Outside of Yakuza's hospital, Ivana is walking at the pathway heading towards the building in the distance. She had just ended her talk with the chief of police, and learned that the police force are not going to fight in the upcoming fight due to their casualties in the last day's event
They also discussed about the mysterious forces that appeared. Since their last attack, those forces didn't appeared any more and the various groups of enemies started to heal from their damages. Soon, their going to wreck havoc in the city again
The chief of police planned to request more officers to the General, but Ivana suggested a different suggestion and decided to volunteer to keep the city protected. Of course, Ivana's goal is different from what they are thinking. She planned to avenge her fallen brothers by annihilating those enemy groups now that they're fighting
Also, now that those groups are getting stronger, she planned to at least cull their numbers if she didn't manage to destroy them all. She really had a feeling that if she didn't at least reduced them to a non non-lethal threat. She going to be in a very dangerous situation because of her curse
'I had to prevent that from happening. If they found out my curse, then I'll be in their mercy'
Ivana was preoccupied by her thought that she only noticed that she's already in front of the building due to her subordinate greeting her
"Good morning boss!"
The two guards greeted as she nodded and passed them. However, she stopped and looked around before asking them a question
"Did something happened here in the last two days?"
Ivana was always been sharp, and she noticed that the whole atmosphere is so… gloomy. She watch the guards hesitate but eventually said in a sad voice
"It's about the woman that you bring here, boss. She kept crying all day from yesterday that all of the people here turned sad when they hear her"
Ivana stared at them not knowing what to say. Then, she walked ahead while saying at them
"What a pathetic reason"
The guards cough but didn't say anything. They immediately return to guarding the entrance. Ivana walk in the second floor to talk with the head nurse of her family's hospital. She soon reached room at the door
Knock! Knock!
A woman's stern voice then sounded inside
"Come in"
Ivana opened the door and the woman in the table immediately got up from her seat and greeted her
"Good morning boss"
Ivana waived at her to seat and she sat the chair in front of the table. Ivana is not the one to make a complicated ceremony or whatever. She just sat wherever she wants.
"So, how's things going here?"
The woman then gave a lengthy report about the men that died, crippled, and had mental trauma. She also reports about the decreasing medicines and other medical supplies. After she finished reporting to Ivana. She said to her
"Boss, are you still placing the woman here? She's fully recovered now, unbelievable may it be, and can already leave this place"
Ivana raised an eyebrow and said to her
"Now that you brought that up, what's happening to her? Why is she crying so much that people all know it? I remember that she's not that… a crybaby? No, she's a crybaby. But she was not that devastated when I left last time. What happened?"
The woman didn't speak for a bit, before saying
"I'm sorry. I might have said a lot of painful words to her. I'm sorry boss"
Ivana was confused. She remembered that this woman is so thoughtful and hardworking. So she will not say anything without thinking things through. Then, she remembered something
"Gerisa, is your husband…"
The woman, Gerisa, nodded and said flatly
"Yes. He was killed in the ambush of our enemies when he's searching for the whereabouts of that woman"
Ivana didn't say anything as they stared at each other. She can roughly guess that, because of that, she didn't manage to control herself. And knowing her, she will definitely say such cutting words to Ilaya. Now, her only worries is if that blow will make Ilaya easier to train and control, or she will need more cutting words to make her move
Eventually, Ivana lowered her head and said
"I apologize. My order killed your husband"
Gerisa didn't say anything as she stared at her bowing boss. Then, Ivana got up from her seat and said to her
"I will send more supplies before the day ends. Make sure to make the wounded recover faster. There's still many fights ahead of us. Also, I will leave with Ilaya now"
Gerisa then nodded as she stood up and bowed to her boss
"Yes boss. Leave it to me"
Then, Ivana left the room as she walked on the ground floor. Her gait is as always, prideful and confident. She headed straight towards the room where Ilaya is and reached the door. She entered the room and immediately saw Ilaya in the farthest corner of the wall, curled up as she slept. Ivana walked closer to her and she was greeted by Yamato who saw her
"Good morning boss"
Ivana nodded and asked him while looking at Ilaya
"What happened to her?"
Yamato sighed as he said
"I don't know either boss, when I woke up yesterday morning. She was brought here by the head nurse unconscious. The nurse said that she's in shock and collapsed after seeing the critically injured ones"
Yamato then looked at Ilaya concernly and continued
"She also said that her trauma might have returned so she might cry when she woke up, but didn't need to worry as it was normal"
Ivana lips twitched, then she shook her head as she thought of Gerisa
'She's really terrible'
Then, as she walked forward to wake up Ilaya. Yamato said worriedly to her
"Um… boss, can you let her sleep for a bit. She didn't manage to get any sleep all night from crying, and only managed to fall asleep when the sun…"
Yamato didn't continue as he was scared by the glare of his boss. Then, Ivana poked Ilaya in her cheek, but she didn't wake up. She proceeded to shake her but she still didn't wake up. Ivana frowned and checked her pulse, but it's still pumping fine
'There's something going on with her. Though I don't know what is it'
Ivana then said to Yamato as she lift up Ilaya in her arms in a princess carry
"Don't worry, I'll take her to a safehouse for now. She can sleep all she wants when we got there"
Then, Yamato nodded as he remembered their first conversation in this place. The words Ilaya said to him when he complained about being carried in a princess carry
'Yeah. I didn't want to be carried like that either'
Yamato felt like laughing, but he's also sad. His conversation partner was going to leave now. He looked at the two of them leave the room and he thought
'I better recover now, so I can get out of this boring place!'
…
As Ivana walked outside the building. She was still carrying Ilaya as she refused the offers of the guards to help her. Then, as she's walking, she frowned at Ilaya's smell
'She definitely needs a bath'
She proceeded walking towards the path to leave the place. Then, Ilaya suddenly whispered in a pained voice
"I'm… sorry…"
Ivana felt that she's trembling as Ilaya snuggled closer to her. Ivana sighed as she changed her position and let Ilaya lean on her