The Guide is Actually a Body-Switching Esper [BL]-Chapter 436: Hospital Wait

The LED lamps on the ceiling were quietly buzzing, filling the room with bright light. After spending so many hours first in the dim caves, then walking through the dungeon in twilight, and leaving the Gate in the middle of the night, they were particularly unpleasant, stinging the eyes with their excessive brightness.

Lane hardly noticed it, though. Although his eyes were slightly aching, his attention was elsewhere. He was lying on his back on a hospital bed, his arms by his sides, his fingers itching to move. It took a lot of focus to keep them in place. Honestly, it was extremely unnerving...

As to what his fingers were so impatient to do, that was naturally to worsen his injuries. Ever since the webbings had been dissolved, Lane had been rubbing his raw skin, digging his fingers into his flesh to worsen his wounds, and hitting his body wherever he felt he had fractures. All when he was sure that no one could see, of course...

But now he couldn’t do it anymore. Back in the ambulance, the first responders had given him first aid, changing his bandages. He was still waiting for a proper assessment and care, but he was lying on the bed, he would have no legitimate excuse if the dressing on his wounds were messed up. Not to mention, there were too many people wandering around. And Jasper was in the same room as him, not even separated by a curtain or anything... It was simply too risky to try to do anything now.

That didn’t change the fact that it was unbearably frustrating, though. He was just lying motionlessly, waiting for doctors or healers to take a better look at him... And he was going to wait for a while. They were in the hospital connected to the Association, and just like all the Association’s branches tended to be, it was severely understaffed, lacking in experts and healers. Lane was rather high on their current priority list, but it would still take time before any of the experts could attend to him.

All while his wounds were healing. Sure, his recovery speed was too slow to raise any questions (Lane had made sure to spit out all the medicine he had been fed when no one was looking), but still. The worse his injuries were, the better his alibi was. They were his ’definite proof’ that he couldn’t have done anything to help Ethan...

"Haaah..." Lane let out a heavy sigh, closing his eyes.

To make matters worse, he was bored out of his mind. Damien couldn’t be by his side, because he had a lot of formalities to handle, while Jasper was dozing off. The nurses were all busy, and didn’t have time to stop to chat with him. And Lane couldn’t use his phone to watch anything or play some games either, since he was supposed to be in a lot of pain!

Which he was, of course. One of his arms was pretty badly mangled, while the other was also injured, and probably fractured. There were also burns from the spider webs and the substance that the lizards produced all over his hands. If it were anyone else, there would be no way they could hold a phone (or anything, really), without a lot of wincing, hissing and groaning... It was just that Lane was kind of used to it, so ’a little’ pain didn’t really bother him.

Alas, it was better to just endure a little boredom, than to have to explain how he could do anything in his condition. It was only for a few hours at most, anyway. Once Damien stopped by to visit, Lane would ask him to call a private healer, and he would be able to quickly leave the hospital... 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Just as he thought about it, though, he heard footsteps coming from the corridor, and his eyes immediately snapped open.

There were plenty of people walking around in energetic footsteps, rushing to get to their destination, be it an office or another room where one of the patients needed them. However, most of those people were wearing FLAT shoes, not heels - they were in a hospital, after all, it would be ridiculous for any of the staff to wear heels to work. Patients didn’t wear heels either. And yet, that click-clack sound was unmistakable...

Well, even if it wasn’t for the fact that the sound of the heels stood out among all the other footsteps, Lane would have probably recognized them. It was one of the gaits that he knew the best.

And at the same time, one of those that he hated the most.

He gritted his teeth, staring at the doorway, his heart beating heavily in his chest...

But the footsteps turned before reaching his room, entering the room three doors down instead. Lane subconsciously exhaled with relief...

Only to become even more tense a second later.

That was the room where Ethan and Adrian were, if he was not mistaken. Actually, it almost certainly was, since what other business could that person have in the Association’s hospital in the middle of the night?

Of course it had to be to check on Ethan and figure out what had happened!

Lane pressed his lips, activating his enhanced hearing ability to try to eavesdrop on the conversation. It turned out to be an impossible task, though - the distance was simply too large. Or, to be precise, there was too much noise pollution. If his surroundings were quiet, Lane would be able to hear them well even if they were a few times further away, but with all the footsteps, the conversations, the medical staff bustling around, it was difficult to discern two quiet voices among it all. The hospital might have seemed fairly quiet at night, but it was simply not quiet enough. Lane was able to pick up on a few words, but not the whole conversation.

And the few words that he had heard didn’t tell him much, not really. He could tell that Ethan was narrating the story, but not how he was framing Lane’s actions. Whether there were any suspicious points in Lane’s behavior that Lane himself might have missed or anything...

Lane let out a sigh, deactivating the ability.

It was what it was. No matter what Ethan might have said, he had no proof...

He was about to run through his own version of events once again, to check for anything that could potentially raise some doubts, when the heels resounded once again, leaving Ethan’s room...

And heading straight in his direction.

Until a moment later, a slender figure with her hair tightly tied showed up at the door.