The next morning, in a private ward of the Mejiro family's specialized horse girl hospital in Tokyo, a petite horse girl's figure came running down the otherwise quiet hallway, panting heavily. She skillfully dodged every nurse and doctor, reaching her destination.
"Bang!"
"President! Are you okay?!"
The moment Tokai Teio burst into the room, she found that many people were already waiting there. Surrounding Kitano, Palmer, Mr. C.B., and Nakayama Festa, who were standing by the hospital bed, they all turned their gazes towards her upon her arrival.
Seeing Teio, C.B. and Festa instinctively made way, allowing her a clear view of Symboli Rudolf lying on the bed, connected to a heart monitor and an IV drip.
Rudolf was still unconscious. Her current state was a far cry from her usual "Emperor" image—weak, wretched, fragile... all the adjectives that should never have applied to her now enveloped her. This extremely weak appearance made the blank-minded Teio have a momentary hallucination.
It was as if... she had seen Rudolf lying in a hospital bed before. That heart-stabbing feeling made Teio's eyes fill with tears almost instantly.
"President..."
Teio stumbled towards the front of the room, staring blankly at the unconscious Rudolf for a long, long time. It was not until she felt a warm hand gently stroking the top of her head that the teary-eyed Teio finally turned her gaze to Kitano, who was standing beside her with a tired but still gentle expression.
"Don't worry, Teio. Rudolf will be fine."
His gaze, like a father comforting his young child, radiated a sense of security, as if to say, "It's okay, I'm right here." This made Teio's emotions subside for a moment, only to erupt again in the next second.
"Wuu... waaaaaah!!"
Her emotions erupted like a volcano. Teio, whose young heart had not yet built up a strong exterior like Rudolf's, the moment she felt her eyes welling up, she sank into his embrace, which made her feel safe enough to cry her heart out.
The crying Teio took the initiative to throw herself into his arms. However, at this moment, none of the surrounding Palmer, C.B., or Nakayama Festa were surprised by the scene. C.B. had long known about his and Teio's relationship. Although she knew Teio had not fully recovered her memories, she believed that a child with nowhere to vent her emotions would always cry in her parents' arms first.
Palmer had long had some vague guesses. Since he and Rudolf were entangled in a past life, it was normal for them to have some interaction with Teio.
Nakayama Festa was completely in the dark, but she was magnanimous enough in this situation to lend her trainer's chest to Teio... She understood that Teio's feelings for the President were indeed extraordinary.
After crying for a while, Teio's emotions finally seemed to have calmed down a bit. After forcing herself to hold back her tears, she finally broke free from his embrace, but still looked up at him with some confusion and asked, "What on earth happened to the President?"
"According to the doctor's analysis, it should be an illness caused by overwork," Mejiro Palmer on the side also explained to her at this time. And when she looked at Rudolf, a hint of pity flashed in her eyes, but her mouth added a bit of complaint, "What a foolish person... I told her not to do this long ago. Even though Air Groove and I have been trying our best to share her burden, she still pushes herself like this."
"She always feels that she shouldn't show her vulnerable side, so she should know better how to take care of her own condition. What good does it do her to keep pushing herself like this?"
"Then... the President will get better, right?" And Teio, hearing Palmer's usual composure, felt a little relieved. And at this time, Mr. C.B. on the side also took the initiative to nod and immediately said to her:
"Don't worry, Teio. Rudolf will definitely get better. Let her rest well for now."
"She needs to rest well now. Teio, crying won't do."
"Mm." And under C.B.'s patient comfort, Tokai Teio finally turned her sorrow into joy. After venting her emotions, she nodded with extra strength. Soon, she received a pat on the head from C.B. as praise, as well as the compliment she liked to hear most, "You're finally starting to be a bit like Rudolf."
"Well then, some of Trainer Kitano's other members will be here soon." And after exchanging a look with Palmer and Kitano, C.B. continued to maintain her gentle big sister image and said to Teio, "Teio, to let Rudolf rest well, can you be responsible for stopping everyone at the door and not letting them disturb her?"
"Mm! Leave it to me! I will absolutely not let anyone disturb the President!"
As expected, after experiencing a huge blow, Teio, who felt she had to become strong and take on some responsibility, immediately took on this task with ten times the spirit. She endured her longing for Rudolf and took the initiative to go outside the door. It was believed that this time, she would be more patient than she had ever been in anything she had done before.
And after Teio had left, the few people in the room who had known about Rudolf's condition long ago finally returned to their initial seriousness. And Mejiro Palmer also silently took out the new report that she had been sitting on when she had sensed Teio's arrival.
"How is it, Miss Palmer?" And after she had quickly scanned the report, Kitano finally couldn't help but ask, his tone a little more nervous, "Will Rudolf be okay?"
"...Although this report comes from my family's attending physician, which makes me feel ashamed, I have to say, I don't know either."
And after a sigh, Palmer silently placed the report on the side. Her gaze towards him had a hint of imperceptible gentleness as she answered calmly:
"According to the attending physician, the pressure accumulated in Rudolf's mind and body is very great. The high-intensity work of the past few months has crushed her."
"However, according to a horse girl's constitution, from the time I found her unconscious last night until now, it has been nearly ten hours... even if she hasn't woken up yet, there should have been some signs of consciousness returning in the middle."
"But she has been sleeping like this all along, as if she is unwilling to wake up... My attending physician feels that this may be related to her central nervous system resisting waking up."
"Doesn't that mean... she might become a vegetable?"
And Nakayama Festa, who had been with him in the hospital all night after receiving Palmer's message, when she heard the word "resisting waking up," almost immediately thought of this possibility that no one wanted to think about.
And the moment she blurted it out, faced with the gazes of the three, she also reacted and closed her mouth. After all, Tokai Teio was just outside the door. Although she should still be wholeheartedly on guard, with a horse girl's hearing, a slightly louder voice in the room could be heard clearly through a door.
"...This possibility is very small, but not absolute."
Palmer also nodded,算是 acknowledging her analysis. And the moment her words fell, the room fell into a long silence.
She didn't know how to continue this topic. Festa, who knew she had said the wrong thing, also silently retreated to the side. Only Kitano was alone, gently stroking Rudolf's dry hair, which seemed to have lost its color overnight, not knowing what he was thinking.
And if you had to ask who had the most complicated feelings, it was undoubtedly Mr. C.B. Everything in front of her was like a replica of her past. The her who was like a walking corpse after his death was on the day Tokai Teio had achieved the undefeated Triple Crown, and had even lost her last opponent.
C.B. still remembered that at that time, Rudolf was just like now, without any instinct to save herself. She had watched with her own eyes as the only person in this world besides herself who knew him best died little by little, and finally left this world without any lingering attachment.
Could it be that my words back then had hurt her too much? C.B. couldn't help but start to think about her own mistakes. Had she indirectly harmed her again? Herself, him, Rudolf, and Teio... couldn't the four of them have an ending where no one was hurt?
And just as the room was silent, finally, a long sigh broke the silence. At this time, the gazes of the three girls all turned to him, who had let out the sigh.
And under their gazes, they only saw that on his originally heavy, expressionless face, a helpless smile suddenly appeared. After he gently stroked her head of beautiful hair, he finally spoke to the three of them calmly:
"Everyone, if possible, I would like to be alone with her."
"Can I trouble you all, like Teio, to guard the door for me and not let anyone else in?"
His tone was a gentle negotiation, but everyone could hear the kind firmness in it. And at this moment, C.B. and Palmer, who knew his and Rudolf's relationship, and Festa, who was obedient to his every word, after exchanging a look, all nodded in agreement with his words and got up to walk out one after another.
"Trainer-san, remember to take good care of Rudolf." Before leaving, C.B. did not forget to remind him. She felt that it would be a good thing for him and Rudolf to be alone. Perhaps this was the only way to wake her up.
No matter how bitter the past was, C.B. silently prayed in her heart that she could wake up. Especially since she didn't think she could be as desperate as in her previous life, to give up her body's instinct for survival and choose to abandon everything to chase after him.
After all, no matter what, the living him was right in front of her, and her "daughter," Tokai Teio, who had not won the undefeated Triple Crown. According to her understanding of Rudolf, even if she was seriously ill, her desire to live should not be small.
Her trainer would also definitely do everything he could to wake her up. Then, for her, who couldn't help, to silently leave might be the best help for her trainer.
...It was just a pity that C.B. had guessed wrong. Or rather, she was still at a disadvantage for having met him too early. She did not know many of his secrets. All she could understand was his unchanging heart.
He would indeed do everything he could to save her, but his method of waking her up was not by a vague "miracle," but by himself.
Or rather, he himself was the "miracle." The value of his existence was to create more miracles.
"In the past, I left you all too early. I couldn't stay by your side, watch you grow, and grow up with you."
"Rudolf... the promise to accompany each other to the end, I was the one who broke it first."
He gently caressed her face, and looking at his childhood friend's sleeping face up close, he, who already had a sense of resolution in his heart, also turned to show a helpless smile. Knowing that she could not hear his words, he said softly, word by word:
"I am the only one who broke the promise, Rudolf. I won't allow you to imitate my actions."
"You have to live a good life, to accompany Teio in my place... even if... I can never see that day again, but with you by her side, I believe you can definitely do it."
"Last time, it was the you of my childhood who saved the hopeless me. Without you, I would never have made up my mind to come to Tracen, and it's even more impossible for me to still be persisting in this wish today."
"So, this time, let me save you."
His soft whisper slowly fell, and his palm also finally left her beautiful hair.
He silently held her palm and placed his own on it, overlapping them in the most intimate way.
At that moment, the two, whose memories and longings had crossed time and space, for the first time, had their fingers intertwined. This was also the most he could control, the most feedback he could give her...
"...Life Return."
As he closed his eyes and prayed without any regrets to give a part of his life to her, he felt a mysterious link being constructed between his body and hers—it was the sense of their lifelines connecting. At this moment, the two of them truly became one, sharing the same life.
And at this very moment, the commotion outside the hospital room caught his attention... he knew that his charges had probably all arrived. C.B. and the others should be trying their best to stop them, right?
It seems I don't have much time... I have to cure her before they break in.
Thinking this, he also silently pulled up her other hand and held her palm in the same way. He transferred his remaining life to the girl in front of him, whom he wanted to save with all his heart, at an astonishing speed...
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