Chapter 41

Chapter 41

—Air raid alert. Air raid alert. Visitors in the building, please evacuate to the nearest exit. I repeat...

The area was covered in smoke that seeped in through the soot-blackened ceilings and a newly made hole in the wall. Screams rang out everywhere and sirens blared in the air, but instead of intensifying it, the combined noise cleared Se-Hoon’s dizzy head.

“Cough, cough...”

When he got up and looked around, the luxurious room and fat pigs had vanished without a trace. They must have turned to dust and disappeared with the explosion.

I almost died...

Had he not worn layers of armor just in case, he would have been turned to dust without leaving a single bone fragment behind, just like those pigs.

Taking off his half-melted armor, he walked toward the hole in the wall to look outside. Black smoke and flames were rising from various places. It seemed that all of the surrounding buildings, which were owned by them, had been attacked simultaneously.

“I swear I’ll never make a deal with those bastards again...”

He only came here because they said they would give him a good deal on hard-to-find materials, but he should have known better than to get involved with those with shady backgrounds.

Staring down at the burning view, he was cursing alone when suddenly, he sensed someone’s presence above him and looked up.

Isn’t that...

The person’s dirty silver hair ran down to their shoulders, and a gas mask covered their entire face. They were dressed in a rider suit with a black leather jacket, and judging from the curves of their body, they seemed to be a woman.

At first glance, she seemed to just be a delinquent in some strange cosplay. However, from how she was floating starkly in the air above the devastated downtown, it was clear that she was the cause of this catastrophe.

“...Talk about being unlucky.”

Thinking the situation couldn’t get any worse, he frowned as she approached him, stepping through the air as if on invisible stairs.

With each step, she constructed an intangible form of mana beneath her. It seemed she would be a formidable foe from how she was creating those steps without any casting or incantations.

She must be A-rank... no, perhaps even higher?

He backed away and prepared for battle, but when she entered through the hole in the wall, she just stared at him.

“What are you looking at?” she asked.

And with those rude words, she turned her head and walked into the building, ignoring him completely.

That was Se-Hoon’s first encounter with the terrorist who attacked Manhattan, New York—Luize Valente.

***

“...What?”

Luize frowned, seemingly displeased by his greeting.

For some reason, despite her frail appearance which suggested that there was no reason for him to be afraid, he instinctively felt intimidated by her gaze and tone.

Feeling the imposing demeanor, which was similar to what she had pre-regression, Se-Hoon skillfully responded by saying, “I said, what are you looking at.”

Instead of anger, she felt perplexed seeing his calm gaze.

Normally, most people would panic when she snapped at them like that. So how was this guy not even blinking an eye?

This sort of feels... familiar....

To be more precise, it felt as if he was familiar with her.

Caught up in the inexplicable tickling sensation, she just stared at him with a strange expression. Seeing this, Se-Hoon clicked his tongue.

“You only know how to scowl and not how to apologize.”

“What?”

“My arm hurts like hell... tsk. Forget it.”

He shook his head and passed by, which finally made her recall her actions. She had burst out the door and collided directly with his chest and injured arm. And then she blurted out “Ah... fuck...” before saying anything else.

Although Se-Hoon was also pretty prickly, she realized that it was her own rude behavior that had led to this situation. Messing up her hair in irritation, she chased after Se-Hoon, shouting, “Hey! Wait a minute! I just need a... ah, crap...”

However, Se-Hoon continued to walk away without acknowledging her. He wasn’t walking particularly fast, but with the sedative still affecting her, she couldn’t catch up at all.

Realizing she might lose him, she reflexively extended her hand to draw up mana.

“Chain... ack?!”

And she immediately felt pain piercing through her right hand and neck, making her collapse to her knees.

“Ah... fuck...”

Her hastily summoned mana had aggravated her wound and dissipated the lingering effect of the sedative without a trace. Feeling as if her whole body was on fire, she cursed while clutching her bandaged neck.

I can’t let them... know...

If she was caught by the professors in such a state, it wouldn’t just end in a temporary halt to her experiment; she’d be confined to a sick room, unable to do anything for at least a week.

Imagining that dreadful scenario, she hurriedly tried to get up to return to her room.

“Ah...”

However, her legs, unable to support her, gave way, making her stagger forward.

With no time for her to regain her balance, she was about to fall. As the ground got closer and closer, she tightly closed her eyes.

Thump-

But then, Se-Hoon, having returned unexpectedly, caught her falling body.

“If you’re not feeling well, you should be lying down quietly. Why are you wandering around?”

He looked down at her as if he couldn’t understand her, and his gaze made her eyes narrow.

“You... you...”

The words “It’s all because of you” almost escaped her throat, but she held them back. It was clear that she had made a mistake first, and she was also the one who used mana in an attempt to stop him.

Her voice resounded in the room as if echoing throughout the floor. He involuntarily flinched, but he continued to look at her with interest.

Her condition isn’t as bad as I thought.

Thanks to this confrontation, he was able to confirm the cause of her mana disability, confirm her current condition, and lay enough groundwork for their relationship.

With his assessment done, he turned around without another word and headed toward the door. But before he left, he made sure to remind her.

“Remember what I said if you don’t want to get mana disability.”

Se-Hoon then walked out, leaving that unsettling remark.

“Self-harm, mana disability... he’s choosing only the worst things to say.”

His words felt more like a curse than a warning.

She wanted to chase after him and beat him up, but she desperately suppressed her emotions.

If he’s from the Department of Blacksmithing, who knows what he might do...

Luize knew that he was the first honor student the declining Department of Blacksmithing had produced in a long time. But given that the real power in that department now effectively lay with Vice Dean Michael, she believed that there was a good chance Se-Hoon was also involved with them.

Barmuth...

It had been more than half a year, but the scene of the accident was still vivid in her mind. The image of the wand that suddenly exploded during a duel and the sensation of shards of metal tearing through her right hand and neck came back to her.

Grind-

She also remembered Vier Barmuth, who looked down at her with a sneer.

She gripped her pillow tightly in an attempt to suppress her rising anger, but her own helplessness only made her more upset.

“Ugh... ack...”

The pain in her right hand and neck flared up as her mana fluctuated in response to her emotions. Feeling the symptoms of mana backlash begin again, she reflexively reached for the inhaler, the mana neutralizer.

“Remember what I said if you don’t want to get mana disability.”

At that moment, Se-Hoon’s words echoed in her ears again.

It was irritating to take his words to heart, but ignoring them made her feel worse. Conflicted and in pain, she ended up gripping the mattress to endure instead of using the mana neutralizer.

“Fxck... damn those... blacksmith bastards...”

Whether it was now or back then, she had never taken a liking to blacksmiths.

Vowing to not let Se-Hoon off the hook the next time they met, she spent a long time squirming on her bed, grimacing and tearing at the mattress.

***

[A bond has been successfully established with the subject ‘Luize Valente’.]

The notification message that appeared out of nowhere surprised Se-Hoon.

What? A bond was formed just from that?

All he had done was lay some groundwork, yet a bond was established just like that? He frowned at how Luize thought of their encounter.

It’s good that a bond has been formed, but... this could be a bit bothersome.

The fact that she had allowed a bond to be formed between them from just this single encounter meant that he had left a significant impression on her. However, the problem was that her impression of him wasn’t entirely positive.

If she harbored hostility from this incident and he failed to rectify it before their bond level increased, their bond could become as troublesome to resolve as it had been pre-regression.

I need to be more careful the next time we meet.

He pondered how to approach Luize in the future.

“Hm. It doesn’t seem like it will be that big of a problem.”

Professor An Jung-Wan, who was reviewing Se-Hoon’s medical records, smiled.

“Your bone broke cleanly, which prevented any damage to the muscles or magic circuits. This’ll heal perfectly in a week.”

“A week...”

“You might think that it’s a long time, but please understand. Speeding up the rate of healing might also increase the risk of side effects.”

“So, I can be discharged after a week?”

An Jung-Wan nodded gently at Se-Hoon’s question.

“That’s the plan. However, I would like for you to continue receiving treatment for another week after the bone has healed. You never know when it might cause trouble again.”

Realizing that he would be staying a week, maybe up to two, inside Askus, he quickly thought, I need to get close to Luize and cure her mana impairment within this time.

Most importantly though, he needed to deal with the inhaler, a mana corrosion device disguised as a mana neutralizer, so that he could rest easy after leaving Askus.

To do that, I need to increase my chances of meeting her.

He needed to think of a way since she might have her own schedule, such as her rehabilitation experiment. After a moment of thought, he came up with a rather good idea.

“Professor, do you know a student named Luize Valente?”

“Hm? She’s one of my patients... do you know her?” asked the professor with a curious expression.

Putting on his best concerned look, Se-Hoon replied, “I saw her in the hallway earlier, trying to cast a spell. She then clutched at her throat as if she were about to have a seizure.”

“...”

“She told me not to tell anyone, but it seemed dangerous...”

“Understood. You may leave now.”

Seeing An Jung-Wan immediately call someone with a serious expression, Se-Hoon smiled and walked away.

That was perfect.

With that, the patient Luize Valente, from room 204 in rehabilitation ward two, received a two-week mandatory rest order.