Strongest Nova: Path of Vengeance

Chapter 63: Waking Up

Stanley’s eyes opened once more. This time, he was in a dull room with nothing but a single bulb hanging from a thin wire from the white ceiling.

’I can see?’ he thought. There weren’t any bandages or anything around his face this time around.

He vaguely remembered what had happened last time, but it was more like a dream than anything. He couldn’t see anything and neither could he move at the time.

"Awake!" a deep voice grumbled from his side. "AWAKE!" the voice shouted even louder.

"Huh?" Stanley quickly turned his head and moved a little in fear when he saw the 7-foot-tall Illan looking at him with wide eyes.

"AWAKE!" Illan quickly ran out of the room, shouting through the hallway. A while later, he heard another voice from the hallway.

"I get it, I get it. Yes, he’s awake, I’m going there right now," the voice came.

’That voice,’ Stanley thought. ’Isn’t that the mayor?’

Just as he thought, the old mayor walked into the room, supported by Illan next to him.

"You’re awake, finally," the mayor said when he saw Stanley staring at him. "Do you feel hurt? I tried my best to heal you."

He turned around toward Illan and said, "Go call Bradley too."

The giant Illan nodded and left.

"Am I... in your mansion?" Stanley asked.

"You are," the mayor said. "Normally, I would’ve sent you away, but since you are Bradley’s brother, I couldn’t refuse."

Stanley looked around in a bit of awe. He had once again come here, wounded at that.

"Thank you for healing me," Stanley said.

The mayor smiled a little. "Can you move? You’ve been in a coma for nearly 2 months, so you might have muscle atrophy," he said.

"Muscle atrophy? What’s that?" Stanley asked.

"Oh, that’s when you start losing muscle because you don’t use it at all for a long time," the mayor said. "It happens in just a few weeks, and you were out for over 7, so you must have it pretty bad."

"Do I?" Stanley asked while slowly getting up. He felt weak, but that was just because of his lack of food, most likely. He didn’t think he was so weak that he couldn’t even walk.

"I think I’m fine," Stanley said. "But you might be right."

"Brother!" Bradley shouted out loud the moment he entered. He ran into the room and hugged Stanley, not even giving Stanley a chance to say anything.

"I’m so glad you’re okay," he said as he started crying.

Stanley paused for a second and hugged his brother too. He could hear his brother’s soft cries as his tears fell on his back.

This was a different tear from the one Stanley was used to these days. This was one for seeing someone alive, rather than dead.

Bradley let go of his brother after a few seconds as he wiped his tears. "You had me worried there for a second. I thought you would never wake up."

"Of course, I would," Stanley said. "I woke up just a week after, didn’t I?"

"Huh?" Bradley was a little confused. "You woke up 7 weeks later, not 1 week later."

"I know, but I also woke up 6 weeks ago once, didn’t I?" Stanley asked. "I was put back to sleep."

Bradley looked at his brother rather weirdly. "What are you talking about?" he asked. "This is the first time you’ve woken up since they found you on the road after you tried to save that little girl."

"Huh? Is it?" Stanley asked with a doubtful face. "I could’ve sworn I woke up before."

Bradley turned around to look at the Mayor, who simply shrugged. "Maybe he did wake up for a bit and went back to sleep. Must’ve been when no one was around."

"No, someone was around," Stanley said. "There was a girl."

"What girl?" Bradley asked.

"I don’t know what girl, but she was there. She talked to me for a bit after I woke up and told me to go back to sleep," Stanley said.

"You’ve been in this mansion the entire time," Bradley said. "There’s no girl here."

"But she was there," Stanley argued.

"Who is she? What did she look like?" Bradley asked.

"I... don’t know. My eyes were covered so I couldn’t see," Stanley said.

"And you didn’t get rid of them?" Bradley asked.

"My entire body was tied up," Stanley said.

Bradley gave a doubtful face. "So you couldn’t move or see this girl, but only heard her?" he asked. "Sounds like a hallucination if anything."

Stanley wanted to argue back, but he couldn’t. He wanted to prove that the girl did talk with him, but doing so would mean going into the topics. If it really was just a hallucination, what if it was something formed from his mental instability at the moment?

"But I could have sworn..." he softly said, talking to himself.

"Let me bring you some clothes," Bradley said and got off the bed.

"She stabbed me with her fingernail I think," Stanley quickly said. "In my chest." He pulled down his tunic to show his chest, which was as immaculate as ever with not a single scar on it at all.

Bradley shook his head and walked away to bring the clothes, ignoring Stanley.

"Your mind played tricks on you while you were in a coma," the mayor said. "That’s all. You have nothing to worry about."

Stanley nodded with a confused look.

"You should get ready to leave," the mayor said. "Speaking of which, I should get ready too. Tell your brother to wait for me, okay? We can leave together."

The mayor left the room, leaving Stanley behind with his own thoughts.

"Need help?" Illan asked Stanley.

"No, no, I’m fine," Stanley said as he started checking his own body to see if there were any other problems with it.

Bradley returned soon after with a fresh pair of clothes and helped his brother get changed into them.

Once Stanley was in fresh clothes, they were ready to leave the mansion.