<h4>Chapter 609: Miraculous</h4>


    Nnenna smiled faintly, her lips dry, but the expression reached her eyes. "Carl... you look like you haven’t bathed in a week." Her voice was hoarse but teasing.


    Carl let out a wetugh, sniffing, shaking his head. "If you knew how scared we’ve been, you wouldn’t be joking right now." He gently squeezed her hand, careful not to hurt her.


    Behind him, Arthur entered more slowly. His tall figure cast a shadow across the room, his usual calm expression firmly in ce, but his eyes betrayed him. They lingered on her face, sharp and intense, as though he needed to confirm with his own eyes that she was truly alive.


    He didn’t rush to her side like Carl. Instead, he stood by the bed for a long moment, arms crossed, his jaw clenched as if holding back words.


    "Arthur..." Nnenna whispered, her smile softening when she saw him.


    That single word seemed to snap something in him. He moved closer, pulling a chair beside her bed and sitting down heavily. He didn’t take her hand like Carl, but his presence was grounding, steady, the kind of reassurance only Arthur could give.


    "You gave us hell," he said finally, his voice low, controlled, butced with emotion. "Don’t ever do that again."


    Carl shot him a look. "You can’t scold her right now!"


    "I’m not scolding," Arthur replied tly, though his gaze never left Nnenna. "I’m... relieved."


    Nnenna chuckled weakly, closing her eyes for a moment. "Both of you look like you’ve been through war. I’m just d... I get to see you again."


    Carl sniffled again, wiping his eyes quickly with the back of his sleeve, while Arthur simply sat there, silent but unmovable, like he was making sure no force in the world could take her away now that she was back.


    "You shouldn’t have done that. You shouldn’t have tried to save my life."


    Carl’s voice suddenly went sharp, the edge of a scold in every word. The opposite of his gentle words just few seconds ago. "How many times have I told you to stop risking yourself? You promised you would obey the rules if I let you stay."


    "Hehe"


    Nnenna tried tough it off, even though her ribs and back ached. "Is it just me, or is this going sideways? This isn’t exactly the wee back party I expected." Her smile was weak but brave.


    "Can you not do something stupid? Is it too difficult?" Carl fired back, half furious, half terrified.


    Realising he was very serious, Nnenna held his gaze, steady. "I did what I thought was right." Her voice was calm, but firm. "If you ever taught me anything, it’s to stand for what matters. Don’t scold me for making my own choice."


    Carl’s shoulders dropped a little, guilt and relief fighting on his face.


    "This isn’t your fault," Nnenna said, softer now, touching the point she knew hurt him most. "Stop ming yourself. I’m a good girl. In a few months I’ll be eighteen, I’m nearly an adult. I’ll make my own decisions. I’ll listen to you, and I’ll listen to Arthur, but I will do what I think is right."


    She looked at him straight on. "If I had the chance again" she swallowed "I would do the same. I would rather get stabbed than let her kill you."


    Carl stared at her for a long beat, the lines around his eyes softening. Then he nodded, small and shaky, and let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.


    "Now, as much as I love lying down, I seriously need to stretch my legs." Nnenna cracked the joke on purpose to lighten the mood.


    She didn’t notice the uneasy exchange of looks between the people in the room, Carl, Arthur, the nurses. But the moment she tried to swing herself upright, she froze.


    Her brows knit. "Why can’t I feel my legs?" The words slipped out, not directed at anyone in particr. After a pause, her eyesnded on Carl. He was the lead doctor here, he would have the answers.


    "Carl," she asked evenly, "what’s going on?"


    Nobody answered. The silence stretched until she sighed. "This is from the injury, isn’t it? A stab that close to my lower back should cause some damage. Honestly, I suspected it that day. I noticed the loss of sensation even then." Her voice remained steady, matter of fact. "So... can somebody just confirm what I already know?"


    She let her gaze travel around the room, from the nurses to the other doctors, then to Arthur, before finally settling on Carl.


    Carl cleared his throat. "Well... we ran two tests, but we couldn’t be certain until you woke up. The results are actually better than we expected. But then again, you’ve always been... a special patient."


    His eyes flickered as he remembered her abnorms and impossible recoveries back in Lionara.


    "The first test showed your brain waves were extremely low. And yet, somehow, we confirmed you heard Arthur." He nced at her. "That’s true, right?"


    "Yes. I heard what he said... about Somto," Nnenna confirmed slowly.


    Carl nodded, relief flickering across his face. "Okay. Then I realized, if you could do something that abnormal, maybe you could defy the test results too. So we ran another round." He exhaled, almost smiling.


    "The second results came back just like the first... only this time your neural function was much better. It was as if you were recovering on your own. Honestly, I don’t think it was the medication or treatments. Whatever it was... I’m just grateful for it."


    He hesitated before continuing. "That day, when you crashed, you weren’t breathing for about fifteen minutes. Fifteen."


    The room went still. Even the nurses shifted ufortably at the number.


    "The human brain can usuallyst four to five minutes without oxygen. Sometimes longer depending on age and health, but never that long. After ten minutes, we were expecting severe deficits, if you survived at all. We couldn’t map the exact severity until you woke up."