CH 100

Swan wasn’t the type of person to worry and care for others. We had gotten close recently, but we weren’t close enough for him to worry this much, I thought. Was Swan some kind of ultra tsundere*? The kind that picked on you but took care of you and worried behind your back.

I thought about it for a moment, but thinking about all of Swan’s misdeeds made me think differently.

“Take a seat.”

Swanhaden tried to calm both his voice and his emotions, but his voice still had a hint of emotion in it. The magic around him felt incredibly unstable. The wind was getting stronger thanks to his emotions.

I didn’t know when he did, but he placed his wine-colored robes on the ground where he was going to sit me down. I put his robe to the side and sat on the dirt.

Swan, who still had a desperate look on his face, held my hand and poured his magic into me through that connection. He was using a type of white magic to check my current state. It was kind of similar to how a doctor would scan their patients’ states.

Cory had finished drawing his circle and transported us to a safe place near school. Then, he stood next to Swan next to a nervous Hylli.

“It’s not a curse.”

After spending a long time examining my state, Swanhaden spoke, relieved. He opened his eyes and looked up to stare at me.

Then, suddenly, he hugged me. Even if he moved away after a few seconds and refused to look at me. Once he finished his check up, Swanhaden immediately released my hand. He ran a bit away from me and hid behind a tree a few meters away as he caught his breath.

Hylli looked towards Swanhaden, who was far away now, and yelled.

“Are you sure she’s fine!”

“Don’t yell next to Shushu, her ears hurt.”

Swan frowned as he regained his usual face. But he wasn’t completely back to normal just yet. He kept staring at me with an uneasy look.

Swan came back to my side and began to speak again.

“You can relax. I checked again and again but it wasn’t an attack-type magic that would harm you.”

This comment was directed towards me, but Hylli looked more at ease by this. But still, he seemed to dislike the idea of black magic as he held onto my hand and tried to rub it off with his fingers again and again. I was a bit surprised as he looked like he was on the verge of tears.

“Thank goodness.”

He raised his head slightly as he spoke to me, voice wavering.

Thank goodness. Hylli muttered again to himself. He removed his hand from mine and stood far away. Then, he caught his breath.

Cory, who had been wordlessly watching me, stood right next to me as he frowned.

“Was it that person I saw earlier…..”

He looked like he was moments away from murder.

“Cory.”

I called to grab his attention. He looked furious.

When he turned to look at me, I rolled up my sleeves slightly to show him the bulging muscles I had from sword training.

Cory just blankly stared at me before he smiled slightly and began to talk about the person he had seen earlier. As he did, now Swan and Hylli began to look furious. It felt like I had barely prevented one explosion only for the other side to catch fire.

I decided to ignore the two and watched as Cory took out a pen and paper and drew something.

What Cory was drawing was the circle that had drawn itself above the back of my hand. It had been a split second, but Cory had memorized it and kept it in his head.

Sadly, Cory had just seen it for a short moment so there was a limit to his memories. I drew the hazy parts that he couldn’t remember instead. It was lucky that I had also memorized a portion of it.

“Should I request Yves to get some more information about this?”

Cory muttered to himself as he stared at the completed circle.

“Shushu, I’ll figure out what kind of spell this is. Tell me if your body feels off.”

I nodded halfheartedly. I was going to go and try and figure it out when I got back too. But uh, I felt my body getting lighter and my magic getting stronger from earlier. Should I say anything about that too?

I paused for a moment before deciding not to talk about it.

Because of our negative experiences with black magic, everyone seemed extremely discomfited by the current situation. Honestly, I would’ve been nervous too. Everyone’s check ups said that I was okay, but the nervous air seemed to stay.

Then, I ended up sneezing due to pollen in the air. That was my final mistake.

Swanhaden carried me in his arms as he ran.

“Let’s go to Yulinelle.”

“Swan, heal!”

“Let’s make her take any potion we have!”

The three of them, who had just finally calmed down, started making a ruckus all over again. I begged them, both hands together, to believe that I was completely fine.

After subjugation, I ate dinner and made my way to head back to my dorm.

Today was a really hectic day, so I just wanted to go and sleep already. I was walking fast to my dorms when I stumbled upon Cory and Yves talking to each other. Yves, who was quietly listening to what Cory had to say, seemed to grow more and more angry until he listened more and seemed to sigh in relief.

They were standing near the dorms, so the more I walked the clearer their conversation was.

“So, you want me to look up records of black magic and those involved in it?”

“Yes.”

Yves seemed deep in thought before he rolled his silver eyes and spoke again.

“The DuBois marquis seemed to be researching black magic and the Augran Mountain from a long time ago too.”

“…….my father?”

Cory seemed surprised when the topic of the DuBois marquis came up. His surprised expression soon morphed into one of bitterness.

“Anyway, I’ll ask the DuBois marquis or the people in the royal family and dig around, so you take care of Shushu.”

Yves said before he tapped Cory’s forehead with the back of hand and turned around.

I was just about to go away because I didn’t know what would happen if I bumped into Yves, but our eyes ended up landing on each other.

Chapter 14. Dream

I ended up meeting Yves’ eyes when he turned to look away from Cory.

I was trying to get out of the place without anyone noticing, but I was caught by Yves. He was about to quietly call my name before he began to walk over to me, face slightly stiff. Cory, who was right next to him, just stared at me.

“Shushu, where are you going?”

I instinctively tried to walk faster to the dorm when Yves’ eyes began to take a more predatory light. But my arm was soon caught by him.

Yves wordlessly looked down at me. I awkwardly tried to smile.

“I’m going to my dorm. I ate dinner and I’m stuffed, so it’s time to sleep.”

“…….”

Yves, who had wordlessly just continued to stare down at me, tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear with his long fingers.

Yves put his hand on my shoulder and said nothing, as if deep in thought. He just kept sweeping his thumb on my cheek. I was about to shove his hand away but stayed still because of the intimidating aura he was emitting.

Yvnes, who had kept quiet for a while, soon sighed deeply and pulled my shoulder towards me into a gentle hug. His hug began gentle but got tighter and tighter as he put more strength into the hug.

“I heard from Cory.”

“…..”

“You got hit by black magic. Even if it wasn’t attack-based.”

Apparently the two of them were talking about what had happened during subjugation. Yves’ voice sounded full of worry.

He seemed to want to talk about something else before he decided not to say it. Yves sighed before talking again, voice calmer than earlier.

“What was on the note?”

I didn’t tell Cory or any of the others about what the note had said. It was the same for Yves. I lied and said that the note had burned itself before I even got the chance to read what it said.

Until I had climbed the tree and held the note in my hand, Swan, Cory, and Hylli didn’t even know that it had existed. They had only seen the note when I had gotten back on the ground.

If they had eyes, they would see the note. The fact that they hadn’t seen it until after I discovered it meant that the person who wrote the message wanted only me to read what it said. If they were able to fool Cory and Swan with magic, then that meant that they could bother us, me included, in any way they wanted.

The contents of the note were incredibly simple, but I decided to keep it to myself.

When I kept my mouth shut, Yves looked at me and seemed to think about something before speaking first.

“Do you remember when the guild leader was threatening your life?”

Yves quietly spoke as he hugged me. His voice was gentle but there was a tinge of anger in it.

I nodded at his question.

“That was when I first realized that I thought of you as someone more important than myself. I didn’t know that I would kill the leader just like that. I hadn’t known anything about life other than revenge until then.”

As Yves began to talk about the past and fell into his memories, I couldn’t help but think of the time I helped his revenge too. We had truly gone to the end of it until it had ended, just like that. It felt like it had all ended in vain. That he didn’t want to see me bleeding because of the leader.

And apparently, Yves had given up on revenge the moment the leader had talked about basically killing me and using me for decoration. I had known that he had taken a liking towards me, but it felt really out of character for him to act like that when he had been completely rational.

I was still curious about it, even after years had passed. I had never been such an important person to someone who wasn’t related to me by blood. We weren’t lovers or anything, but for him to care for me that much.

I had thought about it long and hard, but I felt like Yves, who had nobody else to rely on, thought of me like a younger sister.

As Yves continued to stare at the opposite direction with me in his arms, he soon began speaking again.

“If you’re ever in danger or you die, what do you think I’m going to do?”

He pulled away from his arms. A smile full of danger and foreshadowing stretched on his lips. It was the same dangerous smile that I had seen when I first met Yves.

“Always be careful, Shushu.”

Hurry in and get some rest. Yves smiled brightly, pressed a gentle peck on my forehead, and pat me on my back.

Was this the second time he had given me a kiss?

I furiously wiped the spot where Yves’ lips met my face and glared up at him. Yves just smiled slyly.

“…..”

When I got away from Yves, there stood Cory, who had been watching the entire thing.

T/N: bet cory’s just like “?????? why do i suddenly feel like i’m third-wheeling” poor kiddo

happy chapter 100! we have slightly more than half to go!