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**Morning Routine of 4 Hours and 30 Minutes of Sleep**

It’s a morning where I’m sticking to my routine of 4 hours and 30 minutes of sleep before getting ready for work.

Maybe it’s thanks to the hard work I’ve put in, but I’ve been able to share some tasks with the interns and residents, allowing me to squeeze in another full sleep cycle. Going from 3 hours to 4 and a half hours of sleep can only be a good thing, right?

‘When is Zion gonna come out…’

Since I brought Zion, who’s not feeling well, into my home, it’s normally my duty to take care of her.

But I can’t help but feel a bit curious about what will happen if I just leave her alone, so I’m purposely waiting outside instead of going in.

After a quick wash and getting dressed, I receive the freshly baked bread as always. I prepare breakfast and try to listen in on what’s going on in Zion’s room.

– Bang! Crash!!

Just as I expected, there’s the sound of something crashing down…

“Hop Harveeeeey!!”

I start to hear Zion’s voice calling for me.

Well, if she can’t see me, it’s fine to laugh, right? But since she’s asking for help, I don’t let my smile last too long.

Taking a deep breath to cover up how much I’m enjoying this, I slip into the room.

“Zion, what’s going on?”

As expected, she’s toppled over on the floor next to the bed, arms stretched out in front of her, and her wheelchair is pushed against the wall.

It seems she tried to move from the bed to the wheelchair by herself, but the chair rolled away from her, making her fall over.

“I-I need help…”

As soon as she noticed me, she pushed herself up from the floor, trembling, and looked over here, desperately asking for assistance.

“Zion, I’m going to lift you up now, so put your arm around my side.”

“Why are you even explaining this?!”

“You told me last time to be careful, remember? If you want me to do it another way, just say so, and I’ll do it.”

I could’ve helped her right away, but I felt the need to see her struggling to lift her head a little longer for some odd reason.

Zion reacted with,

“It’s more embarrassing to be on the floor than to be lifted! So please, just help me already… I don’t care how you do it.”

She seemed to drop her head in defeat, begging me.

Well, I’ve had enough fun, so as promised, I put my arm around her waist and lifted her up, moving her to the wheelchair and sitting her down.

Once safe in her wheelchair, Zion quickly manipulated it to move over to the mirror, pushing her face down to smooth out her features and hurriedly fixing her hair so nothing was out of place. She then turned back to me.

“Ah… What should I do now?”

“We need to head to the center. Are you going to have breakfast?”

“Yeah. I always ate while staying with Serin. Naou insisted I eat… or something like that…”

“Good to hear. I’m busy, so I only have bread and nothing else. Is that alright?”

“That’s fine.”

As we left the room and headed to the dining table, Zion followed me in her wheelchair.

Even back when I first saw her, I noticed that her wheelchair moves on its own, even though she doesn’t turn the wheels with her hands.

I pulled out a chair to make room for her, and she wheeled into the seat. I brought the bread over and sat across from her.

“Hop Harvey. This is…”

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”

Her eyes went wide at the sight of the steaming, freshly baked bread in the basket.

“Didn’t you say you were busy eating bread?”

“Yeah, I said that.”

“But this… it’s still warm! Did you bake this yourself?”

“Oh no, not at all.”

Baking bread? I don’t have time for that, and there’s no way I have the skill for it.

“It turns out there was a son of a bakery among the veterans we rehabilitated at our center. His mother keeps bringing us fresh bread every morning, thanking us non-stop.”

Enjoying the luxury of having freshly baked bread delivered every morning from the kingdom capital’s famous bakery is probably something I get to enjoy alone throughout the whole kingdom.

“That veteran had it rough. He had PTSD from the war, which caused him hallucinations and delusions… It’s called schizophrenia. Anyway, he came in due to an injury from magic that damaged his left elbow joint. We treated him with therapy, buffs, and medication, and nearly fully recovered him. Though he can’t swing a sword with that arm, he should be fine for living. The bakers were so grateful…”

The pain from the war doesn’t fade easily even after it’s over. It’s hard to imagine the pain of the families who have to watch their loved ones get hurt in the war, not just the warriors themselves.

“Anyway, let’s eat. I wasn’t aware, but I heard this place is one of the top bakeries around here. Since I eat it daily, I can guarantee the taste.”

Freshly baked bread has a softness and warmth that no one who hasn’t tried it can even imagine, plus it’s not just tasty but melts away quickly in your mouth, making it easy to eat.

Anyway, as the director of the rehabilitation center, I’m always a busy person.

“Hop Harvey…”

Unlike me, who’s shoveling down the bread as fast as I can, Zion is gently cradling the warm bread in both hands, savoring its warmth and fragrance as she gazes at it dreamily.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with the bread?”

“No, I just thought Hop Harvey is a really good person.”

A good person, huh…

While it’s true that a rehabilitation specialist is doing good work, I’ve never once thought of myself as a ‘good person.’

After all, I’m just doing this job for the things I enjoy.

And right now, that enjoyment is Zion, yet here she is calling me a good person.

But you know…

“What do you really think of me?”

This was a conversation we had to have.

“Someone who likes to touch me, lift me up, and sees me embarrass myself… that kind of person?”

W-What? Is this some sort of hero’s insight? Zion answered in a way that was surprisingly close to the mark, enough to make me jump a little.

“Um, calling for help while tumbling out of bed wasn’t really what I wanted, you know.”

“That’s because you didn’t come to help me! Serin always comes on time!”

“Serin is meant to do that job, of course. But wouldn’t it be better to call for help before you fall?”

“But showing you my sleepy face right after waking up is pretty embarrassing too! At least if I’m in my wheelchair, I can look in the mirror…”

So that’s why she tried to transfer herself from the bed to the wheelchair? Zion can at least move around a bit once she’s in the chair.

But how exactly? I’m curious, so I might as well ask now.

“By the way, how does that wheelchair even move?”

“Oh, this?”

When I asked about the wheelchair, Zion acted like she was giving a demo, moving back and forth, turning around, speeding up across the living room and back to the table, where she took another bite of bread.

“There are eight pressure sensors on the wheels that let me control the rotation and direction. It’s really my personal wheelchair that I can move using my abilities.”

As expected. A customized gadget for Zion that lets her use her powers despite her body not moving well.

“It’s something Naou specially made for me, but honestly, I fell a ton at first. The devices are tiny, and controlling multiple devices at once takes a lot of practice… It took me a whole month to get this good at it.”

A month just for practicing with the wheelchair… I guess Zion always uses her abilities broadly for pressure manipulation, so it must be hard to control precisely.

While I might not know much else, I have to admit, she’s got some serious grit as a hero.

“If you put in that much effort into your rehab training, you’ll see results in no time.”

“That’s right… I will have to keep trying.”

Her rehabilitation training starts today. While the real training will probably begin once she’s officially admitted, until then, we’ll check on Zion’s condition and go through various tests.

Once we assess her condition, we’ll set up a training routine that matches, repeat it, and if her condition improves or changes, we’ll adjust the routine again. It’s a cycle—a cycle of training awaits until we reach our goals.

“If you put in that much effort… it will definitely be soon. I agree. But, Hop Harvey.”

“Yes?”

“Do you really know what ‘that much’ effort actually means?”

…….

Zion’s hands, clutching that bread, were trembling.

“Zion?”

“I went through a lot of trial and error making something that didn’t exist before. A wheelchair that moves using my abilities… I had to set sensitivity, size, and all sorts of configurations. If the pressure is too high, it just spins out of control in an instant, suddenly speeding up, stopping abruptly, and turning sharply…”

The bread in her hands got squished.

Is she using all her strength to hold that?

“Every time that happened, I would be flung out of the wheelchair, hitting the floor, getting dragged or rolling, even crashing into walls… once, Serin even got hurt just watching me. Each and every time, each and every time…”

I noticed Zion’s expression had turned pale, her eyes losing focus.

“It hurts, it hurts… it hurts so much…!!”

Is this another seizure due to her trauma?

Snapping back to reality, I put down the bread and assessed Zion’s condition.

This time, it was a dangerous situation, unlike last time. It was a scenario that required immediate action.

 

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