The next moment, Haida's brows lightly furrowed, and clear surprise appeared in her gray-chestnut eyes.
Rotten blood, lingering fires, evil creatures, and the ever-present rusted mesh... inside the dwelling, none of the above existed.
A heavy snowfall like reed catkin fluff enveloped everything in sight. Stepping through the door felt like entering an entirely new world.
With a sense of surreal unreality, Haida stepped inside, the ankle-deep snow immediately submerging her hunting boots.
Indeed, "Silent Hill" was not the real world.
Or perhaps, this town operated under some rules she had yet to understand... Haida advanced step by step into the howling gray-white wind and snow.
Apart from the snow, it wasn't empty. Shops could be seen lining both sides of the street, though their style was much more antiquated and carried a faint, elusive sense of familiarity. Pedestrians were even visible on the distant roadside.
"Cough..."
A faint, mosquito-like panting sounded by Haida's ear.
The sister, relying on her resilient physique enhanced by modification surgeries, could withstand the severe cold relatively easily. But Flamel, in her thin clothing, found it hard to endure this biting winter wind. And she had just undergone wound cleaning; now her pale face was tinged with an unhealthy flush of red.
Perhaps the wounds on her feet had caused some inflammation...
Haida untied the trench coat over her black sister's robe and wrapped it around the girl. Then she held her a bit tighter, hoping to slightly slow the loss of body heat.
Just then, the tightly closed wooden door of a nearby shop opened. A gentle, warm female voice immediately sounded with a touch of urgency.
"Sister, why aren't you wearing winter hunting gear? And the girl in your arms, her clothes are so thin... Come inside quickly. Today has the heaviest snow in recent years."
The speaker was a young woman in a white doctor's coat.
Her appearance wasn't outstanding, but her features were harmonious with a touch of soft beauty—the type easily liked. Her every movement carried a heartfelt warmth.
Facing this sudden invitation, Haida pondered for a moment and ultimately entered the house with her.
It was a small, delicate medical station.
The faint scent of chlorine disinfectant lingered in the room, not particularly pungent. Firewood burned slowly in a stone hearth, emitting relaxing crackles. Several children huddled around the fire, warming their hands. Though their clothes were simple, they looked clean.
Inside the medical station.
Another tall female doctor, eyes slightly narrowed, raised a hand to gently touch the beauty mark by her cheek, looking somewhat helplessly at Viola, whose hair still bore traces of frost. She also looked quite young, seemingly only in her early twenties.
"Viola, you brought another child back from outside?"
"Sorry, Marian..."
Viola lowered her hands before her abdomen, her expression carrying a hint of apology.
"Why apologize to me? With snow like this today, if you didn't bring them back and they had nowhere to warm up, they'd probably freeze to death. Do you think I'm that cold-blooded in your mind?"
Marian stepped forward, raising her index finger to lightly tap Viola's head. The latter shielded her forehead and smiled.
"Of course I know Marian is very kind. Also, today, besides a girl... there's also an injured colleague."
"Colleague? From which department?"
Marian raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. There hadn't been any dangerous field missions recently; could it be a secret assignment from the Confidential Division?
Viola calmly and clearly explained.
"She's a Burial Attendant. She brought a girl. Both are injured, and the girl is somewhat hypothermic."
"I shouldn't have doubted other possibilities... After all, nearly all our workload comes from those Burial Court folks."
Marian sighed as if resigned. She then headed towards the storeroom.
"Thankfully, at least bills from the Burial Court can be reimbursed... Hah, I need to organize your pharmacy inventory here. If the injuries are serious and you get overwhelmed, remember to call me. Or if you need special medication, bring the prescription form."
"Mhm, thank you, Marian."
Viola nodded lightly and gracefully.
She then picked up the boiled ginger tea from the kettle nearby and a basket of baked cookies, returning to the clinic's main hall.
The two's conversation took place in the corridor by the storeroom. Although Haida faintly sensed from the sounds that there were others in the clinic, she couldn't determine their specific identities.
Viola filled two cups of ginger tea and placed them on the tea table, calmly observing the tall sister before her.
She carried a strange scent of blood, as if having just been through a fierce battle. Her shoulder and back were injured, treated with simple bandaging. Her weaponry was unusually complete, almost as if she had just returned to Norlington from a foreign land.
"Colleague from the Burial Court, I am Viola, a physician from the Medical Department. May I ask how to address you, and this child?"
"Just call me Haida. This child is my friend... Flamel."
As she spoke, Haida showed the platinum pendant on her chest—a horizontal prism, resembling an eye or a mouth, precisely the sacred emblem of the Secrets-Hunters.
Simultaneously, Viola also saw the brass signet ring on her index finger, symbolizing a supervisor.
This sister was actually a supervisor? Since when did the Burial Court have such a young supervisor?
"Mhm... You don't like ginger tea? It's very good for driving away the cold."
Seeing Haida show no intention of drinking the tea, Viola asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Miss Viola, please check Flamel's current condition first."
Haida had a bit of a psychological shadow about drinking tea in a stranger's house, so she didn't answer, subtly changing the subject instead.
Naturally, Viola didn't dwell on it. Seeing that Haida seemed even more concerned about the girl's safety than she was, she couldn't help but curve her lips into a shallow smile.
Marian always said the hunters from the Burial Court were all heartless, paranoid eccentrics, but it seems that's not entirely true.
"Please rest assured, Sister Haida. She's just a bit hypothermic; her condition is still stable. Give her some anti-inflammatory medication and handle the wounds on her feet more carefully, and she'll be fine."
"And your own wounds need further treatment. This kind of simple bandaging made from cloth can stop bleeding, but it's prone to infection."
Viola pointed to the noticeably shortened hem of Flamel's straitjacket, then to the injured areas on Haida's shoulder blade and back. Clearly, she already understood their situation.
"...Mhm." Haida nodded in agreement.
Feeling the warm firelight from the hearth in the small clinic and the presence of children, her spirit unavoidably relaxed a little. Confusion also surged forth.
The mansion manifested the "Chief Hunter," while here manifested a Secrets-Hunter medical station during a certain heavy snowfall in Norlington... that was the known information.
Could the physician named Viola be trusted? Was all this some predetermined rule or a malicious trap?
Connection. There was an inseparable connection between the scenes presented by Silent Hill. But... what exactly was it?
—
Under Physician Viola's enthusiastic invitation and her expectant gaze, Haida ultimately drank the ginger tea she personally prepared.
After all, she had already stepped into a Secrets-Hunter medical station and might receive treatment later. Rather than worrying about whether a cup of tea had been tampered with, it was better to worry about the safety of medications and other supplies.
Tangerine peel, ginger shreds, tea leaves—it carried a faint spicy taste down the throat. Warmth that dispelled the bitter chill spread throughout her body.
"Does it feel a bit better now?"
Looking at Haida, whose expression gradually softened, Viola's eyes gleamed with a gentle smile.
In her view, the hunters of the Burial Court shouldn't be called paranoid eccentrics; that was unfair to them.
A group of lone operatives living on the edge of life and death, perpetually engaged in pursuit and slaughter to protect more people... who had the right to criticize their numbness and coldness?
Perhaps precisely because hunters could only trust "themselves," they appeared sharp and neurotic. Even with their various flaws, they should be called "heroes."
"Mhm, much better."
Haida set down the ceramic teacup, responding concisely.
While persuading the sister to have some tea, Viola didn't forget to carefully examine Flamel's physical condition. She removed the gauze from the girl's soles, her brows immediately furrowing slightly with a touch of heartache.
"There are many tiny cuts. Not like from barbed wire or caltrops... shattered glass?"
"Yes." Haida confirmed Viola's assessment.
"I need to examine further."
As she spoke, Viola checked inch by inch the wounds on the foot's skin and the spaces between toes, searching for any remaining unremoved fragments or glass slivers.
Such tiny sharp objects easily remained in wounds, causing ulceration and infection.
Moments later, Viola set down the medical instruments used for examination, her tone carrying surprise mixed with a trace of praise.
"Mhm... The wound cleaning was done very thoroughly, with no residual foreign objects at all. Sister, you have rich battlefield medical experience, don't you?"
"I once served as head nurse for a very skilled doctor."
Haida very honestly summarized the source of her medical experience.
Of course, she wouldn't say that this "head nurse" participated in medical research mostly in the capacity of an "experimental subject"...
Viola clasped her hands together with a hint of admiration.
"A skilled doctor? I also wish I could have a skilled senior as my mentor. But taking care of the children at the medical station keeps me busy enough; I've never had the chance for further training."
"Little Flamel's foot wounds are no longer serious; just apply some anti-inflammatory medication. Mhm... But she's unhealthily thin and needs proper nutritional supplementation."
She picked up a cotton swab, applied anti-inflammatory liquid to Flamel's soles, then draped a fleece blanket over her.
After confirming the girl's breathing remained even and steady and she hadn't woken from her deep sleep, Viola turned her gaze back to Haida.
"Now it's your turn, Sister."
"My current treatment is sufficient; no further treatment is needed..."
Just as Haida intended to decline, Viola gave her no chance to continue with excuses. In the blink of an eye, she had already brought a box of medical instruments to her side.
"In the medical station, you listen to the doctor!"
She stepped forward, gently pressing the thumbs of both hands against Haida's brow, as if trying to smooth away that layer of cold, hard protective shell.
"Miss Haida, even if you are a Burial Court supervisor, you must not avoid the doctor due to fear of illness. That's a bad habit of the older generation of hunters, but you're still so young..."
"Alright."
Haida gave a slight nod, not continuing to refuse treatment.
The injuries inflicted by the "Chief Hunter" in the first mansion were real, so the "medical station" in the second dwelling should also be able to heal her.
Moreover, she sensed no danger on the levels of psychic sense, physical sensation, or intuition... the risk of accepting treatment was likely within an acceptable range.
Seeing Haida not persisting in her own opinion, Viola promptly and efficiently began, cutting open the cloth wrapping the shoulder wound to examine it.
"Oh my..."
At the very first glance, she covered her lips with a gasp.
A vicious penetrating wound had torn through the entire shoulder; amidst the tangled, shattered flesh, even pale bone was visible. But even more unbelievable... the bleeding had already stopped, and the damaged tissue even showed signs of healing.
If it were an ordinary person, they'd be lying on a sickbed moaning. Yet she had conversed with me so calmly all this time?
"Sister... please let me see the wound on your back." Viola's tone became somewhat strained.
Haida cooperated, lifting the upper part of her sister's robe to reveal the well-defined sacrospinalis and latissimus dorsi muscles on her back. Her muscle mass wasn't excessively bulky and carried aesthetically pleasing lines.
Such beautiful muscle definition... cough, now's not the time for that!
Viola bit her lower lip, forcibly dismissing distracting thoughts and refocusing on the treatment.
The condition of Haida's back was similarly grim. If not for the resilient rib plate blocking the Decapitation Throne for an instant, her internal organs would likely have been shredded into pulp.
"Whew..."
Viola exhaled a breath, easing the shock lingering in her mind.
Someone with a stiff neck would tilt their head; someone with leg pain would walk with a limp. But with injuries of this severity, she hadn't shown the slightest abnormality in speech or posture during all this time?
"Sister, your physical constitution is truly exceptional."
After a long, contemplative silence, Viola sincerely uttered a word of praise.
"I know." Haida accepted the other's evaluation without any psychological burden.
Recently, opponents who fought her either called her a "humanoid evil spawn" or a "freak," to the point she was almost getting used to this state.
"Although healing has begun and there are no obvious signs of infection, some debris inside the wound is still attached to the bone and flesh. Leaving it untreated might affect the condition after recovery... deep wound cleaning is needed."
"Please wait a moment; I'll go prepare anesthetic."
As she spoke, Viola stood up to head to the storeroom.
Haida grabbed her wrist, stopping the doctor's hurried steps.
+++
T/N: Hey readers~! New Translator here! Before I say anything, I'd first like to thank the original author for creating this wonderful story. Without them, I wouldn't have the chance to share this adventure with you. I hope my translation does justice to their work, and that together, we can enjoy this story.
With that said, I'm happy to let you know I'll be uploading daily chapters. And for those who wish to support my work and gain early access, I've set up a Patreon where advanced chapters will be available.
[email protected]/PeakTL