Vol 1 Chapter 2.2 (2/2)

But. There are still a lot of injured people. I want to heal them. This is what I can do.

「Cyan-san.」(Reene)

「Don’t push yourself too much. Let’s rest at that place, alright?」(Cyan)

「Cyan-san. Will it be alright  if I will leave the rest to you?」(Reene)

「Reene?」(Cyan)

I looked at my surroundings.

『Heal』

I diffused about 30 MP worth of Heal towards all the injured patients in the room.

The world is spinning. I feel like throwing up.

「Reene! Stop it!」(Cyan)

I heard Cyan-san’s panicked voice.

『Increase Self-Recovery Rate』[10]

This time, I also used about 30 MP. The bruises, scratches, cuts, sprains and swelling would quickly be healed.

Un. I have done a satisfactory job. With this, I won’t hate myself.

Just when I thought this, it seems as if a fuse in my head had snapped, and everything in front of me turned white and then I lost my consciousness.

✧✦✧✦

Interlude ~ Cyan ~

Cyan put Reene to rest at a house billeted[11] for the current subjugation force and asked the village women to took care of her.

“My Goodness. Is it this girl doesn’t know how frightening mana exhaustion can be?”

Cyan bit his lips.

「We swore to protect you with our life. That’s why Reene, please lend us your strength.」

It was what Van had said back in Azure Forest. Of course, Cyan also had the same feeling.

Although he felt a bit uneasy about Reene’s ident.i.ty, her usage of protection membrane allowed the subjugation this time to come out as victorious. Because of this, they took her in, even if she was only a civilian. So of course, they would guarantee her safety.

A Knight’s oath is sacred. So Cyan and Van will certainly protect Reene, but in the end, it was they who were saved. Furthermore, it was the girl herself that made the Knights almost break their oath.

Reene did all her best with her small body. Perhaps she had never seen so many injured people before. When she first saw the brutal battle with the huge magic beast, she was frightened. Even with a pallid face, she did what she could do and even overdid it. A young Healer who didn’t know the meaning of moderation.

“I need to lecture her later.” while talking to himself, Cyan entered the Village Chief’s house that had been borrowed as the force’s headquarters.

「This is Cyan. I am coming in.」(Cyan)

In the room, starting from the Second Prince, the commanders of the subjugation forces were all present.

The Second Prince, the Blue Knight Order Leader, the First Division Commander, the Chief Magician, and then Van, the Second Division Commander.

「How’s Reene?」(Van)

Van quickly greeted him.

「There is no danger to his life. She is still unconscious, but I made her drink a blue dewherb potion.」(Cyan)

「She really is a reckless girl. A child should know her limits, right?」(Van)

The way he speaking was rude, but it was clear that Van was worried for Reene.

「I have heard the story from Van that the girl’s ident.i.ty is not really clear. What about your opinion, Cyan?」(Leonhart)

Cyan answered the Second Prince, Leonhard’s questions.

「Although she appears young, she has an refined way of talking and thinking, so we can infer that she has received a high level of education. Her skin and hair are carefully groomed, while her hand is tender and shows no sign of knowing any manual labor. Her garments’ tailoring quality is also surprisingly high. She has a family name, but it doesn’t sound like that of a n.o.ble’s, but it’s impossible that she is just a mere commoner.」(Cyan)

「That girl’s protection spell is something that very easily surpa.s.sed the protection spell that the six of us, all professional magicians, frantically constructed. The magic operating principle is completely different from the spells that we know, a chant that we couldn’t understand. Furthermore, her healing magic that could heal the hollowed out bone and meat with only one spell, we have also never heard of something like this before. Her magic is not something normal. Perhaps she is from a Magic Race (Mazoku)?」(Chief Magician)

The Chief Magician’s question was justified. They were magicians that had served for many years in the military, so their protection magic was really strong and had saved the lives of the Blue Knight Order numerous times. Even when they held such skills, Reene, who made a strong extensive protection barrier from the outset, had completely dumbfounded them.

「She is not from a Magic Race. I confirmed this with Gangr-san the Dwarf. Members of a Magic Race could recognize those from other Magic Races. So, Reene is, without a doubt, a human.」(Cyan)

Actually, when he first saw the power of Reene’s spell, he thought that she was from a Magic Race. However, it was denied by the Forest Guardian.

「Then, is she a “Daughter of Gaia”?」(Chief Magician)

「Perhaps.」(Cyan)

「However, this is too strange. Not only her ident.i.ty is completely unknown, but also her uncanny magic power. Is she the Empire’s spy? It was also strange that she appeared in Azure near Güselbahn[12].」(1st Div Commander)

The First Division Commander showed his doubt. The timing was unfortunate. It had been three years since the tension with the neighboring country Güselbahn had begun. Even now, not only there were skirmishes at the borders, but it had been discovered that they had slipped in a spy and planned to a.s.sa.s.sinate Prince Leonhart.

In a country where magic flourishes, you couldn’t tell how strong someone solely from their appearance. Even a 10 year old girls that you could find anywhere might be an a.s.sa.s.sin and even an infant with high magic power could kill people.

「She has too many gaps to be a spy. Furthermore, she doesn’t know too many things. I could grasp this during these two days of being together with her. She didn’t know how to use a hearth, couldn’t ride a horse, didn’t know the names of villages or cities, and she also didn’t know anything about Magic Races or Magic Beasts. However, she has high intelligence. I am wondering what kind of life she has had until now.」(Cyan)

「Perhaps she was secluded inside some temple and revered as a Healer?」(Order Leader)

The Order Leader’s reasoning was quite convincing. A Healer is valuable, so there were many cases where a powerful Healer was employed by a temple.

「But for a skilled person to be recklessly exhausting her mana is too unthinkable. Has she also never had any experience as a Healer before?」(Chief Magician)

When the Chief Magician pointed this out, the First Division Commander said the next possibility.

「Then, she was confined in a home by her family who was afraid of her strong magic?」(1st Div Commander)

「However, that girl isn’t gloomy at all. She also has an independent way of thinking. Doesn’t this mean that she was raised in an environment that was really different from something like that?」(Van)

Cyan nodded at Van’s answer. The Chief Magician spoke out once more.

「A Healer is valuable. If she was found by the country, then she would have been taken from her family without any discussion. If she was taken to the black market, she would fetch a high price. So that her strong magic power wouldn’t be abused, her family concealed her while living along with her. How’s this?」(Chief Magician)

Although it was not a morally right conduct, it was a sad truth that a magician with strong magic power being sold in the black market wasn’t that unusual.

Bound by a submission contract, brought to the battlefield according to their master’s order and then thrown away after being used just like that. The Chief Magician had seen many Magicians that were treated like this.

「Then, she was kidnapped after being found out?」(1st Div Commander)

「I also have to agree that if she was abducted because of her skill as a magician and her magic power. Even if she was alone, she could turn the whole battle progress upside down. So any country would wish to have her.」(Order Leader)

「Then, how could she have escaped? She said she that didn’t remember, right?」(Leonhart)

Cyan answered Leonhart’s question.

「Reene said 『When I regained my consciousness. I was in the highway in front the forest.』. When we arrived at Azure Forest, we noticed that there was a new scorch mark in the ground near the highway in front of the forest. There wasn’t any sign of a battle, but the gra.s.s had been completely burned. The kidnappers might have been dragged into some kind of trouble. Or perhaps her magic power ran amok and ended up burning the kidnappers. With her magic power, she could burn a person without leaving any traces.」(Cyan)

By the way, that place was the place that was burned by the flame emission when Reene was practicing her magic. Of course, there was no one in this room who knew about it.

「In any case, it’s the truth that we have been saved by that girl’s power. Although, we still can’t discard the possibility that she is a spy, her power needs to be placed at our side. If she was taken by Güselbahn, then the war situation could become even more dangerous.」(Leonhart)

「We need to investigate this a bit longer. To be honest, we couldn’t let a suspicious person get close to Your Highness.」(1st Div Commander)

「Then, let her have a talk with me…… I wouldn’t interrogate her. So can Van and Cyan stop making those worried faces? Furthermore, we would honor that girl’s opinion about coming to our side. It has been a long time since a Daughter of Gaia appeared. If we did anything offensive to her, the ground would shake. Also, a magician like her deserves better than being used and then thrown away. Furthermore, both of you have completely supported that girl.」(Leonhart)

Leonhart looked at Cyan as if he had found something amusing.

「Because we had asked her to accompany us to this place and swore to protect her safety. We have a duty to protect her until she returns to the city. Furthermore, she had accompanied us for two days, so we believe that she is a trustworthy person.」(Cyan)

「Ah, I thought the same, too. I believe in Reene. However, if she really is a spy, then that means that it was our carelessness. If by any chance, she is someone that could bring harm to Your Highness………At that time, I will kill her.」(Van)

Cyan also nodded at Van’s words.

Cyan was a Knight. He would go as far to kill anyone who dared to lift a sword against Leonhart.

However, Reene had smoothly entered their hearts during these two days.

Reene is concealing something, there is no doubt about this. However, the appearance of her earnest att.i.tude towards everything and the various expressions she made as she honestly reacted to anything, they couldn’t simply believe that Reene was someone who deceived Van and Cyan with an ill will. There was also her dangerous trait of easily trusting other people.

Even though she was in a room together with two unknown men, she quickly fell asleep without being vigilant. Although it was a common situation in a lodging, normally a woman wouldn’t be able to sleep because of the nervousness.

Perhaps until recently, she had a sheltered life in a place that completely lacked any threats to her life.

It would be nice if Reene’s secret wouldn’t have any bad results to Cyan, Van, and especially Leonhart. This was what Cyan hoped. If he could, he didn’t want to do something like killing Reene.

◇◇◇◇◇

It’s dark.

The smell of plants. An opening inside a forest. A single tree stood there.

The tree that grew towards the sky is overflowing with mana. Its thick trunk is glowing faintly. The divine mana that is hardly tainted and full of elegance, inspired a sense of awe at the people who looked at it.

A~re? Where is this? I feel I have seen this before.

「We meet again.」(???)

I heard a calm voice, so I looked up. There is a tall person standing beside me. His long dark hair is softly swaying. His purple irises looked straight at me.

Ah, I know this person. I have met with him before. The Handsome Purple Eyes.

Suddenly, this person’s eyes made me want to cry from a feeling of longing to see. As if the deepest part of my heart was trying to say something like “we have finally met again”.

「Thou are……」(Purple Eyes)

He reached out his hand towards me while trying to say something, but unexpectedly the Purple Eyes shook with uneasiness.

「Even if I touch thee…… Please don’t disappear.」(Purple Eyes)

That’s right. I have met with him inside a dream before. At that time, I also quickly awakened.

I also wanted to ask. Where is this place? Who are you[13]? Why am I longing to see you like this?

That’s why, I reached out to his hand, while hoping that I wouldn’t awaken.

I touched his hand that had suddenly stopped before touching my cheek and guided that hand to touch my cheek. His long fingers that touched my cheek are chilly and make me tremble slightly.

「I have been waiting.」(Purple Eyes)

When I wanted to answer, “me too”, once again my vision was enveloped by darkness.

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