Chapter 25: Night infirmary visit

The great battle between Holy Dawn Academy and Southern Monsoon Academy ended with Chris' desperate, lonely fight against the tide.

The match had already ended, but Ayrin stood outside the Holy Dawn Arena, unwilling to go away for a long while.

“What, are you planning to ambush the most arrogant Southern Monsoon guy in the stands just now?” Belo looked at Ayrin's appearance and immediately became excited. He cracked his knuckles. “Did you clearly see which one it was?”

“They all clapped for Chris at the end. Stop always thinking about this kind of stuff, alright?” Ayrin became dizzy on the spot. He said, “I just feel very happy when I think of the overbearing way they came and the way they're leaving all crestfallen now.”

Belo rolled his eyes at Ayrin. “Stop being so boring.”

“We won this match in such a spectacular way, such a moving way, so why does it seem like the other people in our school don't seem as happy as me?” Ayrin looked at the crowd of people around him, then his gaze fell on Belo once again. “Could it be that most of the students in our academy are freaks like you?”

“Everything would be better if they were like me. We'd have beaten other academies into submission a long time ago, then their students would have to pay protection fees when they come to our school.” Belo snorted coldly, looking at Ayrin as if he were looking at an idiot. “They're not as excited as you because they're not as foolish as you. They all know victory in a preliminary match doesn't mean anything. They're all normal people, they're all going to think that, in a mere preliminary match, a trivial unknown third-rate school that's never even appeared in the main qualifiers before already has such a strong team, they already made Chris injured so heavily. Then in the future when we fight against these teams that enter the national tournament year in and year out, how would it turn out?”

“How can you know what the result will be if you haven't fought yet.” Ayrin looked at Belo and asked, “Belo, her injuries won't be too severe right?”

“You've asked this question five times already since we came out.”

Belo turned away in irritation, but he suddenly thought of something and his eyes immediately brightened with craftiness and excitement. “Since you're so worried, why don't you simply go visit her at the infirmary?”

“Can I?”

Ayrin became immediately spirited. “Can I go see her?”

“Have you ever heard about patients being denied visits?” Belo said with a cold snort.

“Then let's go right now!” Impatience was written all over Ayrin's face.

“If you go right now, aren't you afraid you'll hinder her treatments?”

“Then when are we going?”

“We can go tonight before bedtime.”

“Before bedtime?” Ayrin thought something was a little out of place. He couldn't help staring at Belo. “Will the infirmary let us in if we go there so late? Aren't you worried about disturbing the wounded team members during their rest?”

“Don't you need to complete the foundation training teacher Huston arranged? Didn't you claim you were going to help Chris dominate the country? If you don't train hard, you won't even be a match for the guys in the current Holy Dawn team. They'd send you flying with a casual slap.” Belo turned his head away and didn't even look at Ayrin. “I stayed a long time inside the academy's infirmary, I'm very familiar with that place. Plus I have very good relationships with the medical masters inside. The fewer people there are, the easier it'll be to go in.”

“That's right, I have to train hard. Then we'll go tonight after we complete our training.” Ayrin didn't doubt Belo's words. He said excitedly, “Then let's first go to the commercial street right now.”

Belo frowned. “Go to the commercial district, why?”

“To buy a few gifts of course.” Ayrin said as a matter of course, “Don't tell me you can visit a patient empty-handed?”

Belo felt that Ayrin was truly an idiot, truly troublesome, but then thinking that he managed to cheat him into visiting the infirmary at night, he merely humphed quietly and no longer complained. He followed Ayrin to the commercial street.

“Ayrin!”

Ayrin heard someone call him as soon as they reached the commercial street. He turned his head, curious, and saw it was a fatty in white chef clothes, his face flushed red.

“It's you?”

Ayrin stared blankly, and only remembered when he saw the shop behind this fat boss. He scratched his head. “So it's you, boss, how come your Super Giant Fried Pork Ribs store hasn't closed shop yet?”

“How can you say that.” The fat boss scolded him with a smile and cheerfully said, “My business is booming, why would I close shop.”

Ayrin glanced around. It seemed business was indeed flourishing, so he became a little curious. “Didn't everyone curse you back then and call you an unscrupulous profiteer, many people said they'll never buy your pork chops again, how did your business become so good now?”

“It's all thanks to you, haha. Everyone heard you ate a super big piece of fried pork chops, so they all came have a look. There were even people who requested fried pork chops as big as the one you ate that day.” The fat boss said proudly, “Oh yeah, you're called Ayrin right? You must be the student rumored to have Giant Food Monster blood, the one who's especially good at eating. I thought of a good idea, please be our shop's spokesperson. Come here for a little while every few days and perform some eating, then everything you eat here will be free. I can also give you some reward, what do you say?”

“Alright then.” Ayrin nodded happily as soon as he heard he could eat for free again. At the same time he turned his head around and asked Belo, “How about we simply buy a few pork chops as a gift?”

Several black lines appeared on Belo's forehead. “Have you ever seen someone bring fried pork chops to a sick patient?”

“Then what should we bring?” Ayrin asked, full of zest.

“When visiting a girl, a few candies will do,” Belo said, looking at Ayrin. He even began to admire himself for being so patient and good-natured. He thought it was surely because of teacher Liszt. This guy Ayrin never admitted his relationship with teacher Liszt, but he felt there must be an unspeakable secret between those two. The way he saw it, Liszt was the big boss standing on top of Holy Dawn Academy, and a big boss he believed he'd have no way of beating within a few years, so he could definitely not offend him.

“Candies?” Ayrin was entirely unaware of the many twists and turns in Belo's mind. He immediately asked the fat red-faced boss, “Boss, what kind of candies do girls like the most usually?”

“Girls? I know there's a shop down the road, their green-wrapped chocolate-stuffed candy and little bear gummies are particularly tasty, girls will definitely like them. There aren't many people who know how good these two candies are, I usually don't tell anyone.”

“Thank you boss.”

Ayrin hurried like a gust of wind that candy shop's direction in the distance.

Entering this candy shop with a roof made from green iron sheets, he asked the fifty-years old boss inside, “Do you have that candy with green wrapping and chocolate stuffing, give me a pack of it.”

“I have it. Surprising, you look like a freshman, but you have very good taste. It's on top of the shelf though, I have to go look for a ladder.” The boss found a ladder after praising Ayrin, then climbed up. He took a pack of green-wrapped candies with chocolate stuffing, then he put the ladder away and asked, panting a little, “What else do you need?”

Ayrin thought a bit and said, “I want another pack.”

The boss said, depressed, “You could have said that earlier.” He helplessly took the ladder once again to grab a pack, then he cautiously asked, “You're sure you only want two pack of this chocolate-stuffed candy?”

Ayrin nodded, saying yes.

The boss finally became reassured. He took the ladder away. As a result, Ayrin said, “Boss, I also want the little bear gummies, the ones just beside the chocolate-stuffed candies, it looks like they're also on top of the shelves.”

The boss: “...”

…

After laboring from the morning match all the way to the sun falling in the west, the most elite medical team in Holy Dawn Academy finally finished their treatment of Chris and the several people from Southern Monsoon Academy.

Teacher Namin was the strongest medical master in the team and also the one with the most authority, the one in charge of the medical district. He did another round of checking then walked outside the ward Chris was currently in. After listening to the calm and smooth breathing of her sleep, this grave man looking over thirty with a scar on his forehead once again told the several medical masters on duty, “None of these injuries are light, you have to make sure to keep an attentive watch. Just as usual, don't let anyone come inside in order to avoid accidents. Especially since the match is at our academy this time. The medical treatment is at our place here, and these few from team Southern Monsoon are the apples in Southern Monsoon Academy's eyes. We can absolute not let any mishap happen!”

“Yes!”

Several medical masters immediately answered with due solemnity. Then their figures flashed, and vanished from the outside of the ward.

The depths of the night, in a woody patch behind the infirmary. A wisp of black cloud floated past the top of the infirmary. Ayrin rubbed his arms and legs nonstop. He couldn't resist asking Belo, “Belo, you're really very familiar with the medical masters inside? Are you really taking me to see Chris?”

The walls of the infirmary towered not far in front of them.

Right now, besides Belo, there was a simple and crude tunnel, visible after Belo cleared away the place.

“Don't be so annoying, you just finished the foundation exercises, aren't you dead tired yet?” Belo exposed his shining white teeth and said in a light voice, “The infirmary's front gates are locked already, where else should we enter from if not from here? Also, after we go inside you have to follow tightly behind me, don't make any noise, I can't guarantee everyone inside will give me face. If you don't listen to me, you can't blame me if you don't end up seeing Chris.”

“Alright then.”

Filled with a bad premonition, Ayrin bit the bullet and nodded. Belo pushed aside the covering roots and wines. They went inside the pitch-black tunnel.

A dozen minutes later, inside a passage outside Chris's ward, there was a small sudden noise.

At the foot of the stairs, the lid covering a trash hole lifted up. Two messy, dirty silhouettes drilled out from it.

One of the silhouettes made a hand gesture, pointed to Chris' ward and several other wards nearby.