Descended from the Sky (2)
Descended from the Sky (2)
It was class time for the support major course, Field Healing Technique.
With some leftover time at the end, Ellia and several like-minded cadets had gathered on the grass, sitting together and chatting.
"Ah... incision techniques are so hard. Doing them on the fly in the field is practically insane..."
"Right? If you don't even have an assistant, you have to make the incision, operate, and do the purification all by yourself... Ten arms wouldn't be enough."
"Field conditions are always short on equipment and support. That's why they're only teaching us up to the emergency treatment level."
"The emergency treatment part is the hard part... especially purifying the mana that's soaked into the affected area. Seriously, I absolutely hate it..."
Several of them aired their frustrations.
Even in a support major, not everyone had awakened a healing-type unique ability.
So the curriculum also covered the more traditional methods—emergency treatment using tools and equipment.
"Is it easier if you have a healing-type unique ability? What's it like for you, Ellia? Does it actually feel easier?"
"Yes, it's a lot easier than just patching things up with your hands."
Ellia smiled brightly and went along with her friend's venting.
"My unique ability handles healing, plus infection blocking and mana purification, so it's easier in a lot of ways. And since I can run healing and regeneration in parallel, it's even better."
"Wow... so it's all fully automatic? No wonder clans keep looking for healing abilities."
"But Ellia, even when you do it by hand, you still run circles around us."
"Well, that's true."
Ellia Srade.
From the moment she entered Siyoram, she had been assessed as a promising talent with a bright future as a recovery ability user.
Not that Siyoram was short on promising talents, but she had clearly demonstrated the qualities to become an outstanding hero one day.
'Recovery Amplification'—sustained recovery that minimizes the patient's burden.
'Instant Regeneration'—fast, effective regeneration during critical situations.
And 'Recovery Melody,' which allowed her to weave both together freely without gaps—a unique ability of immense potential.
That judgment had proven correct.
Now, with the first year well underway.
Her unique ability, having undergone explosive growth, now far exceeded the demands of actual combat.
Beyond that, her personal skill had also improved by leaps and bounds. Even setting her unique ability aside, she was growing into an exceptional support-type superhuman.
If she were tested for a hero-grade classification in the healing division right now, she would easily clear the upper grade without trouble.
"Haaah..."
A girl cadet who'd been complaining for a while flopped flat onto the ground.
"So peaceful... Sonia, got any interesting stories?"
"Interesting stories? Hmm... want me to tell you about the combat major kids going at each other?"
"They fight every day."
"How about the Birth Festival? They're holding the male-dressing contest and the cross-dressing contest at the same time."
"Are you going to enter?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Why are you swearing at me... Anyway, it really is peaceful... Not that it's a bad thing, but it does get a little boring..."
After Lee Ha-yul had left for external training, Siyoram had been operating normally for nearly a month.
The cadets attended lectures and devoted themselves to personal training to improve their skills.
There had been a few minor incidents and accidents that got people buzzing across the various student communities.
But they were all just the sort of thing that fades into a passing topic of conversation.
In other words, no major incident had occurred within Siyoram, and peaceful days had continued.
"A disturbance serious enough to shake Siyoram isn't something that happens easily. What kind of incident could possibly happen here?"
The disturbances that had occurred this academic year were...
A Special Admission Cadet had appeared, and that cadet happened to be blind and mute.
The Special Admission Cadet was giving off a peculiar sort of atmosphere with the Heir of Calamity Flame.
Cadets who'd received professional training since childhood were getting thoroughly trounced by a Special Admission Cadet who had been a regular civilian only a month earlier.
The Special Admission Cadet left campus, resolved a dungeon rampage, and hovered between life and death.
During the tournament, he also gave off a peculiar atmosphere with the Heir of Changhae.
The Special Admission Cadet actually possessed Calamity Flame, and the Calamity Flame Family was openly backing him.
The Undead Two-Headed Poison Dragon resurrected in China and caused an undead incident, which the Special Admission Cadet resolved—and again ended up hovering between life and death.
After returning, the Special Admission Cadet had gotten younger and was abducted by a unicorn.
The Special Admission Cadet was seen walking around amiably with the heirs of Calamity Flame, Azure Sea, and Taesan at his sides...
And he was witnessed—right in front of other professors—giving off this-and-that sort of atmosphere with two beautiful professors... and so on, and so on...
...It was more frequent than expected, but nearly all of it involved a single cadet.
"Ellia... you're staring at the sky again. Is there some bread hanging in the air or something?"
And here in this group was one cadet deeply entangled with that Special Admission Cadet.
Suddenly finding everyone's eyes on her, Ellia blinked and tilted her head.
"Huh? What is it?"
"No, you've just been staring up at the sky so much lately, we thought maybe something was bothering you..."
"Ah, no, it's nothing like that."
Ellia smiled softly and shook her head.
...But those with a sharp eye caught a faint trace of loneliness flickering across her expression.
A few of the female cadets who picked up on it suddenly recalled a rumor that had been circulating since about a month ago.
The grand mansion that the headmaster had once used.
A place now long deserted, left half-neglected for decades, leading many to speculate that the headmaster might actually be secluded there.
But that speculation had essentially been proven wrong.
Because roughly a month ago, a certain group had moved in and begun living there.
If one had to put a name to it—a grand mansion where Special Admission Cadet Lee Ha-yul, along with the women who gave off peculiar atmospheres with him, had neatly settled in one after another...
Among those women who'd been giving off peculiar atmospheres was Ellia, and now, with Lee Ha-yul gone for nearly a month on external training, Ellia was radiating a somewhat lonely air.
"......"
"......"
Following that train of thought, several odd ideas surfaced in their heads, but they did not bother spilling those speculations aloud.
If the rumor only involved Ellia alone, they would have asked playfully for the fun of it—but the status of the others involved was anything but ordinary.
And in fact, Ellia's own social standing, deeply connected to him as she was, had also shot straight up.
This was precisely why the advances—whether indirect or direct—that used to fly Ellia's way had abruptly ceased.
A gentle and kind personality. A striking beauty and a voluptuous figure that stood out even within Siyoram, where everyone was handsome or beautiful because of the sheer number of superhumans.
And on top of that, her potential as a superhuman.
Ellia was the very picture of a first-rate bride, but ever since she became linked with a certain someone, the advances had stopped dead.
From Ellia's perspective, the annoying attention had all been swept away entirely, so it was actually a welcome development.
But those who didn't know her inner feelings simply kept their mouths shut.
The mouth is an organ widely regarded as the harbinger of calamity.
Especially in this line of work, running your mouth carelessly often results in losing your head.
It was best not to spout words you couldn't handle from the very start.
Even in these relatively peaceful days, it held true.
Anyone who had survived that cutthroat past by truly running their mouth would be... exceedingly rare.
Either they had the ability to survive, or they'd been blessed with heaven-defying luck, or some such reason.
'Haaah... I miss Ha-yul.'
Meanwhile.
Ellia secretly let out a deep sigh to herself.
The emotion those friends had sensed from her wasn't mistaken.
Because Ellia really had been extremely lonely lately.
In particular, the hollow ache from lacking the one who ought to be in her arms was especially strong.
Without him, the one who was supposed to snuggle into her embrace and fill her heart, these days her everyday life felt dull and unbearably bland.
When she held Lee Seo-yul in her arms and looked after her, it settled somewhat, but the fundamental problem never went away.
Everyone who had taken up residence in the mansion was the same.
Hong Yeon-hwa was also spending her days listlessly of late, and Baek A-rin had missed lectures for the past few days because her physical condition had deteriorated.
Once Lee Ha-yul was gone, Atra's workload had essentially evaporated. Liana was also frequently spotted walking around looking drained of energy.
Even Lee Ji-yeon, who had slyly seized the opportunity and snagged herself a room, seemed uneasy somehow.
Her living situation was still technically the dormitory, but she would drop by on the pretext of coming to see Hong Yeon-hwa and Baek A-rin, and then she'd quietly let her eyes roam around as if looking for someone.
'Hah...'
Another inward sigh.
And, coming full circle, she tilted her head once more to gaze up at the sky.
She'd always looked up at the sky from time to time before, but lately the frequency had spiked sharply.
She didn't know the exact reason herself, but her eyes kept being drawn there, somehow.
The blue sky and the pure white clouds billowing across it, as if smeared on with careless brushstrokes.
Staring at that combination of colors almost felt like looking at Lee Ha-yul...
And even aside from that, her eyes just kept going there.
Almost as if Lee Ha-yul were up there in that sky...
"Huh?"
Ellia blinked. A patch of color bloomed in the center of her vision.
Sky-blue and white—similar to the sky and clouds.
"What's wrong?"
"Uh... that...?"
"That?"
At her questioning tone, the girl cadet sitting beside her tilted her head.
Wondering what it was, she also tipped her head back to look up at the sky, the same as Ellia.
"...Huh?"
"Oh?"
After a moment, she let out a similarly questioning sound.
At first, it looked like a tiny dot.
And the color was sky-blue and white, so it blended in naturally enough that one might easily miss it.
The dot grew larger.
No.
What had looked like a dot was gradually becoming enormous.
The dot spread into six branches, fluttering like wings.
It was rapidly getting bigger... No, it was descending toward this spot.
"Wh-whoa, what the—?!"
One cadet who'd been narrowing his eyes at the sky recoiled and grabbed the sidearm at his waist.
The others, a beat slower to react, likewise flinched in alarm and readied themselves for combat.
They gripped their armaments and split into forward and rear lines. The rear line began bracing for impact and chanting incantations.
The relaxed post-lecture mood snapped taut in an instant.
An overreaction... no, it would be hard to call it that. It was a perfectly normal response.
Wings... were not something humans typically sprouted.
Which meant the odds were high that it was a monster.
And even if it were a person, the sight of someone spreading their wings wide and diving toward this spot did not exactly inspire confidence in benevolent intentions.
Too many cases had proven that carelessly dismissing something like this led straight to death.
Even within Siyoram's grounds, the ingrained wariness never truly disappeared.
"Ellia! What are you doing! Get ready, quick!"
Sonia, the friend she'd been chatting with just moments ago, yelled at her.
While everyone else scrambled into formation, Ellia hadn't made any preparations for battle—she was just staring blankly up at the sky.
"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?! Just get into formation first—"
"I don't think there's any need."
"What?"
Another questioning tone.
As Sonia frowned, Ellia silently pointed at the flying figure in the sky.
Sonia finally realized the atmosphere around her had shifted.
The tension had loosened, as if everyone had gone strangely dazed...?
'What?'
The situation kept changing rapidly.
Frowning at the dizzying shifts, Sonia looked up at the sky herself.
And recognized that the flying figure in the sky was no monster.
A person.
A person with three pairs of wings on their back was descending.
It had been plunging like a warhead, but as it neared the ground it gently fluttered its wings.
Someone let out an unconscious gasp of admiration. No one found it strange.
Because the sight of the wings fluttering was as beautiful as a white crane dancing.
An instant later, the wings fluttered again.
The grass softly laid its body down upon the earth.
The figure, which had been oriented head-down, flipped upright in a graceful arc.
And then, the tips of its toes touched down onto the ground, light as a feather.
One leg settled gently, and the opposite leg followed behind to meet the earth.
- Flutter
Amid the silence, the wings spread wide.
The moment those three pairs of beautiful blue wings—blue as the sky above—fluttered open.
They melted like flowing water, contracting into something smaller.
Now transformed into ribbon-like bands, the wings wrapped elegantly around both arms and became a trailing winged garment floating behind the figure's back.
"......"
"......"
No one could open their mouth.
The figure who had landed so softly, so gracefully—as if it had been choreographed—was pure white.
From head to toe, there was not a single spot that wasn't white.
The hair shone white and lustrous like spun silk thread.
Whatever had been applied to the skin, it gleamed with a healthy sheen.
And the garments that covered it were as immaculate and clear as if looking upon an elegant porcelain piece.
All of it harmonized with the winged garment that had settled into place a beat later.
The figure radiated a gentle, refined elegance, yet simultaneously possessed a mysterious aura that seemed to bend the very space around it.
And that aura was only further amplified by the two eyes, which were mysteriously closed.
"......"
A figure whose presence seemed like a heavenly sage descended from the sky.
Exuding a mystique so profound that no one dared carelessly utter a word.
That figure beamed brightly.
[Ellia!]
Through the mystique came a voice, clear and pure and innocent.
And at the same time, before anyone else could react, it charged straight at Ellia, who was still standing there in a daze.
It was a sudden movement, but Ellia, as if she'd been expecting it, already had both arms open wide—so she could catch the figure in her embrace without the slightest trouble.
[Ellia...!]
[I missed you!]
And then, burying its face into her chest, the figure nuzzled against her and acted completely affectionate.
"Oh, oh...! I missed you too! Ha-yul!"
As if everything that had just happened had been nothing at all, Ellia's eyes sparkled and she hugged Lee Ha-yul tight, rubbing her cheek against the crown of his head.
"......."
"......What is this."
At the sudden, unabashed display of affection staged without the slightest regard for their surroundings, the onlookers still awkwardly holding their weapons muttered in a daze.
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[Player Correction System: Measurement]
▶ Titles
「Descended from the Sky」
「Pure White Child」
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