84. Did You Think Before Speaking?
84. Did You Think Before Speaking?
Only a few days had passed since the incident, but the academy was already trying to put its wounds behind it and move forward.
The damaged facilities had mostly been cleaned up by golems, though the special arena, which had been split in two by the demon, was still under construction and had yet to be repaired.
Miraculously, the academy had suffered no casualties.
The professors had responded quickly... and before the situation could escalate, Shadow had appeared and resolved everything in an instant.
Lucia Russell was the most seriously injured.
She had fought the Sword Saint of the Clover Kingdom, who was attempting to flee after committing the crime, and had sustained severe injuries from his attack.
Judging by her visible wounds alone, it was amazing she was alive.
The burns across her body were shallow enough to heal without a trace, but when doctors first saw the sword wound stretching from her shoulder to her abdomen, they thought she would have difficulty recovering.
Wounds inflicted by an Aura Blade have the characteristic that the higher the attacker's realm, the harder they are to heal completely; and the injury Lucia had suffered came not from an Expert's Aura Blade, but from a Master's.
They expected the muscles and organs invaded by that dense concentration of aura would struggle to function properly in the future, but after treatment, they were surprised to see she was recovering fairly well.
It was as if someone had completely removed the toxin—the Sword Saint's aura—lingering in her body.
It was strange, but considering that Lucia belonged to the Russell household, they thought it might be possible.
Lucia had barely returned from death's door, but she did not regret her actions at all.
That was because she was currently enjoying the greatest happiness of her life.
"Here, say ah."
"Ah... ahh..."
Atlas held out a spoon toward Lucia's face.
The spoon held a steaming spoonful of porridge.
Because of the bed's height, if he simply stretched out his arm, he'd fall just a bit short, so he stood on a footstool, and the sight was cute.
When he approached holding the spoon and tilted his head up, it was cute.
-Kkulkeok
The porridge, rendered so mushy it was hard to discern its original form, slid down her throat with just a little chewing.
A faint smile crossed Atlas's face when he confirmed Lucia had swallowed safely.
That smile, too, was a rare sight.
She thought it was very fortunate that what she was eating now was porridge.
If it weren't, she definitely would have been so lost in staring that she'd have bitten her tongue.
"Is it too hot or anything?"
"Nn.. not at all... thank you."
"It's nothing, really."
Atlas said that as he scooped more porridge onto a small side dish, stirred it to cool it down, then used the small spoon nearby to take a bit and place it on the back of his hand.
Seeming satisfied with the temperature, he nodded and scooped a spoonful of the appropriately cooled porridge from the side dish; it was like a mother feeding baby food to her child.
It had been two days since Atlas had started visiting her in the hospital.
It had also been two days since Lucia was injured.
On the first day, Riber, Amy, and others had come too, but today Atlas had come alone.
For those two days, he had voluntarily been taking care of Lucia, and she had a feeling he would continue to do so until she was discharged.
'Is... is it really okay to be this happy..?'
Whenever she thought she wanted a drink of water, before she knew it, Atlas was pouring it for her.
Since her injuries were severe and she was told to eat only porridge, Atlas cooled it down to make it easy to eat and fed it to her personally.
He kept her company in conversation too... and took out a board game he'd brought from somewhere to pass the time.
All that long time, just the two of them.
Lucia seriously wondered if there had ever been a time in her life when she had been this happy.
'... There isn't.'
No matter how much she thought, there was none.
In the family, she had always only trained and studied, and the family head... her father had always told her to live an ascetic life.
No friends, no diversions.
It was an environment where she could only... no, where she was not permitted to devote herself to anything other than the sword.
Suppressed in an environment where she couldn't even say she liked what she liked, she had looked forward to dormitory life at the academy... a life free from her family's oppression.
It was a little different from what she had imagined, but it was a happiness she could never have dreamed of in her family.
"..Atlas.. isn't it a bother to keep coming like this..? I... can move on my own, though..."
It was true that her body was uncomfortable.
Because of the sword wound that was still healing, her left arm didn't move properly, and trying to raise her upper body caused such severe pain that cold sweat broke out, but that was all.
Once she raised her upper body, she could walk on her own, and her right arm, which she used often, moved just fine.
Though it was uncomfortable, she could get up on her own, go to the bathroom, and eat by herself, but Atlas wouldn't allow it.
His meticulous care made her feel like she was being treated like a child, but she didn't dislike it.
Because she could feel that she was receiving an incredible amount of attention and affection.
When she had rushed out against the Sword Saint, she had regretted her actions for a moment, but now, such thoughts didn't even occur to her.
If things had gone slightly wrong, she could have died or been left with lifelong aftereffects, but that didn't even cross her mind.
She even found herself thinking that she wished she could stay sick like this.
'No.. I need to recover quickly...'
She was happy, but she never wanted to be in the same state again.
When Atlas had come to see Lucia lying in the hospital bed after treatment, he had looked immensely sad.
Even though he wasn't the one injured, he looked as sad as if he were about to cry, as if he himself were hurt.
She was happy to be taken care of, but she didn't want to see him looking so sad again.
Atlas, who had been tidying up the empty bowl, widened his eyes at her words and set the tray down.
"It's no bother at all. And..."
Atlas raised a finger and poked Lucia's left shoulder.
At that, Lucia flinched violently.
"Eut!"
"See, it still hurts. This is what we call having trouble moving around."
As Lucia rubbed her sore left shoulder, Atlas looked at her with a worried expression.
"Or do you hate it when I do this?"
"No..!! It's absolutely not that I hate it... I just think you're spending too much time on me..."
In truth, she wanted to tell him to keep doing it, but she couldn't bring herself to.
Because she felt he was pushing himself and wasting his time on her.
"I was the one who found you first, remember? You were in a state where it wouldn't have been strange if you'd died on the spot. And yet there you were, telling me Riber had been kidnapped by the Sword Saint."
"I... I did that?"
Atlas said it with fond sadness, but Lucia couldn't remember that part.
She had no memory of anything after being caught in the Sword Saint's attack.
When Lucia said she remembered nothing, Atlas sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand.
"I thought my heart was going to drop... I'm glad you're safe. Until you're fully recovered, I'll keep coming to make sure you're safe, so know that."
Hearing that, Lucia felt relieved.
'Atlas... feels the same as me...'
He was just like her, having seen him sad and wishing that such a thing would never happen again.
Lucia was deeply relieved by those words.
He hadn't said it explicitly, but she felt she could at least consider this a relationship beyond friendship.
Unthinkingly, she blurted out the words she'd been holding in for a long time.
"....Then.. I have one wish, could you grant it?"
"A wish?"
She was flustered as soon as she said it.
It was something she'd been thinking about in her head, but whenever she actually met him, the words wouldn't come out.
"It... it's not... anything weird..! It's just something I've wanted to say for a while.."
"If it's something I can grant, then anything."
Lucia decided to just take this as an opportunity.
Because now, unless it was really unreasonable, it seemed like he would grant anything.
She shut her eyes tight and spoke.
"Th... then.. when I'm all better, do you want to... go out somewhere outside the academy together on the weekend..?"
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After the sun set, I watched Lucia fall asleep under the influence of her medicine and then stepped outside.
The curfew for the dormitory had long since passed, but it didn't matter much.
Because there wasn't any roll call or anything of that sort.
Though there was a time I'd been nagged about it and had gone in.
As I left the hospital and passed by the dormitory area, someone spotted me and was waving.
It was Riber, her golden eyes still gleaming in the moonlight, an aftereffect of the moon not yet fully waning.
Riber ran right up to me, grabbed both my hands, and tucked me softly into her embrace.
"Since I haven't seen you all day, I'll stay like this for a bit."
"... How are you planning to get back into your dorm if you're out here now?"
Unlike the male dorm, the female dorm has defensive magic that activates at night to block outsiders from entering.
You won't be able to get in if you're out at this hour, so why are you out here.
Riber, who had been resting her face against my forehead, said brazenly.
"The male dorm is accessible though."
"Well, that is true."
"I'll be imposing on you again tonight."
She grinned and squeezed both my hands tightly.
Looking up, at a distance where our breaths mingled, her eyes were gleaming gold.
It was the gaze of a predator eyeing its prey.
'I'll have to be on guard for about two days before and after the full moon from now on.'
Riber, who had been chuckling, blinked as if something had just occurred to her.
"Right, how is Russell-ssi doing..?"
Riber, too, was very concerned about Lucia.
She knew better than anyone that the two of them weren't that close.
So the fact that Lucia had stepped up to protect Riber had apparently been a huge shock.
"She's recovering smoothly. But are you really okay with just me visiting her?"
"Yeah.. she said thank you yesterday. So that's enough. Russell-ssi definitely wants that anyway."
Riber had visited on the first day and then quickly left with Amy.
She'd said she thought it'd be best if I kept going alone... From my perspective, I wanted them to get closer through this opportunity, but there was still a lot of distance between them.
Even though I could see some dissatisfaction on her face, she said it was fine.
"It would be nice if you two could get a bit closer through this."
"You talk as if it's none of your business... It's not that easy...! Do you know how much I'm conceding??"
"Ow ow! It hurts!!"
Riber made a troubled face and bit the back of my hand.
Maybe because her werewolf traits hadn't completely faded yet, her fangs were incredibly sharp.
"Russell-ssi cares about you a lot too, so treat her well like you did when Amy and I were hospitalized."
"I am treating her well."
"... Right, because you're kind... Ugh, whatever. Let's end this talk here! It's cold, let's go in quickly."
"You're talking like it's your own room."
Riber laughed, let go of one hand, and nudged me ahead.
Then, suddenly, a certain event popped into my head.
"Oh, right."
I really hadn't thought much of it.
I just casually said what came to mind.
"Once she recovers, we decided to go out of the academy on the weekend."
".... What did you say?"
In that instant, the chilly air froze solid.
'Ah, damn. I said the wrong thing.'
I regretted it the moment I said it.