Chapter 5: The hospital ride

Karl quickly picks Ian up and sees is breathing too slowly. 'I can't let him die. I am the only one here. What can I do? Or What should I do? Run? No. I could be blamed for murder. Fuck.'

Karl calms down and grabs Ian's watch and sees a password.

Karl opens his watch and goes into contacts. 'What is the number for ambulance? Does it even exist?'

Scrolling through, Karl finds a familiar number. "Botany Zena (Owns money, avoid her calls)" Karl does not think much and dials Zena's number. It rings. With each ring Karl's heart rate increasing. She does not pickup.

Karl looks up and sees that sky is completely black. 'Is she sleeping?' Karl assumes.

Regardless, Karl dials once more. It rings. Karl looks at Ian. His condition worsening, he got a fever now.

"Hello? Do you have any idea what time is it?" Zena complains. "Miss Zena, Listen-" Karl explains his situation. "Come to the nearest road I will be there in 5." Zena says in hurry and cuts the call.

Karl picks Ian up 'What the hell? I am sure he shouldn't be more than 80 kilos. But why does he feel so much heavy?' Karl complains. 'Oh! I am small now.'

Karl somehow brings reaches the road with Ian on his back. Karl waits for a minute or so, constantly checking Ian's condition. Zena arrives with her car. Karl quickly tosses Ian in and hops in himself.

Twenty minutes later, Karl is in the academy's hospital sitting outside the operation theatre. Zena is sitting beside him. A handsome male in his 20s walks out the operation theatre and waves at Zena. Zena smiles back while blushing. Karl sees this and ignores.

"He is out danger for now. Still, Thank the Horizon that you brought him on time. If he was a bit late, he would have died due to cardiac arrest. Anyways, I go for now I need inform his parents and write a report on this." The doctor walks away giving a wink at Zena.

Karl ignores them and goes toward the operation theatre. He leans in to see Ian sleeping on a bed with two huge cylinders directly connect to his mask.

"I didn't know you were friends with the Phirsecots, more or less with Ian?" This startles Karl. "Don't sneak up to me. I have bad experiences with woman sneaking up to me." Karl turns around and walks away. "And I just got to know him this morning"

"This morning? That doesn't look like that to me." Zena smiles. "But I am glad he got a friend atlast." "Yeah, it was weird at first but it worked out somehow."

"I am surprised that you didn't believe those rumors." "Y-Yes." Zena looks at the door where the doctor had gone through. 

"Sorry to ruin your night." Karl says with a mischievous look on his face.

"W-what? There is nothing like that." Zena blushes. "I am not blind. Try harder next time." Karl stood up and goes towards the exit.

"I kill you, if you told anyone about this." Karl only waves his hand. Zena frustrated, watches Karl go away. 'Leonard Avaritia. Were you this charismatic?'

After an hour of walking Karl finally reaches his dormitory. On his way here he practiced his newly learned magic. He names it "Void storage."

From his experimentation Karl determined as, you can have unlimited storage with unlimited capacity if you have enough mana. He first tried to store a small rock. Then a medium sized branch. Lastly, he tried to store an entire bench but failed.

Because Karl was exhausted as if he ran a marathon. He took a ten minutes break. When his fatigue was gone considerably, he tried again and this time he succeeded.

Now he had five things in his mana storage. Three rocks, one branch and an entire bench. Karl doesn't feel their weight at all. Mana is required only for entry and exit of the item.

Of course, before coming to dorm, he placed the bench where it was before. Karl walks up the stairs whistling his last heard music.

'This ability is too broken. But now my question is could this store living things?' Karl wonders.

Suddenly he halts his steps. Every strand of hair on Karl's body stands up. He hears a whimpering sound. The sound of a someone crying. Karl slowly walks forward. He reaches his floor.

The whimpering intensifies. Karl checks his corner; there he sees a person with big body and dirty clothes sitting just below his room.

'Damn. Why the fuck every shit situation imaginable is happening to me?' Karl curses his luck. He slowly approaches the girl.

Hearing the footsteps, she looks up and jumps towards Karl. "LEONARDDDDD!" Karl freezes, barely recognizable but he is the fatty from the canteen. Karl catches her in his arms. He sobs in Karl's arms. A sweet smell of shampoo enters his nose. 'Wait? is this a woman?' 

"Please let me stay one night. Or Kareena will kill me." Karl holds her tight and sits down on the floor. "First, let's calm down." Ignoring Karl's words, the girl continues crying.

Karl slowly puts his hand on her head and pats her. This goes on for ten minutes. Finally, she stops crying. "So, who did this to you?"

"It, it was Remi and his friends. They said you hurt their friend and used me to corner you. But after waiting for an entire day, you didn't come. So, they asked me to call you. Bu-But I refused and they threatened me."

Karl sees her whole face and its bad. Black eyes, red cheeks with finger marks, uneven hair and a broken nose. 'Threaten? This is a clear assault.'

Seeing Karl being silent the girl continues "O-of course I didn't tell them anything."

'She could be useful' Karl clears his dark intention and asks. "Then what's with this Kareena?"

"She is Remi's girlfriend and my roommate. If she found out this, she will harass me in my dorm. Th-That's why I came here to seek shelter." Karl pulls the girl by one arm and drags her. 

"Come we will first go to the hospital and I take a look at Remi."

"W-what? Leonard you would get hurt too! Don't be reckless." Ignoring her pleads Karl drags her to the footpath and calls Zena again.

She doesn't answer. Karl tires again. Nobody answers.

Karl tires the third time. "H-hello?" Zena answers with a panting voice. "Tell the doctor to put on his clothes. He got a new patient to attend." Karl answers.

Waiting for Zena to arrive Karl looks at the girl. 'What if I use my power and try to put in the void storage? She will be easier to transport.'

Without a second thought Karl puts his hand on her shoulder. A magic circle appears on his palm and glows. But it fades the next second. Nothing happens, But Karl sweats heavily.

The girl turns and asks "What?"

"Nothing. I tried to perform a healing spell which I learned recently. It failed." "Does space magic even have healing spell?"

'She knows my element?'

"N-no, I tried to make it myself. But its still a prototype."

"Oh. Okay." Silence fells like the snow on the Christmas Eve. Gracefully yet heavily. Zena finally arrives and exclaims in shock "Andressa! Who did this to you?" 'She is a woman! I couldn't verify around all that fat.' Karl thinks as he notes her name.

Then, they both takes a seat in the car. Andressa narrates her whole story leaving Karl's side and blaming everything on Remi. Karl does not try to clear the story. At the hospital Andressa is lying on a bed with the doctor performing some healing spell on her. 

Karl looks at her from a distance and asks "The school authorities won't do anything?"

"No, from what I heard this was just a minor brawl. They won't step in as long as the victim is alive with a working mana circulatory system. Or the victim is sexually abused, that too could be avoided if the culprit is valuable enough."

"Pretty savage if you ask me."

"Yes, the current federation head promotes fighting saying it is essential for survival. He is like that ever since the Red border break. But don't worry the federation elections are in 6 months."

"So, you are saying as long as I am strong enough my every crime would be tolerated?"

"If you are working for the federation then yes."

'That's almost dictatorship' Karl learns a crucial piece of information.

"Isn't there any law that favors the women in times like this?"

"What are you talking about? If there was any law like that, then it should be for men. As men have naturally less mana than women."

"Then hypnotically, if I hit woman then I can get away unharmed from the school authorities and the federation?"

"Just hit?"

"Just hit."

"Yes, nothing would happen." Karl smiles as he hears that. "Andressa told me to bring her few things from her room. But I don't know her room number could you tell me?" Karl asks with a poker face.

"Sure." Zena presses few buttons on her watch. "It's room no. 124" 

"Thanks."