The Flower of Rest (Finale)
The crimson demonic blood scattered across the empty air.
With a heavy thud, the monster collapsed where it stood, and Rigel quickly pressed his right hand over the pierced left shoulder to staunch the bleeding.
Glancing at Yuria nearby, he spoke with a gentle smile.
"It seems I was right to teach you that stance, Yuria."
"I... I almost killed the monster's neck..."
Yuria still felt the sensation in her hand. This was her first time shooting a living target.
Using mana would have revealed her position, and since she wasn't skilled with attack magic, she had picked up the bow.
Following Rigel's gaze and signal, she released the arrow. She had watched carefully as the arrow struck the monster's neck.
The arrowhead pierced into the neck, and the monster's eyes turned toward her. In that instant, Rigel drew a line across the throat with his knife to end the life.
"You worked hard. No, you did well, Yuria."
"Ah, I'll cast a healing magic on you right away!!"
Yuria, who had been dazed for a moment, snapped back upon seeing Rigel's voice and expression.
She dropped the bow like it was nothing, ran to Rigel, and began healing her shoulder with magic.
"Oh, you know healing magic too?"
"I specialized in it. I can't do it properly yet, though."
Healers with healing magic are rare.
Healing magic has a high difficulty level and requires deep knowledge of the human body.
"Sigh...!"
"Ah, does it hurt? Hold still."
At those words, I froze for a second, but before I could think, something appeared.
The golems had stopped moving since the commands had stopped, but the monsters, with their control lifted, were now rampaging on instinct alone.
I saw monsters ahead stinking of rot. Even roughly, there were around twenty.
Tsk. It was my mistake for releasing the shoulder so readily thinking it would end quickly. I hadn't expected this situation at all.
But rather than complain, I should prepare myself a little at least.
Gripping my heavy sword in one hand, I took a stance facing the approaching monster that was spitting dirty saliva my way.
It was then.
Crackle.
A mass of magic circles began to form on the sides of the monsters charging toward me. And following the circles, magic fired and struck the monsters.
Kwaang!!
"Ugh...!!"
I covered my face with my arm due to the flying debris. Only after the explosion cleared did I open my eyes.
Before me was nothing but broken wall fragments, shredded monster flesh, and blood. There was no sign of anything living.
"Student, are you okay?!?!?!?!"
A thick voice came from below. Wounded mages shouted at me.
They were the mages who had retreated behind me. Despite being covered in blood and wounds, they started drawing magic circles to attack the monsters.
Next to them, a tired Dalrek supported himself with his staff, looking at me with his torn clothes.
Some monsters remained, but they were already free from control and acted purely on instinct.
The mages, who had started preparing their formation systematically, and Dalrek who still had some strength left, quickly wiped out the remaining monsters.
In the meantime, I sat down and received healing from Yuria.
***
"Are you okay, Lady Rigel?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to you, I'm recovering a lot."
Yuria wrapped bandages around my left shoulder while stripping off her top and looked at me with concern.
Of course, it wasn't fully healed yet. I could move my arm, but pain came every time I did, so I had to keep it bandaged.
But the real reason I was feeling restless right now while trying to finish the healing was because she was completely stripping.
When I was male, I had undressed many times, but I had never fully shown my body as female. Hmm.
'...Even among women, this is embarrassing. Or should I say, this is embarrassing among women?'
Anyway, unable to express the subtle feeling with words, I quickly put on my clothes as Yuria finished bandaging.
Because I was embarrassed, I didn't feel any pain while dressing.
"I, Lady Rigel. Thank you. If Lady Rigel hadn't taught me, I definitely wouldn't have hit it. Actually, I still don't know how I hit it. I only shot a few times."
As I tried to leave Yuria's room, she fidgeted with the bow in her hand and expressed gratitude.
I smiled faintly at the sight.
"What? If I hadn't taught you, the one who hit it would be you, Yuria. It was a situation where time was critical, and if you hadn't hit with the bow, I don't know what that monster would have done. Your contribution was great."
"Hearing you say that makes me happy, Lady Rigel. But in the end, Lady Rigel, who fought alone against the monster, was decisive. It must have been no easy decision..."
"That's what knights do."
Slipping on the cadet cloak of the knight academy, I went out first.
Ebonic Tower was in a mess. Walls were broken in places, and the floor was dirty with debris and monster blood everywhere.
And not demonic crimson blood, but bright red blood and human corpses were often stepped on.
Even roughly, there were over ten. Moreover, nearly a hundred people had been injured.
Many facilities including the tower and research facilities were destroyed, so it was thought to be catastrophic damage that the tower might not even be able to restore.
By a single monster.
And by the mages who chose the wrong method.
While walking around the tower once, I saw a place where many people had gathered.
'Is this a ward?'
Mages who knew healing magic and people knowledgeable in medicine or pharmacology were treating patients.
The place smelled of medicine and blood.
Passing by, I had no choice but to stop at the sight of many mages with flushed faces spewing curses.
Looks carefully, and I saw Megellen, the vice tower master, bandaged in places. It seemed she had been injured because of what I threw.
She was avoiding the sharp, hateful stares stabbing at her.
Not all mages of the tower supported her method. It seemed they had only gathered the mages who followed her to carry out the plan.
"Crazy. Thinking of using magi, aren't you ashamed to be a person?"
"Too hasty. The result is this!"
Moreover, the plan ended in a miserable failure.
Not only was the tower destroyed, but there were also no small casualties.
The plan itself had room for controversy even from the mages, and ending in a miserable failure earned much criticism.
So many mages and tower servants were looking at Megellen with eyes that seemed ready to kill her.
"Excuse me for a moment."
Shadow appeared behind, and I saw Blake Ron Lagrang, the lord of Lagrang, standing there.
Behind him, several kingdom soldiers stood with spears.
The kingdom soldiers who pushed through the crowd bound Megellen and the vice tower master's neck and wrists with restraints.
"Vice tower master of Ebonic Tower, Findel Megellen. We heard you allowed the monster to run loose and caused many damages. You will be escorted to the capital in two days, and you will be handed over for trial."
Along with him, restraints began to be applied to the hands and necks of other mages as well.
They were all mages who had helped with the monster research following Megellen.
"Lady Rigel, is the shoulder okay? It doesn't look like a major injury, so I'm glad. When facing a monster alone, I worried a lot... But you were amazing."
"I'm fine. It was thanks to the monster being a mage and weakened. It was a relief."
He was weak in close combat and weakened, so it was easy to deal with in a short time.
Without Yuria, it would have taken longer, and if it had been a perfect monster, even in this state, I couldn't have guaranteed victory.
"The shoulder is fine. With healing, it will heal quickly."
"That's good. Kingdom soldiers will come soon for cleanup, so how about returning to Lagrang Castle together? It would be better to receive proper treatment."
"Yes, I'll go. Before that, I need to visit somewhere quickly, so excuse me."
Then...
Things became more urgent than I thought. I didn't want to use this method.
I hurriedly asked Blake's permission and slipped away from the crowd.
The number of kingdom soldiers who had entered the tower was still few. They were still gathering information about the situation and detaining mages and magic.
So I went down to the lowest floor and started searching every room around it.
Near the door to the underground, there were no people and it was hidden from surrounding gazes, so it was not inconvenient to wander around.
'...It was like this.'
Opening the firmly closed door, a faint scent of blood and demonic energy brushed past my nose from one corner.
With little people, a dark warehouse. Inside, wooden boxes were stacked.
Peeking inside the boxes while relying on sunlight coming through the windows, I saw blue light flowers.
Megirurun. Since the kingdom soldiers had smelled it, all of this Megirurun would be discarded... or at least I couldn't take it with me.
'Before that, I should take what I can.'
I stuffed two Megirurun into the inner pocket of the academy uniform. Even one would be enough, but just in case.
It would be good to find other ingredients too, but for now, this would do.
The most important reason I came here was just to take the Megirurun.
I closed the box lid again and slowly moved my steps out of the warehouse.