I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 220: Stabilized, Not Saved

"Captain, we’ve checked the people Rhaenas brought out. Out of seventy-seven officers that entered the dungeon, all but three officers are unaccounted for. One of them is the chief." An officer delivers the report to Captain Chambers, his voice tight with strain.

Captain Chambers clenches his jaw. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The gate site by the beach of one of the most popular tourist destinations in Concordia no longer resembles a vacation paradise. It has transformed into a sprawling emergency zone, crowded with military tents, Solarys DEU officers, and medical personnel moving nonstop. Orders are shouted, stretchers are carried, radios crackle with constant updates.

Several resort rooms have been repurposed into temporary clinics to treat the unconscious victims. Beds meant for tourists are now lined with officers who have not woken since being pulled from the dungeon.

By Arthur’s recommendation, Captain Chambers has prevented the victims from being transported out of St. Lucas. Not because Arthur doesn’t want them saved, but because moving that many people would require additional transport, additional manpower, and additional exposure. Arthur believes it is far too dangerous.

The gate site itself is unstable.

No one knows how the gate might evolve, react, or collapse entirely.

Captain Chambers agrees with Arthur’s judgment. He issues a firm order for everyone to remain on the island and places a strict prohibition on anyone entering the dungeon site again.

For now, St. Lucas is sealed.

He casually throws glances at the gate and sees Arthur helping move the unconscious victims from one tent to another. Arthur looks exhausted, but he doesn’t stop. He keeps lifting, carrying, coordinating, as if running on sheer will alone.

Julian is elsewhere, busy procuring supplies with his non-human flying drones. They are currently the only things going in and out of St. Lucas. No helicopters, no boats. Just those silent machines cutting through the darkening sky, ferrying medical equipment, food, water, and emergency tools. Without them, this site would have collapsed hours ago.

Liam...

Captain Chambers frowns.

He doesn’t understand what the young Mr. Monfort is doing right now. Liam is standing at the edge of the water, both feet touching the tide, staring out at the sea. Not pacing. Not moving. Just standing there, eyes fixed on the darkening horizon.

The sky is getting darker by the minute. Visibility is dropping fast. It’s already difficult to see anything farther than a kilometer out.

So why is he staring at the ocean like that?

And not just now. He’s been doing it for the past several minutes.

Captain Chambers shakes his head and lets it go. Everyone copes differently under pressure. He doesn’t have the energy to question it right now.

He shifts his attention back to the activities inside the temporary clinic rooms.

Maeve Collins is there.

She’s doing... something.

Captain Chambers watches her move from bed to bed, checking the unconscious officers, just like Ms. Montrose did earlier. She lingers. She places her hand near their temples. She speaks softly to them. Sometimes she closes her eyes, as if listening for something only she can hear.

She tries to wake them up.

So far, she hasn’t been successful.

The doctors on site have already told him they don’t understand why the officers won’t wake. The best explanation they can offer is that they are in a coma, for unknown reasons.

Captain Chambers remembers snapping at one of them earlier.

"Well, it’s easy, isn’t it? Just say ’unknown cause.’ We know that already! We don’t need doctors to tell us that!"

It was Ms. Collins who stopped him before he could go any further.

She had placed a hand on his arm and quietly said, "Captain, please. They’re trying."

The doctors were baffled when Ms. Montrose managed to wake Lieutenant Cole. None of them could explain it. No medical procedure. No drug. No stimulus that made sense.

Since Ms. Collins hasn’t succeeded in waking even one officer, the doctors don’t interfere with her. They simply let her do whatever it is she’s trying to do.

But they can’t deny one thing.

After Ms. Collins visits a patient, that officer’s vitals stabilize.

Heart rate evens out. Breathing becomes less erratic. Blood pressure stops fluctuating so wildly.

Right now, the doctors are only treating symptoms.

If an officer has a fever, they administer antipyretics.

If blood pressure drops too low, they raise it.

If it spikes too high, they bring it down.

They can keep bodies alive.

But they cannot treat the cause.

Because they don’t know what it is.

And the only surviving conscious victim, Lieutenant Cole, is currently resting.

Even though she’s awake, she’s still extremely exhausted and disoriented. Her responses are slow, her focus drifts, and sometimes she stares at nothing for long stretches of time. The doctors have decided that she needs uninterrupted rest. For now, they haven’t been able to properly talk to her or question her about what happened inside the dungeon.

But one thing is clear.

Her vitals are significantly better than the rest.

Between Captain Thierry’s three teams and the Chief’s teams, the doctors cannot tell any difference. Heart rate, brain activity, blood oxygen levels. All the same. Flat. Stable, but wrong. As if they are all trapped in the same invisible state.

So how did Ms. Montrose know?

How did she know that some of them were beyond saving, and some were not?

And more importantly... how did she know how to save them?

Captain Chambers rubs his face with both hands, feeling a headache creeping in.

If Ms. Montrose is truly the only one who can save them, then what happens if she doesn’t make it back?

The thought makes his chest tighten.

A cold realization sinks in.

If she dies in that dungeon, then everyone inside it, and everyone already brought out, may be doomed as well.

Captain Chambers feels like he’s going crazy.

His thoughts chase each other in circles, never landing anywhere solid. Responsibility. Guilt. Fear. Hope. All tangled together, pulling at him from every direction.

He exhales shakily.

He’ll ask for another leave after this.

If he survives this.

------------------------------

Liam is still staring at the sea.

He doesn’t realize how long he’s been standing there. Time feels strange right now, stretched and thin. Earlier, his head was full of noise. Hopelessness. Uselessness. The crushing feeling that he was dead weight when his team needed him most.

All the worst thoughts.

And he couldn’t shake them off.

But the moment he stepped closer to the water, something changed.

Almost without thinking, he took off his shoes and socks and went barefoot, dipping his feet into the sea. The cold water laps around his ankles, then higher, soaking into his skin.

And just like that, his mind settles.

The noise doesn’t fade.

It vanishes.

Completely.

No lingering doubts. No self-loathing. No panic.

Just calm.

Pure, deep calm.

Liam blinks, surprised by how light his chest feels. He always like the ocean, but he’s never felt like this before. Not after training. Not after meditation. Not even after sleep.

The cold sea water doesn’t bother him. Instead, it feels warm. Comforting.

Contradictory.

But true.

He lets out a small chuckle.

"Am I actually a merman?" he mutters to himself.

He laughs quietly at the ridiculous thought.

And yet... deep down, he knows.

If he walked into the ocean right now, if he stepped forward and let the water swallow him, walking along the bottom of the sea, he would survive.

The ocean is welcoming him.

Helping him.

He can feel it, unmistakably.

His mana is replenishing faster here, smoother, cleaner, as if the water itself is feeding it back to him.

And that’s exactly what he’s doing.