Date (1)
Something strange brushed against my lips.
Soft, maybe? Warm? Whatever it was, the sensation lingered for a long while.
Then something began to flow down my throat.
Water?
No—thicker than water, and sweet. It slid down my esophagus and spread through my entire body.
Thump! Thump!
My heart began to race, and vitality surged through me like a spring. As life returned to my limbs, the dulled senses slowly began to wake.
And with them came a familiar fragrance drifting past my nose.
Flowers.
That scent told me the person beside me was Medeia.
But then—
Wh-what?!
For some reason, Medeia’s lips were pressed against mine.
I panicked and tried to push her away at once, but my body refused to obey. All I could manage was a faint, twitching shudder.
Even that must have been enough. Medeia lifted her head as if startled.
“Kael?”
“…….”
No voice came out. I wanted to ask her what on earth she thought she was doing, but the words simply wouldn’t form.
“Must have been my imagination…….”
She murmured that, took a sip from a glass bottle, and leaned toward me again.
My lady?
Why are you coming so close?
“Mm.”
After that, I ended up drinking a great deal of some unknown liquid through Medeia’s mouth.
Only the next day was I able to sit up in bed.
“…….”
I touched my dry lips. They had been moist only yesterday; now they were parched overnight.
“…….”
My first kiss.
Stolen just like that.
I was dumbfounded, yet somehow it didn’t feel bad. The only real problem was figuring out how I was supposed to process the whole thing.
Judging by the circumstances, she was probably trying to feed me a potion…….
The liquid Medeia had transferred directly from her own mouth. That it had been a potion was obvious from the state of my body now. Honestly, I had thought my insides were shredded beyond repair and that I was as good as dead. Yet here I was, perfectly fine. Fine enough that I could probably go for a run without issue.
Should I actually try running?
The thought arrived the moment my body felt whole again. The decision was short; the action was faster. I slipped out of the Temple unnoticed and took a refreshing lap around the nearby park.
And then……
“Are you insane?”
“Pardon?”
“A man whose organs were all ruptured just days ago, hanging between life and death—what were you thinking, going outside to—”
The priestess looked at me as if I were hopeless, then let out a long sigh.
“Honestly. It’s a good thing you were fully healed. If you’d run while your insides were still mending, who knows what would have happened.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
She wasn’t wrong about a single thing, so I immediately bowed my head. Perhaps she sensed my sincerity; her tone softened.
“All right. Pack your things.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re healed, so you’re free to leave. What kind of body do you even have? I never expected wounds that severe to recover completely in a single week.”
She smiled as she spoke.
“The gods must love you dearly. There’s no other way you could have survived so miraculously. I’ll pray that Their blessing stays with you from now on.”
After leaving the Temple, I finally reunited with Bella and Derick for the first time in ages.
“Bella! Sir Derick! It’s been a while, everyone. A whole week, isn’t it? Haha.”
I approached them with an awkward laugh. Bella spoke first.
“When I heard you had encountered a Death Knight and were fighting for your life, I was truly shocked. I am glad you are alive.”
“I got lucky.”
Derick picked up from there.
“Luck is also skill. Even so, to think you actually won against a Death Knight.”
He looked at me with something like pride.
“You’ve grown.”
His words made me feel a little bashful, but I didn’t deny them. After all, it was true—I had gotten stronger.
I checked my status window for the first time in a long while.
My skills had grown across the board.
Swordsmanship and Mana are still a bit disappointing.
I felt like I had trained fairly hard, yet those two had advanced more slowly than expected. Even with the proficiency bonus from Infinite Growth, their sluggish progress made it clear just how difficult it was to raise Swordsmanship and Mana.
Thinking of it that way, the fact that my Core grew at all is a genuine miracle.
If the Core’s proficiency hadn’t risen during the desperate fight with the Death Knight, I probably wouldn’t even be standing here talking right now. In any case, I had been lucky.
I need to set aside time and raise Swordsmanship and Mana proficiency properly.
The only reason I was alive was pure luck. Derick had said luck was also skill, but I saw it a little differently. Luck comes to those who are ready to seize it. That was why I intended to throw myself into Mana and sword training—so that whenever fortune next appeared, I would be able to grasp it.
If I wanted to protect Medeia in this treacherous Academy, that level of effort was the bare minimum.
“Well then, let’s head back to the villa.”
At Derick’s words, we all climbed into the carriage. It left the Temple and set off toward Medeia’s Villa.
Along the way, I asked what had happened while I was gone.
“From what the Academy has uncovered, the ones who released the Death Knight that day and attacked you and the young lady were members of something called the Witch’s Cult.”
“The Witch’s Cult?”
“A group whose goal is the resurrection of the Witch who died a thousand years ago. I’d only ever heard rumors. This is the first time I’ve seen proof they actually exist.”
“…….”
The name Witch’s Cult set my thoughts turning. The curse on Medeia had been the Witch’s doing to begin with. A cult trying to bring that same Witch back to life? Of course it interested me.
“What happened to the cultist?”
“Apparently a professor from the Necromancy Department extracted the information and then had him executed. Beyond that, I don’t know anything more.”
“I see.”
A shame. If he had still been alive, I would have gone and asked a few questions myself.
Just then—
Neighhh!
The carriage came to a halt.
“We have arrived.”
At the coachman’s words, we stepped down.
The first thing I did upon returning to the villa was seek out Medeia. Now that I was back, the least I could do was greet her properly.
I stood before her door and knocked carefully.
Knock. Knock.
“Who is it?”
“My lady, it’s me. Kael.”
“……Come in.”
Permission granted, I opened the door without hesitation.
Whoosh—
The familiar floral scent washed over me the moment the door swung open. I turned my head toward the fragrance—
and Medeia was already charging straight at me.
Eh?
My lady?
Before I could react, she threw herself into my arms.
“Guh!”
I toppled backward under the impact. In the blink of an eye, Medeia was sprawled on top of me, pinning me flat.
Her body heat sank straight into me. Soft skin pressed against mine as well.
……She’s soft.
No—this was not the time for that. Staying like this any longer would be problematic in more ways than one.
“My lady.”
“Y-yes?”
“Could you move now, please?”
“Ah, right.”
Only then did Medeia seem to realize the position she was in. She scrambled up in a fluster.
“…….”
“…….”
An awkward silence settled between us. Medeia was the first to break it.
“Are you…… all right now?”
“Yes. Even the people at the Temple were amazed that I’d recovered completely. They kept calling it a miracle.”
I asked her in turn.
“And you, my lady? Did you manage all right while I was gone?”
“……No.”
A single short word. Yet that one word was enough to tell me how much she had suffered because of me. Guilt pricked at me. I had done it to protect her, but I had still made her worry.
I was turning over ways to make her smile again when a forgotten promise suddenly surfaced.
“Come to think of it, my lady—do you remember saying you would grant me one wish?”
“A wish……?”
“When I dueled Sir Hate. You said if I won, you would grant me one wish.”
“Ah!”
Recognition lit her face; she clapped her hands together.
“You even said you’d grant it no matter how strange it was, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. I did…….”
Medeia nodded readily. Then she looked at me with an oddly expectant gaze.
What is she hoping for?
I found it curious, but I spoke the words I had decided on long ago.
“May I use that wish now?”
“Do as you like. So what is it?”
I smiled and said,
“Go on a date with me.”
“What? That’s more ordinary than I—”
Her sentence cut off mid-breath. Her whole body went rigid. After a frozen moment she stammered, double-checking.
“A d-date? W-with me?”
“Yes. Just you and me. The two of us.”
“……!!!”
Medeia’s mouth opened and closed for a long time without producing a single word.
In the end, it took quite a while that day before I finally received her answer.