Chapter 31: Volume I - 30: The Stone

Chapter 31: Volume I - Chapter 30: The Stone

"By the way... who was that girl? Your girlfriend?"

When I saw that Clara asked this curiously with a sly smile on her face, I felt a bit relieved. At least she seems to have gotten over the incident...

"No, she's not, she's just someone from the academy. And I'm surprised you don't recognize her, she's Celine Potenbea."

Clara's eyes widened in surprise at what I said.

"You mean that Potenbea family?"

"Yes."

Clara trembled a little at first when I confirmed her. Then she raised her eyebrows and spoke.

"She came to look at you for a few minutes in the room, even though she was badly injured, I thought you were close."

"Excuse me?"

I'm sure I didn't do anything to get her attention... In fact, I ignored her a lot, so she should have ignored me too. That's how it should have been...

Then why?

Did she feel guilty because she was the cause of the attack? That's the only logical option I can think of.

"Anyway... never mind, she probably felt responsible for the attack. Don't get any silly ideas just yet."

Clara looked at my eyes skeptically for a while, but when she saw that I didn't hesitate one bit, she sighed.

"Fine... so be it."

We talked about useless things for a long time after those words, but I must say I really enjoyed it.

It was much more fun to spend time with her like this, side by side, than talking on the phone through texting. I could have gone on and on, but unfortunately, it had to come to an end.

About an hour after we started talking, the doctor came back into the room and told me that I could be discharged whenever I wanted. So I finally got out of bed, jumped up two or three times, and realized that I was really healed.

The technology of this world is really amazing!

"By the way, what about the fees?"

I asked the doctor after I had collected my general things like my watch. It was clear that I was not being treated normally.

Normally, when someone goes to the hospital, unless they are in a terminal condition, they are just given a simple treatment. In my case, it is quite clear that at least they gave me a potion. Otherwise, it is impossible for my palm and leg, which were badly damaged, to heal so quickly.

"The Potenbea family has paid all expenses as an apology for what happened to you. They also paid an additional twenty thousand wels, if I am not mistaken."

Oh? So not only did she feel responsible and take care of me, but she also paid extra money?

Well... She is certainly more generous than I remember.

"I see."

I sighed deeply and smiled brightly at Clara, who was standing right behind me. n0velusb.c0m

"Let's get out of here."

*******

The first thing we did when we left the hospital was to go to Clara's house. Together we looked at the ads for new houses, went shopping and went sightseeing to our heart's content. The experience at the cemetery was hard to forget, but Clara was handling it well, so I never brought it up.

If she's already getting over it, I'd rather leave it alone.

"What shall we do now?"

Clara asked curiously as we walked out of the movie theater we had entered for a distraction. She had such a bright smile on her face that I couldn't help thinking that I wished I didn't sleep for a whole day.

Curiously I checked the time and couldn't help sighing when I saw that it was late, because I didn't even have an hour left to get out of here.

"I've already booked the train... So, now I have to go back."

Clara's face fell a little, but she kept smiling.

"Okay..."

In this way, her face always remained a little sullen for the rest of the time after she heard I was leaving. Still, she didn't leave my side and even accompanied me to the train station when it was time for me to leave.

It was actually a good feeling.

It was the first time in my twenty-one years of life that I was sad to say goodbye to someone. I didn't want to go to the academy, I wanted to stay with her, but I knew I couldn't do that.

"Don't forget to tell me where you are going when you move. I'll try to visit when I have free time."

I hugged her one last time before finally getting on the train.

Without even realizing it, I had come to think of her as my sister... I had grown so attached to her. I didn't even realize it would be like this, having a family... It was truly magical. Still, I separated her from me.

"See you."

Those were the last words out of my mouth before I got on the train. I smiled bitterly and waved at her.

"See you..."

Just three seconds after I heard Clara's farewell, the train door started to close and I took one last look at her. I memorized her sad gray eyes, and her hair blowing in the wind.

Taking a deep breath, I calmed myself down first and quickly looked for my own seat as the train would be leaving soon.

When I found it, the first thing I noticed was that two middle-aged men were sitting next to me.

Well... I won't have to deal with anything like before, I guess.

Sighing slightly, I took my seat, realizing for a moment that I had nothing to do. So I spent the whole journey shuffling my watch.

*******

When I closed the door to my room, the first thing I did was throw myself into the shower, then I threw on some comfortable clothes and got into bed.

Finally, I had some free time and that means I could finally use what I had bought.

I took a deep breath, prepared myself, and took out of my pocket a dimensional button with a stone worth about half a million wels inside.

I examined it briefly, but it looked no different from the normal ones. Yet there was something really valuable inside...

When I felt I was ready, I broke it by simply transferring mana to it.

The dimensional button shimmered as it turned to dust, and seconds later a mysterious stone with strange patterns on it fell on the bed.

I instantly felt dizzy with the mystical mana emanating from the stone, but I also knew I had to act fast before someone else felt it.

I brought the knife I had just taken from the kitchen to my hand and then took a deep breath.

They make it look like nothing in TV shows and stuff, but cutting myself is a really scary thing...

The knife left a distinct scratch on my finger, and then blood started dripping from the cut. I put my dripping finger on the stone and then, without waiting for a second, I started to transfer mana to it.

Of course, the black market probably already tried this... But there is one thing they don't know. It's a language that no one in this world knows yet...

"Herata, priensa seniteory nahuktakasein itsanse..."

Words came out of my mouth that anyone who heard me would recognize as gibberish, but with every movement of my lips, mana was sucked out of my body like a vacuum, and teal particles appeared in the room.

Ignoring them, I continued to mutter and so the stone began to glow. I felt my muscles slowly begin to ache with the mana being sucked out of my body, I felt tired.

My mana was nearing the bottom in an instant, but seconds before it was completely gone, the transmission suddenly stopped and a smile appeared on my face.

The blood flowing from my finger spread out, following the patterns on the stone, and with the words that came out of my mouth, the particles that had appeared around me suddenly began to be drawn into the stone.

As the particles were sucked in, the stone glowed violently. So much so that after a while I couldn't even look at it.

It is good that the curtains absorb a lot of light... This way almost no light escapes.

The stone continued to glow for a while, so fiercely that it was actually frightening. But then it slowly began to fade. It got less and less bright, and when it disappeared completely, there was no longer a stone.

Instead, there was a male spirit, about fifteen to twenty centimeters tall, floating in the air, with bright green eyes, light green hair, a green but traditional-looking ancient dress, and two pairs of wings, looking at me with raised eyebrows.