Iron Powder and Spellcasters

   Chapter 22 Muscle Strain

Major   Moritz took out a small silver coin out of nowhere and played with it. The silver coin moved nimbly between his fingers, disappearing and appearing. Winters didn't notice this, but Andre's mind was completely attracted by the major's magical technique, he thought: Don't play dice with this senior, or you will lose all your pants.

"Although you have several traumas on your body, your coma is obviously not caused by trauma. Other spellcaster students also fell into a coma without these traumas." Major Moritz pondered for a while, and said some of his observations. thing.

Only then did    Winters realize that the other comatose students around him were actually the same class of Hailan caster students as him. It seems that all of them are here.

   "All spellcasters passed out last night?" Winters asked tentatively.

"It wasn't last night, it was the night before. You've been unconscious for nearly two days." Major Moritz informed Winters of the current situation without reservation: "The province says that almost all the spellcasters have been lost. Consciousness, but we don't know if what they said is true or not. I can only be sure of one thing, when we came to pick up the apprentice officer yesterday, all the sea blue caster cadets fell into a deep coma."

Major   Moritz seemed to have thought of something and chuckled: "That's why General Layton is so angry."

"Yeah, you didn't see Winters, it's an eye-opener for me." Andre added happily on the side: "This is the first time I've seen Minister Cornelis be scolded with blood. , but couldn't say a word."

   "If it wasn't because of Cornelis, why would you send a major to pick up the students?" Major Moritz was also very happy. Obviously, the scolding of Minister Cornelis by Major General Layton was also the source of Major Moritz's recent happiness.

   Winters remembered the whip he received while on duty the night before, and his affection for Major General Layton soared.

   Cornelis is short-tempered, aggressive, and violent. Soldiers respected and feared him, and he was really unpopular in terms of daily interactions. However, his ability is very strong, and it is rare to eat a deflation once. Winters regretted not being able to witness Brigadier General Cornelis being reprimanded.

   "Let's talk about your current situation." Major Moritz turned the topic to Winters again: "I have seen many injured spellcasters, but I have not seen your situation."

Major Moritz pointed to Winters and the other comatose students: "You didn't fall into a coma because of trauma. We don't know what internal injuries you suffered. But since you can wake up, others should be able to recover by themselves. "

   "Has no one else woken up? I remember that I have woken up once." Winters hurriedly asked, he was sure he had a lucid memory, not a hallucination.

   "Some people didn't wake up once, and some people woke up once like you. They took medicine and fell asleep again." Major Moritz said, playing with the silver coins.

   "Medicine! By the way, someone fed me medicine!" Winters suddenly remembered and drank the liquid with a bit of bitter taste.

"That's not actually a medicine. It's a sleep aid I blended, and I don't know if it's useful. I hope I can help you fall asleep, so I mixed two sleep aids and fed you a little." Major Moritz explained to the two warrant officers what sleep aid he was using:

"I have severe insomnia. The Freemans will dry the roots of a plant, grind them, and drink them to treat insomnia. I just have a little bit of the powder they use here; the natives of the Far West Colony of the Pseudo Muluo Empire like to chew a Planting leaves into a state of sedation, the natives claim to communicate with their ancestors in this way, and I happen to have a little of this dried leaf.

   You were clearly in great pain after waking up for the first time. It's better to keep you in a coma than this, so I'll try to feed you a mix of the two to help you get back to sleep. Fortunately useful. "

Only then did Winters know who helped him. The last time he was awake, Winters was so painful that he wanted to roll on the floor, but this time he was able to bear it. He said gratefully: "The medicine you prepared must be useful, I I feel better than when I was awake last time. Thank you, senior."

"No, no, no, you're wrong. It wasn't my medicine that helped you, and what I called out wasn't medicine, just a sleep aid." Major Moritz waved his hand gently, and he said his own Speculation: "My sleep aids don't repair your body, your body repairs your body."

   "Fix the body?" Winters didn't understand what the major was talking about.

"I think that you fell into a coma because you have suffered a serious injury somewhere in your body. It's just that there is no trauma, and outsiders can't see it. This invisible injury can only rely on your body's self-healing ability. When will your body What about self-healing? I'm guessing while you're in a coma or sleeping.

   When you lose consciousness, your body is actually gearing up to repair itself. And when you're awake, the intense pain from the injury actually hinders the body's self-healing process. That's why I'm helping you fall asleep so that your body has more time to repair itself. "

Major   Moritz's explanation was simple and easy to understand, and Winters could easily understand it.

   Winters said tentatively, "Should I sleep more if I want to recover faster?"

   "If I'm right, this is it." Major Moritz nodded.

   "Then can you give me a little more sleep aid?" Sleeping, Winters' favorite physical activity.

   "No, I only have a little stock of these two sleep aids. They were originally used for my insomnia, but now they are all used up for you." Major Moritz spread his hands helplessly: "But..."

   No matter what language it is in this world, the "but" before the content can be regarded as nonsense.

   "But..." Major Moritz said with a smile: "I have another method that can approximately achieve the effect of drug sleep aid. You can try it."

   "Uh...Thank you, Senior." Winters didn't know why, so he could only nod his head first.

   "Don't thank me, you should thank your classmates who have been taking care of you these two days. Your classmates accompany you all the way." Senior Moritz reminded Winters.

   Winters quickly got up and gave Andre a deep bow: "Thank you so much."

"Don't, don't, don't thank me..." Andre also stood up hurriedly and explained embarrassedly: "I just changed shifts for less than an hour. It was Bud who was watching over you before, and he stayed up all day. I can't take it anymore, I just went to sleep."

   "What? Bud?"

  ——————————————————

  The weather was clear, the waves were high, and the bunting was flying on the pilot mast.

   This clipper full of marine blue trainee officers has sailed out of the rainy area. The cadets no longer have to be trapped in the dark and damp cabin. Everyone ran to the upper deck to breathe.

   Taking advantage of the good weather, Winters and Bud were also blowing the sea breeze and drying their clothes on the upper deck. Winters hadn't regained consciousness when he set off, and Ike helped him pack his luggage and help him wash his armed clothes.

   But it rained the night we put out the fire, so the clothes didn't dry. Winters wanted to throw away the musty armor, but he felt that I was too sorry for that, so he took advantage of the good weather to put it on the deck to dry.

   "You drank back what you spit into the cup last night, you know?" Bud was overjoyed.

"Stop talking, please, I feel like throwing up even just imagining it now." The hangover made Winters feel a pain in his brain. This time, it wasn't the "phantom limb pain" caused by using magic, but A real headache.

   Only after he really learned about Major Moritz's "alternative therapy" did Winters realize how unreliable the first impression was. Gentleness is just the major's disguise, and excessive drinking is the major's true character.

   The thing that Major said can replace sleep aids is alcohol, which means that the effect of sleeping aids is similar to that of amnesia.

   And the Major prefers not wine and ale, but rum, the spirit preferred by bottom sailors.

  Since sugarcane was introduced from the Far East, large and small sugarcane plantations have sprung up on the island chain outside the Gulf of Cenas.

  Rum, a by-product of the sugar industry, also became popular in the Seines Bay area, and it is not known when it became the favorite of Major Moritz.

   In the name of therapy, Major Moritz, who was worried that he had no drinking buddies, poured Winters into unconsciousness, and indeed fulfilled his promise to help Winters "approximately achieve the effect of using drugs to help sleep."

   "How are you feeling now?" Because the Winters were dying of drinking, Bud was curious about the effect of Major Moritz's therapy.

   "I have a headache, nausea, and nausea right now." Winters held the side of the boat feebly.

   "I asked about magic."

"Then I think the Major's theory still has some truth. Sleep can indeed repair the third hand." Winters also had to admit that the inexplicable pain when he woke up from sleep decreased a little: "By the way, you Did you get gunpowder?"

   "Here." Bud took out a calf horn from his satchel: "I asked the captain for a little gunpowder, and he just gave me a dime. I'll give it back to him when you run out."

  Winters took the cartridge, pulled the stopper, and poured a charge on the side of the ship. Then he recalled the feeling of using fire-type magic, maintained the casting gesture, and tried to ignite the small pile of gunpowder in front of him with fire-burning.

  Igniting gunpowder using the fire technique is a skill that casters must learn when they get started, and it can be said to be the easiest effect to achieve.

   But the gunpowder was not ignited as Winters expected. Instead, the phantom limb pain that Winters had gradually subsided broke out again.

   Winters was shaking with pain, and he felt a little unsteady on his feet, so he put his hands on the freeboard and waited for the pain to subside.

Bard hurriedly poured a glass of spirits for Winters: "There's no need to try to use magic in such a hurry. Don't worry, your spell ability is definitely still there, and your phantom limb pain gradually subsides, doesn't it mean that your spell ability is gradually recovering. ?"

   "I just tried, and I didn't imagine that I would recover so quickly." Winters held the wine glass in his hand, but didn't drink: "It seems that I can only recover slowly."

   "I think it's very vivid that you call the spell talents 'third hand' and 'fifth limb'." Bud thoughtful: "Look, aren't you just straining your muscles from too much force now?"

"Hahahaha." This wonderful metaphor scratched Winters' laugh: "You're right, I have a 'magic muscle' strain right now. Not just a muscle strain, I feel like my tendons are almost pulled. broken."

   After laughing, Winters said to Bud: "By the way, you also said that you must be assigned overseas. Look, aren't you coming to the Ocean Blue Republic now?"

"I did take the initiative to apply for an overseas dispatch, and I didn't expect to be assigned to Veneta in the end." Not being sent overseas, Bud was in a good mood: "This year is also a special situation, there is not a single overseas dispatch, It's all on the mainland. But I always feel a little weird..."

   "Don't think so much, it's better to go to Hailan than to be sent overseas." Winters is still the usual optimism: "Don't worry, the Hailan Army will not deliberately crowd out the United Provinces. Besides me, don't worry."

   "I don't really care about geographical discrimination, because no matter where you are, the poor are the most discriminated against." Bard's perspective is always unique, but his attitude has always been peaceful.

   "Don't be so negative, we have finally become an officer from a cadet, and we must celebrate when we arrive in Hailan City." Winters patted Bud's shoulder hard, and accidentally affected the stab wound on his right arm.

   "Master officer, are you still drinking this wine?" An abrupt voice interrupted the chat between Winters and Bud.

   Interjected is a sailor. The sailor's skin was tanned by the two suns all year round, and only the whites of his eyes were exposed. The locks of hair were sticking together, and it should have not been washed for a long time. He rubbed his hands together and looked wistfully at the wine glass in Winters' hand.

"Drink if you want." Winters handed the glass to the sailor. Winters didn't like drinking at all, but there was no clean fresh water on the boat at all: "But I'm not a master, just call me Winters. , this is Warrant Officer Budd. There is no master in this land for a long time, and the aristocracy was overthrown twenty-seven years ago."

   "Thank you, sir, sir. Thank you sir." The sailor bowed like pounding garlic, took the glass and drank it, and let out a long sigh of relief. Although the Alliance eliminated nobles twenty-seven years ago, many people still have nobles in their hearts.

"Don't call me master, just call me Winters. Brother sailor, I just have a question I want to ask." In fact, since waking up today, Winters has always had a doubt, and now there happens to be a sailor can be answered.

   "You say, you say." The sailor nodded hastily.

   "Why do I feel like we're heading east?" Winters judged the ship's direction from the sun's path and found it strange.

   "That's right, we're heading east." The sailor's tone was as if someone were asking him if one plus one equals two?

   "What?" Now it was Winters and Bud's turn to be dumbfounded.

  The land of the Gulf of Cenas is roughly a semicircle, the United Province Republic occupies the northern half of the semicircle, and the Ocean Blue Republic occupies the southern half of the semicircle. Hailan City is located in the south of Guitu City, facing Guitu City across the sea, which is common knowledge of geography.

   But the sailor in front of him actually said: The ship is not heading south, but heading east.

   Winters spent two full days on the boat before realizing that this was not the route home.

   "Then where are we going?" Wentesla asked after covering the sailor's clothes.

   "Master officer, of course to Taneria."

   (end of this chapter)