Chương 77: Cripple

Gray and Gozen navigated their way out of the labyrinth of the craftsman's floor. Though Gozen was hopeless with modern technology, his sense of direction was flawless—hardly surprising, considering he had built the maze himself. The moment they stepped out of The Forge, Gozen suggested a detour to the city's finest Turtle-Cow steakhouse, promising the meat would put the A4 Wagyu from Gray's homeland to shame and insisting it wasn't nearly as disgusting as the name made it sound.

The offer was tempting, but Gray had a more pressing priority: his brother. On the way back to Althea's makeshift hospital, Gozen kept finding excuses to stall, suggesting one shop after another and claiming Althea probably needed more time to work. Rather than calming Gray, the obvious delays only built up the anxiety within him. At last, the white building with its enormous red cross came into view a few blocks ahead.

"Don't you need a new pair of shoes?" Gozen asked, the words tumbling out a little too quickly.

"I know a great shop that puts those Jadens you kids collect to shame." Gray kept his eyes fixed on the clinic doors.

"Shoes? Yeah, shoes sound fine. But let's check on Hyun first." He quickened his pace. Gozen let out a weary sigh and hurried after him. They pushed through the front doors and into the lobby. The ridiculous painting of Althea flexing her biceps still dominated the wall, but Gray barely registered it—his attention had already snapped to a noise echoing from down the hall, violent rattling punctuated by deep, strained grunts. It was coming from Hyun's room. Gray bolted down the corridor and wrenched the door open.

Althea loomed over the bed, one massive hand clamped around Hyun's face while the other pinned his convulsing body against the mattress. The bedframe shuddered beneath him, its metal restraints rattling with every violent spasm.

"Are you trying to kill him?" Gray shouted. He rushed the Sage and grabbed her thick forearm, exactly as he had during their first meeting.

"How long have you been putting him through this?" Althea flinched and immediately released him. Freed from her grip, Hyun's tremors gradually weakened until his body finally went still.

"I… I'm sorry." Althea dragged a hand through her hair, her usual confidence nowhere to be found.

"I was desperate."

"Desperate?" Gray's voice went flat.

"What do you mean, desperate?" Althea avoided his stare.

"I can't do anything for your brother," she admitted, looking down at the floor.

"My scans show nothing structurally wrong with his brain. There's nothing for me to repair, nothing I can target with my healing. I can't wake him up." She swallowed.

"All we can do is wait and hope he wakes on his own." Gray barely heard the rest. His gaze drifted past her to the bed, where Hyun's chest rose and fell beneath the straitjacket in a slow, steady rhythm. He was asleep. That was all. He would wake up eventually. Just not here. Gray needed to find a real healer.

"The church," Gray said, breaking the heavy silence.

"What about the church? They use conventional healing methods, not whatever improvised bullshit you're doing." He shot Althea a glare of malice.

"Boy!" Gozen snapped from behind him. Althea raised a hand, stopping him.

"It's alright. He's distraught." She turned her tired gaze back to Gray.

"If you want to transfer him to the church, that's entirely your right." Gozen stepped up behind Gray and rested a firm hand on his shoulder.

"If Althea can't pinpoint the problem, the church won't be able to either," he said quietly.

"She possesses one of the most powerful healing classes in all of Astoria, and brain damage is her specialty. Your brother's best chance now is to wake up on his own." The words hung heavily in the room. There were no other options. He had to wait. Hyun would pull through. He always did. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Gray released a long, shaky breath, finally allowing some of the tension to drain from his shoulders.

"How do we take care of him while he's asleep?" he asked, keeping his voice steady.

"I don't even see an IV drip or feeding tube connected to him." Althea raised a brow, seemingly surprised by his abrupt shift toward practical concerns.

"Treating comatose patients works differently here than it does on Earth. Although the System removed Hyun's class, he still possesses his core—he's still an Awakened." She gestured toward Hyun's motionless body.

"Normally, someone at his rank still requires food and water, but while he's unconscious, his core enters a state of hibernation. His body consumes almost no resources, so he won't need external life support to survive." Gray gave a slow nod, then crossed the room and pulled a chair from the corner.

"We appreciate everything you've done, Althea," Gozen said.

"You can head out. I'll stay here with the boys." Althea nodded, but before leaving, she turned back toward Gray.

"He'll wake up. I'm sure of it. I've treated plenty of severe head trauma, and none of those patients stayed unconscious permanently." She rubbed the back of her neck, her expression tightening.

"Though… a few did wake up with memory loss or diminished cognitive function." Gray froze midway through dragging the chair, his fingers tightening around its back.

"Althea," Gozen warned, his voice dropping into a low rumble. She lifted both hands in immediate surrender.

"Sorry. I'm leaving." She hurried toward the door.

"I'll hire a caretaker to watch him while I'm out, just in case. Feel free to copy the keycard so Gray can come and go whenever he wants."

"Will do," Gozen replied. Althea slipped past them and disappeared into the hallway. For several seconds, only the faint creak of Gray's chair scraping across the floor disturbed the silence. Then came a violent rip from the lobby, followed by the crack of splintering wood. Gozen glanced toward the doorway, shook his head, and clicked his tongue. He turned back to find Gray positioning the chair directly beside Hyun's bed.

"Listen, boy," Gozen said, his voice softening.

"If your brother is even half as stubborn as you are, he'll wake up." Gray lowered himself into the chair and leaned over the mattress, beginning to undo the thick buckles securing Hyun's straitjacket. The stiff canvas loosened one strap at a time.

"I hope so," Gray murmured. Gozen studied him for a moment, clearly weighing whether to continue. Eventually, he let out a quiet breath.

"Look, I don't want to push you right now, but I have to ask." He paused.

"What are your plans?" Gray slowly turned his head toward him. The answer was already written across his face.

"I have to be here when he wakes up," he said.

"I'm not doing anything else until then." He looked back down and resumed loosening the heavy canvas restraints. Gozen released a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of his neck.

"I figured as much." He stepped closer to the bed.

"But who knows how long he'll be out? You heard Althea—she's hiring a caretaker so you won't have to stay here every second. The Kaiser Entrance Exam is right around the corner. You need time to prepare."

"I'll take it next time," Gray shot back, his voice cold. Gozen frowned.

"Kid, you don't understand. You can only take the exam once a year. If you miss this, you delay obtaining your Kaiser License, which stunts your cultivation and locks you out of the rifts."

"Does any of that matter anymore?" Gray asked flatly. He didn't look up as he finished removing the straitjacket, folded the stiff canvas into a rough square, and shoved it beneath the bed. Gozen stood there in silence, the quiet stretching long enough for the faint ticking of the wall clock to fill the room.

"No," he finally said.

"I guess it doesn't." He turned and left. Gray remained at his brother's side for the next three days. The bathroom was stocked with enough supplies to keep Hyun clean, but aside from wiping him down with a warm sponge and changing the bedding, there wasn't much Gray could do. Strangely, Hyun never developed the stale, sour smell Gray associated with someone confined to a bed for days—he chalked it up to another invisible benefit of the System's optimization. Hopefully, that same optimization extended to him.

Otherwise, Gray was probably assaulting his unconscious brother with an odor of his own. Over the past seventy-two hours, he had neglected nearly every basic need—food, hygiene, and especially sleep. Adrenaline and stress carried him through the first day. By the afternoon of the second, the crash came hard. During the competition, the System had suppressed his need for rest, letting him keep moving on borrowed stamina. Now that he was outside its domain, the debt had come due.

Gray remained planted in the chair beside Hyun's bed, fighting a losing battle against his own body for hours. His chin would dip toward his chest, his eyes closing for only a second before he jerked himself awake again. Each time, he forced his burning eyes open and checked Hyun's face for any sign of movement. Eventually, exhaustion overwhelmed whatever stubbornness he had left. His shoulders sagged. His head rolled forward. The room disappeared. Violent shaking ripped Gray from sleep.

He jolted upright with a strangled gasp, eyes snapping open as panic surged through him. His heart pounded against his ribs while the blurry room slowly sharpened into focus. Gozen was crouched over him, both hands gripping Gray's arms.

"What…" Gray mumbled, dragging the back of his hand across his eyes, his mouth bone-dry.

"What's going on?"

"He's awake!"