DING!
[SYSTEM ACTIVATED]
Host detected.
Host condition: CRITICAL.
Commencing emergency revival protocol...
***
The double doors to the Academy's infirmary slammed open with a metallic clang, and in poured some of the medical team who were originally unavailable. Even the head doctor himself strode in with a storm in his eyes.
Leo Ashbourne lay sprawled on the bed, skin pallid, breath so faint it was almost imperceptible. For a moment, no one dared to speak, the weight of the situation choking the room. Then the Dean's voice sliced through the stillness.
"Vitals?"
"Fading fast, sir. Mana circulation's collapsing," a doctor reported, already fitting a diagnostic crystal above Leo's chest.
"Stabilization matrix, now. You prep an extraction array. Poison neutralization kit, high-grade. Move!"
Gloved hands blurred into motion, cabinets banged open, tools and glowing vials set down with sharp clinks.
Nurse Maddie stood frozen at the edge of the chaos, her stomach in freefall. Guilt slithered up her spine, cold and suffocating. Her hands trembled at her sides as the thought gnawed at her They'll know. They'll find out. Oh, she was in trouble. If they found out… No, when they found out, there was no "if" here her career was over. License gone. Reputation in ashes.
And all because of this damned sickly student Leo!
This Leo was bad luck personified.
And then the moment she dreaded most came.
"Who was on duty?" the Dean roared without looking up from his patient. "The nurse who called me in who the hell was that?"
Maddie's throat closed. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might burst out of her chest. She swallowed once, twice, before her voice scraped out, weak and uneven.
"I… I was the nurse on duty, Head Doctor. I'm the one who called you."
That made him stop. His head turned, eyes like cold steel locking onto her. "You're the one?" he said slowly, each word weighted with fury. "What did you give him? What did you administer to Leo Ashbourne?"
Her mouth opened, but nothing came out. Her voice was gone, stolen by terror.
"You fool!" he snapped, venom lacing every syllable. "You tried to kill the child of the Ashbourne family? Pray to every god you know that he survives, or you're finished and I mean finished."
He spun back toward the bed. "Get me the purging talismans, now! Prepare the mana siphon! Set the extraction array at full power we're pulling every last trace of that poison out before it anchors to his core!"
The team surged into action. Glowing glyphs flared under Leo's body as they worked with feverish precision. Maddie pressed herself against the wall, wishing she could vanish. If she'd been scared before, now she was ready to just dig her own grave.
This sickly fool was from the prestigious Ashbourne family!??
How was that even possible.
She sighed in regret now she had unknowingly committed the one mistake she could never undo — harming an Ashbourne. Now Her career, her license, her life too were all hanging by the fragile thread of his survival.
Minutes dragged like hours as the medical team fought to drag Leo back from death's edge.
*****
DING!
Host revival: SUCCESSFUL.
******
"…Fuck!"
Pain. Again. That was the first coherent thought in Leonis's mind as awareness clawed its way back. His eyes cracked open, only to be assaulted by blinding light.
"Where…" he muttered, voice rasping, hand flying to his pounding head.
"Head Doctor, the patient Leo is awake!" one nurse called.
Leonis turned his head slowly, catching sight of two nurses hovering near the far wall. He wanted to demand answers what happened, where he was but his throat burned like sandpaper. Speaking felt impossible.
The Dean rushed in moments later, relief flickering across his face. "You're awake. Finally awake." His voice dropped as he exhaled heavily. He began his checks at once.
Cool hands. Bright lights. More poking than necessary.
Water. Finally—water. Leonis drank like a man stranded in a desert, barely keeping the weak body upright.
When the team was satisfied, they explained in brief what had happened, how he had been moved to his own dorm room for convenience, and then left him to rest.
Silence settled.
Leonis leaned back against the pillows, frowning at the ceiling. How in all hells am I not dead? He was grateful… but suspicious. None of this made sense.
He wasn't complaining—but seriously, he needed answers.
And wait—
What the hell was that persistent ringing in his head? And his ears?
He barely had time to think before—
DING!
HELLO HOST (｡♡‿♡｡)
★★★★
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