Chapter 693: The Strongest Talent [Part 1]
Northern had heard from one of the chatterings in the hall that Aster was so wounded, he almost died and had to be transferred to the infirmary; hence, his direction and path were pretty clear.
After a couple of minutes of insanely furious steps, he finally arrived at the Silver Infirmary.
The academy had three distinct infirmaries. The Gold Infirmary, built right behind the main library in the Combative School; the Silver Infirmary, nestled towards the east wing of the Non-Combative School, three large buildings away from the forge; and the Bronze Infirmary, which was very close to the school gate-essentially built for low-profile workers.
The Silver Infirmary was an edifice of glass and concrete; although it could not be compared to the Gold Infirmary, it still stood as the most magnificent building in the Non-Combative School.
He hurried through its double doors and stopped in front of the receptionist's counter, bowed his head lightly before asking.
"I am here for a guy called Aster..."
The lady at the counter raised her brows.
"I'm sorry, who?" she asked as she opened the logbook on her table.
"The guy that defeated the Disciplinary Committee leader."
Quickly, she lifted her head and pointed down the hall.
"Oh. Once you get to the hall, take the stairs on your left, upstairs room 034."
"Thank you," Northern responded sharply and walked away from the lady's table.
Several people hung around the lobby of the infirmary; some had bandages around their hands and neck, others in crutches, while many sat there, waiting for one appointment or the other.
Northern granted them a very brief glance before entering the hallway of rooms and turning to his left, climbing the stairs to the next floor.
He finally reached room 034 and knocked. A few seconds later, a feminine voice came from inside the room.
"You can come in."
Northern turned the knob of the door and entered. Aster was laying on the bed directly in front of his eyes, and next to his bed was a lady whose leg was hung; her entire body was bandaged except for her face.
She looked at Northern and smiled.
"Did you come here to see me too?"
Her words made him cringe. She said it in a very lewd and immoral manner, with her eyes glinting. Northern had almost shifted a step back if Aster had not spoken immediately, shouting:
"Why the hell do you keep harassing my visitors?!"
She let out a smug chuckle.
"Your visitors are nutsacks if they get harassed by a cripple like me."
Northern decided to ignore the lady and walked towards Aster. He pocketed his hands and asked.
"What exactly happened?" His voice was low, seemingly crawling with imposing tremors in
the air.
"I fought... and never stopped standing."
Aster had a couple of bandages around his face and body; one of his hands was fully bandaged to the side, and his usually vibrant color was slightly pale.
"Your words were my strength. And with how you did so much to give me this new power, I could not just stay down. Each time I got wounded, something said to me, 'How dare you stay down? Will you let the master's sacrifice go in vain?' Then it was usually like I suddenly gained a kind of strength I never had. Then I would rise again, and it kept happening, again and again, until the Disciplinary Committee leader could not stand up again..."
Northern stayed silent for a few seconds after Aster finished speaking.
Seeing the silence, the chatterbox added.
"Of course, if you want me to go into more details, I could, but right now, everywhere just hurts..."
"Oh please, you are always chattering nonstop of how heroic you felt, how your body spoke to you, how invincible you were; you wouldn't stop and now it suddenly aches?"
Aster threw a furious glare at the girl. She gnawed silently at him and turned her head away.
Northern's eyes squinted as his voice sounded like a single note on a musical string breaking the world of silence in a graveyard.
"So... you were the cause."
Aster tilted his head slightly.
"The cause? What do you mean?"
Northern had been in thought while his stamina depleted at a very concerning rate. Even though he used his speed terrifyingly, he had employed judicious use of it to save himself some stamina.
But a battle after all of that and he could not go anymore. It was unusual. Very unusual.
But he realized as Aster was talking-that he had completely forgotten about the fact that Aster's use of those new abilities depended on Void essence, which in the end comes back to devour his own stamina.
Aster might just be experiencing fatigue from all the movement, but the use of his talent was weighing down on Northern.
Hence, it was like two people were feeding on the stamina of one person.
Northern blinked and sighed before responding to the boy.
"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you won..."
Aster looked carefully into Northern's eyes and cautiously said.
"Really? Are you sure? You seem somewhat... pissed?"
"Oh do I? I do, right?" He forced out a terrible smile. "How about this? Do I look happy?"
Aster grinned and nodded. "Yes! You look way better."
The lady, with a puzzled expression, exchanged glances between Northern and Aster, blinking
severally.
"Are both of you nuts? You..." she pointed to Northern, "...are smiling like you were a grotesque being in your past life."
She swung her head to Aster.
"And you, don't tell me you don't see that is a forced smile to just make you silent. Are you that dumb? Oh God, these lads!" She slapped her face with her only free and uninjured limb.
Northern turned towards her for the first time since getting into the room.
"Who could you be?"
"Oh. She's a weird one. Apparently, she is the most useless girl in the Combative School."
Northern tilted his head a little bit. Aster's explanation was too strange.
It was impossible to know the most useless person in the Combative School... of course, if the
social crowd had deemed her so.
"What do you mean by that?"
The girl frowned.
"Don't go around telling people I'm useless. I just have a talent that is too strong. It's too
strong; it breaks my own body if I try to use it."
She shrugged with her bandaged limbs.
"As you can see..."