Chapter 104 The Reason

On the inside though, he wanted to say that his Blood Blade was a million times more powerful than any of their skills but managed to keep it in. Still it was a fact that these individuals were quite powerful among their peers, quite exceptional if one were to judge them based on their attributes.

Despite how powerful they were, Zavier could have beaten all three of them even if he was on his own. He had that much confidence in his strength at the very least. Fighting against an S rank mage and facing two monsters beyond S rank would give you at least that much.

? But the condition for that was Blood Blade. Zavier would have to use the cursed technique if he wanted to deal with all of them at the same time.

Val had told him before that he should not take out this skill for the sake of the family reputation but Zavier knew that more than the honor of the Adam family, Val was concerned about his health. He did not want Zavier to use such self harming skill again. Though Zavier had understood his heart at the time, he had not pointed it out and had accepted his demand.

Zavier intended to fulfil that promise by any means. Since he could not beat the opponents without unleashing his Blood Blade, he decided to not confront the three of them directly.

Also, from the way Shiranui was panting, Zavier was sure that her stamina and mana were close to depletion which meant she would neither be able to help him out during the fight nor would she be able to protect herself during the fight. Zavier would be too preoccupied to that for her. Therefore, there was only other alternate for the situation.

He had to escape somehow with Shiranui in tow.

But that would require a huge distraction; something large enough to have an impact and something that could act as a screen for them to help them avoid the eyes of the opponents so that they could make a run for it.

Zavier thought a bit before the skeleton of a plan was formulated in his brain.

He urged all the mana to gather towards his hand. At the same time he started absorbing the mana from the surroundings greedily to act as a reinforcement for the spell that he was about to cast.

"Cold Blaze"

The mana gathered for the casting of the skill was so huge that the flame would have burned down everything in the vicinity if Zavier had not focused on the output being more flashy than destructive.

The Cold Blaze was meant to act as a flash bang from his previous world. He wanted to inflict his opponents with a Blind status before breaking into a run. The blindness came with a searing bonus that did not sit well with any of the three attackers.

The three of them shrieked in pain and started rubbing their eyes shouting curses while panicking as if they had lost their eyesight permanently.

Zavier made use of the opportunity to escape with Shiranui in his arms. He carried her in his arms and kept running until he was sure that the opponents would not be able to find them easily.

Even then he took the necessary precautions and took a detour before finally stopping in front of a hollow tree trunk. The trunk was wide enough to accommodate three to four individuals comfortably. Since there were only the two of them, it was a spacious place considering that they only needed it to lay low for a while.

Zavier too was in a similar state to Shiranui. Both of them had expended a lot of mana in order to escape. They both needed to recover the mana that they had lost before they could venture out into the wild again. After all this was not going to be the last battle that they were going to face in this test.

Zavier was lost in thought trying to figure out their next course of action and had completely forgotten the girl in his arms who was hiding her face in her hands. In fact, Shiranui could feel her cheeks burning and knew how bright red her face would have looked to anyone else. At the very least she wanted to hide what she was feeling from Zavier. She didn't want him to find out.

Zavier on the other hand had only been carrying her so she wouldn't get hurt. He was unaware of the feelings that Shiranui was currently trying to hide.

Soon Zavier had finished plotting their next course of action and left the world of his imagination and took a look around him. Only then did he notice the girl that he had been carrying in his arms.

He was about to let go of her but he was surprised when Shiranui held him even tighter than before. She refused to let go of his neck no matter how much he urged her to let go.

"Are you hurt anywhere? Does it hurt when you try to move on your own?"

Shiranui who was still unable to look him in the eye only shook her head in negation at his question. How could she have possible told him that it was not that she couldn't get off but that she didn't want to let go of him.

In the end, she managed to get out some words that described her pure feelings to some extent. Even then the volume of her voice was so low that it couldn't even be called a whisper. Zavier practically had to go inside her mouth in order to make sense of what she was saying.

"I am very comfortable. I would feel more at ease if you keep on holding me like this."

Zavier felt that her demand was quite odd but didn't make a big deal out of it. He thought that she was just being a little paranoid considering that she had been alone for the most part of the test with no one she was able to trust. So he gave her the benefit of doubt and kept on holding her in his arms.

A blissful smile blossomed on Shiranui's face as she kept on trying to trying to hide her burning face.

There was a period of silence in the tree trunk as Zavier got busy trying to recuperate and replenish his mana. Since she had nothing to do as well, Shiranui started to gather some mana as well, or at least she tried.

Shiranui was unable to concentrate even the least bit. How could she? She was in the arms of the person that she couldn't help but look at every minute or so. In such a place, how could she have even thought of concentrating on gathering her strength?

After some time, Shiranui could finally not hold it in together and she asked him the question that had been hounding her all this time. She finally managed to voice it out loud enough for Zavier to hear it. But even then it was only as loud as the squeaking noise made by a little mouse.

"Why did you do it?"

Zavier did hear her but he was unable to understand her question since it was quite an open ended question. He didn't know what she was referring to.

"Why did you change the direction of the attack at the last second when we fought the last time in school?"

This time her voice didn't falter or lose volume and instead she was gaining confidence with each word she spoke in his presence. This question had been hounding her dreams at night ever since and she had been constantly thinking of some way to apologize. Guilt for hitting him with her skill at that time had been eating away at her. She wanted to apologize but had never gotten a chance.

Still she wanted to know the reason Zavier had avoided hurting her at the time.

"I just couldn't bear the thought of hurting a cute girl like you. I would rather have gotten hurt myself before having to hurt you."

Shiranui had been listening intently to him but was unable to register his answer for a moment.

She batted her eyelashes innocently while she gazed at him with eyes filled with fear and hope all jumbled up together.

And that was when it struck her. Out of all the answers, this was something that she had least expected.

The face that had barely cooled down started to heat up like a bun being baked in the oven. She wanted to hide her face so badly but she couldn't just cover her face up in front of Zavier who had been talking to her so honestly.

In fact, Zavier had already learned about her tragic life from Dahila before so he knew how much this girl had suffered already. He didn't want her to wallow in guilt because of him too. Therefore, in order to put her mind at ease he had answered her in a light hearted manner. He knew that Shiranui wanted that answer very badly. Calista had previously hinted at it but he had not realized it at the time that Shiranui was extremely guilty about hurting him.