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The tears that start to fall from Edward's eyes make a light noise upon hitting the concrete ground, he's kneeling in front of the tombstones unable to hold his feelings.
Edward gripped his knees while sobbing in tears,
Some of the people that visited the cemetery saw this and they can't help but feel sad too,
Although they don't know the story of Edward since they didn't even know him, they still feel the overwhelming feeling that Edward had for the person the tombstone in front of him represents.
But Edward didn't care about his surroundings,
It took him a good minute before he manage to collect himself,
Edward raises his head and wipes his tears from his face, Kyle Saunders was the writings carved on the tombstones.
With trembling hand, Edward reaches for the tombstone and touch it with his hand.
The warmth of the tombstone because of the sun can be felt directly through Edward's palm as he mumbles, "I owe you my life, but you leave this world first before I can repay my debt"
"Damn you..."
~
Edward opens his eyes and finds his body was wounded all over,
There are a couple of nasty holes around his body that is covered with bandages, his left leg and arms have wooden plates on them as it seems his bones broke.
Even his right leg was non-existent, there's nothing there.
After realizing the condition he's in, Edward looks around and finds that he's in the infirmary.
Since they're not near their base after their units got deployed to war, the infirmary he's in only a tent with lined up beds that can hardly be called beds.
A military man that has a medic band on his arm saw Edward woke up,
The military man wearing full kevlar gear with somekind of chainmail underneath it approach Edward and said, "I thought you're a goner when I saw you crawling on the ground"
Hearing this, a wave of information enters Edward's brain as he remembered what happened.
He was just tasked to save a Major from the military that was injured in the enemy lines, with quite a struggle he manage to save the major after his legs got blown away by a missile.
But when he reaches near the human lines crawling with the major on his back,
The three military men only rescued the major and were about to abandon him, but just when he was about to give up another man rescued him and brought him back.
He remembers this but he soon passed out,
"Kyle, Is he okay?", Edward asks remembering that it was Kyle who rescued him.
Upon hearing this, the military man in front of him then replied, "I don't know who you're talking about but there's a couple of guys who kept checking on you for a couple of days now"
"I'll see if I can find them, just wait here and rest", he added before leaving.
Edward laid looks up to the tent ceiling as his breathing becomes steady, the pain all over his body is not as painful as he expected but Edward thought that they may give him some painkillers.
While he's lying on the bed, many people come and go from the tent he's in.
All of them are injured soldiers that fight for the future of humanity on the battlefield, and only a handful of them come back with little to no injuries.
The rest of them was injured heavily,
Even now, Edward notices that the tent he's in is already full of injured people.
Since this is desperate times to be injured, the beds don't give enough room and the medic forcefully lay some of the patients on the rough ground with nothing beneath them as cushions.
Edward was sighing inside his head when suddenly,
A man walks in from outside with half of his head wrapped with a bandage, his movements stop when he makes eye contact with Edward who is lying weakly.
Realizing that it is Edward, the man approaches him with wide strides.
"Staff Sergeant Edward!", the man saluted with an arch back, the symbol on his shoulder shows that he's only a first-class private way below Edward's military ranks.
Upon seeing Edward, there's a hint of gladness in the private's eyes.
With a slight smile, Edward told the private to be at ease.
After saluting Edward, the private kneel beside Edward before he said, "If you have anything you want me to do to help you, just say the words and I'll gladly do it"
"You don't have to do this, this is nothing", Edward replied meekly.
But the private looks carefully at Edward's condition from top to bottom before he shakes his head, even Edward smile wryly when the private's eyes land on his non-existent right leg.
Edward unconsciously touch his right thigh because of this,
"It doesn't look that way to me, please just ask me anything. I'll do anything!"
Hearing this, Edward sighed weakly.
"Why are you doing this? You don't have to do this, I'm just doing my job", Edward replied.
Even under Edward's persuasion, the private still stubbornly shakes his head and said, "Even if you say that there's a part of me that wanted to repay you, You saved my life and I will be forever thankful for that"
"I know I'm not much but I can still help", he added.
But this makes Edward lies weakly since the private was too stubborn, but then suddenly, "Let the kid repay you for saving him, if you don't he might just do something reckless"
Kyle approach them from the side with a wide smile,
There are no injuries on his body aside from light injuries, and this makes Edward relieved.
"What are you saying? Please leave us for now", Edward said before telling the private to leave.
The private nodded his head but still the stubborn look was on his face, he stands up and left without forgetting to salute Kyle too.
After the private left, Kyle stands beside Edward's bed with a smile.
"You saved hundreds if not thousands of people during your service here, but you didn't let even one of them repay you for saving their lives. Aren't you too cruel?", Kyle said with a chuckle.
Hearing this, Edward coughed a couple of times before he replied, "I'm just doing my job"
"They don't need to repay anything to me, it's my duty as a medic to save their lives and give them an opportunity to fight another day", Edward added.
But Kyle looks at Edward with a weird look before he sighs and squats beside Edward's bed.
Kyle's expression suddenly turns serious as he looks at Edward intently, "The part of him that he said wants to repay you, don't deny that. If you deny that, it will surely affect him and as a medic, you should pay attention to that too"
"What are you saying, you know nothing of the medical corps", Edward replied.
Hearing this, Kyle's expression didn't change even for a bit before he said, "I just saved your life, are you saying you don't have the same part as the private before?"
The words that came from Kyle's mouth stunned Edward as he slowly turns his gaze to Kyle.
"The part that wanted to repay me for saving your life", Kyle added.
Right after Kyle said that a burning sensation suddenly can be felt in his chest that somehow hurt him mentally just from what Kyle said.
After making a point to Edward, Kyle stands up and said, "Give him a chance"
"Don't deny his sincere intention to repay what you did even though it's your duty as a medic, respect the one that you saved", he added before leaving the stunned Edward.
Kyle walks out of the tent before he takes a deep breath and started walking,
Because the Supernatural pushed their line back thanks to the Fire Griffon attacking them from the sky, the major in charge of this unit asked for reinforcements to deal with the Griffons.
Only an Awakened can deal with the Griffons,
Machine guns or even heavy artillery is not fast enough to catch the Griffons' movements in the sky, only Awakened can tackle this matter with their enhanced physique.
While Kyle is going back to his platoon tent,
He looks to his right and saw an even bigger tent than most others, the tent surely belongs to a high-ranking military officer but when he looks back to his front.
Kyle snap his head to the right again upon seeing someone,
"Isn't that the private from before?", he mumbles when he saw the private from that he saw talking with Edward before.
Feeling curious, Edward approach the tent when he saw the private enter the big tent.
The high-ranking military officer allows him to get inside after the private saluted, and what looks to be asking permission to enter the tent.
Edward can't hear what he said from afar since the surrounding noises,
After Edward arrives near the entrance to the big tent, he leans his head closer to peek into the big tent before suddenly he widened his eyes in surprise,
"PLEASE HEAL MY FRIEND SIR!"
The private from before shouted while prostrating on the ground,
Even the military officer was caught off guard by the sudden turn of events, he thought that the private brings news and didn't expect something like this to happen.
With a sigh, the military officer then said, "Stand up private!"
Hearing this, the private didn't budge from his spot as he shouted again, "I'M BEGGING YOU SIR! I'LL PAY THE FULL PRICE OF OFFENDING YOU!"
Seeing that the private is too stubborn even after telling him to stop a couple of times.
The military officer called two other military men before instructing them to take the private out as the private still keep asking for the military officer to heal Edward's leg.
Kyle was already hiding a bit further away as the private was kicked outside,
His forehead was bleeding since he banged his head on the ground pretty hard, but this made Kyle sigh as he went back to his own tent.
A week passed,
Early in the morning, Kyle always saw the private went to the military officer tent.
Since the military officer tent was just across Kyle's platoon tent, he notice the private going there early in the morning and did the same thing as Kyle witnessed.
It come to the point that the military officer punished the private for disturbing him.
The military officer punished the private by instructing two men to beat him before banning him from coming near a twenty meters radius from the big tent.
But even still, the private didn't stop as he begged all the way from twenty meters far.
Many of the military men started taking notice of him kneeling on the ground twenty meters in front of the big tent, the others started to call him 'Beggar' as his nickname.
Aside from pleading to the military officer,
Kyle also noticed that the daily rations that the private had were less than that of a sergeant, but he still saves more than half of it and brings it to Edward.
Through his persistence, one day Kyle saw the military officer approach him.
Eavesdropping from a safe distance, Kyle heard their conversation.
"Stop doing this private, I won't heal your friend. It will disturb the equality in this unit if I did that, It's not that I don't want to do that but I just can't so you must understand", the military officer finally explain.
This put the private in a gloomy mood as his shoulder slouches,
But when the military officer was about to leave, the private's eyes suddenly lit up as he suggested something that surprise even the military officer and Kyle.
~
"Because of that private and you, I learn what I did wrong back then. Ignoring the seriousness of the private will to repay me for saving his life, and even making me realize the feeling of getting saved by someone"
"In the end, albeit late I learned that the private cut his own arm to ease the others in exchange for the military officer regrowing my lost leg. It's the length he's willing to go, and even then he still thinks that it's not enough. He take a nasty fireball from the Griffons to save both of us when our base was attacked"
"I didn't even ask for his name..."
"But I envy him, he manages to repay his debt even by dying in the process. While I, I wasn't even able to repay my debt to you and you even save me for the second time before you die"
It makes Edward put his head down in shame,
The thought of turning time back to do the right thing always crosses his mind, but he knows all of his thoughts are only regrets of realizing his wrongs late.
Time passes as Edward stayed on his spot talking to the tombstone for almost half an hour.
He's currently looking down in front of Kyle's grave with a clear-thinking expression, but a couple of times he raises his gaze to look at the tombstone as if he's asking for an answer.
Even the FAA members saw this from the entrance of the cemetery,
But Edward suddenly stands up after he made up his mind, his expression turns determined as he looks at the tombstone in front of him.
"I have made a decision"
"I may have been late to repay my debt for you but I still can repay my debt to him. Even if he's not human anymore, he's still my friend and he saved my life"
"You can punch and kick me when we met again for helping a Supernatural, but I know he's on our side. Humanity's side"
"I'll be seeing you Kyle, and next time I'll surely bring him here"