While the young girl stirred awake from her grievous wounds, a similar awakening occurred far behind the front lines on the left bank of the Mang River, within a ward of the Lanforthian military hospital.
Noticing the patient’s eyes flutter open, a nurse promptly summoned her colleagues to assess the situation.
Barely minutes passed before someone burst through the ward door, pushing past the clustered nurses and doctors to stand directly beside the bed.
The adjutant drew a ragged breath, his voice booming, “Commander! You’re finally awake! What in the world happened? Why did you suddenly collapse at your desk?”
The newly awakened Major Lawrence bypassed the question entirely, instead uttering a few urgent words: “Paper and pen… quickly…”
“You want to… write it down? Did everyone hear him? Quickly, bring paper and a pen! Now!”
Lacking proper writing paper and fountain pens, the nurses scrambled, eventually producing pencils used for marking medications and a stack of blank medical records.
These, along with a small wooden board to write on, were swiftly presented to the Major at his bedside.
Clutching the stiff cardboard, he immediately began sketching and writing across the blank medical records.
Several anxious minutes passed for the adjutant, doctors, and nurses before he finally handed the completed sheet to the adjutant standing by his side.
“Find a place, print ten thousand copies of this… distribute them widely… issue a general order to all units under my command… if she is ever encountered on the battlefield… capture her alive.”
The paper bore a striking sketch of a young girl, depicted from both an upward-looking angle and a direct frontal view, revealing her undeniable charm.
Major Lawrence, it turned out, possessed surprisingly adept artistic skills.
They lingered, observing the two portraits with an air of artistic appreciation, remaining silent.
Realizing their blank stares, Major Lawrence added a single, potent word: “Bounty… 1000 pounds.”
A bounty!
Though none understood why Major Lawrence sought to apprehend such a young girl, the promise of a bounty ensured no one would hold back their keen observation.
A thousand pounds, no less—a thousand Lanforthian pounds!
Many toiled for a decade, working themselves to exhaustion, yet failed to amass such a sum, let alone the significantly smaller amount they actually saved after various expenditures.
Such an unexpected windfall was bound to create a considerable stir within the military ranks.
Even the nurses, unable to venture to the front lines, covertly committed the girl’s likeness from the portrait to memory, secretly hoping they might one day claim a share of the bounty.
Even if such a hope was infinitesimally small—a thousand pounds, after all! What if they actually earned it?
While the commotion far behind the left bank temporarily subsided, on the distant right bank, the very girl depicted on the paper was engaged in conversation with her dearest friend.
****
“…Do you want me to tell you about your condition?”
“Yes,” Lin Yu murmured, nodding.
Nangong retrieved the medical record from the bedside table, then began reciting the names of Lin Yu’s dreadful injuries one by one.
Ligament ruptures, a comminuted fracture of the scapula, brachial plexus damage… Last night—no, the protracted, bloody battle three days prior—had inflicted such severe injuries that she had nearly been rendered a cripple.
Fortunately, the healing arts of this otherworld proved miraculously potent, reducing wounds that would typically demand lengthy recuperation to a mere few days until complete recovery.
After three days spent in bed with a fever, she had largely recovered, though her left hand still lacked any significant strength.
“But I still feel a bit of pain,” she admitted.
“You’re lucky enough to be alive; what more demands could you possibly have?”
In the past, such a foolish remark from Lin Yu would have undoubtedly earned her a flick on the forehead from Nangong.
This time, however, perhaps out of consideration for her recent injuries, she remained unscathed.
“I’d like an injection of painkiller…”
“You’re asking for too much. That stuff is highly addictive. You know opium, don’t you? That harmful vice popular decades ago? They’re essentially the same thing.”
“I know, morphine.”
“Ma Fei?”
‘Ah… I’ve accidentally blurted out a word from my previous life again.’
Lin Yu quickly tried to mend her verbal slip. “I once saw the official scientific name for painkillers, but I might have misremembered it. What was it called again?”
“The doctors who invented this particular drug, the Roormans, did indeed call it ‘Ma Fei.’ However, the medications we’ve introduced don’t use that name; we simply refer to them as painkillers.”
“Oh, I see…”
Lin Yu had always assumed “painkiller” was merely a generic term, never imagining it could actually designate a specific medication.
What more could she possibly say?
“Few people know its proper original name, Lin Yu. You truly are quite knowledgeable.”
“That’s not exactly how it is…”
In truth, Lin Yu wasn’t particularly knowledgeable in many areas.
Compared to the expertise required of a medic, she was merely a fledgling novice; faced with the profound and enigmatic complexities of magic, she was but a toddling child.
While her memories from a previous life undoubtedly afforded her numerous advantages and conveniences, she remained, at her core, but one among the countless seekers in this otherworld—a scholar perpetually questioning the boundless expanse of the unknown.
The discussion of her supposed erudition swiftly faded, and Nangong’s inquiries shifted to more gentle, comforting concerns about Lin Yu’s well-being.
To be fair, she had indeed been half-frozen to death last night, so the prospect of an additional warm garment was truly appealing.
Yet, before Nangong could even begin to demonstrate her knitting prowess, another individual approached Lin Yu’s bedside. “Hello,” the newcomer stated, “please step aside. I’m here to conduct an examination.”
“…Very well. You’re busy; I’ll step out for now.”
A woman, dressed in a doctor’s attire, took Nangong’s former position and began to manipulate the instrument in her hands.
Nangong reluctantly moved towards the doorway, and before departing, she cast a meaningful glance at Lin Yu, as if subtly urging her to… observe the newcomer’s words and actions carefully?
‘Isn’t this just a routine check-up, though? What exactly did Nangong mean by that look?’
“Please remove your upper garment.”
“…Huh?”
A somewhat abrupt request had been made, yet she found herself unable to refuse.
Lowering her gaze, she began to unfasten the buttons at her chest, only then realizing that the khaki military uniform she had worn to the front lines had long since been replaced by a patient’s gown.
Beneath it, nothing remained; her undergarments were gone, replaced only by layers of yellowish bandages wound tightly around her chest.
The yellowish hue, she presumed, was a residue from antiseptic solution, not from any actual grime.
“Eh…”
Yet, for reasons she couldn’t fathom, a hollow sensation bloomed within Lin Yu’s chest, as though something vital had been irrevocably lost.
The doctor’s hand reached for her chest, deftly unwrapping the pristine white bandages that had long since ceased to serve any purpose.
“Chest out, stomach in, expose your abdomen.”
Her chest, as flat as a chopping board, now lay exposed to the air.
Fortunately, a faint hint of contour was beginning to emerge, a testament to two months of abundant meals that had successfully rescued the scrawny village girl from her emaciated state.
A piece of cold metal pressed against her chest, then, within seconds, slid down to her lower abdomen, making her flinch involuntarily.
“This… is this a stethoscope?”
“It’s a standard medical examination procedure. Please remain silent; any talking will cause interference.”
When the doctor instructed Lin Yu to quiet down and await the completion of the examination, she responded with a docile hum, then maintained silence as requested.
“Mmm…”
She silently watched as the doctor put away the small metal piece, only for them to next produce a syringe.
“…”
The doctor swabbed the crook of Lin Yu’s right arm with antiseptic, then, without hesitation, plunged the needle in, drawing a full tube of blood.
Dark crimson liquid streamed from the needle into the tube, catching the light on the glass and refracting it into an array of strange hues.
‘The last time I had blood drawn felt like it was during a physical before heading to battle in my previous life…’
‘Ugh, why do I actively recall such unpleasant memories?’
Withdrawing the needle, the doctor pressed a small cotton ball against the puncture site for a moment, then instructed Lin Yu to take over applying pressure to stop the bleeding. “You hold this yourself now,” she said.
Once the blood draw was complete, the doctor produced an unfamiliar instrument, waving it before Lin Yu for a time and making several adjustments.
Finally, with a solemn expression, she gathered her belongings and departed.
Only then was Nangong permitted to re-enter.