It took a couple of days for Ashton to regain consciousness. From the moment he was awake, he could feel the tension all around him. No one was talking to him except the infirmary staff. They too were being short with him and were doing the bare minimum to keep him in check.
Ashton had not noticed it but more or less, his entire body was covered in wounds. Wounds he had no recollection of ever getting. Finally, after a couple of more days had passed, he was visited by the director, along with the mistress and an officer from the local police station.
The moment he saw the look on their faces, he knew he had screwed up big time. That too on the first day his punishment had been revoked. Also, unlike last time, he had done something horrendous in a room filled with witnesses who would have willingly testified against him.
This time, it was really over for him.
"Are you Ashton Bismark?" A bold looking officer asked him in his authoritative voice.
Ashton wanted to speak up, but nothing came out of his mouth apart from shallow gasps. At that moment the nurse standing next to them rushed in to gave Ashton some sort of medicine before she started explaining his injuries to the three of them.
"The patient has severely damaged his larynx or the voice box as it is more commonly called. As a result, he might not be able to speak for a long time... if at all. On top of that, his heart has also sustained a lot of damage from constant attacks done to his chest using sharp blades."
There were a lot more things wrong with Ashton's body at the moment like several broken bones and wounds that were taking an unbelievably long time to heal. But the injuries the nurse informed the others about were most troublesome and could potentially be... permanent.
The more the nurse talked, the more down Ashton felt. Mostly because he was frustrated about it. He did not remember a single thing that happened during the duel and yet he was in such a terrible state. It could also mean that Ashton had turned into more or less a liability to the mistress.
After all, he had been terribly injured and well, had permanent injuries all over his body. Things were not looking good... at all.
Once the nurse was finished speaking, the officer did not waste a single second.
"It doesn't matter if he can't speak or walk. He had committed a heinous crime and will have to be judged by the king's court for it."
Saying so, the officer served Ashton a warrant and told him he was under arrest on the charges of assault and attempted murder. Ashton got wide-eyed but that was all he could do as he still couldn't speak.
'Damn it! What the hell!?'
Ashton's mind was running wild as his gaze shifted between the mistress and the director one after another. However, neither of them looked him in the eyes. The officer informed him and the mistress about their assigned court date.
The officer was also instructed to detain Ashton but after talking with the doctor and seeing Ashton's condition with his own eyes he decided detaining Ashton would not do him any good. Especially because he could not even move his broken feet and left the infirmary.
Still, he did warn them to better show up on the hearing date or he will be hunted down and probably executed. Afterwards, the nurse did her usual check-ups and left as well. Leaving Ashton alone with the ladies.
'What should I do... what the hell can I do!?'
No matter how long and hard Ashton thought about it, not a single idea popped up in his head. He was... helpless. Mostly because he did not even remember what had happened that day.
"You should leave as well." The mistress almost instructed the director and to Ashton's surprise, she did so without a fuss. Once the director left, the mistress closed the door and then sat down next to him.
"You screwed up big time... not even I can help you out of this mess." Unlike before the mistress appeared to be calm and collected, "Still, I know you couldn't help it. An outburst like that was long overdue. In fact, I am surprised it took 11 years for it to show up again."
Ashton looked at her with perplexity in his eyes. He did not know what the hell was the mistress blabbering about. But to him, it felt as if he should have known about his 'outburst' as she called it.
"Looks like you don't remember a thing." Mistress smiled and shook her head, "You must have heard tales about your 'berserk' state while you were living in the enclosure, didn't you?"
All of a sudden a memory clicked to him. An old and lost memory of him beating a security guard to a pulp with his own baton. On the day his parents were taken away.
Somehow, that sight reminded him of the last thing he had seen before collapsing on the ground about five days ago. The senior was lying there just like the guard had been in his memories.
Ashton then nodded to confirm he remembered bits and pieces of what the residents of the enclosure called an 'enraged' or 'berserk' state.
At first, Ashton thought they had made up something like that to make him feel special as he had been 'marked' by the mistress. Only now did he realise that there might have been some sort of truth behind the tale after all.
"Before you ask about it, no one knows what it is. Not me, and not even the director. All we can say is that... there was something weird about you even as a human." The mistress sighed and carried on, "But none of it matters now. trying to figure out what happened and what didn't happen would not help us in the trial. We need to come up with some sort of strategy."
"That's where I come in.." Suddenly the director's voice echoed in the room and she materialised herself before them.