A little while later, Edsel took her advice and showered inside the attached bathroom located within Shirley’s hospital suite.

Pressurized jets of heated water struck his back like sharpened pellets of rain. A soft groan reflexively leaked out from his lips. Truth be told, Edsel had missed this. The swirling steam, the quiet isolation, the distinct sensation of purification… it was almost as if all of the day’s troubles and worries were being rinsed right off his very body.

It was a bit obvious by now, but he absolutely loved showers.

Strangely enough, showers weren’t really all that common back in Regalia. Rather, even the concept itself did not exist. They were more of a bathtub-type of world.

Back then, Edsel did not overly care. In a place where death was common and betrayal happened as quickly and as frequently as a clown clapping his hands, bathing preferences seemed kind of like a nonissue at the time.

Besides, baths had their own merits too. Those merits were a bit different from a shower’s, but they were still merits nonetheless.

He loved both, but right now, he preferred the comforts of a hot shower.

Still, Edsel did not indulge himself for too long. After five minutes of vigorous scrubbing, he stepped out of the bathroom a new man.

Wisps of plume-like steam followed after his every movement as he stepped out of the bathroom and re-entered the hospital suite.

For a moment, he simply stood there.

Silence filled the room. It was deafening; an eerie quiet that reminded him of all the timeless moments that he had spent stuck within that blank, empty space. It was unbearably suffocating. The only thing that kept him grounded to reality was the EKG monitor. The occasional beeping interrupted the perpetual silence.

The EKG monitor which tracked his sister’s vitals also served as a reminder. Shirley was still alive. It was far too early to give up.

Edsel’s surroundings were shrouded in darkness. Aside from the various machines scattered throughout the room, the only source of light came in the form of a street lamp located roughly one hundred meters beyond the window.

After what felt like forever, he finally moved. Edsel slicked back his still-damp hair and pulled up a chair beside the bed.

He sat down with a heavy sigh.

“…”

The young hero did not immediately do anything. His gaze drifted towards his sister’s static expression. A somewhat soft glint colored his eyes.

“I missed you…” His quiet words reverberated through nobody’s ears but his own. “You, mom, dad, Addy, it sounds weird coming from someone like me, but… I, I really did miss everyone…”

As he spoke, he gently reached over and brushed aside a stray lock of hair that had fallen onto her cheek. The pale tenor of her skin greatly contrasted with the chestnut brown hue of her hair.

Edsel’s lips slightly twitched. It was a somewhat difficult expression to interpret.

In the past, Shirley normally grew her hair out until it reached her lower waist. It was a bit long, even by most standards, but she didn’t mind the hassle and upkeep that came with the length. She liked to style her hair into a pair loosely braided pigtails.

Edsel never quite told her this, but he didn’t really like her hairstyle. It made her look younger than what she actually was, which was already a common misconception even without the hair.

While that in itself wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, her youthful appearance instinctively made others want to protect her. Even Edsel was not immune to this phenomenon. Despite how often she sometimes annoyed him, he could never really hold his anger. At most, he’d feel irritated for an afternoon, but come tomorrow morning and everything would be back to normal.

Not being able to stay mad made him feel a tad bit powerless.

Of course, this sort of thing probably stemmed from the fact that they were family, but Edsel liked to think that a part of it was due to her deceptively innocent appearance.

Recalling the distant past brought a slight smile to his face. Unfortunately, like with his anger, it did not last very long.

The frustratingly cute little sister with the braided pigtails was gone.

For starters, they cut her hair.

Unlike before, where her hair cascaded all the way down to her hips, now it barely covered the tips of her ears.

The hospital staff probably snipped it because of hygiene, but that did not stop him from feeling a tad bit disappointed.

To be honest, it was not a very flattering haircut. In fact, it made her look like a little boy; young, but probably not in the way that she would have wanted.

Edsel inwardly shook his head. Despite his dislike for Shirley’s previous hairstyle, it was several times better than what she had now.

As it turns out, she really did have a face suited for braided pigtails.

“…”

After a while, Edsel removed his hand and leaned back against the chair. A wistful glint flashed through his eyes.

“You might not believe me, but it’s been a while since I’ve last seen you.”

Again, he spoke out loud to the silent room. At this moment, he did not care if nobody could hear him. “Granted, three years is still a pretty long time, but… I, for me… it’s been a whole lot longer than just three years…”

“You can’t even begin to imagine where I went!” He lightly chuckled. “For ten years, I was in another world! Regalia, a world with knights, dragons, monsters, all sorts of things! Can you believe it? Turns out we really aren’t the only ones out there… although I still don’t know if aliens actually exist.”

His lips ran loose as the words continually flowed out and filled the air around him.

“You know what they called me? A hero! I was a damn hero!”

“The girls over there were quite beautiful. Princesses, female knights, and Holy maidens… ah, most of them had a bit of a personality problem though, so I’m ashamed to say this, but your brother is still inexperienced.”

“There was also this damn bastard merchant, I can’t even begin to count how many times he cheated me…”

“… I was stuck there for ten thousand years! Can you believe that?”

“Of course, we can’t forget about the demon king…”

“…”

Edsel spent the entire night by his sister’s bedside.

Unbeknownst to anyone, he animatedly recounted his adventures in Regalia. He spoke of his hardships, of the people that he met, and of the fantastical encounters that he had. His experiences as a hero, his numerous failed loved pursuits, the nobles that tried to pressure him into doing things that he did not want to do, he held nothing back.

In front of his little sister, Edsel was no longer a world-saving hero. He was just a regular brother recounting all the years that he had spent abroad.

He eventually stopped at the point in the story where he fled a destroyed kingdom after the Princess of said kingdom secretly colluded with the Demons in order to usurp the throne. Since the kingdom was destroyed, her plans had naturally backfired.

“… that crazy bitch really fucked everyone over. I said it before, didn’t I? Almost all the women in that world have something wrong with their heads.”

Edsel looked up. His gaze landed on the rectangular window next to the bed. A pinkish haze illuminated the skyline. He could not quite see it due to all the buildings obscuring his vision, but the sun was rising.

Without realizing, morning had already arrived.

Edsel subconsciously yawned. For the first time, he noticed the weariness that weighed down on his limbs like heavy bags of sand. He had accidentally spent the whole night talking. It was only natural to feel tired. What’s more, his fatigue was amplified by this weak constitution of his.

Still, he did not pay it any mind. Edsel was no stranger to fatigue. Usually, during moments like these, he’d just boldly power through. It worked out for him before, it would surely work out for him now.

As he watched the sun rise, he once again thought back to his three goals.

To accomplish his end goal of saving Shirley, he first needed to fulfill his long-term goal of regaining his lost abilities.

But that begs the question, how was he supposed to reenter the path of magic?

It was a conundrum that the current him had no solutions for.

Edsel furrowed his brow. First, let’s start from the beginning.

In Regalia, in order for someone to shed the title of ‘Uninitiated’ and undergo an awakening, they must first encounter a catalyst.

A catalyst was a fairly straightforward concept. It was really just something, anything that can properly open up a person’s senses to the world of magic. Basically, its main role was to turn the mundane into the extraordinary.

Literally speaking, he needed a Macguffin.

The catalyst could be something as simple as a Senior Magician inserting a sliver of mana into a person’s body. There were also cases where a commoner suddenly gains the ability to use magic after acquiring some sort of holy artifact or magical armament.

The most common catalyst used in Regalia was a device called an Identifier. It was designed not only to awaken a person’s ability to sense mana, but also to identify said individual’s growth potential.

Unfortunately, much less an Identifier, Edsel neither had a Senior Magician nor a holy artifact.

There was also the second option of forceful awakening, but that method was several times more complicated. Forceful awakenings were used for those without talent or for those with special circumstances. The ritual and magic circle parts he could probably handle, but acquiring the necessary materials was a whole different matter entirely. Those damn things were considerably harder to find than some simple catalyst.

Speaking of a catalyst, most catalysts are magic-based, but if I expand my thinking by a bit, then wouldn’t raw energy also work?

Such a thought suddenly floated to his head.

In that case, I could probably make do with a sufficiently strong energy source, right? Maybe something like electricity?

He suddenly paused for a moment. A shallow frown formed on his lips.

If I want to use electricity as a catalyst, a small shock won’t do. I’ll need something big and loud and incredibly scary…

The frown on his face deepened.

It sounds like a good enough plan. I'll just climb up a utility pole and electrocute myself. It’s simple and straight forward, but… can I take it? With the current state of my body, an electric shock like that will likely kill me…

Edsel could only wryly shake his head.

There were simply too many unknowns. What’s more, the risk that such a crude plan brought to his little life was far too great of a burden for him to bear. Surely, there was something better out there, right?

Now, it wasn’t that Edsel feared his own death, but rather, he feared hers. Once he died, then Shirley would truly lose the last bit of hope she still had left within this cruel world.

Such a risk was not something that he was willing to make.

Maybe I should go find some occult books? Will something like that help?

Edsel continued to stew in his thoughts. After a few minutes, he suddenly shifted focus.

Let’s leave all that complicated stuff for later. For now, let’s focus on my immediate goal.

Making money.

In order to prolong his sister’s life, he needed to figure out how to make a lot of money within the fastest time possible.

His first instinct was to get a job, but unfortunately, that was clearly a non-option.

Edsel’s title as Regalia’s premiere Hero meant nothing in this world. Right now, Edsel was a man with no prospects. He had disappeared during his last year of high school, which technically made him a drop out. In terms of academic standing, Edsel was nothing more than a middle-school graduate.

Options were limited for someone like him. A minimum wage job at some sleazy gas station was far from enough to offset the cost of his sister’s hospital fees.

Even with a regular job, it still wouldn’t be enough. Four thousand dollars a day was simply far too steep of a hurdle for most regular people to overcome.

He breathed out a sigh.

Edsel was faced with the bitter reality of… well, reality.

After a while, he decided to abandon the conventional methods.

A rogue like me needs to act like a rogue.

On the topic of making money fast, there were plenty of alternate options. Winning the lottery, gambling, hugging the leg of some rich sugar daddy… there were plenty of options.

Winning the lottery is impossible. I’m also pretty bad at gambling and I don’t know where I’d even go about finding a sugar daddy… In that case, should I just rob a bank?

He did still have the pistol, after all. Robbing a bank, holding someone hostage… when he turned his sights towards the less savory methods, several possibilities opened up. After some thought, he surprisingly dismissed the idea.

“As a hero, I probably shouldn’t do such uncouth things…”

He spoke somewhat half-heartedly, but Edsel was the type of man who did not like to get innocent people involved with his problems. Collateral damage from a fierce battle was enough to make his heart bleed, much less directly threatening someone’s life for his own benefit. Although he was willing to compromise his morals in order to save his sister’s life, if there was another way to accomplish the same goal, then he’d pick the other way.

Fortunately, his morals only applied to the innocent. He had no such qualms with the guilty.

If I remember correctly, didn’t that guy say something about some Howling Hogs gang? Edsel briefly recalled his encounter with the would-be kidnappers. It’s such a stupid name, but I guess it’s rather fitting.

In his eyes, gangsters and bandits were nothing more than walking, talking piggy banks.

Still, those guys looked like paupers. A little gang like that probably has no money. Stealing from them is not worth it… Despite his thoughts, a slight smile twisted his lips.

But even if they are poor, if they’re a gang residing within this city, then surely, they should know about the wealthier underworld organizations, right? If I use those guys as a stepping stone, then I should be able to acquire a fair bit of resources…

Edsel’s eyes sparkled.

“I’ve decided. The moment I see those squealing piglets again will be the moment my plan officially starts!” He declared to himself.

Edsel abruptly got up. He did not want to waste time. Since he had already come to a decision, then he would immediately follow through with it.

He quickly bid his sister a silent goodbye before he decisively left the hospital suite. First, he planned to explore the city and search for those gangsters.

Luckily, Addy had given him some pocket money, so transportation fees were not a problem.

Just as he was about to make his way down the stairs, he suddenly stopped. He heard something. A low, muffled grumbling. It was a sound reminiscent of a beast’s snarling.

Edsel frowned.

He pressed a hand against his stomach. A bitter expression morphed his face.

“I’m starving…”

In truth, he had not eaten anything since he first got back, which was more than twenty hours ago.

He hesitated for a moment before he begrudgingly shook his head.

“I can’t fight a war on an empty stomach…” He muttered half-heartedly to himself before he ran off in search of the cafeteria.