Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: The Moon is Beautiful
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When Alvis collapsed forward and fainted after obliterating Vector, Ravi caught him in a panic and checked his condition.
"Alvis! Alvis, are you okay?! Blood, blood... Ah, ahh... even from your nose... What do we do..."
"Damn it...! There's no plants or anything around here, so I can't use my powers! I have to just carry him and run!"
"Lenis! Can you heal Alvis? If we leave him like this, it could be really bad!"
"I'm not specialized in recovery magic, but I can do some emergency treatment. For now, let's fix that nose..."
As Lenis cast her recovery magic, Alvis's nose, which had been gushing blood while he sat slumped over, gradually returned to its normal shape.
"I've stopped the severe external bleeding for now, but I'm not a professional healer, so I can't fix the internal damage well. The rest needs proper treatment—"
"This is good enough! Lenis, what's the closest city from here?!"
"I don't know how far this barren wasteland extends... but the closest one is that southern city we stayed in last time—"
Elfin cut Lenis off at that moment.
"No. If we go back there and that city has changed like this place, the next closest one would be too far away. Looking at Alvis's condition, he won't last that long. Even if the city is fine, it was too small and didn't have any proper treatment facilities. Lenis, isn't there a Lunia Church somewhere if we head east from here?"
"Oh, right! It's a city called Aldebaran. It's large, has a Lunia Church branch, and plenty of priests live there, so treatment should be much easier!"
"Thank you, Elfin, Lenis. No time to waste—I'll take Alvis and go ahead! Meet me in Aldebaran!"
Ravi immediately hoisted Alvis onto her back and sprinted full speed toward Aldebaran.
Without eating, drinking, or sleeping, she ran nonstop for an entire day before finally reaching the city. Staggering from exhaustion, she desperately searched for the Lunia Church and begged for help.
"Please help! Someone's hurt! Please treat him!"
"What? It's a bunnykin?!"
"Bunnykin treatments have to be done at a separate clinic."
Even the priests of the Lunia Church discriminated against bunnykin, so they tried to turn Ravi away.
In desperation, Ravi clutched the unconscious Alvis and thrust him forward, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"It's not me who's hurt—it's my companion! Do the Lunia Church priests refuse to treat fellow humans just because they're associated with bunnykin!? We have money for treatment! I'll pay whatever it takes, so please heal my companion!!!"
Only then did the church priests hurriedly take Alvis away, and after hours of treatment, they repaired his damaged internal organs.
His body had healed, but Alvis remained unconscious, his temperature burning with fever.
Ravi nursed him day and night, sleeping on the floor by his bedside.
'Please... don't let anything go wrong. Not because of me. Please...'
Every time she looked at the unconscious Alvis, Ravi couldn't stop her tears.
Because she was too weak, she couldn't break free from that black energy's control, got her body hijacked, and ended up leaving Alvis in that state.
Vector had been the one moving her body, but in the end, it was her fault Alvis was like this.
But what truly broke Ravi's heart beyond endurance was Alvis's actions.
Even as she, under Vector's control, attacked him with full murderous intent, Alvis never counterattacked once—he just took every blow.
It was obvious to her own eyes that slashing her would have made the situation far easier for him, yet Alvis refused to cut her down.
When Ravi, unable to bear seeing Alvis reduced to rags, quickly asked him to cut her and eliminate Vector, his response to Vector's mocking words—that collapsing like this was his fate—burned into her mind and wouldn't fade.
- Bullshit... Shut up. Don't talk crap! That choice isn't on the table for me! No matter how much you mess with me, I won't yield on this! I'll smash that bullshit fate to pieces!
Even on the brink of death, Alvis had shouted that cutting Ravi wasn't even an option.
He was a fallen noble, but his word choice was shockingly crude—yet in that moment, to Ravi, his words sounded sweeter and more ecstatic than anything in the world.
As Alvis's empowered sword strike passed straight through her, Ravi felt an immense warmth.
Enveloped by that gentle, warm light like his kind heart, she felt as if she'd been saved. In reality, she had regained control of her body.
That's why Ravi felt an absolute duty to save Alvis.
For three days straight, she nursed him in his room all day—changing rags, wiping his body, feeding him potions for his fever, buying porridge and trickling it into his mouth bit by bit, then moving his jaw to help him swallow.
On the third day, Elfin and Lenis arrived, startled by her haggard appearance, and offered to take over the nursing, but Ravi stubbornly shook her head, insisting she had to do it herself.
And on the third night, Alvis finally opened his eyes.
Ravi hugged me tight, sobbing like a waterfall onto my shoulder.
Her tears soaked the shoulder of my nightshirt, but her crying showed no signs of stopping.
She was squeezing so hard with her bunnykin strength that I worried she might crack my ribs.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Alvis... I was too weak to break that binding, and I..."
"Ugh... Where are we?"
"Sniff... It's a city called Aldebaran. Lenis did emergency treatment, and the priests here healed you. They said there'd be no threat to your life, but you wouldn't wake up, so I thought something was wrong... Waaah..."
Ravi hugged me even tighter, her tears flowing more pitifully.
"I'm sorry, Alvis... I'm useless... No, worse than useless—I just got in the way... a worthless idiot..."
Her body trembled as she held me, then she quietly released the embrace and forced a smile at me.
"But I'm so glad you woke up safely, Alvis."
"You were the one nursing me?"
"Yes. After what I did, of course I..."
"That was Vector, not you."
"Even if it's just words, thank you, Alvis."
Tears streamed from Ravi's eyes again, and she took a deep breath, as if she'd made a decision.
"Alvis, now that you're conscious and your body's fully healed... I'll be going now."
"Going? You mean back to the Carrot Duchy?"
"Yes... I got cocky, thinking I could join the investigation team or whatever, and look at the mess I caused. Heh... Hahaha... Isn't it ridiculous? Back at the academy, I hated you so much, but from the goblin camp onward, you've been eliminating weird dark spirits, spotting the Fresia Mountains barrier stone destruction, finding the golem cave... and now even Vector. And look at me. I didn't just fail to help—I nearly killed an ally."
It seemed the events of that day had left an enormous guilt weighing on Ravi's heart.
"I got greedy knowing you saw bunnykin without prejudice, as equals. I wanted to show what bunnykin could do—that we're actually superior and don't need anyone's protection. But it was just my greed. This is reality. Without your help, I was just a puppet for the enemy, nearly killing my own side—a useless, worthless burden... M-maybe that's why people discriminate against our kind..."
"Ravi."
I called her name and gently took her hand.
"Deep down, you don't really think that."
"...!"
Ravi was someone with strong pride in her bunnykin heritage. For her to lead in demeaning herself and her race like this meant her mental state had been utterly shattered by that near-team-kill incident.
"And I don't think that way even a little."
"But... but I..."
"I'm not as strong as you, or as fast. My senses aren't as sharp, I don't have stamina to run full speed for days without strain, I can't smell as well, and I sure can't pick up tiny sounds from far away."
"......"
"You can do things I can't. And this battle was just the reverse—you couldn't do what I did. My injuries were Vector's fault, not yours. I didn't even know he had that power or how to break it. But you resisted his control fiercely, didn't you?"
"That's..."
"If you'd really gone all out, I'd have died from the first hit. But you fought back against it, so your strength and speed were weaker than normal. Right?"
"......"
"No need to blame yourself. Even less reason to demean your race. I've said it before, but I think bunnykin are far stronger and more impressive than average humans. You know the story of the elephant chained to a stake? Even when grown with the power to yank it out effortlessly, the elephant abused from youth gives up resisting. I think bunnykin's situation is like that. But no matter what anyone says, an elephant's an elephant."
Ravi bowed her head, her body shaking.
"There are tons of things here only you can do—none of us, not me, Elfin, or Lenis, could replace you. So don't beat yourself up over a tragic accident, don't talk about leaving, stay with us. Those Underground Vermin bastards aren't all going away, and not all like Vector. Someday, there'll be one only you can handle. If you're not there then, we might really die. So guard our backs."
"Waaah... Sniff... Waaaaaah! Alvis... Alvis...!"
Once my persuasion sank in, Ravi burst into heartbroken sobs, clinging to me and crying her heart out.
After a long while, her sobs quieted a bit, and moonlight filtered through the inn room window, illuminating us both.
Ravi's bunny ears twitched upright, and she lifted her head to peer out the window.
"The moon is beautiful."
"Yeah, it is."
Ravi's tear-streaked face in the moonlight looked far prettier than usual.
Her vulnerable look stirred my protective instincts, and on impulse, I gently cupped her cheek. Normally she'd recoil in disgust, but for some reason, Ravi didn't reject my touch—she stayed still and quiet.
Our eyes met, and I could see Ravi's pupils trembling faintly.
"...Ravi."
"...Alvis."
Without thinking, I leaned in closer, our noses nearly touching. Ravi quietly closed her eyes.
Still caressing her cheek with one hand, I brought my face nearer until our lips softly met.