Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 57

[Translation By Divinity]

Damian returned home in the evening, exhausted. Lilliana, who had been lounging on the living room sofa reading a borrowed book, jumped up when she saw him.

“Damian! How was your rehabilitation? How did it go?”

Since it was his first rehabilitation session with the prosthetic arm, Lilliana was full of curiosity. Damian replied with a somewhat tired expression,

“It wasn’t going well.”

Asher, who was coming down the stairs for dinner, clicked his tongue at the sight.

“You idiot. How can you push your body so hard on the first day? You left while the sun was still up, why are you back so late? Two or three hours of rehab a day is enough!”

“But training is about pushing your body to its limits to learn…”

A rolled-up evening newspaper landed on Damian’s head.

“This… this guy is going to be the death of me. Hey! What are you talking about when you don’t even have feeling in your arm yet?! Do you think this is the military?! Is your arm a machine gun?!”

Exhausted, Damian couldn’t even cry out in pain. He just rubbed his head with a wronged expression.

Asher had told him to take it slow, but he was a bit anxious. He hadn’t expected that he wouldn’t be able to move his arm at all. So he had pushed himself a bit too hard during rehabilitation training, but did he deserve to get hit for that?

Fortunately, Lilliana came to the rescue of the weakened Damian.

“Mr. Asher! That’s not something to scold him for! He’s just a bit too enthusiastic, but his intentions are good!”

Asher clicked his tongue again.

“If he overworks his arm like that right after getting the prosthetic, he’ll regret it later… Forget it. Let him learn his lesson the hard way.”

He walked to the kitchen, grabbed his portion of the meal Annette had prepared, and sat down at the dining table. While he was doing that, Lilliana gestured to Damian.

“Damian, come eat too. I waited for you.”

Damian, too tired to even feel touched by Lilliana’s words, shook his head.

“I need to shower and sleep first. I’m too exhausted…”

“What? You need to eat before you sleep! You should eat more because you’re tired!”

“No…”

Damian wanted to decline, but Lilliana dragged him to the table. She personally served his food and sat across from him. Under the watchful eyes of Asher and Lilliana, Damian finished his meal, barely tasting the food.

Only after confirming that his plate was clean did Lilliana allow him to go shower and sleep.

After a hot shower, Damian collapsed onto his bed, his hair still wet. And he thought he fell into a deep sleep right away.

***

Damian woke up to the sensation of his right arm burning. The pain was so intense that he couldn’t even breathe.

He felt like someone had set his right arm on fire; the pain was excruciating, making it impossible to think straight. He wondered if he had been severely burned in a fire nearby.

No, maybe his right arm was injured by an enemy shell. Yes, that must be it. What else could have caused such an injury on this battlefield? It hurt so much. Where was the medic?

‘But… when did the battle even start? Was there a surprise attack?’

Boom! Rat-tat-tat-tat!

The sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed in Damian’s ears. He could never get used to the noise, no matter how many times he heard it. It made his ears feel muffled. He tried to cover his ears with his hands but doubled over in pain from his right arm.

‘It hurts.’

‘It hurts.’

‘It hurts.’

The pain was so agonizing that he wished he were dead. It was incomparable to any other pain he had ever felt in his life. He looked at his right arm through blurry vision, trying to see how badly he was injured. The flesh was mangled, and bones protruded through the skin. Damian couldn’t help but scream.

“Aaargh!”

Thud!

He rolled into a trench, clutching his right arm, and writhed in agony. His boots scraped against the ground, making an unpleasant sound. As he lay there, sweating profusely and rolling on the floor, someone ran over and shook his shoulder.

“Damian!”

It was a familiar voice. Whose was it? A woman’s voice…

“Wake up, Damian! Damian! What’s wrong?!”

The person was trying to assess his condition, but he couldn’t even see who it was. He just grabbed their clothes and pleaded,

“Morphine… Give me some morphine…”

“Morphine?! There’s no way we have that here! Won’t other painkillers work?”

“Sergeant Nicole, please… Where’s Sergeant Vic? What’s the situation?”

“Who are Nicole and Vic? What are you talking about?”

The person placed their hand on Damian’s forehead, their voice filled with anxiety. He couldn’t tell if their hand was cold or if his forehead was so hot that it felt cool in comparison.

“You have a high fever… Wait, let me get you some fever medication first…!”

The person’s voice was now choked with tears. He heard her lay him down on the floor and move around busily. But Damian couldn’t bear it any longer and scratched the floor with his fingertips in agony. His desperate moans made the woman rush back to him.

“Just hold on a little longer. I’ll find some medicine! Annette must have some emergency medication!”

“Move aside. Painkillers won’t solve this.”

Then, another familiar male voice intervened. It was a bit high-pitched for a man but clear and articulate. His voice contained more annoyance than worry. The man held Damian’s shoulders down, preventing him from thrashing around.

“Get a grip, you damn fool! This isn’t the battlefield! You’re not in a war zone anymore!”

Damian tried to push the person away but couldn’t control his right arm, so he resisted with only his left hand. But no matter how strong he was, it was difficult for an exhausted Damian to fight off a healthy adult man with just one arm.

“And the pain in your arm is phantom pain! That arm is already gone! Just breathe deeply! I’ll get you some painkillers! Breathe slowly!”

At the mention of painkillers, Damian tried to breathe deeply as instructed. He gasped for air like someone who had just been pulled out of the water after having their face submerged.

He coughed a few times, let out a hoarse scream, but his breathing gradually returned to normal. His vision, blurred with tears, slowly focused. He blinked slowly and looked straight ahead.

Lilliana, in her pajamas, was looking down at him with tears in her eyes, and Asher was frowning.

“Are you okay, Damian?”

Lilliana asked, and Damian weakly shook his head.

“What happened…”

He asked in a hoarse voice, and Asher answered,

“It seems you experienced a panic attack and had a nightmare along with the phantom pain in your right arm. It’s okay. It’s a common symptom for people like you. I told you not to overdo it…”

“Weren’t we in the middle of a battle?”

“Of course not. This is Nichio. It’s far from the war. You were just sleeping and had a nightmare.”

“But my right arm hurts so much…”

He couldn’t believe the pain wasn’t real. The pain had been so vivid, and the gunshots ringing in his ears had felt too real. Moreover, even after waking up from the nightmare, his right arm still ached terribly.

TL/N: Hi guys! What’s up? As promised, here are 4 chapters. There won’t be an update tmr and probably a day after tomorrow because I’ll be busy. By the way, I have been wondering for a few days about creating a discord server for my readers. So that I can update you guys, have fun chats and you guys can recommend me novels to pick up. Should I make one? Yes or No? Bye~