“Jin~ We came to visit!”

Hearing a knock on the door, I turned my attention away from the book in my hands and watched as two silhouettes made themselves known from the other side of the door. Sliding it open with no reservations, a middle-aged woman led the charge and nestled herself on the chair right beside my bed.

She was wearing a thick jacket, possibly to protect herself from the rapid snow currents of our winter. However, the second she stepped foot into my room, the woman stripped the jacket off, revealing a well-toned body that was neither too fat nor skinny. She brushed her rich black hair down and flashed me a warm smile.

A few moments later, a humongous man followed the woman’s footsteps, barely able to get his head under the door frame of my ward. In his hands, there was a customary basket of goodies that was essential for all hospital patients, and behind his back, there was a hefty backpack that seemingly weighed as much as me.

Like a bona fide bodybuilder, the man seemed toned with pure muscle. In fact, it wouldn’t be strange to assume that he was carved out of hard marble. With his overwhelming height and frame, the man seemed capable of breaking anything he so chose as we mere mortals couldn’t hope to contest with his strength.

“Mom… Dad… You’re here.” I smiled happily at the entrance of my parents. Putting down my book, I continued: “You guys are early.”

“Hehe, how could I leave my precious baby waiting?”

My mom’s beautiful sapphire eyes sparkled in delight as she reached out to my head and began to pat it.

“Mom… I’m twenty-five.”

“So what?! No matter what happens, you’re still my son! Are you rebelling against your mother?!”

“I think you’re ten years too late on that…”

“What?! Is this late puberty?! It’s late puberty, isn’t it?!”

“… Dad, do something about this.”

“Haha, you know your mother. Just leave her alone, and she’ll get bored.”

My father smiled wryly and ignored my plea. He proceeded to zip open the backpack that he’d brought and began cleaning up my room. A fresh change of clothes and underwear… An assortment of snacks and sweets… And most importantly, an array of freshly printed books.

Honestly, I’d felt guilty about asking him to do this much, but it couldn’t be helped. I had been chained to this hospital bed for about three weeks now, and the contact I had with the outside world was somewhat limited. Other than my parents, only a handful of people would visit me. Speaking of which…_-.

“Oh, was someone here?”

Lifting up the half-filled cup on the coffee table a metre away from my bed, my father looked at me quizzically and asked.

“Yes, Professor Cain is here. He’s meeting one of his friends right now, so he should be back in a moment.”

“Professor Cain? Why is he here?”

“Well, that…”

It was embarrassing to say it out… Especially in front of my mother, who was most certainly going to react like a catapult’s rope that had been cut. Fortunately for me, there was someone who would come to my aid.

“Elna? Jael? You’re here.”

An old, wizened man waltzed into the room just a few minutes after my parents arrived. Well, I say old, but he was still in his mid-sixties. The deep and profound gaze that was hidden behind a thick pair of spectacles certainly added years to his overall appearance. His numerous wrinkles didn’t give him any favours either.

He was wearing a thick overcoat and fancied a Victorian top hat. A little odd in our modern times, but that somehow fit his appearance as an academic. Dusting the snow from his hat, the old man hung his outerwear before turning towards our family of three.

“Professor? We weren’t expecting you today.”

My mom was the one who broke the deadlock. She went over to the boiler and prepared another cup of coffee while ceding the central seat to the old, wise man.

“Haha, there’s no need to be so formal. I have finished my business with Jin today.”

“What business?”

“Oh? The boy didn’t tell you?” Professor Cain looked at me for a brief moment. A flicker of understanding gleaned through his brain before a teasing smile broke free from his lips, much unlike his intellectual demeanour.

“Our paper on how sub-atomic particles affect the flow of magic was just nominated for an award. After years of peer-review and simulation tests, the theorem proved true. Although competition is tough this year, I say we have a high chance of winning!”

“…”

My parents paused with their mouths hanging agape. For a moment there, they couldn’t comprehend the gravity of the Professor’s words. However, as former powerhouses themselves, it didn’t take long for them to regain their wits. In particular, my pesky mother…

“THAT’S GREAT NEWS!!!”

Excited beyond comparison, my mother leapt up and down like a gazelle and reached for my head once more.

“All your hard work is finally paying off, Jin!!! Being honoured by the Magic Association is a big deal!!!”

“C-Calm yourself, woman! You’re hurting Jin!”

The rapid brushing of my hair caused my head to spin. Both physically and mentally. It was only through my father’s divine intervention that I managed to keep my neck from breaking in two.

“S-Sorry, it’s just! As a magician myself, I know what award the Professor is talking about! It’s not some run-of-the-mill award that we Hunters would normally receive. Those awards are only given to academics who have furthered magical science development! It was something that I could only dream of getting!!!”

My face warped into a smile.

As the person who co-wrote the paper, I obviously knew how prestigious the award was. And while it was good manners to be humble and not gloat about the achievement, it still felt awesome to hear someone describe the enormity of my accomplishment.

After all… It was possibly the only thing in my life that I could amount to.

“Professor Cain did most of the writing and testing.”

“Oh, don’t try to act coy! You were just bragging about how good you were for theorising the whole thing!”

“… Can’t you let me save some face in front of my parents?”

A barrel of laughter soon succeeded my bold statement. As former teacher and students, Professor Cain and my mother took some time to catch up on each other’s life while my father cleaned the place up. Given that we had some free time, my father decided to help me shower and change into a different pair of clothes. It did feel a little embarrassing at first, asking my father to wash me even though I was twenty-five, but there was nothing that I could do.

The alternative was to ask the nurses to clean me, but even a cripple like myself had pride. I couldn’t possibly ask women I had no relations with to scrub my nether regions or anything of that nature.

After a quick shower, I was wheelchaired out from the bathroom, only to see Professor Cain and my mother waiting at the door with their winter clothes on.

“Young lad, I’ll be leaving first.” Professor Cain gestured with a smile. “Sorry I couldn’t stay any longer. I have a few meetings at the university.”

“No, not at all! Thanks for stopping by!”

“Haha, thanks for understanding! Alright, I’ll see you soon!”

The old man bowed before pivoting his feet away from the room. Watching the man leave, my mom hastily said: “I’ll see the Professor down to the entrance.” My mother added while addressing my father and me. “Honey, look after Jin for a moment longer, alright?”

“With pleasure!”

❖❖❖

Two figures slowly sauntered down the wintry aisle that separated one hospital wing from the other. The slightly taller figure trailed behind the older shadow, carefully watching the man’s every move. The older figure gradually came to a stop, and with his back behind his hands, he looked back at the woman following him.

“Thanks for visiting Jin today, Professor. I know that you’re busy nowadays. He might not say it, but it means a lot to Jin that you delivered the news in person.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Professor Cain paused and shook his head. “The boy’s a genius. Far smarter than anyone of his generation. You’ve raised him well, Elna.”

“Yes! He’s my pride and joy!”

“I’m surprised that such a bright child came out from a person like you.”

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

The mentor and pupil duo shared a moment with a symphony of laughter. The pair had a long history, dating back to when Elna was just a budding magician who wished to further her knowledge in the arcane arts. Needless to say, other than her own parents, Professor Cain was the one who had known Elna the longest.

And hearing the man that she respected the most praise her only son… That filled Elna with pure joy. Like an angel that had ascended to heaven, her gorgeous features sparkled with the light of the winter sky. Her chest puffed out in pride at the mention of her son, and her face was on the highest of moons.

“Hah… Such a pity… If he was healthy, Jin might have the potential to surpass any magician alive! Even those high and mighty Hunters wouldn’t compare to his brilliance!”

“As a former Hunter, I decline to comment.”

Elna snorted defiantly, but there were tinges of joy in her snark remarks. Since she was a former Hunter, she knew very well how powerful they were. Hunters were superhumans trained to the absolute limits of human capabilities.

Magicians that could summon a tornado with a single spell… Warriors that could split a mountain with a single cleave… Archers that could snipe targets from a continent away…

There were an array of Hunters, each one stronger than the last.

However, even among all of the elite Hunters that Elna had seen in her past, barely anyone could match Jin when it came to pure potential. Inheriting both his mother’s magic and his father’s strength, the Jin that Elna remembered as a child was a monster just waiting to be nurtured.

Alas, heaven wasn’t always going to sit back and watch.

When Jin had turned ten, he suffered a major accident when an Outer Demon attacked him. Not much was known about the attack, as neither Elna nor Jael was there to protect him, and the boy suffered severe memory loss right after the attack.

The type of Outer Demon that attacked him… What was he doing before the attack… How did he manage to survive… It was all lost to history.

But one thing was for certain…

Jin’s future was robbed from him right there and then.

The former child prodigy was turned into a sickly patient that couldn’t conjure his own spells without suffering backlash. A mysterious illness would routinely force him to faint periodically, and as a consequence, his body turned physically weak. Of the twelve months in a year, Jin would regularly spend three of them coming in and out of the hospital.

Several physicians, academics and healers looked at the boy, and none of them could accurately pinpoint the cause of Jin’s mysterious illness. All that they knew was his soul had been damaged by the attack. How did it happen? How to cure it? None of them knew.

And none of them has figured it out till this day.

“Elna, I had a talk with the hospital director just now, and we both came to the same conclusion. Now that we’ve exhausted every means at our disposal, it’s time to look to other alternatives.”

“Other alternatives as in?”

“… The other races.”

“…”

Elna stayed silent. Her body was shaking, not because of anger… But due to a silent show of defiance.

“Will they even bother to help my Jin?”

“Hard to say,” Professor Cain shook his head. “The Werewolves are a stubborn bunch. The Vampires are too elusive to trace down, and the Merfolk prefer to roam the oceans than to come on land. And you know how negatively the Elves see humans.”

“…”

“Given our choices, I would say that the Werewolves are the best bet. They might be stubborn, but they’re fiercely loyal to one of their own. If we could turn Jin into a Werewolf, maybe he’ll recover under their care.”

“… Must we really go to that extent?”

“You know him better than I do, Elna. Jin’s life might not be in danger right now, but who knows what will happen in the future? He’s weakening every time he visits the hospital, and no one really knows if the next visit will be his last. Furthermore, do you really want him to spend a quarter of his life bedridden and at the mercy of others?”

“…”

Elna paused at looked up at the winter sky. A thousand thoughts were running through her head. What was the right thing to do? Was this her decision to make? How was she going to cope with a non-human son?

These were all topics that she could write essays about. But ultimately, Elna wasn’t going to spend all day pondering about it.

“… I’ll talk to Jael about it.”

Neither party noticed it, but the moment that Elna said those words… The winter winds of the hospital became a little colder.