Wrap-up (2)
I figured that if I opened my eyes again after this, I'd definitely see a hospital room ceiling.
I'd scraped together every last drop of mana I had, channeling all of it into a single bullet. No amount of mana-related buffs could have withstood that. Mana takes forever to recharge, but you burn through it in an instant. Just like a paycheck.
……?
A sudden sense of wrongness hit me. Amid those pointless thoughts, I realized my consciousness had returned.
When I opened my eyes, instead of a pristine white hospital ceiling, I saw a dingy, rusted building overhead. Not a hospital room—I was still in the ruins.
Am I trapped here or something?
Anxiety surged, and I scanned my surroundings. Rebecca was still there in the wreckage. I cleared my throat with a fake cough and forced out my voice.
"Did we... not get recalled or something...?"
Rebecca, who had been gathering her clothes, turned to look at me abruptly. She shook her head before even answering.
"It seems I overestimated you."
Overestimated? I'd just done my best, as always.
"You've been fighting in this state all along?"
"Pardon...?"
"I've seen plenty of cadets at Arsen, but you're the first sniper I've witnessed collapse from mana exhaustion."
Well, yeah... It's par for the course with the sniper trait. Even if you have a ton of mana, snipers blow through it in a flash. A true sniper pours every spare drop into ramping up firepower.
But something felt off.
What's this?
My body, which should have been wrecked from exhaustion, felt strangely refreshed. A faint pulse of mana flowed through my veins.
Mana exhaustion doesn't hit unless your reserves are completely depleted. And recovering from it requires artificially boosting regeneration from an external source, just like when I saved Lara Steelhiden before. Potions are expensive anyway, and in a state of exhaustion, their effect is halved. Sometimes you even get aftereffects.
I'd been worried about that, which was why I'd distributed artifacts to boost natural healing.
So, the fact that my mind was clear now meant someone had injected mana from outside to force recovery. And in this situation, there was only one person who could have done it.
Rebecca, pretending not to know and just doing her thing.
"Did you perhaps give me a mana transfusion while I was out?"
Rebecca calmly turned her head away. That was her answer in her own way. She hadn't confirmed it, but the circumstances pointed that way.
Instead, she tossed out something completely different.
"I simply wanted to ask if you pushed yourself this far just to save me. If you're suffering mana exhaustion to this degree, taking care of your own body must be challenge enough."
Only then did I really look at Rebecca. Her cadet uniform was torn in places, her hair a total mess. The student council president who'd gazed down imperiously from the podium during the entrance exam—seeing her this battered was strangely novel.
Setting aside the fact that we'd taken down the demon, for now.
"So, should I have just let you die?"
Turning a blind eye when someone you can save is right in front of you. I don't know about anything else, but is that really right?
It had been the same with Lara Steelhiden, and with Iri and Edel too. They were within reach of my hand—whatever the original story or plot, that was secondary.
"……."
Rebecca pinched the bridge of her nose, as if my words were absurd. She must have found it pretty alien coming from me.
"...Aren't you from a notoriously ruthless assassin family? Hearing that from you feels honestly bizarre."
"True... but not every assassin is ruthless."
From what I'd seen of the Esperand folks, mostly not. Sato and Dian Esperand went without saying—they were upstanding people. Yohan Esperand just followed FM to the letter, a soft-hearted guy at heart. Camille Esperand, and the Sirena and Sierra sisters too, for the most part.
Digging through my memories brought on a headache. I lay back, using a nearby chunk of debris as a pillow. The aftereffects of mana exhaustion lingered.
The mana Rebecca had channeled was flowing through my veins, boosting regeneration, but it wouldn't fix overworked muscles or mental fatigue.
"So, what about the recall?"
"We're a long way from recall."
Meaning the dungeon closing hadn't happened yet. The back of my head prickled, but I turned to check the quest.
Underground Town Everd
With the demon defeated, the quest was done. No chance to go for the side objectives in this mess, but taking it down was thanks enough.
Rebecca's eyes narrowed at the sight of me lounging so casually.
"What do you plan to do now?"
"What is there to do? I think our part's over."
The demon was dead, no way out. To leave, we'd have to wait for the Watch's recall function. Until the dungeon cleared or timed out and closed.
"We might be stuck here for two days. Shouldn't we use all our strength to head upstairs?"
...Fair point, but I shook my head.
"A little rest wouldn't hurt."
"This isn't the time to relax."
"Unlike you, Rebecca, my body's on the weaker side."
Not an excuse—it was true. Who knew how long and how much effort it'd take to break through the dungeon walls? I'd just woken from mana exhaustion; overdo it, and I might pass out again.
"No need to rush. Just wait, and it'll close soon enough."
"Do you have some contingency?"
"Of course. It's not just our group in the dungeon—Group A is here too. Kyle Ivanstair's team."
I trusted Kyle. He'd definitely take down the boss. Even if not, Iri's Group X would follow up. Worst case, we'd wait two days, but after spending the last few days with them, I didn't think they'd fail.
With the variable on our end eliminated, they could fight without worry now.
"...Kyle Ivanstair is like a rampaging bull. Controlling him is the natural order."
"Wouldn't his recklessness actually help more?"
"His path diverges from everything Arsen has pursued so far. Leave him be, and he'll corrupt those around him. Before long, the entire first-year class could slip control."
I could see that perspective. Kids like me and Iri were cadets, but Rebecca led the student council steering Arsen. Their views naturally differed.
"...But his headlong charges can be useful sometimes, right?"
Just look at Kyle Ivanstair recently. The guy had fearlessly swung at a second-year. Sure, if I'd let it go, he'd have been pummeled like a sandbag. But in the end, because he stepped up, no other cadets got hurt.
"You have to maintain order at Arsen, President Rebecca. I get why you see it that way."
What I really wanted to say was this.
"Still."
"……?"
"Can't we just rest a bit right now?"
My ribs throbbed with every word. Rebecca probably couldn't understand that pain. She'd likely never suffered mana exhaustion in her life.
That conversation had given me a clue, though. Act One kicks off with Rebecca and Kyle clashing. Avoid pitting them against each other from the start, and maybe we could skip past Act One unscathed.
Honestly, though, no clue if that'd work in this twisted world.
"...Rest here, you mean?"
Rebecca asked like she couldn't believe it, but instead of answering, I pulled some jerky from my Subspace. Talking was exhausting too.
I chewed for a while before noticing her stare. When I looked, Rebecca was watching me intently.
"Want some?"
"No, thank you."
Instead, she reached into her own Subspace. Watching her pull out all sorts of things was its own spectacle.
Clang—crash!
A bunch of metal stuff hit the ground. The sheer volume was insane. To carry that much in a Subspace, she'd need runes etched across her entire back. That came with tattoo-level pain. Unless you had an exceptionally tough body, the recipient couldn't endure that scale.
No...
Maybe this was Grander grit too. Like most northerners, Rebecca was probably born tough. The original stats showed northern characters with high endurance and mental fortitude.
After rummaging a bit, Rebecca grabbed a metal rod and yanked. I half-expected an axe, but it was something else.
"Do you know how to cook?"
"A little, yes."
She lit a small fire and set a frying pan on it. Rebecca squatted, grilling bacon. Another bizarre sight.
But not really odd. The Grander estate was in some remote hellhole. Survival skills like this were a given.
It just felt unfamiliar because the subject was the original story's villainous student council president.
I tried ignoring it, but the smell tickled my nose. My gaze drifted over involuntarily.
And met Rebecca's as she stared blankly at the fire.
After a moment, she pulled a plate from her Subspace. Then, without hesitation:
"...Would you like some?"
For a split second, I wondered if she'd demand something in return.
Even Rebecca wouldn't calculate every move in a situation like this.
"......Yes."
I hesitated, then took the plate she offered.