Tower of Growth (5)
Tower of Growth (5)
"Ha-yul?"
A voice reached me as I stood at the Gate Terminal, agonizing over my next move.
Ellia Srade. The female cadet often compared to a chick. She'd been helping me noticeably more these past few weeks.
I hesitated for a moment.
I'd almost punched her, but the instant I recognized it was Ellia, the tension drained from my fist.
I had my reasons not to let my guard down. This was the inside of a Tower where competition among cadets was permitted, a 1,000-point bounty was hanging from my neck, and I was on the brink of death.
There was no reason not to strike. We might be in the same class, but this space was designed for us to fight each other.
Collaboration does happen occasionally, but in my near-dead state, I had no value as a combat asset. Collaboration would be pointless.
The smartest move Ellia could make here was to blast me with magic and eliminate me.
And the smartest move I should have made was to attack first, before her spell went off.
I couldn't bring myself to do it. Ellia stepped up and reached out. A hand brimming with mana came toward me.
"Goodness. What in the world happened to you..."
The hand was steeped in healing mana. As those soft fingertips traced my cheek, my heightened sense of touch delivered a sensation I'd never experienced, burning straight through my nerves.
'...Hic!'
I almost screamed. Truth be told, the sensation was so utterly foreign to me that I couldn't even produce a scream.
Mana, cold and clinging like a Hungry Ghost, seeped into my cheek.
It was nothing like the clumsy healing spells I could cast.
It was a healing-type Unique Ability, the mana transformed by that ability's influence, and specialized healing magic designed to support it: three layers woven together.
Now that I perceived the world through mana, I could feel every last detail. Vital energy trickled in through my wounds, a bright, sunlit warmth spreading through my body to tend to the injuries.
The energy divided into two distinct streams as it soaked into me.
One current settled over the wounds, bolstering my strength and coaxing out my body's natural recovery; the other accelerated the regeneration of damaged flesh.
The Unique Ability ｢Recovery Melody｣.
Immediate Recovery, which enables swift healing at the cost of placing strain on the patient, and Recovery Amplification, which works slowly but with far less burden on the patient.
Recovery Melody is a Unique Ability that can divide and deploy these two categories of healing in appropriate measure. As the wielder's skill grows, the manipulation becomes even more precise—making it a power that would be welcomed with open arms anywhere.
"Is everything a wound? Oh dear..."
Ellia sighed in dismay. In response, the ability's output rose a little, and more energy seeped into my injuries.
'Ee-hic... W-wait.'
- Flinch.
"Ha-yul, even if it hurts, bear with it a little."
'It's not that it hurts...! H-hehk!'
It was too, too ticklish? Soft? How should I put it? Ticklish was the closest comparison, if I had to make one.
But calling it ticklish couldn't possibly capture a sensation this overwhelmingly intense.
I had to fight back the scream threatening to burst out, suppressing my body with all my might. Even then, I kept trembling, little spasms running through me.
"Good, just a little more..."
Gradually, my wounds began to mend. I wasn't back to full strength, but I'd recovered enough to manage basic combat.
She'd prioritized Immediate Recovery. I became aware of the hand quivering against me as the raw sting of my injuries grew duller.
The wounds I'd sustained were varied.
The most numerous were from Aura. I'd been cut by Aura-infused swords and pierced by Aura-infused spears, clubbed by blunt weapons, and had an arrow lodged in me.
There were wounds from magic, too, and wounds dealt by peculiar Unique Abilities.
I'd used every means at my disposal to dodge, block, and guard my vitals, but the damage piled up nonetheless.
Superhumans are not like ordinary people, and our regenerative capabilities also exceed the norm. Wounds heal faster, and even injuries that would never mend on their own can be recovered from.
But alongside our ability to recover, our ability to inflict harm has also risen.
Ordinary wounds might be one thing, but when another superhuman's mana—their Innate Talent—ravages the wound, recovery slows drastically. In severe cases, the damage can even become permanent.
The stream of energy finally stopped. With a faint, weary sigh, Ellia lowered her hand from my cheek.
"I'll stop here for now. Any more would strain your recovery too much."
Understood?
The end of her sentence carried that implied question. She looked at me, waiting for an answer, and I had to swallow hard, still fighting to steady my breath against the onslaught of sensation.
'Euh-huh...'
I found it hard to say anything in response. The curse kept me from speaking in the first place, but I simply didn't know what I was supposed to say.
While I stammered and fumbled, Ellia took my meaning without needing an answer and started rummaging through her things on her own.
After that came a more basic form of treatment.
After preparing a poultice of medicinal herbs, she ground them into a rough paste and began applying it bit by bit to my still-open wounds.
Over that, she wrapped a soft, bandage-like fabric in winding loops. Every incidental brush of skin made my body jerk involuntarily.
The sensation hit me with relentless intensity each time.
"Ah-ah, hey now. You can't keep squirming like that."
When I couldn't take it and started flopping like a fish, Ellia's voice turned surprisingly stern, almost as if she were scolding a small child.
It was absurd, but I wasn't exactly in a position to argue.
How long did I have to endure? By the time my breathing had grown ragged, the treatment finally finished.
My wounds were, in their own way, treated. But the effort of suppressing my groans and the trembling of my body had completely drained me.
I lay collapsed on the ground, panting, when a tender hand touched my head.
"You did well. Good, so good."
The same voice she'd used with me earlier, the one meant for a child. When that gentle touch started stroking my head over and over, I truly felt like a little kid.
As time passed, I gradually got used to it.
At first it had been nothing but tingling and ticklish, but now the comfort had multiplied several times over, melting into my skin.
With the blood loss still fogging my mind, the continued stroking slowly coaxed drowsiness over me.
'No, I can't do this.'
Smack, smack. I slapped both cheeks with my palms.
Thankfully, thanks to Ellia's healing, my life had been prolonged. That meant I hadn't been eliminated yet, so I could afford to think about what came next.
I still didn't feel quite awake. Just as I was narrowing my brows to slap my cheeks again, a careful touch slipped into my right hand and stopped me.
The culprit was Ellia. For some reason, she was gently stroking my right hand—more specifically, just below the forearm.
"Ha-yul, is this all right?"
What did she mean, all right...? Ah, the hand?
I carefully probed the area. Bare skin... although it felt more like a cluster of distinctly unpleasant textures.
In the Tower, the cadet uniforms and activewear provided by Siyoram can't be damaged, but they can still be taken on or off. It seemed my sleeve had ridden up while she was applying the medicine.
She'd seen the burn scars, then.
My mouth drifted open a little before I checked Ellia's expression. I was worried she might find them disgusting.
I wanted to ask, but with my mouth being what it was, that was hard to do. And I didn't even have my smartwatch on me.
It was incredibly frustrating.
My brows pinched for a moment before I carefully pulled my hand free of her touch, acting mostly on impulse.
Then I started tracing shapes in the air with both hands, changing the motions as I went.
Suhwa... these days, it's called Sueo, isn't it?
Whatever the name, due to my circumstances I'd learned it. It was knowledge I later discarded once my throat was healed, but right now, I decided to try it out of faint hope.
When I first came to this other world, I'd wondered if I'd have to use sign language again, but the modern marvels of the smartwatch and holograms had shoved that knowledge straight to the back of my mind.
No answer came from Ellia. She didn't seem to understand. I wasn't disappointed.
I'd never expected her to understand. It was just something I'd tried on a whim when the frustration welled up.
I'd learned it so long ago that I might've forgotten parts of it, too.
Even back in my original world, sign language differed from country to country. In an entirely different world, the system could be completely different.
I sank back into contemplation. How could I convey what I was thinking—
"Now you're all right, you said...?"
Ellia asked, tilting her head.
Before I knew it, I'd whipped my head toward her. I truly hadn't thought she'd actually understand.
I worried she'd just made a lucky guess.
So I moved my hands again.
"Can you understand me... yes, I know some. How do I know... ah-ha. That's what you're curious about."
Cross-verification complete. She was reading my sign language.
As my surprise showed on my face, Ellia giggled. From what I gathered, the Tower of Harmonization even translated language—including sign language—for her.
I was baffled. What in the world was a Tower even built for, that it could do something like that?
"Still, if you don't know sign language at all, it doesn't do much. I have a little sibling at home with a physical disability."
'Ah.'
That was a landmine.
My face instantly went rigid. I'd touched on the wrong topic.
"Don't make that face. They're much better now. And besides, that was only for a little while—they have a smartwatch now, right?"
Perhaps seeing the shift in my rigid expression, Ellia reassured me that it was all right.
Judging by her demeanor, she didn't seem to find the burn scars repulsive. Or she was simply hiding her feelings.
"I have three younger siblings, and the youngest—a little sister—was frail from birth. She couldn't see well, couldn't speak properly because of her throat, and... her ears were poor, too."
Ellia went on.
"So until she got treatment, it was incredibly dangerous. Thankfully she received good care, and now there aren't any major problems. She's still improving even now."
All the while, she kept stroking my right arm.
"Mm... I guess that's why I was especially kind to you, Ha-yul."
'?'
Suddenly the topic turned to me? When I tilted my head, she started petting my hair again. By this point I'd run out of reasons to refuse, so I quietly accepted the touch.
The people I'd been meeting lately all seemed to have a remarkably high tolerance for physical contact.
Hong Yeon-hwa was like that, Professor Liana was like that, and so was Ellia, who was right here with me. A few others had been the same way, now that I thought about it.
"My little sister reminds me of you, Ha-yul. The physical challenges, the way you wilt like a puppy left out in the rain if nobody tends to you, how you get flustered when someone helps you, how you act like you don't like it but secretly enjoy being petted like this... and above all, how cute you are."
She listed the reasons one by one. But hearing them laid out like that was intensely embarrassing.
"So I think I've been treating Ha-yul like a little sibling. I'm sorry if it made you uncomfortable."
I immediately shook my head. Uncomfortable? If anything, I couldn't even bring myself to properly thank her for all the consideration.
At my response, Ellia breathed a small sigh of relief.
After that, we shared a simple conversation while I recovered my stamina. The moment I'd entered the Tower and my Detection ability had shut off, how I'd ended up being chased for over a day, the time I'd nearly fallen out of a tree after falling asleep mid-escape...
It could barely be called a conversation, though, since my clumsy sign language made the flow painfully slow. It was more or less just time-killing.
Then it happened. Until now, my ears had picked up nothing of note besides Ellia's breathing beside me—but then I heard the sound of raindrops falling.
Beyond the cave's mouth, rain began to fall. It started as one or two droplets, and before long it was coming down in a steady rush.
"It's suddenly pouring like crazy."
Ellia, who'd been chatting with me while sometimes absently playing with my hair, sounded puzzled as she raised her staff. A configuration of mana was set up at the cave entrance.
Analyzing it, it looked like a ward to keep the water out.
"Still, the good thing about rain like this is that a lot of cadets will probably give up the chase."
Even for superhumans, you can't completely ignore the natural environment. Tracking someone is simply harder in a downpour like this than in clear weather.
I was a little relieved by the rain as well. With the rain coming down, I could stop worrying quite so much about being pursued...
- Thump.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I heard footsteps approaching from somewhere in the distance.
"...Ha-yul?"
Seeing my rigid expression, Ellia radiated her own tension.
The presence drew right up to the cave's entrance. It was a presence I was somewhat familiar with.
And it carried a cold, frigid mana.
"Knock knock~"
A voice, clear and bright in stark contrast to that mana, came from beyond the barrier at the cave's mouth.
"Wanna build a snowman~?"
A completely out-of-nowhere remark.
Ellia, who'd been visibly on edge a moment ago, cocked her head and whispered to me. Her warm breath tickled my ear, making a shiver run up my spine.
"Isn't that a line from a movie from the Seoryeok Era?"
...In my original world, the Seoryeok Era was just the normal dating system.
I suppressed a bitter feeling and nodded.