A week and still no result...

It was nerve-wracking because, besides several attempts to break out of the hospital, to destroy it, or to do something about Emilia’s illness, it was unsuccessful, and I had to admit that I was at a dead-end.

“I don’t know what else we can do...”

“Chill out.”

She put her hand on mine.

“You are probably much older than me, but you act like a little child.”

She measured me in her way.

“Think from a different point of view! What have we not tried yet?”

...

I got lost in thought and didn’t even notice whether Emilia was talking to me or not.

We have only ever tried to improve her current situation, but she is already dead, and her “soul” is only a small fragment. What if I do it the other way around? What if I fulfill her wish that she had before her death?

“Say, can you remember what you most longed for when you were alive?”

“Huh? Hmm... well...”

She looked a little nervous and prevented eye contact.

“You know it, but you don’t want to say it, am I right?”

“... I... I... I wish someone would release me from the suffering!”

Tears started running down her face, and she covered her face with her hands to hide her face.

I was not expecting that…

“I know it has to be tough, but... can it be if I give you this wish here and now that you are free?”

“Wha-!? Do you want to kill me?”

I shook my head.

“No, you’re already dead, at least your body. You are a reflection of Eris’s former me, but you are not her, and she is not you, but I don’t have to kill you to free you! I have to stop the reflection!”

She raised her head and wiped her tears away.

“How?”

“You have this hospital all to yourself, is there a room or something you avoid?”

She nodded.

“My laptop, I used to play video games on it, but it got old, and many games no longer ran smoothly on it. …Now that I think about it… I’ve never wondered where the laptop is since I’ve been here.”

I raised my hand.

“Um... what is a laptop?”

She put her head to one side and stared into the air for a moment before answering me.

“Difficult to say, I don’t know how to explain it, so I’ll roughly describe it. With a laptop, there are many different things you can do at work or for private purposes, such as games specially made for it, also called video games.”

“Ah, ok! And what does the laptop look like?”

“Follow me!”

She rolled ahead, and I followed her. We walked down the corridor to an open counter.

“When the laptop is closed, it looks like a rectangular box, but when it is open, it consists of these two parts. Above this black screen and below this string of letters.”

“Ok, understood!”

I nodded and answered her at the same time.

“Where should we look? The hospital is huge!”

“A room you may never enter?”

She made a thoughtful face.

“I’ve never been to the boiler room.”

“Fine, then let’s go there first!”

It quickly turned out that the boiler room was not the right place. When we opened the boiler room door, there was only one wall with a note, “Dead End.” Since we ended up in a dead-end, we had to reorient ourselves.

 “That was probably nothing ... Can you think of another room?”

“There are a lot of rooms that I rarely or never used.”

“Then let’s search them all!”

 

===

 

Three days passed in a hurry until we arrived in the last corridor of the hospital.

“Three days…”

Emilia looked exhausted. I nodded in agreement.

“Why do these hospitals have to be so damn big?”

“Well, usually there are several thousand people in hospitals, whether employees or patients.”

“Ha!? Tell me, is there a room on this floor?”

Above us was a sign that said, “Orthopedics.”

“...”

She just said nothing and lowered her eyes a little.

“...there is a room.”

She mumbled the answer softly.

“Where?”

“There...”

She pointed to a door with the number “371.” I approached the door and led to it.

“This one, are you sure?”

“Hmm!”

She nodded.

“Fine, I’ll check the inside.”

I slowly opened the door. The room was dark, and no light came through the windows. Only a single light flickered at the other end of the room. I entered the room, and before I could react, I felt a shock. The door slammed immediately, and I was locked in the room.

What’s going on here? This shock felt... felt like magical.

I approached the flickering light when a shadow suddenly moved in front of him.

“Damn it! Dark Spirits is such a shitty game. I only have gross motor skills!?”

A strangely familiar voice swore in the dark.

“Emilia!?”

I said her name surprisingly loudly.

“Huh? Who are you?”

A light came on, and the space around me became visible. Emilia was sitting in a chair in front of something that looked exactly like the laptop in question. On the walls and a shelf were pictures and small figures of women with too few clothes and unhealthy big breasts and men with muscles that let them look like bears.

“Moment! You were just in the corridor with me!?”

“Again, who are you!?”

With a little force, Emilia asked me again.

“Tyche? We’ve been exploring together over a week, Emilia.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I haven’t even left this room in a week.”

“There are two!”

I turned and ran to the door. I tore it open, and the Emilia I knew was sitting in her wheelchair in front of me.

“Huh? Oh! You are here with this person?”

The other Emilia appeared behind me and spoke to the one in front of me. Emilia, in a wheelchair, was speechless, her face went pale.

“You don’t remember?”

The Emilia behind me slipped past me and approached her.

“NO!”

She held her head and shook it. I grabbed the other Emilia by the shoulder.

“What’s going on here?”

“Right! I had ousted you. May I introduce myself, I am the rational Emilia and this is the emotional Emilia. You’re?”

“Tyche, again...”

“Do we know each other from somewhere?”

She put her head aside questioningly.

“No, but your current, you know me.”

She thought for a moment before answering.

“That means you’re here to put us together?”

“Put together?”

“You see two Emilia’s, but we are only one. Our original self has split into the two of us.”

“And how should I put you together?”

“I don’t know. Try to reach our heart. It may react!”

There was only one thing I could think of. I put one hand on each Emilia’s shoulder.

“Pay attention!”

I used telepathy to show some memories of Eris. I showed them her fear and worries, her lives and difficulties. I showed them how she fought against my tainted me.

When I was finished showing them the pictures, I opened my eyes again. Two pairs of eyes stared at me. Before she could say anything or I could say something, everything dissolved, and I stood in the void in front of the remaining 12 doors.

So suddenly!?

“Ehem!”

A false cough came from the side.

 

=== Eris’s messages ===

 

The adventure with Daria and Dario passed in flight, and when I got home, Vilavil introduced me to my teacher. She is an albino vampire.

I only spent three quiet days before my journey continued. I received a considerable amount of gold coins from the guild as well as from Athem, the nobles we saved!

Ishina, my teacher, then dragged me along, and at the moment, I am on the high sea the way to Tes. Ishina ordered me to meditate to better control my mana.