endbook rogue 4 5 1

'Even if you're the ace of these mercenaries, we can't guarantee we'll be able to reattach your arm every time. This time, we have a supply ship nearby, sufficient resources, and the situation on the frontline is stable. But just a few months ago, we wouldn't have had the manpower to handle a surgery like this. Do you understand?'

'I apologize, Dr. Amiya...' The hulking Phidia cowers before Amiya like a child being scolded.

'With your skills, you should have no shortage of work that is both easier and pays better. Plenty of nobles would gladly hire you as their bodyguard. Why choose to come here?'

'What about you, Dr. Amiya?'

'I just want to help more people go home alive.'

'And I just want to help my mercenary buddies go home with their pay in their pockets, not in an envelope on top of the jar holding their ashes.'

They both fall silent.

'Neither of us have a choice, do we?'

'What you want won't be easy, doc... especially in times like these.

'But never mind that. Want to hear some good news?'

'What is it?'

'They don't need us on the frontlines recently, and I don't have to be on a stretcher every time I visit.'

'Really?'

'Yeah, we've been assigned to protect the field hospital and supply lines.'

'That's wonderful! We'll be so much safer with you guys around.'

'I've heard some unsettling rumors, though. Some of the more bloodthirsty units in the area have begun targeting non-military facilities.'

'Unbelievable...'

'Maybe that's why they need mercs redeployed to the rear... But don't worry, doc, we won't let—'

They are suddenly interrupted by a nurse.

'Dr. Amiya! There's a situation in the Infected area.'

'Coming.'

Amiya hastily takes her leave and runs towards the Infected area.

...

Generally, only the Infected are willing to treat the Infected. As such, only Amiya and a few other Infected medical personnel attend to the Infected patients, who far outnumber the uninfected, with more by the day as more soldiers become Infected. They can only offer basic treatment, and of all the Originium-related conditions, the most dangerous is undoubtedly—

'Another case of acute Oripathy?'

'Yes, doctor. It doesn't look good. I've moved the patient into a quarantine tent.'

'I see... I'll take it from here.'

They run past Infected patients looking up at them with a mixture of gratitude and fear. Gratitude for the treatment they provide, but also fear that this time they might come bearing not salvation, but a death sentence.

Amiya arrives at a green tent. She opens the door, takes one look at the patient, and stops the nurse from following her inside.

'It's too late... Notify the soldiers, and evacuate the other patients in the area.'

'B-But just a minute ago, it wasn't... I understand.'

'Doctor... doctor...'

Amiya hears a sound like rock knocking on rock coming from the tent. She gestures for the nurse to leave and walks inside.

'Doctor... Amiya...'

'I'm here.'

Amiya sits by the side of the bed, pen and paper in her hand.

'Will I... make it...?'

'...I'm sorry.'

The patient raises one uncrystallized hand and waves it a few times with great effort.

'At least... someone came to see me... before the end...'

'Would you like me to leave a message for your family? Or... anything you want us to deliver? I can write it down.'

'No... they're all dead... our own fault...

'Nothing good... comes of... war...'

Amiya says nothing. She holds the patient's hand and listens to him describe with his half-crystallized vocal cords how his family was swept up in the war, how they fell for the promises of the recruiters and abandoned their farms, only to be swallowed up by war, one by one. He was the last one left, the dessert at the end of dinner.

The patient keeps talking and talking as though his life depends on it, until his vocal cords fully crystallize, and the sound of crystal scraping becomes clearly audible. With what little strength he has left, he pushes Amiya away and gestures for her to leave.

Amiya turns over the pages in her notebook that have become wet with tears, tears a new page out, and folds a paper fowlbeast. She waves it before the patient's eyes, then puts it in his hand. There is nothing she can do as a doctor, but as a fellow human, she wants to give him one final parting gift.

Amiya leaves. Crystals soon rip the paper fowlbeast apart.

...

Amiya walks slowly out of the quarantine zone, lost in thought. She hears a dull sound from the tent behind her. Soldiers immediately set the tent on fire, sending a column of black smoke into the sky. She gazes upon the Originium crystals on her hand, then turns back to look at the burning tent, her gaze following the black smoke up into the sky.

Several colorful fireballs appear from the sun. She hears the sound of alarms blaring behind her.

'Run, doctor!'