asked.

"What is it?" Doctor Trisha asked as she looked at me.

She seemed to be wondering what I wanted to ask, but I suddenly found myself hesitating because the question that had originally popped into my head wasn't exactly something I could casually ask someone.

Were you also Leon-san's woman?

I immediately decided that I wasn't going to say that.

Even in my own head, it sounded incredibly rude, and actually asking her something like that would probably make the situation awkward for absolutely no reason. There were some questions that were better left inside one's head, and that was definitely one of them. I wasn't exactly interested in getting myself into an uncomfortable conversation when everyone was already dealing with enough problems.

So, instead, I decided to go with a much safer question.

"Can I ask if I'm allowed to go out now?"

After I asked, Doctor Trisha looked at me for a moment before giving me a small smile and nodding.

"Sure," she said. "The patient isn't having any more problems with blood loss, so there's no issue with you going outside now."

"Thank you," I said.

I felt a little relieved hearing that.

I had been sitting around long enough, and there were still people outside whom I needed to check on. More importantly, I couldn't help wondering how everyone else was handling what had happened. Sakai-san had been the one who nearly died, but the others had been there too, and something like that wasn't exactly the kind of experience someone could simply forget about afterward.

I left the medbay and stepped outside.

The air outside felt different somehow, probably because I had spent so much time inside worrying about whether Sakai-san would survive. I took a slow breath before looking around, and as soon as I came out, I noticed Morofuji-san standing nearby, apparently waiting for someone.

"Morofuji-san?" I called out to her.

She turned around as soon as she heard my voice.

"Sensei!" she shouted excitedly.

"Are you waiting for Sakai-san to wake up?" I asked her. "Unfortunately, she seems to need some more rest, and it could be quite a while before she wakes up. You don't have to keep waiting here, so you could go somewhere and get some rest yourself."

"Well, I can't fall asleep no matter how hard I try," she replied. "It seems like my body is starting to get more and more used to this world."

I understood what she meant without needing her to explain it any further.

She was right.

Our bodies really were starting to become strange the longer we remained here.

For some reason, even if I didn't sleep at all throughout the entire night, I would still wake up feeling as though I wasn't tired whatsoever. Under normal circumstances, staying awake all night should have left me exhausted, and I probably should have been desperately searching for somewhere comfortable to collapse, but somehow, that wasn't happening anymore.

It wasn't just a matter of getting used to a different environment either.

Something about our bodies themselves was changing.

The longer we stayed in this world, the stranger our bodies seemed to become, and honestly, I didn't know how far those changes would eventually go. At first, I had tried to convince myself that it was probably just some strange effect caused by being transported here, but the longer it continued, the harder it became to dismiss.

We couldn't stay in this world forever.

If we remained here for too long, we might eventually change into something completely different from the people we had been when we first arrived.

That possibility scared me more than I wanted to admit.

"How's Asada-san?" I asked.

"Kaori... she's still inside the tent," Morofuji-san answered. "She wanted to see Ayaka, but we're not allowed to enter the medbay."

"I see..." I said.

I thought about it for a moment before making up my mind.

"I'm going to meet her there."

"Okay," she replied. "I think she'd be more comfortable with you right now, Sensei."

"Why is that?" I asked.

Morofuji-san looked at me as though the answer should have been obvious.

"Because you're the only adult among us who got transported into this world, Sensei."

Adult, huh?

That word made me pause for a moment.

Well, she was right about that.

I was the only adult who had been transported here together with them, and because of that, I was also the one who was responsible for them.

I was the only adult here.

That meant I should be the one helping them.

Since I was the only adult among them, I should also be the one guiding them in the right direction, protecting them whenever I could, and finding a way to get everyone back home.

It sounded like a lot when I put it that way.

Actually, it was a lot.

There was no way around that fact.

The problem was that I didn't feel particularly qualified for any of it. I was an adult, yes, but simply being older than everyone else didn't magically mean I knew what I was doing. If anything, the situation made me realize just how little I actually knew about this world.

Still, someone had to take responsibility for them.

If nobody else could do it, then I had to.

I couldn't expect children to carry that burden while I stood around waiting for someone else to take charge.