In the afternoon his mother visited him and stayed with him until the night. During the whole time she was completely cheerful and acted like everything was fine. They chatted about average and boring topics, like what kind of housework did she do recently, or how the weather was colder than usual. Usually Quin would not be a fan of these kinds of conversations, however this time, it was exactly what he needed: something to divert his attention from the more serious matters.

Obviously Quin knew the true feelings of his mother and how worried she was, but there was nothing he could do about that, other than showing her that he was perfectly fine.

At night her mother left, but promised him that she would come tomorrow as well.

Even in the face of current events, the time with her mother managed to make him so relaxed that he was able to have a good night’s rest, and the following day he woke up refreshed.

Although he was in a much better shape, rage and anger still filled him and so he tried hard to put all the blame on Leyn -- she was the easiest target for that --, to be able to channel these emotions at her. However what the Instructor said to him before appeared again and again in his mind, making him seriously reconsider his point of view.

After hours of arguing with himself, he decided to give her a chance, but only after speaking with her personally. Maybe it’s a bit too fast to change my opinion... Well, whatever, I can’t act like before, because as the Instructor said, I’m no longer the genius once I was. I’m only a weakling, one who belongs to the lowest part of the society. He sighed with a great sadness. It was hard to accept these things, but he has been preparing for this since he had first heard that his cultivation got destroyed during his coma. Though he was shocked and even started to panic when this was confirmed by the main healer yesterday, he thought that there was not much meaning living in self-denial. I’m weak. I’m worthless, but still I’m alive. Am I truly on the path that the ball of smoke told me about? Maybe I will truly live my life in suffering, but this time there’s nothing I can do about that. I can’t get back my cultivation, my strength or my old life...

In the next two days his mother came to visit him, each time just after noon, and then stayed until the evening. He was truly grateful to her, for making him able to forget the state of his life during those periods. She told him about what happened to their neighborhood, like the wife of the family living behind them getting pregnant, how their gardener accidentally fell into her favorite rosebush -- fortunately the man did not get injured, however the plant was destroyed --, or the new recipe she got from one of their neighbors.

There was still something that made him worried: she has always avoided talking about his father. Coupled with the fact that Quin knew his father’s view on the importance of strength, he feared that their relationship would once again deteriorate.

He wanted to talk with Leyn, however she had not visited him the past two days. It’s funny that just when I was ready to forgive her, it seems that she had enough, he thought.

On the next day however, he was surprised, as in the morning she did come eventually.

“Hey, may I come in?” she asked weakly and in a low voice.

“Yeah,” he answered and sat up in his bed. The girl moved a chair next to him and sat down as well.

“Are you feeling better?” she questioned timidly, but smiling.

Looking at her, her face is really pale and she looks like someone who hasn’t been sleeping for days. Is it because what the Instructor said?

“Is what the Instructor told me true? Did you really do that?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I’m talking about,” he said. “The secret technique you used against the Shriekers.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s true, but it’s nothing important,” she replied still smiling.

“How can you say that?” he asked. “It had cost you half of your longevity!” Not to speak about what the Instructor implied...

“I know, but I can still live a normal, and relatively long life. You did the same didn’t you? In the end you sacrificed even more,” she answered and then paused, realizing what she had just said. “Sorry.”

“I- No problem,” Quin replied. So the entire thing was true, but what now? I- He sighed. It was really not fair that I’ve said those things to her. She certainly did anything she could’ve done, and the Instructor was right: she’s a healer, not a fighter. Despite that she fulfilled her duty as our guardian to the last bit and thinking through it objectively, I doubt that there are many Qi Culmination experts among the guardians, who could’ve changed the outcome of the battle.

He clenched his teeth for a time, but then managed to gather his courage and said, “I’m sorry about last time, it was quite mean to say those things to you, especially after everything you did for my friends.” It may have sounded as a textbook apology, but it was still a big step for him.

Her previously pale and lifeless face instantly lit up, and her smile turned into a beaming one. “Don’t worry about that. I can’t imagine anyone would react better after that their- Sorry I’m talking about that again,” she apologized.

Quin laughed dryly. “You shouldn’t always just apologize, anyways, I just don’t understand how you can be so calm about what happened to you, about everything and act like it was nothing... Even now I’m filled with anger and rage.”

“Why should I be angry? What will I achieve by that? Will it give me back my lost years? Will it change anything if I am angry at someone? No, it won’t. All it does is waste my time, and maybe I could’ve used that time to do something about the problem itself,” Leyn said.

“Yeah, but... I just don’t know,” he said. I accepted what happened and all, but I just can’t act like it was nothing and I especially can’t just stop being so angry at the world.

“Maybe you should see it from another angle: when you’ve been through the worst, there’s not much chance for an even worse thing to happen. Even the things you had considered previously bad may now become not so bad in your eyes,” she told him.

“What? Fat chance that’ll happen,” he said, not really buying into this kind of eternal optimism. “Anyways, do you know how the others are? My mom doesn’t know much about them, and in the past days only the two of you had visited me.”

“Fortunately, all of them had gotten away with only minor injuries and I’ve met Alinor here a couple of times. They’re already back at school, other than that I can’t say much,” she replied.

“Oh, and what about Mang?” he asked.

“Hmm? What about him? I haven’t seen him lately in the school,” she answered.

“He was there with us, at the Shrieker’s nest! Is he alright?”

“Really? I didn’t see him, even after the fight and I don’t remember the others mentioning him either,” she said, a bit shocked.

“How would this be possible? He was the one who helped me. While I was fighting the Shrieker and trying to wake you up, he occupied the soldiers.”

“Soldiers? Are you talking about Shrieker soldiers?” she asked puzzled.

“What? No! Soldiers, in our city’s uniform! They were the one who kidnapped you and me!” Quin said, his volume increasing significantly. Why is it that they didn’t see him? He was simply perplexed.

“Our soldiers? Are you alright?” she questioned worriedly.

“Of course I am! I wouldn’t hallucinate hours of memories just because I was injured! I can perfectly remember what happened!”

“Okay, sorry, I was just worried that maybe your head was also injured, because that can cause various hallucinations,” she explained.

“I’ve told you already that it’s not like that! It really happened!” he said angrily.

“I believe you, don’t worry,” she replied in a gentle voice.

“Alright, what happened after the Shrieker impaled me and I killed it?” he asked.

“The Shrieker exploded, and you fell to the ground. You began to tremble wildly and I ran up to you to do something about it,” she told him, and a tear dropped from her eyes. “I started to heal you, but... It was just too much, your whole body was a mess and your organs were about fail. Fortunately after a while, although I don’t really know how I did it, but I was able to stabilize you, yet we’ve become surrounded by Shriekers by that time. The others were getting overwhelmed, but luckily for us -- even with you being unconscious -- the spell you prepared earlier did its work and with a great explosion killed most of them. It brought enough time for the Spirit Forming guardian to arrive, and then she brought us out immediately.”

“Wait, what spell are you talking about? I didn’t cast anything like that before I passed out,” Quin asked confused.