CH 15

It was then that his nose began bleeding. Nathan roughly wiped his nose as usual, but his nose didn’t stop bleeding. It looked like someone turned the faucet on. The dripping blood spilled like water. Nathan was taken aback by the unusual situation. As he became distracted, the magic circle drawn in the air broke and disappeared.

He didn’t even know that the wand in his hand was falling to the floor. Even as he hurriedly covered his nose with his hand, the blood overflowed between his fingers. Nathan’s mouth, clothes, and hands were covered in blood—not to mention the state of his nose and the taste of blood in his mouth. He couldn’t hold his breath. When he coughed, blood spitted out at the same time.

“Ugh.”

The continuous flow of blood stifled his breath. It was hard to breathe. Nathan gasped. He opened his mouth to breathe, but his mouth was full of blood.

His vision flickered rapidly. The whole world was dyed white. Obviously, he had his eyes open, but he couldn’t see anything. It was just all white. His ears kept ringing. The ‘beep’ sound was creepy. He had a cold sweat. The voices of people and the sound of footsteps running towards him could be heard in the distance. His stomach was feeling nauseous. He had a stomachache. His hands trembled. No, his whole body was shaking.

That was all Nathan remembered.

* * *

“You idiot! When I told you to try, I didn’t mean to overwork your body!”

Melkiel threw away his usual polite way of speaking and got angry. Nathan glanced at Melkiel. Nathan was very upset. He was scolded for trying because he was told to try. Where he lived, no one said anything about this much, so he was just puzzled.

‘If it was Korea, no one would have cared about a nosebleed…’

He didn’t know why he was angry. Honestly, he didn’t know why he was being scolded, but Nathan was wary of Melkiel. After that, the speech continued, but not many words remained in Nathan’s mind.

Melkiel frowned as if Nathan’s thoughts were reflected in his expression. With a sigh, he decided to take special measures.

“…It doesn’t seem like you want to reflect on yourself. If that’s the case, for the time being, Student Nathan will be banned from classrooms, libraries, and gymnasiums.”

“Pardon?!”

Nathan jumped up in surprise and collapsed onto the bed with a groaning sound.

“You need some rest. Do you know how messed up your body is? You must be feeling it.”

Nathan woke up three days after he spilled blood and passed out in the gym. It was said that a lack of nutrition was combined with lack of sleep, overworking himself, and body aches. Even now, he was still throbbing all over his body as if he had been beaten. His stomach also hurt and it felt like his heart was clumped together.

“Bu-but still! Then, I will be left behind…!”

How could he catch up! He tried so hard and managed to catch up, so now he said not to take classes! There was nothing crueller than that. Nathan’s face was distorted by injustice.

“Don’t worry too much, I’ll give you the supplementary classes as much as I can. If you want, I’ll adjust the class of another professor as well. With the midterm exams coming up, it’s Nathan himself who’s overdoing it.”

“But—!”

“There are no ‘buts’. Think about your body. I hope you’ve learned something from this incident. Of course trying is important, but you don’t seem to see your own efforts. You worked very hard, you tried, and got results. Professor Pan even praised you. Your efforts are commendable, but what should be scolded has to be scolded—that way, you won’t repeat the same mistakes.”

“……”

The blanket held in his hand wrinkled. Melkiel’s firm voice could not get any sadder. Nathan didn’t want to be praised, but he hoped that because he worked harder than anyone else, his efforts could be recognized.

“There is no point in running without knowing the limits of your body. This is a mistake that young students often make. Look at Student Nathan’s physical condition now. Look at how dangerous it is to use your mana with an overworked body.”

Then what was Nathan supposed to do? Has anyone ever scolded him like this? As if young in body and in spirit, Nathan’s mind was just saddened and wronged in this situation.

Deureureuk—

Then a woman with short, soft, light brown hair and round orange eyes entered the infirmary. She was a pretty familiar face to Nathan.

“…Professor Matilda has come?”

“Oh my, Professor Melkiel. Were you picking on the patient while I was away?”

“……”

She smiled softly, but it was full of warning. So Melkiel licked his lips, sighed, and turned around.

“I still have something to say, but I’ll stop for the sake of Nathan’s body. I’ll talk to you later. Never, ever push yourself too hard. Take a rest.”

“Go home safely.”

“See you later.”

There was silence for a moment as Melkiel left the infirmary. Nathan was still unhappy and his body ached. Matilda, who approached his bedside, asked.

“How is your body?”

“…it hurts a little.”

“Oh, would you like me to give you some more painkillers?”

“Um, I don’t think it’s that bad.”

He didn’t seem to think it was enough to take medicine. It was still tolerable. So Nathan gently shook his head. Matilda stared at Nathan for a moment. For a man who had slept for three days, Nathan’s face was still haggard—his eye bags were dark and his lips were dry. Unbeknownst to Nathan, he had a nosebleed while sleeping, staining his pillows and bed sheets with blood.

“Doesn’t it feel like your heart area is clumped together?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Mana circulates through the heart with the air. It basically wraps around the heart, but it runs through the blood. It’s not good for your heart if you overdo it. It’s even more so when you’re already in poor health. You don’t want to shorten your life, do you?”

Matilda then grabbed Nathan’s hand. A bright light emanated from her fingertips. Her gripping hand was warm.

“…divine power doesn’t work well, either.”

“Oh, you said that before.”

It happened when Nathan suffered from gastritis because of Remburton. She tried to heal him with her divine powers, but it didn’t work well and eventually prescribed him medication.

“I looked it up and found that it is not common, but it does happen occasionally. Those whose bodies do not take in divine powers… Of course, there are people who don’t accept divine power very well, but usually not to this extent, so the treatment method and the question of why you’re like this has yet to be resolved… But you’re not particularly weird, so don’t worry too much. Even though I have divine powers, I learned medicine and herbal medicine too, so I’ll be able to

help you.”

Here, healing was the realm of the divine.

Because God was real, the divine power was strong and God’s power was clearly proven to be real. The priests of the temple were all people with divine power. Divine power was slightly different from magic. It was the divine power to purify negativity. Therefore, it was no exaggeration to say that it was specialized in curing disease and healing wounds. Of course, though divine healing was available, much of the public did not partake in it (물론 의원이 전혀 없는 것은 아니었지만 그들은 대부분 평민을 위해 존재했다). Due to the fact that it cost a lot of money, there was a strong public opinion that divine healing was reserved for those of blue blood (TN: 푸른 피를 위한. Blue blood here meant “noble” or “aristocrat”). Therefore, nobles and people in authority were the only ones treated by priests with divine powers.

Matilda was a high-ranking priest sent to the academy as a member of the temple. Thanks to this, commoners entering the academy could easily receive treatment with divine power.

Aurora Academy was a place where nobles and commoners were mixed. Although the number of nobles was much greater, the number of commoners was not small. This was because only students with excellent skills could enter the academy based on their ability. In fact, Nathan’s position was a bit subtle in that sense.

Students usually entered the academy starting from elementary school. In other words, it was said that students were enrolled at the age of 8 to10. So ‘Nathan’ might have been better than his peers when he was young. But it seemed that the talent didn’t keep up with age. He had talent as a child, but was caught up to by the children around him, and eventually fell behind.

The reason why Nathan insisted in the ill-fitting Swordsmanship Department was because Norbert Barony consisted of swordsmen. That’s why he didn’t even think about other departments. His parents also graduated from the Swordsmanship Department, so he thought he would do the same. Thus, he chose swordsmanship even though his body was not fit for it.

He could tell from the conversation he had with Matilda during their first meeting that ‘Nathan’ had been going to and from the infirmary as if it were his own home since he was a child because of the unsuitable department. It was a very embarrassing situation to meet Matilda, who knew Nathan, in her infirmary.