The medical ward was a spacious room with makeshift beds, small desks, and medical supplies — primarily bandages and other tourniquet supplies. Lit with lamps and half-working lanterns.
Roxy had a sombre expression as she entered the room, not because of how partially dim the room was or its smell, but rather because of the people in it. She passed by the beds of several patients, who expressed a mixture of immense pain and anguish from their wounds.
Every one of them had at least one limb completely bandaged, which was constantly in need of changing.
Passing by a patient who was having his bandage changed, Roxy caught sight of the harrowing wound that tormented him.
It was a semi-shallow injury, digging halfway into his muscles, but enough to cause immense blood loss if not treated. But that wasn’t all, for if one took a closer look within, they would discover an unusual liquid infesting the inside of his wound.
The liquid smelt foul, and the area it made contact with in the wound was horrifically inflamed, swelling with red-hot redness. It had even begun to show signs of producing a nauseating thick yellowish discharge.
Roxy’s expression darkened when she saw that. ’Infection...’
The beginning of the exam was a harsh and merciless experience, especially in a dirty environment like this.
Even if you were a capable fighter, or even managed to somehow escape a chasing Predicament, if you came out with a flesh wound that wasn’t quickly treated... you would be in for a rude awakening the next morning.
Roxy then caressed the areas on her body where Elias’ Predicament had wounded her. She was fortunate to have brought along a roll of bandages and clear water to rinse her wounds yesterday. But that obviously couldn’t be said for some.
’It’s lucky that we found these people when we did...’
The injuries the patient in the medical ward was currently suffering from were only shallow to semi-shallow injuries. While she did encounter ones with deeper injuries, they... weren’t able to hang on long enough without supplies that could properly clean their wounds.
’Unfortunately, their passing had saved our lives countless times...’
Predicaments were gluttonous creatures. Scoundrels, who operated solely on instincts, were creatures that preferred easy meals and easy prey. Because of that, they were more sensitive to the smell of fresh blood, especially the dead, no matter how recently the person died.
The moment they caught a whiff of these scents, they would flock to the injured or deceased like a flock of vultures; sometimes even ignoring what they were doing prior and distractions that could lead them away from the prey. No matter how loud the distractions were.
Of course, this usually causes a fight to break out among the Predicaments over who gets to eat the prey — this behaviour predominantly appearing within the community of Scoundrels. Though the brawl usually ended when the prey was devoured.
And, as much as Roxy hated to admit it, it was because of this unusually ravenous behaviour of Predicaments that allowed them to escape death’s clutches several times.
She clenched her fists tightly in anger. ’The dead are dead, but I would’ve liked to preserve their bodies, so we could’ve buried them back home...’
Roxy had even begun to have nightmares about them, remembering the people she couldn’t save. She had even dreamt of herself back to when they were all parachuting down and recalled the sight of watching someone get snatched out of the air by a leaping Predicament.
But no matter how many times she woke up drenched in sweat, she always told herself she did the best she could and that she had saved as many as she could. Because if she allowed her Heart to crumble... her mind would quickly follow suit.
Roxy soon woke from her regrets and composed herself, returning to her confident self.
When she realised the person tending to the patient had finished changing their bandages, she turned away and continued to walk to where she wanted to be, which wasn’t far.
When she arrived, there were already dozens of people gathered there, including Beatrice, which was rather surprising. Though Roxy was certain she was here out of curiosity, like most of the people gathered.
For some reason, they all gave her odd looks.
Roxy waved at them. "Yo! What’s with the eyeing, y’all? Did something happen?"
Beatrice stared at her intently. "Well, you just stopped randomly in the middle of the room. How could we not look at you differently? Are you actually alright?"
"Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be?" Roxy mimicked Beatrice’s hair flick before flexing her biceps and showing how tough it was. "You think I’m soft or something? I was just thinking about that Orrey Cross academy when we all pass this exam."
Beatrice hummed suspiciously, her gut telling her otherwise, but she ignored it.
"Alright. Is Miss Hertel joining us?" She asked respectfully, in case Hilda was nearby eavesdropping. "I heard she was going around fixing up this stuffy place. Didn’t expect her to do that, to be honest."
Watching as Beatrice pinched her nose, Roxy retorted:
"Hey! This place ain’t stuffy at all!"
"Well, it is. And this room smells even worse with all those guys." She pointed at the injured.
In response to that, everyone in the room shot her annoyed and hateful glances, which she brushed off with a flick of her hair. Though her indifference to their glares soon shattered under Roxy’s reprimanding noogie.
"Stop being so rude, Beat!" Roxy scolded, rubbing the back of her knuckle against Beatrice’s head.
"Ughk!" Beatrice groaned before trying to pry herself out of Roxy’s headlock. But when she struggled to try and escape, she gave in. "Fine, fine! It’s not their fault, whatever, alright!? Just let go!"
"Better."
Roxy freed the petite girl and watched as she thirstily drank in the air, though retching slightly partway through at the smell. Once she was done with that, she watched as Beatrice turned back to her and asked:
"So, is she actually coming, or what?"
"The LRM? No, she left just a bit ago to go meet up with some people."
"... HUH!? But I wanted her to stay here!" Beatrice exclaimed. "Don’t you know that just having her here triples our defenses!?"
Roxy shrugged nonchalantly. "What’d you want me to do? Force her here against her will? She already kicked me in the face last time.
"You can’t always have what you want, Beat. And anyway, I already mentioned she could bring them over here. So it’ll just be up to here if she wants to come back."
Beatrice sighed loudly. "Fine, whatever..."
The two then turned back to a woman lying on a bed, asleep but showing signs of waking up, which became more obvious with how loud they were being.
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