Deceptive Treatment
Deceptive Treatment
Chijijik-.
A thick chunk of meat was placed onto the scorching hot cast iron pan.
The savory, greasy smell filled the narrow dormitory room.
It was premium red meat I had bought from the black market with money earned by slaughtering beasts on the outskirts of the Academy last night.
After searing only the surface just enough to remove the rawness, I finely chopped the meat and placed it on a plate.
"......."
Ines, who had been curled up in the corner of the bed, sniffled.
The mind-broken Ines couldn't even hold a fork.
I sat on the edge of the bed, picked up a piece of finely chopped meat with my rough fingers calloused from combat, and brought it to her lips.
Ines opened her mouth like an animal and accepted the meat from my fingertips.
As the warm juices burst forth, her vacant eyes trembled slightly, and the corners of her mouth softened just a little.
She didn't even know how to chew—just mumbling and swallowing.
"Eat slowly."
My voice was flat, but the hand wiping the grease from her mouth was as careful as if handling glassware.
Ines leaned her cheek against my chest, obediently accepting the meat in time with the sound of my heartbeat.
It was a bizarrely quiet and blind morning meal, thoroughly removed from the Academy air filled with horrific violence and bloody stench.
I quietly looked down at her white cheeks as she mumbled.
The warmth of the sublime and gentle divine power that this girl had sent flowing into me last night.
Somewhere in Ines's soul, there is still light left.
If those church bastards rummaged through this girl's brain and turned her into a mind-broken fool, I will definitely reverse-engineer their method and restore her reason.
And until I exact every last penalty for that crime, I will gladly disguise myself as the perfect hunting dog.
Afternoon.
Unpleasant guests arrived along with the sound of knocking.
"I apologize for making you walk to such a humble place, Saint-nim."
The obsequious voice of Walder, the senior professor of the Academy.
Into the narrow, old dormitory room stepped Clarisse, the 'fake saint,' dressed in blindingly splendid pure white robes.
Behind her followed high-ranking healing priests of the church in gold-embroidered robes and escort holy knights.
It was under the pretense of 'treatment' that Professor Walder had promised.
"Oh my, the smell."
Clarisse covered her nose with an ornate fan and frowned.
Her gaze fell upon Ines, trembling violently in the corner of the bed behind me.
Clear contempt and displeasure.
"You have worked hard, Saje-nim."
I lowered my head with an expressionless face.
The high-ranking priest ignored me like a bug and approached Ines.
"Tch. A pitiful beast not even worth receiving the church's mercy. How hideous."
The priest clicked his tongue.
"......."
My eyes turned cold.
That priest was the one who had served Ines, the true saint, as her closest aide back in the Holy Church.
Even knowing Ines's face perfectly well, he pretended not to recognize her as if seeing a new handmaiden—a disgusting deception.
"Aah! Aaaang!"
As the priest reached his hand toward Ines's head under the pretext of treatment, Ines began to convulse violently.
Fiercely rejecting the unfamiliar and rough mana (divine power) flowing from the priest's fingertips, Ines tried to smash her own head against the bed's headboard.
"Stay still."
I immediately threw myself forward and wrapped my arms tightly around Ines from behind.
As the back of her head touched my chest and the thumping sound of my heartbeat reached her, Ines's struggle stopped.
Instead, she clung to my forearm like a lifeline, trembling like an aspen leaf.
"Proceed as is."
At my dry permission, the priest rudely placed his hand on Ines's forehead with an unpleasant expression.
"In the name of merciful light."
Uuuung-.
Oppressive divine power poured from the priest's fingertips.
With that crude infusion of mana, thin red blood began to trickle from Ines's delicate nose.
She whimpered in pain and burrowed deeper into my chest.
But that was the moment.
The divine power that the priest pushed into Ines's body did not stay inside her.
The divine power passing through Ines's body flowed entirely like a waterfall into my chest where it touched her—specifically toward my 'heart.'
"......!"
I held my breath.
The priest thought his divine power was not being absorbed by Ines and was dissipating into the air, but that wasn't it.
Ines was absorbing it.
'...Why.'
My mind flashed white.
This foolish girl, even in her empty unconsciousness, was forcibly absorbing another's divine power and passing it all to me.
To heal my torn muscles, to ease my pain.
Even in this moment of torturous treatment, she was squeezing out strength only for me and handing it over.
It was wretched.
A corner of my chest collapsed coldly.
"...As expected, it's hopeless."
Soon the priest withdrew his hand and wiped his sweat.
"The vessel for containing divine power is completely shattered. A shell whose mana has all burned away. Treatment is impossible."
At the priest's diagnosis, Clarisse covered her mouth with her fan and let out a mocking laugh.
"Poor thing. An empty shell that can't hold even a pinch of the saint's mercy."
Clarisse's arrogant voice echoed through the room.
"As the master, there are limits to keeping a useless beast. Wouldn't it be better to grant it peace?"
Tuk.
Blood flowing down Ines's chin dripped onto the back of my hand.
Hot, bloody blood.
The thread of reason snapped coldly.
Without any warning, I completely hid Ines's body behind my back.
Then slowly stood up.
"What insolence is this!"
The priest stepped back, and the escort knights simultaneously grabbed their sword hilts.
The scraping sounds filled the narrow room with a sinister atmosphere.
"Do you mean to refuse my goodwill now?"
Clarisse's brow twitched as she approached me.
"You seem to think a mere Academy top student has the standing to challenge the authority of the Holy Church."
Her white hand raised as if to slap my cheek.
But I did not kneel, nor did I lower my head.
Instead, I silently released the spirit that I had been suppressing from deep within my core.
Udukduk.
There was no physical violence.
But the air in the room instantly became dozens of times heavier, crushing the lungs.
The chilling killing intent of a predator who had torn apart tens of thousands of demonic beasts and cut off the Demon King's head.
"Kuh...!"
The knights' faces turned pale as paper, and their hands holding their swords trembled violently.
Clarisse's lips turned blue as she struggled to breathe.
Looking straight into her eyes, I murmured politely but eerily.
"The sublime light of Saint-nim is too dazzling."
My voice was as dry as iron.
"I fear this lowly beast's eyes might go blind. I will handle the treatment my own way."
No answer was needed.
Under the naked killing intent that implied I would bite her throat out at any moment, Clarisse stepped back.
"How arrogant...! Professor Walder! Does the Academy intend to tolerate this man's arrogance?!"
"C-calm yourself, Saint-nim. The cadet seems not in his right mind. It would be best to withdraw for now...."
Professor Walder hurriedly wiped cold sweat as he pushed Clarisse and the priest's party out of the room.
Watching their backs fleeing as if chased out, I slowly retracted my spirit.
The unpleasant ones left, and silence settled back into the room.
I approached Ines, who was trembling behind me, and gently wiped away her nosebleed with a towel.
As my touch reached her, she obediently offered her face as if she had never trembled.
My mind ran cold.
This was not treatment.
It was simply sadistic surveillance and confirmation kill to see if true divine power would bloom again in Ines's body.
Those church bastards had not even a shred of will to heal Ines.
I am not a hunting dog that will quietly wait for the church's crumbs with no hope in sight.
The tangled threads inside my woman's head, I will untie them myself.
There is only one way.
If divine power does not work, then use the power at its opposite pole.
Magic.
Those who defy the world's principle centered on divine power, who seek knowledge not of gods, and who arrogantly try to mimic miracles.
The world rejected them as unlucky and ominous, but due to their overwhelming combat power and the utility of their bizarre knowledge, the Academy tolerated some of them.
Whether it be the power of taboo heretics or anything else, I didn't care.
As long as I could heal Ines, I would even eat the entrails of a demon.
I thought of a specific cadet currently enrolled at the Academy.
Completely isolated by the nobility, but a mad heretic whose intellect and magical talent defied common sense.
"Wait a little longer."
I slowly stroked Ines's head as her bleeding stopped.
"Even if I have to do anything, I will find every bit of the time you lost."
With that resolve, the suppressed rage and killing intent surged up, and I unconsciously clenched my fist.
Ppudeuk.
My nails dug deep into my skin, and red droplets seeped from the calloused palm.
It was then.
Ines, who had been quietly leaning against my chest, slowly lowered her head and brought her face to my bleeding palm.
Haljjik.
"......."
Like a pitiful beast comforting its wounded master.
The completely mind-broken Ines was gently licking the blood pooled in my palm with her small, hot tongue.
Even in her empty unconsciousness, she responded only to my pain—a desperate and blind attachment.
Swallowing my trembling breath, I could not bring myself to pull my hand away, silently accepting this wretched comfort.
In the room where darkness had fallen.
Stroking the crown of my lover's head as she licked my blood,
I silently traced the cold trajectory of the hunt to approach that mad heretic of the Academy.