Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Chapter 68

"We’ll find out when we get to the infirmary. The medical team took him in as soon as we arrived, and they were already working on him when I last checked. I’m sure someone there can tell us more." Freya gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Come on. You can ask the nurse all the questions you want once we’re there."

Ingrid followed her out of the room, her steps a little steadier. They walked through another corridor before reaching a set of doors marked for the infirmary. The moment Freya opened them, Ingrid was greeted by the clean scent of disinfectant and the soft sounds of medical equipment. Several beds stood in the spacious room, separated by curtains, and nurses moved between them while checking charts. Ingrid followed the direction of her gesture, and the moment she saw the familiar silver hair on the bed near the window, her heart nearly stopped.

"Lysander!"

She hurried toward him before remembering that her own body was still weak. Even so, she reached his bedside as quickly as she could and leaned over to look at him. He was lying on his back with his eyes closed, his breathing steadier and he looked clean too.

Ingrid’s knees almost gave way with relief.

She reached for his hand, holding it gently between both of hers, and checked his face for any sign that he was about to wake up. His skin still looked pale, but he no longer seemed to be burning quite as fiercely as before.

"Lysander," she whispered. "Please wake up soon," she murmured, brushing her thumb gently over his knuckles. "I already gave away five stalks of precious Star Glow Herb for you, so you have to get better and make sure it was worth it. If not, I’ll talk you to death!"

A soft laugh came from behind her. Ingrid turned and found a middle-aged woman standing nearby, dressed in a neat medical uniform. The woman had a long scar that began above one eyebrow and stretched down toward the area above her lips, but despite the mark across her face, her expression was warm and kind. She carried a medical chart in one hand and regarded Ingrid with the calm patience of someone who had dealt with frightened companions many times before.

"You’re the young woman who came here with him, aren’t you?" the nurse asked. "You must have been very worried about him. It’s also been a long time since we’ve had newcomers." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Ingrid immediately stood up, though she kept one hand resting on Lysander’s bed.

"Come on, we need to check your wounds too. We can’t let them go untreated." Nurse Mara said, ushering Ingrid towards another chair. Ingrid followed her instructions.

Nurse Mara spent around ten minutes looking and dressing the wound. As she was putting bandages around it, she finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"Whoever did this to you had the intent to kill you. Did you offend anyone?"

Ingrid scoffed, "Offend? More like they were jealous. But it’s nothing, there’s no use hating a dead person."

"A dead person?"

Ingrid didn’t say more than that and Mara understood that she didn’t want to say more. So she smiled and cut the leftover bandages. "It’s fine if you don’t want to talk, everyone has their secrets. Though I would advise you to tell the truth to the superiors, if they are suspicious of you or think you’re lying to them, they won’t take it easy with you."

"Superiors?" Ingrid paused, her brows furrowing in confusion, "What are you talking about?"

Mara was about to answer when a familiar voice sounded from the entrance.

"We’ll take it from here." Ingrid immediately recognised the voice as Hunter G’s voice. So she turned immediately, intending to thank Hunter G for bringing them safely to the Guild, but the words died on her lips when she noticed the three men standing behind him.

All three had white hair, and there was something unusually stern about their faces, as though smiling was a habit they had abandoned a long time ago. Their eyes were sharp and cold, moving across the infirmary before settling on Ingrid, and the moment she met their gazes, she felt an uncomfortable chill run down her spine. She couldn’t explain why, but her instincts immediately told her to stay away from these men.

Oh, great. Who are these people now?

Ingrid had barely finished that thought when she noticed Freya’s reaction. The woman who had been teasing Jowe and making jokes about practically everything suddenly straightened her back, her playful smile disappearing as she lowered her head slightly toward the newcomers. Even her usual carefree attitude seemed to have vanished, and she stood quietly beside Ingrid without making a single sarcastic remark. That alone was enough to make Ingrid even more suspicious of the three men.

If even Freya is behaving herself, then these people must be a real headache.

Hunter G stepped farther into the room, his expression respectful as he addressed the three newcomers. "The woman is the one we brought back from the village. Her companion is currently receiving treatment, and we’ve confirmed that the Star Glow Herb she offered us is genuine. They were both injured when we found them, but the medical team has managed to stabilize the man’s condition."

The man standing in the middle of the three white-haired men stepped forward.

He was tall, with neatly combed white hair and a face that looked as though it had been carved from stone. His gaze moved over Ingrid’s freshly bandaged neck, then traveled down to the simple gown she wore, taking in every detail without showing the slightest hint of emotion. Ingrid had the uncomfortable feeling that he wasn’t merely looking at her but trying to decide what sort of person she was and whether she deserved to remain standing in front of him.

"Is that so?"

"Yes," Hunter G replied.

The man said nothing more. He continued staring at Ingrid for several seconds, and she found herself resisting the urge to shift uncomfortably beneath his gaze. She had dealt with suspicious people before, but there was something different about this man’s silence.

He didn’t seem interested in hearing her explanation or understanding the circumstances that had brought her to the Guild, and the complete lack of expression on his face made it impossible to guess what he was thinking.

Ingrid glanced briefly at Hunter G, hoping he might explain what was happening, but he remained quiet. Finally, the white-haired man turned away.

"Prepare her for the memory search," he instructed Hunter G. "We have no time to waste."

"Wait? What did you just say? Memory search?"