A Lucky Day (5)
A heavy silence filled the hallway. The soft patter of rain drifting in through the windows only sharpened the tension. Just as both sides held their tongues, someone broke the quiet.
Lucy, who had stayed beside me instead of heading down to the first floor, whispered so only I could hear.
"Hey...! Thanks for the help, b-but...! Isn't it too dangerous for me to head down by myself right now?"
In a situation like this, falling would probably be even more dangerous.
"Understood. Then stay right next to me for now."
"O-okay...!"
She pressed herself tightly against my back and glared at Naidus in the distance.
"By the way, Lucy. What's that on your wrist?"
"Th-this... it's the handcuffs that bastard put on me! I can't use my mana because of them...! You watch out too...!"
Hmm. A magic tool that interferes with mana. There were several ways to disrupt it—the barrier I'd experienced during the last practice session, for instance, or tools designed to be worn directly on the body. The most common of those were handcuff-type devices. They were created to seal criminals' mana, and thinking of the seastone cuffs from that one pirate manga made it easy to picture. The manufacturing method was a closely guarded secret, and the materials were perpetually in short supply, so even the academy didn't have many. Still, it wasn't surprising that he had one. In the game, he carried them around often. If you got slapped with those in combat, you couldn't use magic. But it was basically a gimmick—the cuffs would unlock themselves after a few seconds. The protagonist's power was simply too overwhelming for such tools to contain.
So he'd used one on Lucy. This was it.
"As expected, you're irredeemable trash, Naidus."
"Oh? You knew my name? Still... how did you... This is dangerous. My apologies to that person, but I'm afraid I'll have to kill you after all. The time for games is over."
Naidus shifted into a fighting stance as he spoke. Both hands gripped a pair of viciously sharp daggers, their blades stained pitch black.
I answered by summoning a knife into my uninjured left hand. My right hand had been ruined after catching a sword bare-handed to protect Lucy, so only my left remained usable. Still, it was fine. The magic I'd cast earlier should have alerted Elisha and the instructors that something was wrong here. I didn't know why the security spells and magic tools had been neutralized, but right now the only thing I could do was guard Lucy and buy time. Taking Naidus down would be ideal, but fighting while protecting her made that practically impossible. He looked badly wounded, yet he was still a boss-class character. Subduing him in my current state was out of the question.
"Huu..."
I steadied my breathing and gripped the knife tightly in my left hand. In my right, I kindled a faint flame, ready to unleash fire at any moment.
Naidus specialized in shadow movement, weapon enhancement, and vision blocking. Unlike Shady, he didn't fight bare-handed; he combined knife fighting with dark magic, making him a real pain to pin down. I kept my eyes locked on him so I wouldn't lose track of his position. Then lightning cracked across the sky, illuminating the dark world with a deafening roar.
And Naidus moved.
-Crash!
In the flash of lightning, he smashed the window beside him and leaped out.
"Wh-what the hell! That bastard's running...!!"
Lucy shouted in shock. It made sense—he had just jumped from the third floor.
"Do you honestly think I'd fight you in this condition? I'll kill you all next time. Consider today a small gift. I'll be taking my leave now. Farewell."
With those words, he vanished from mid-air as if sucked into nothingness.
Shadow movement.
He must have burned every last drop of his remaining mana to escape somewhere far away. Chasing him was impossible. Well, at least no fight broke out. That was fortunate—my condition still wasn't fully recovered.
"Good. We weren't too late."
"H-huh?"
I extinguished the flame in my right hand and stored the knife in my Inventory. The situation had ended, so it was safe now. The only issue was that I felt a little tired. My head seemed slightly dizzy, but it was tolerable. First, I needed to check if Lucy was hurt.
I scanned her body and asked, "Lucy, are you injured anywhere?"
"No..."
She really didn't seem to have any wounds. But those handcuffs weren't coming off. They didn't look like they were made with proper techniques.
As I examined the cuffs on her wrist, Lucy spoke up.
"Um, no... More importantly, your hand. Is it really okay...? It looked like you got hurt pretty badly because of me..."
"It's fine. Something like this will heal with some ointment..."
My body swayed. My head spun. A sudden wave of pain dropped me to my knees. Everything had been fine just moments ago. Nausea churned in my stomach and heat flooded my skull.
-Hey, hey! Why are you suddenly like this? Hey!!
My vision warped. Lucy looked like she had multiplied.
-Get a grip! What is this all of a sudden...!
My sight flickered. What had hit me? Was there poison on the blade? That guy never used poison in the game. I'd been had. Given his personality, it was actually stranger that he hadn't used it. In the game he only relied on shadows and daggers, so I'd let my guard down. To think he'd coated the edge with something.
-No potions, no healing magic. What now? This guy's head is burning like a volcano...!
As I collapsed to the floor and my eyes slowly closed, I thought I heard footsteps approaching.
"Vern! I came running because I sensed the mana reaction... Hey, red hair! Why is he collapsed?!"
"It looks like he grabbed the sword with his bare hand to save me..."
"What are you talking about? Who attacked you in the first place?"
"It was a man with horns on his head. Purple hair. Probably someone from Requiem..."
"They're breaking into the academy now? What the hell is the academy doing?"
Whose voice was that? Elisha? My vision was too blurry to tell.
"V-Vern...! There's blood on your cheek and hand...!"
That had to be Elin. Someone's small, warm hand clasped mine. And because I'd been caught in the rain, the cold was starting to sink in deeper.
"Hey, you look... what the hell happened to you?"
The grumbling voice that sounded a little angry could only belong to one person.
"Luna...?"
"...I followed just in case. Do you always go around getting your ass kicked?"
"Elin! Go to the staff room and bring the teachers!"
"O-okay...!"
"Haa... Listen, I'm only helping this one time. There won't be a next."
"Hey, black hair! What are you doing?! Are you insane? Why are you licking his blood?!"
"What? What did she just do?"
"This doesn't seem like a particularly strong poison. Still, it's mixed with a lot of stuff—anesthetic for starters."
"Black hair, how do you even know that?"
"...."
"It's fine for now. You must have your reasons for not saying anything. But black hair, are you okay?"
"Yeah. By the way, silver hair. Use my name. Call me Luna."
"Got it, black hair. So... Vern's going to be okay, right?"
"Ha, how interesting. Yeah, he'll probably be fine. Most likely. Though this guy's blood tastes strangely..."
"What? What about the taste? Is there another problem?"
"It's nothing. And even if I did know something, I wouldn't tell you anymore, got it?"
"We can't just stand here. Shouldn't we take him to the infirmary?"
It really was poison. But she licked my blood...? The dizziness in my head grew even worse.
Would licking blood really be okay? I knew she controlled her vampiric urges well, but ingesting it like this still seemed risky. This wasn't the time to be worrying about Celia. My skull felt like it was about to split open. Consciousness was slipping away. Damn it, I needed to get an artifact with poison resistance or something...
"Hey, Vern! His eyes are closing! Black hair! Is this really okay?"
"It's the anesthetic. I already told you."
"S-sorry. This is all because of me. If I hadn't..."
"...Hey, you. You're acquainted with Vern too, right?"
"Yes... I just came to pick up my notebook..."
"Don't worry about it. This guy might act blunt and indifferent on the surface, but he's kinder than anyone. Even if it wasn't you, he would've overworked himself to protect and save whoever it was. So you don't need to blame yourself."
"Even if it wasn't me..."
"Besides, none of this is your fault. It's those Requiem bastards."
"By the way, when is that pink hair getting here? Ah, there she is."
Ah, this was it. I couldn't hold on any longer...
....
My closed eyes slowly opened again. Warm sunlight streamed in through the window, wrapping around me. A cool breeze slipped in from the half-open pane, carrying the sound of birds chirping. The bed was soft, the blanket warm. But this wasn't my room. The ceiling had an unfamiliar design, and the wallpaper and windows were completely different from mine.
Staring up at the pure white ceiling that was nothing like my own, I couldn't stop the words from leaving my mouth.
"Ah... an unfamiliar ceiling."
My consciousness had returned.