Light
Suddenly,
curiosity stirred.
But could I even ask you?
Would you even answer?
Surrender.
That was the word that came to me as I watched you face the golem.
You looked like you were in so much pain. Wouldn't it have been easier to just drop your sword and pass out?
And yet you stood back up.
Unlike me.
"Impressive."
"What art thou doing just standing there? Hurry and help her! She is dying!"
I was going to anyway.
The bleeding and the bruising were severe, but with my abilities I could manage treatment well beyond simple first aid.
"Hmm."
That aside.
····She's pretty.
Even with scars decorating her body and her face smeared with blood, I couldn't tear my eyes from her for a moment.
"Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! Quickly now! She is dying!"
"I got it."
She's not dying from this. A swordswoman with regeneration and recovery stats this high?
No — more than that, why had saving her become a foregone conclusion?
Abdominal rupture, internal bleeding in the arm and leg muscles····
All I could do was stop the bleeding and replenish the blood she'd lost. I wasn't a doctor. The rest would have to be left to the Association hospital.
I swept my hand through the air, condensing a mass of blood laced with mana. Then I spread it wide, forming a crimson current. A pale red aura sank into her body and was absorbed.
"Good! Truly remarkable! The color is returning to her pale skin!"
It wasn't finished yet. I slipped both arms under the girl's legs and shoulders and lifted her up.
Let's see. Over there should work.
I scanned the surroundings and stepped into a shop that caught my eye. Thanks to the Gate, there was no one inside. I grabbed bandages and gauze at random and stocked up on disinfectant.
The arterial bleeding gushing out with every heartbeat had already been handled with mana-assisted first aid, so now it was the venous bleeding's turn.
The aorta hadn't been severed, so it had never been a truly dangerous situation to begin with.
"My insides are burning····!"
"Could you be quiet for a second."
After disinfecting, I wrapped the wounds tightly with gauze and bandages under firm pressure. I couldn't confirm the exact fracture sites here, so I'd have to be careful.
"Why am I even doing this."
She was a wicked little devil, no two ways about it.
Reviving a golem that was already on the verge of death just to make it die again, knocking out a girl who was already exhausted — she really was a terrible person.
"C-can we take her now?"
"Yeah."
To the Association hospital.
I lifted her in the same hold as before and poured some energy into her. A few minutes later the girl broke into a violent coughing fit, then let out a faint groan — uugh···· — and her eyes fluttered weakly open.
White jade touched with light. Still beautiful eyes.
"Hey."
"·····."
The girl blinked with effort, then her pupils blew wide with a choked gasp.
"Y····ou····."
I'll say it again — I only did first aid. Of course her condition wasn't normal. Even opening her mouth looked like it took everything she had.
"Get on already!"
Even at Bloody's frantic urging, I stepped calmly onto the magic circle. I'd long since grown tired of getting worked up or intoxicated by anything.
My vision swam, and for a moment a cool, heavy presence wrapped around my body before vanishing.
When I opened my eyes, I was looking at the Gyeonggi branch. In other words, the Association's little underlings. Something boiled up inside me.
"Ah····."
"What is it?"
"Wondering if I have to sacrifice my hair to a hat again, like last time."
It was nice, smooth hair. I wasn't thrilled about mashing it flat under a hat until it looked greasy.
Bloody adjusted our landing so we transferred into a quiet alley, but if I was going to walk into a hospital, I still had to care about the eyes around me.
I lowered my gaze for a moment to the girl half-cradled in my arms. I'd forced her arms around my neck, but nothing particularly heart-fluttering was happening.
Well. That expression of hers might make my heart skip a little.
A face with just the right mix of fury and exhaustion. Because the scent coming off her was nothing like that cold, lifeless fragrance.
I looked away and checked our surroundings.
There weren't many people around the hospital or the street. Sparse, even.
I was carrying a blood-soaked Association hunter in my arms. Was a hat really going to keep me from standing out?
"Put me····down····."
"You've got your arms around my neck and you're saying that? Not very convincing."
I was the one who'd forced it, sure. But this princess carry was surprisingly hard work.
"Uugh····."
Whether she was angry or resigned, I couldn't tell.
Beads of sweat dotted her forehead as she clenched her teeth with a grinding sound — and the sight was honestly pretty entertaining.
"Just go already! Thou must take her to the hospital!"
"We can take our time."
With both hands already occupied, I simply started walking. A few people near the entrance flinched with pale faces when they saw us, but when I ignored them they didn't try to stop me.
I walked straight up to the counter.
"Hello."
"Welco····."
"·····."
The staff member froze mid-word, mouth working soundlessly, face going rapidly white. At least she didn't scream. Nice.
"I've already done emergency treatment for the bleeding····but the fractures and contusions are pretty bad. Honestly, with her stats, she'll probably recover fine on her own."
The employee looked at me, then shifted her eyes to the girl breathing shallowly in my arms, and started trembling with a bloodless face.
"Th-the e-emergency room is on the first floor!!"
"Thanks."
I'd already checked the internal bleeding with my crimson gaze, and luckily it wasn't severe. Her regeneration was already running, so my worry was fading bit by bit.
Worry. Worry, huh.
I headed toward the ER, glancing around as I walked. There weren't many people, but every single one who spotted me made some kind of noise.
Walking in silence felt awkward, so I spoke to the girl.
"What's your name?"
"····."
She seemed to have her breathing under control now. She just glared at me with sharp eyes and made no attempt to open her mouth.
Fair enough. If someone smashed me with a golem and then dragged me to a hospital ward to play the whole "hurt you then heal you" routine, I'd hate them too.
But I couldn't just keep not knowing. We were going to see each other again anyway, weren't we? The second she recovered, this girl looked ready to come charging at me with a blade.
"If you don't tell me."
I stopped walking and met her eyes.
"I'll kill everyone in this building."
The girl's face twisted.
"····It's Erika."
Erika. Yeah. The name was····
"Pretty."
"······."
I wished she'd ease up on the expression a little, but I couldn't exactly ask for much. A bit of a shame.
We reached the ER entrance and I opened the door with mana. The counter and the treatment rooms were all in one space, probably so they could start treatment immediately.
"Hello."
"Ah, hel····."
I couldn't be bothered explaining again, so I just glossed over it.
"She's hurt."
At least they had a sense of duty — they looked more shocked by Erika than by me. Another face gone deathly pale, another brief uproar, and then a crowd of people pouring in from somewhere.
I was starting to get sick of it.
I dumped Erika onto a bed visible past the curtain and slipped out.
I wanted somewhere quiet.
I went up to the second floor and walked the corridor. Being a ward, it was definitely quieter.
I stopped in front of the vending machine in the middle of the hall and bought a can of coffee.
Pointlessly expensive.
"Well done, Orly! A cup of rest after performing a good deed — splendid!"
A good deed?
"I'm the one who put her in that state with the golem."
Bloody was silent for a moment.
"Gyaaaaah····! Now that thou sayest it, 'tis true! I was briefly mad!"
Erika's image flickered through my mind.
Standing alone on a battlefield blazing with heat, swarming with monsters.
I took a sip of coffee.
Sweet.
"What wilt thou do now? Even so, killing a patient who cannot resist would be against all decency!"
"I've got plenty of reserves today. It's fine."
A Gate had opened, and I'd collected mana stones too.
If I had time, I should work on my weapons. That was a later problem, though.
There was something more important than that.
Between the unexpected chaos of the past few days, I still hadn't collected much blood from high-rank Awakened.
Sacrificing my own blood just to find Awakened of the second tier and above already felt like a waste — and with my assimilation rate sitting near seventy percent, even if the requirement listed ten corpses, I practically needed more than that.
Because I had to extract the blood with the highest assimilation rate from among them.
In the end, I'd concluded that the criminal organizations in the capital region — the contingency I'd already been considering — were my best option.
Which meant I needed the Association's power. I'd planned to stop by while I was dropping Erika off at this ward.
I sorted my thoughts for a moment, then transferred from the hospital ward straight into the Association building next door.
I took the elevator at the end of the corridor and pressed the button for the top floor.
The layout still hadn't changed. The atmosphere was still cold.
The Gyeonggi branch was run by an Association director. The Association President would be at the Seoul headquarters right now.
Either way, I needed to show my face — whether that meant meeting the President or cutting a deal at the director level.
From their perspective, Awakened terrorism inside Gyeonggi was already a headache. A criminal organization on top of that? Just the thought of high-tier Awakened banding together to scheme something would be enough to make their heads hurt.
Not that I particularly cared. I just needed to finish my objective.
I shoved open the office door in front of me.
The first things I saw were countless computers and devices. Then tables, and the people sitting at them.
A few gazes turned toward me. After a brief stretch of silence —
chaos erupted.
"Th-that's that bastard!!"
"Director!! Director!!"
Director, huh. So I'd come to the right place.
Anyway, I'd had enough of the noise.
I grabbed the man right in front of me and put a blade to his throat.
"Could everyone please be quiet."
A few seconds later the atmosphere settled again, and I dragged the limp man along as I walked.
People I passed along the way had mana coiled around their hands, aiming at me with tense expressions.
Looks like the hostage kept things from getting annoying.
I moved into the adjacent office. I checked the seat with the nameplate, and came face-to-face with the person who'd just stood up from it and was about to rush this way.
Dark bobbed hair cast in deep shadow, and crimson eyes as distant and red as the blood that had dyed the battlefield.
An elegant uniform that somehow looked plain at a glance.
Even that cold presence — the kind you could only feel on a snow-covered mountain — lodged deep in old memories.
"It's been a while, Director."
"······Orly."
Her face twisted into something grim.