“…It really healed cleanly in an unbelievable way.”

In the academy’s infirmary, Maxim was receiving treatment with his upper body completely bare.

Theodora’s potion had a very definite effect. Right there on the spot, the bleeding had stopped, and the wound could be seen close up rapidly. It made one wonder where she had obtained such an item.

“It’s a potion that extremely boosts natural healing power and assists that process, so you’ll have to consider that scars will remain.”

The medic in the infirmary said while touching the scar on Maxim’s wound.

“You can remove the bandages now. If you feel any pain, let me know. As for training… I want to tell you to avoid it if possible, but it should be okay to do it lightly.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Be careful, as phantom pain may occur at the wound site.”

Maxim let out a sigh of relief. Calling the instructor would have been the best option, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t understand Theodora’s feelings. But since Maxim was injured, their score probably won’t be very good. The instructor seemed to find it quite unexpected that he was wounded in the dungeon.

‘That Living Armor definitely wasn’t something that should have appeared in the academy’s final exam.’

Maxim recalled the armor swinging that giant sword. Its overwhelming presence and swordsmanship were not inferior to those of a proper knight. Moreover, it wasn’t easy to confront it in a state where aura was restricted. Maxim lowered his raised upper garment and felt his chest and abdomen. He didn’t feel any pain.

“The treatment is over. You don’t need to come regularly. Visit if you feel anything abnormal.”

The medic tapped the desk as if delivering a verdict. Maxim stepped out of the hospital room, pressing his hand on the area where the scar remained. Outside the room, Theodora was waiting for him with an anxious expression. As soon as the hospital room door opened, Theodora ran towards Maxim.

“How is it? Maxim. Did they say there’s nothing wrong?”
“Yeah. The potion you poured seems to have definitely worked. They said it’s all healed cleanly.”

Theodora looked at Maxim with a drooping expression. To Maxim, that gloomy expression seemed like a puppy that had done something wrong to its owner. He carefully stroked her head, but Theodora’s expression didn’t change much.

“It’s okay, it’s not Theo’s fault.”
“I should have been more careful. Maybe that wouldn’t have happened if I had just sliced it with an Aura Blade from the beginning.”

Maxim shook his head at Theodora’s self-reproach.

“No, Theo. Who would have known that the armor would persistently target only you? It was right to approach it cautiously. And if we had fought with aura from the beginning, the dungeon would have collapsed on us.”
“Maxim…”

Theodora leaned on Maxim with her head hanging low. Perhaps her movement was more cautious and lighter than usual because he was injured.

With a thud, Theodora’s head touched Maxim’s chest. He drew her into his arms and stroked her head.

“Don’t get hurt.”

Theodora’s voice had become moist again. Maxim smiled bitterly at her appearance, even though he thought he was happy.

“Okay.”
“Don’t leave me either.”
“Of course.”

Theodora’s hair felt by Maxim’s hand was so soft. Maxim endlessly stroked that silky hair.

==

There was a sea of blood and a bright blue sky without a single cloud. The red seawater was sweeping away the sand on the beach.

It took quite a long time for Maxim to realize that the scenery was a dream. Maxim was sitting on the white sand beach. The sand grains were not fine but coarse. He raised his hand, grasped a handful of sand, and let it flow. The sand fell with a rustling sound and mixed back into the beach.

The white sand beach stretched without curves as if drawn with a ruler. Maxim turned his head left and right. The horizon and the skyline were visible simultaneously.

“Max.”

Maxim turned his head towards where the voice was coming from. His eyes landed in the middle of the red sea. Theodora was standing, submerged up to her knees. She was standing there wearing a snow-white dress he had seen only once before.

“Theo?”

Theodora held a sword in her right hand. With a splashing sound, she approached Maxim. He tried to get up from his spot, but his body couldn’t move.

Theodora was already standing in front of Maxim. When he raised his head, he saw her expressionless face. Theodora was quietly looking at Maxim with the sword hanging down.

“What is going on…”

Before Maxim could finish his sentence, Theodora raised the sword high. His pupils dilated as they captured the tip of that blade.

“Theo?”

Crunch.

“Ugh!”

It was the dormitory.

Maxim roughly exhaled and dripped with cold sweat. The sound of his heart pounding was echoing in his head. He curled up his body at the burning pain that seemed to be felt in his abdomen and chest. Fortunately, his roommate wasn’t here right now. A painful moan escaped through Maxim’s clenched teeth.

“What the hell…”

Maxim cursed profusely and took off his top. The wound that should have been completely healed was visible in his lowered gaze. The wound was scattering something like a faint shadow. Maxim couldn’t endure the persistent pain and twisted his body, biting his lips and tongue wildly.

“Ugh…hah…”

How much time had passed, the pain gradually subsided. Maxim could feel a mouthful of a fishy taste and smell from his blood-filled mouth.

Maxim staggered and lit a lantern, then looked for a mirror.

“What is… this…”

Pitch-black cracks were created irregularly along his abdomen. Maxim frantically felt that eerie wound. Doesn’t it look like he’s been cursed or something?

As Maxim touched the scar, the cracks began to be sucked into the scar. It looked just like a snake entering its nest. Maxim blankly stared at that scene.

It must be a hallucination.

Maxim recalled the medic’s advice that phantom pain might occur. Although the type of pain seemed completely different from the phantom pain he knew, he decided to believe those words, even if they were forced. What he saw was a hallucination, and this pain didn’t really exist either. Maxim gathered his body and mind and looked out the window, where dawn was approaching.

Is it already time for the sun to rise?

It was almost 8 o’clock. It was the weekend, but he wasn’t sleepy. Since he had already broken out in a sweat, Maxim decided to head to the training grounds.

It seemed that the first cold wave of winter had arrived. Whenever Maxim exhaled, steam rose up. Maxim took a sword and reached the individual outdoor training grounds. Some enthusiastic cadets were already training with swords or spears, each practicing their own sword techniques. He quietly watched those enthusiastic figures alone. It reminded him of himself as a freshman.

“You need to move your feet! You stupid guy!”
“You’re sticking your shoulders out too much!”
“Use your waist, use your waist flexibly!”

And next to them was the bald instructor, who, for some reason, hadn’t left and scolded the cadets who were training hard. Maxim watched the corners of the instructor’s mouth twitching with joy and inwardly felt fortunate that he was a senior.

Theodora had left the academy after being summoned by her father, Marquis Bening, who was staying at a villa in the Royal Capital. It had been quite a while since he had trained without a sparring partner. Maxim decided to use the training method he had always used before training with Theodora.

First, meditation.

Maxim abruptly plopped down on the stone floor of the training grounds. Quietly, without raising mana, he emptied his mind as white as a blank sheet of paper. He felt the nerves spread throughout his body while regulating his breathing. He simply felt everything his body perceived. The cold and clear winter air, the faint smell of soil rising, and birds chirping.

Good. It’s going smoothly.

Maxim, who seemed to have assimilated himself with the world, slowly got up from his spot. He grasped the hilt of the sword and drew it out. The series of processes proceeded very naturally, like flowing water. Maxim reproduced the sword technique as it was. Just as Maxim had assimilated with the world, the sword he grasped also moved gracefully, becoming one with Maxim.

His sword cut the wind without going against it. The wind cut by the tip in passing made a whooshing, whooshing sound. Maxim continued the sword technique. The sword held with both hands felt light today.

Now, shall I start circulating mana?

Maxim raised mana while being conscious of his heartbeat.

‘What is this?’

It felt like something was completely blocked. Like a river blocked by a dam, the flow of mana started from the heart but couldn’t properly spread out. Maxim added acceleration to the mana circulation to forcibly break through that blocked flow.

‘Strange.’

When he started circulating mana by forcibly releasing the blocked flow, a pain like being pricked with a needle was felt below the heart, under the left chest. It was uncomfortable, but it didn’t create much difficulty circulating mana. Maxim thought the aftermath of the recent wound was stronger than expected and entered the next stage.

Mana vigorously circulated through Maxim’s body. He continued the sword technique while swinging the sword like that. However, the pain felt from the wound, far from subsiding, was worsening.

Should I skip today’s training?

Maxim thought so while briefly stopping the sword he was swinging. The medic said training was possible but told him not to do it too intensely, and if he felt pain, he was asked to come and see him. Maxim decided to finish his routine and go straight to the infirmary as he readjusted his grip on the sword.

‘Let’s try to activate my aura.’

Maxim circulated mana again. Mana flowed through his body and was transmitted to the hilt of the sword he was holding. The blade that had consumed Maxim’s mana began to turn golden from the root of its blade.

‘Good, although it’s uncomfortable…’

Thump.

Maxim’s heart beat loudly.

‘Huh?’

The world suddenly slowed down. Maxim felt a pain as if someone had slashed his chest with a knife. He dropped his sword and fell to the floor of the training grounds without even having time to scream at the pain that turned his vision white. Someone’s shout, which was watching him, was the last thing he heard; Maxim’s consciousness was cut off.

Thud.

==

“…I don’t know the reason…”
“…For him to suddenly collapse..!”

Someone’s conversation was heard through his hazy consciousness. Maxim quickly regained his senses as if someone had pulled him out of the water.

“A cadet who was training just fine suddenly collapsed, and you don’t know what happened?”
“I don’t know either. We have no choice but to call a healing mage and have a thorough examination to find out more detailed symptoms.”

Maxim blinked his eyes. The place he was lying in was none other than the infirmary. In front of his hospital bed, the bald instructor and the medic were having a heated conversation. When Maxim made a rustling sound as he raised his head, the bald instructor widened his eyes and approached Maxim.

“You’ve regained consciousness!”
“Instructor… I…”

Maxim tried to forcibly raise his upper body but froze in place after looking down at his tracksuit.

Traces of dark blood had flowed all the way down from his neck, completely staining the top of his tracksuit with blood.

“You were training just fine and then suddenly collapsed while vomiting blood. What on earth happened to you?”

The bald instructor carefully asked Maxim.

“I also… don’t know how this happened…”

Maxim turned his head towards the medic. Maxim’s voice was weak and trembling.

“Is it because of the wound?”

The medic frowned at Maxim’s words and shook his head as if he didn’t know.

“I don’t know either. Maxim, can you tell me in detail where and how it hurts?”

Hurts?

Maxim suddenly felt his scar. Strangely, he didn’t feel any pain at all now. And he couldn’t feel his fingers touching the wound either. It felt like that part wasn’t his own body. Maxim hesitated to speak, feeling an ominous premonition rushing over him.

“It doesn’t hurt at all…”

The medic nodded his head as if listening to Maxim’s words.

“From the wound site, not at all…”

Click.

Interrupting Maxim’s words, the door to the infirmary opened. The bald instructor and the medic simultaneously hardened their expressions and turned their heads toward the opened door.

“We’re currently treating an urgent patient, so unless it’s an urgent matter…”

The medic’s words were cut off before they could even reach halfway. Maxim looked at the person who had entered through the door with bewildered eyes.

“Is the cadet named Maxim, Maxim Apart here?”

The bald instructor’s expression distorted terribly.

“Why is the head of the Bening family looking for our cadet?”

Upon hearing those words, an inorganic smile, as if cut from crystal, appeared on the expression of Marquis Leon Bening. Behind him stood one knight guarding the head of the Bening family and one man with blue eyes wearing a monocle.

“I apologize. I have a brief matter to discuss with him, so…”

Maxim’s eyes met Leon’s. Maxim looked at those cold eyes, which showed no emotion at all.

“Could you give us a moment alone?”

Translator’s Corner

I finally have some in stock for my other novel, so I’ll allow donations for bonus chapters here. They will go on later when I can’t do daily uploads.

-Ruminas