CH 56

“Now that we have the circle, should we try it out?”

The long-distance teleportation circle was a difficult task, even for Shuraina. The sense of accomplishment she felt when she succeeded was difficult to express in words. Her entire body itched with the need to try it out.

“Then, just as a small test, should we try going to the training hall and back?”

“Then I’ll wait at the training hall for you Shushu!”

Shuraina held a cheap magic stone in her grasp as she stood up. Hestia baked some cookies for Shuraina, who had been focused on her long-distance teleportation circle. Hestia took most of the cookies and ran to the training hall to greet Shuraina, who would arrive there soon.

Shuraina changed the magic circle into lines, then enlarged it. She covered the magic circle onto her body and used the stone. In an instant, a bright light engulfed Shuraina before disappearing.

“Shushu?”

Hestia arrived at the training hall and waited for Shuraina, but she didn’t arrive for a long, long time.

Shuraina had disappeared.

“…..eugh.”

Shuraina had used teleportation magic and had arrived at a location that she didn’t know of. She had been successful with teleporting last time with a practice circle, so she had assumed that a more elaborate circle wouldn’t be a problem.

If she had successfully teleported to the training hall, Hestia would’ve been waiting for her. But she wasn’t. The training hall should have been bright from all of the magical items installed here and there, but wherever Shuraina was, it was completely dark.

“………..the smell of blood.”

The smell of blood filled the room in the dark, foreign place. The metallic smell of it reeked in the small location.

Shuraina had never smelled blood in such a thick, concentrated smell like this before. She swallowed nervously. She might have just landed herself in a much more dangerous location than she would’ve liked.

Shuraina held onto her throbbing head and looked around to figure out where she was. It was so dark that she squinted to see better. She soon got used to the darkness and started to see what was in the room.

Shuraina had arrived at someone’s room. She could see a small, simple bed and a desk made of wood. Once she began to get used to the darkness, she began to first see the shapes of items, then the color of those items. When she saw the colors, Shuraina couldn’t help but fall backwards in surprise.

The furniture in the room was covered in blood. Shuraina fell on her butt.

But as soon as she landed on her butt, Shuraina had to get up and begin to prepare to fight.

“Ugh!”

It was because somebody aggressively attacked her from behind.

Shuraina felt the murderous anger behind her. She took out her dagger attached to her hip and blocked the attack. The thing that had flown her way was a piece of a broken plate. The sharp piece was definitely dangerous. It would’ve been a huge problem if she didn’t block it.

The moment she blocked the plate, a child ran towards her.

The child who had run towards her had hair that was so silver that it was almost white, but it was so soaked in blood that it was almost crimson. The child pressed Shuraina to the ground and drew the broken plate to her neck. The broken plate pressed down onto Shuraina’s neck and left a scar.

The child pressed the plate and spoke to Shuraina.

“……what are you.”

Jewel eyes that looked like they were mocking other peole stared down at her.

Shuraina looked back at Swanhaden, who was threatening her. She was briefly stunned by his continued attacks and murderous intent, but was flabbergasted at the child in front of her when she could see him more clearly.

Swanhaden’s skin was brutally cut here and there. It wasn’t just cuts. There were also marks showing that he had been beaten and of injuries that had reopened, along with skin that had been ripped. Seeing his bones had been twisted, it seemed that he had bone injuries as well. The child didn’t have a single part of his body that was okay. Some of the injuries were so deep that she could see a hint of bone.

Shuraina shoved the bloody Swanhaden away and took out a bag that she carried inside of her dimensional pocket at all times. Then, she began to throw up inside of the bag.

“Bleeeeeegh…… Eugh……… Ueeeeegh.”

“…….”

She knew that it was rude, so she tried not to puke but couldn’t. His injuries were just too horrible to look at.

Swanhaden’s injuries weren’t, couldn’t, be from accidents. There was no way that he had received these scars if somebody didn’t purposefully tear, rip, cut into his skin and break his bones. Shuraina had lived a normal life until now. It was expected of her to react to negatively.

Whenever she saw a cruel or horrible scene, she couldn’t help but remember the horrible memories of her past. The memories of seeing her past life’s parents as a ripped, torn apart corpse. The corpses she had seen at that time were so horribly damaged that she couldn’t imagine the bodies in front of her as her warm, loving parents. And Swanhaden’s injuries were even worse.

She continued to throw up for a while. Swanhaden just watched Shuraina with cold, dead eyes.

Shuraina barely calmed down after breathing in and out, in and out for some time. She looked up to see Swan. He was colder than a sheet of ice. The child’s empty jewel eyes didn’t have even a bit of emotion.

“Eugh, sorry. I must have overeaten during lunch and dinner. And you just ran at me, so I was surprised and I just…..”

Shuraina continued to lay out excuse after excuse, feeling horrible about throwing up after seeing Swanhaden’s injuries. She tried her best to avoid seeing his injuries. She continued speaking, focusing her sight on Swanhaden’s eyes. She was so surprised that she spoke casually.

Shuraina grabbed at her hair and tried her best to calm down. Seeing the bed, closet, desks and other furniture, this unfamiliar room must be Swanhaden’s room. This scary, aggressive boy was just wary because somebody just popped into their home, and was just trying to stay safe. She had to rush to explain why she was here. If he didn’t lower his guard, she was going to die there.

“Where is this? I was trying to use my teleportation circle to get to the training hall, but there must have been an error in the middle.”

“…..”

The excuse she gave Swanhaden in a casual manner didn’t work. He just tilted his head with empty eyes and looked for an opportunity to kill her. If he wasn’t just exhausted because of his extensive injuries, she would’ve died immediately.

But Swan couldn’t mess with Shuraina right now. At this moment in time, she was stronger than him. Swan, who had realized that he couldn’t do anything to her at the moment, just shot Shuraina a cold glare. The expression on his face just said “Hurry up and leave.”

“I’ll just stay here until my magic recovers. I don’t have enough magic to go back.”

Swan just shot her an annoyed look. But even though he was annoyed, he couldn’t refute anything. He had no energy to do anything at the moment. The bones in his hands were broken, and there were so many deep injuries in his body that he couldn’t move without sore pain running through his body. The only reason he was able to stay conscious was his natural healing magic.

He thought about throwing Shuraina out the window, but decided to let her be because he didn’t have the strength to do so. Seeing her reaction, it did look like it had been an accident too. Swanhaden turned his body away from Shuraina and laid down on the floor.

“Is this your room?”

“…..”

He had relaxed his breathing because he had wanted to sleep, but Shuraina thought he was going to die and began to speak.

“Anyway, did you eat dinner? I have cookies, do you want some?”

“…..”

“Is there any water here? You and the room are both bloody, can’t you clean it?”

“….”

“……you’re not dead, right? You’re just sleeping?”

Shuraina didn’t want to see anyone die in front of her and kept talking. She talked more and more from her fear, shock, and pity.

Swanhaden responded half-heartedly, still turned around. He opened his eyes slightly.

“If you don’t want to die here, shut up. My head’s ringing.”

‘kay. Shuraina quietly closed her mouth. But, you can’t even kill me in your current state. Shuraina quietly muttered to herself. She hugged her knees and sat across from Swanhaden. Then, she quietly watched him.

A small, pale boy was laying on the floor, bloodied back facing her. The floor had dirt and dust on it that stuck to his injuries. It looked like it would hurt. Also, looking at him all rolled on the floor like a shrimp looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Shuraina wondered and wondered. Should she butt in or not? Should she help or not? Should she push or not? She stayed quiet before carefully asking.

“….wouldn’t it be more comfortable for you to lay on the bed?”

It seemed that Swan wasn’t completely asleep just yet. He responded a moment later.

“I can’t go all the way there.”

“Because you’re out of strength?”

“…..yeah.”

His raw voice responded. He coughed twice, both bloody, before inhaling painfully.

“Should I help you?”

“Shut up.”

Shuraina just looked at Swanhaden, who was refusing any help, before deciding to ignore him and just help him anyway. His arms were all raw so she sat him up by holding him by his torso. When she found that she didn’t have enough strength to fully raise him up, Shuraina used all of the magic that had restored itself to increase her strength. As expected, Swanhaden threw a fit as he refused, but he soon gave up and accepted Shuraina’s help.

Shuraina dragged Swanhaden towards the bed.

“…..you smell like puke. Gross.”

Swanhaden looked at Shuraina who was struggling to drag him to the bed as he spoke.

She had puked earlier, so it was obvious that she would smell like it. Shuraina didn’t care about his words and just responded in kind.

“You smell like blood and pus. Gross.”

Swanhaden quietly listened to her words before raising his hands and dragging his blood across her face. Shuraina thought about retaliating at his mean actions before letting it go. When he rubbed his hands across her face, she could feel the loose skin. She was worried.

When Shuraina dragged Swan near his bed, he shoved Shuraina to the side. Thanks to that, Shuraina once again landed on her butt as she fell.