Chapter 9: Asher

It took Lucius a lot more effort than he had expected to use his hearing. He didn't know if it was due to an injury or something but only one of his ears seemed to be working. His left ear gave no sensation while his right one was picking up some faint sounds.

'Seems like I may be deaf in the left ear now… seeing as this is most likely a battlefield and this body seems difficult to move, it is probably broken in more ways than I thought. Though a proper assessment of the injuries would need to be done, or I would have a lot of problems.' Lucius thought to himself.

All Lucius could hear right now was the sound of wind blowing. His sense of touch was still working, which told him that his body was lying on something hard, like a flat plank or a table. But when he combined all of the information that he got from his sense, he was able to paint a picture of the current scenario.

'So I'm most likely in a battlefield, probably in a small open trench. The smell of actively burning flesh, wood, and fire confirms that part. Though the most strange part is the silence, is the battle over or not yet? But if it isn't over yet, then what was that spear I saw a while ago?' Lucius analyzed.

He wanted to think more and understand his current situation, but his current body seemed to disagree with him. A wave of weakness washed over him and he was unable to maintain his consciousness.

~Sigh~

'Seems like I have no choice but to leave it to luck…' Lucius thought after sighing internally.

Bit by bit, his thoughts slowed down, like mud hardening after a rainstorm, and his consciousness faded.

An unknown amount of time passed before a streak of pain awakened Lucius again.

'GAH! What is that?' Lucius thought to himself.

His chest was burning, and he felt as if a flaming red knife was cutting into his flesh. He wanted to clench his teeth in pain but found it impossible. Unable to do anything, he bore the entire thing in silence. Fortunately or unfortunately, his consciousness started fading away again and he fell into a deep slumber.

More time passed and Lucius awakened again, but this time due to a large amount of movement that was happening. He could feel that he was now lying on a semi soft surface, as if someone had spread a thin quilt over a table.

The surface would shake every so often, almost in a rhythmic manner.

'Hmm… a makeshift bed? But what's the movement?' Lucius wondered.

He tried to use his other sense and picked the sense of hearing to know more. He wanted to try to see but could feel that his head was currently covered with a tightly wrapped cloth. The kind that was probably used as a bandage.

~Clip~Clop~

~Clip~Clop~

~Clip~Clop~

Lucius could hear a rhythmic sound that he could only identify to belong to that of a horse.

'Huh, so I'm on a horse drawn cart. ~Sniff~ Hmm… no more burning smell, so I should not be at the battlefield anymore. Okay, that's a good start, but the danger does not end here. Depending on where I'm being taken, I may as well be good as dead.' Lucius thought to himself.

As soon as he realized that he was on a horse drawn cart, Lucius knew that he was in a relatively old period. The use of spears, in combination with the olden style gunpowder and the horse cart made him think that he was in a world that was still in the medieval period, or somewhere near it.

It was now that Lucius suddenly realized something.

'Wait! If I'm being taken somewhere on a horse cart, then there should be someone driving it. Why can't I hear them? Even if there's no one driving it, there should be someone else guiding the horse or walking along with it. What is this strange silence?' Lucius thought.

He focused his hearing but was still unable to hear anything. After multiple attempts, he gave up as his consciousness started to weaken again and he fell asleep.

The next time he woke up, Lucius could feel something lying on top of him. It was soft, and even the surface below him was soft.

'Looks like I've reached whatever destination I was heading towards. I'm most definitely lying on a bed.' Lucius thought to himself.

Just as he was thinking this, he felt something touching his mouth. It was warm and soft, making him alert. His lips were opened and he could feel a warm liquid being dropped into his mouth. The amount of the liquid was quite small, being only a spoonful.

Lucius instantly activated his sense of taste and identified the liquid to be water.

'No wonder I didn't feel thirsty, even after all this time. Someone has been feeding me water.' Lucius understood.

A minute later, his lips were opened again and another liquid was poured into his mouth. This time the liquid was a bit thicker and on tasting it Lucius found it to be a bit sweet.

'Hmm… is this some kind of porridge?' He wondered.

He was slowly fed about a cupful of porridge along with plain water at sufficient intervals. Lucius was still able to control his ability to swallow thus had no problem getting the nutrition.

He tried to open his eyes and still found it to be impossible due to them being covered with a bandage. Seeing that this was useless, he activated his sense of hearing.

~Thud~

~lock~

But the moment he activated that all he could hear was the sound of a door closing and its latch being locked.

'Looks like I'll have to wait.' Lucius thought to himself.

Unlike before, he was able to maintain his consciousness for much longer before falling asleep.

Lucius awakened after a few hours after feeling something warm and wet being rubbed on him. He instantly activated his hearing and heard a few words.

"You need to recover, Asher. This family depends on it!"