91. The Broken Doll
I discovered Casey shortly after I started working as a shadow.
Suspicious movements of demon worshipers different from the Devil’s Church were seen, and heresy inquisitors moved,
Belatedly, I checked the data they had investigated and decided that it would not be an ordinary incident, so I rushed to the scene, but it was too late.
The road to hell was spread out at the site.
The facility was filled with monsters whose entire bodies turned purple, as if they were experimenting with the fusion of demons and humans.
There were traces of the Heretic Inquisitors fighting bravely, but the number was so great that they could not handle it and were annihilated.
I quickly started dealing with the monsters.
Everything that moved was monsters, and everything that did not move was people.
A fire broke out, and only the acrid smell and bloody smell vibrated throughout the facility, and only the aura blade I manifested was clear in the black smoke.
In despair that no life would survive any more, I found a little bloodied child.
Kneeling in front of the two corpses that appear to be parents, the child just stood still in a devastated state with his head lowered and did not react at all to the monsters closing in on him.
I don’t know what happened in this place.
Because it happened before I even arrived.
She didn’t cry, didn’t laugh, didn’t get angry, just sat there waiting for death, like a broken doll.
A broken doll that couldn’t react even to the death that faced it, that was Casey.
———————————————
He is lying in a proper room, not in a dusty alleyway.
After Lucia arrived, she left her main street and checked into a hotel.
It was a mess because of the dust, but it wasn’t just us, most of the people in the downtown area were like that, so the hotel didn’t bother to say anything.
I just silently took a look at the brooch hanging on our chests to prove that we are academy students.
“So much better.”
“Really… Are you okay?”
“It hurts a bit, but it will be better tomorrow.”
I was taking care of my wounds with my shirt off.
I washed the area around the wound with water and a clean cloth, applied disinfectant, and applied a wound healing potion.
The wound from being stabbed by the thin rapier didn’t open much, but it would be better if stitched up.
Fortunately, there is life magic in this world that can have the same effect as stitching up wounds.
After the treatment is finished, use magic to fix the wound and apply a bandage to prevent contamination, and the basics are over.
Each act of touching something to the wound was accompanied by pain, but it was not like this once or twice, so I silently carried out the work.
Lucia watched as I took care of the wound from the side, looking as if she would cry at any moment.
I made a gesture as if I couldn’t stay still and asked if there was anything I could do to help, but there was nothing I could do except bring water and a towel.
“My…I… I wanted to go to a place like that….”
“It’s not your fault. “
” If I hadn’t gone out today, nothing like this would have happened….”
Lucia says that if she hadn’t gone out today, none of this would have happened, but she disagrees with me.
She must have happened sometime when Casey chased me down the chin of her academy.
It’s just the difference between getting hit outside the academy or being hit inside.
“This kind of thing heals quickly. It’s only noisy on the surface.”
“…But!! I’m so hurt… How can you not care!!”
Beside Lucia, two teddy bears bought from the last place we stopped by were sitting leaning against each other as if weary.
My hair, which was shiny when I was young, was covered with dust and became cloudy, and my blood was stained here and there.
I laughed out loud because the blood stains on the golden teddy bear looked like me.
The wound was tightly closed and bandaged well.
“It’s better. Let’s go back in a little while.”
I feel much more comfortable just by fixing the wound.
As long as you meditate and keep your body in good shape, the wounds will be healed by tomorrow morning.
In general, penetrating wounds in the abdomen that have been injured up to the internal organs require full-scale treatment at a hospital to complete recovery within a week.
A wound on the outside can be healed in a day, but it takes a week for the wound on the inside to recover.
However, if you are a superman who has reached the level of Expert Superlative or higher, the words are different.
The level of a superman is that even a penetrating wound in the abdomen can be recovered faster than a finger cut, even without serious treatment, if one is willing.
“No… Let’s just relax today.”
But when I said I was leaving, Lucia nervously stopped me.
“I have to go shopping for clothes. It’s all messed up with dust and blood.”
“This is what a person with a vent in his boat would say..!”
“Now it is closed…”
“Anyway, today ends here..! As soon as it’s bright tomorrow, go to the academy and be hospitalized. Okay?!”
“Okay, calm down. Because I’m really fine.”
“You say that again… Atlas, on the contrary, you can do that even if I have a hole in my stomach…?”
“That sounds like a bit difficult.”
“… I will never forgive him….”
Looking at my bandaged stomach, Lucia was furious.
I went out to play, but it’s very unfortunate that it turned out like this.
——————————————
“Ha ha.. Ha..”
Casey, hiding in a dark alley, exhaled heavily.
I lifted my rapier and inspected the thin blade.
The thin blade that had cut Atlas’ body until just now was unburned white.
This is because Casey’s aura, which had been burning fiercely, burned away the foreign substances attached to the blade without a trace.
But other places were different.
The cross guard and the handle connected to the sword body… The hand holding it was stained with sticky blood.
It’s all dried up now, but to Casey’s eyes it was still a vivid red.
“You liar…”
Casey hates Atlas.
I didn’t just hate it, I hated it a lot.
Originally, he is a person who disappears and reappears from time to time for no reason, but it rarely lasts more than two months.
Atlas didn’t come back even though he said he would return in 100 days without saying anything.
100 Days became 200 days, and 200 days became 300 days.
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After 300 days without any contact, Casey decided to go looking for Atlas herself.
There was no assumption that something had happened to him.
Casey never imagined that Atlas would die alone somewhere unknown.
After two years of searching for Atlas without any contact, the first news Casey heard of him was that he had become quite famous among adventurers by making new friends.
It is said that he, along with dozens of his friends, broke through the snow country, a demonic realm in which living creatures could not survive.
Since he said he was going to find the elixir of growth, I understood the fact that he was taking on the challenge by forming a team.
‘Imperial knights are… Stronger than them… Why didn’t you tell us anything…’
The Imperial Knights were full of strong men who could not be compared to the half-assed adventurers.
Casey suspected that Atlas was really trying to abandon the Templars and live a second life.
He couldn’t sleep well at night because he was afraid that he would be abandoned again by the person he trusted.
He went to the snow country expedition, but Atlas had already abandoned them after finding the elixir.
At that point, my anger flared up once more.
I have finished all my work, so why am I not returning to the Knights?
My head was filled with all sorts of negative thoughts.
I said I was going to kill Atlas out of anger, but I really didn’t mean to.
I was just expressing how angry I was.
He hated Atlas for abandoning him for three years, but he missed Atlas that much.
The letter from the knights summarized the Clover Kingdom’s terror at the academy.
The content that the shadow dealt with the Clover Kingdom’s terror at the academy.
Seeing that, Casey was convinced that Atlas was in the academy, so he went to the academy.
Atlas didn’t bother to say anything, and Casey didn’t bother to ask, but Casey, who had lived in the same dormitory as Atlas for years, had a vague idea that he was one of the shadows.
“The captain also… Suddenly went to inspect the academy…? So, did you get a secret mission?”
It made a lot of sense.
He wouldn’t have been able to contact me if he had been on a secret mission.
The picture is completed that Linda secretly put Atlas after discovering the Clover Kingdom’s conspiracy.
‘Again… I was just given a secret mission… Yeah, there’s no way the old man abandoned me.’
Casey put together the pieces of information gathered one by one as she understood.
I was convinced, but it was hard to forgive that Atlas hadn’t contacted me for three years.
If we run into each other, that part will get angry.
It’s really scary.
As Casey was about to enter the academy to find traces, he heard a very familiar voice.
“Isn’t it fun to have a talking sword?”
It was the Atlas that I had been looking for so long.
I heard that you’ve definitely found a leap in growth, but it’s the same as the last time I saw you.
“Mr. !!”
I was so happy that I wanted to run out right away, but no words came out.
“… You only say bad things… All.. Let’s go to the next place..”
A very large woman was clinging to Atlas’ side.
She was a beauty with a height much taller than Atlas.
The two seemed very close.
“Mister, what are you doing… Over there…?”
I wanted to leave right away, but my body didn’t move.
My head was very dizzy.
It was difficult to distinguish between up, down, left and right, even though my feet were on the ground.
I couldn’t understand the situation.
Why is Atlas, who had abandoned her self and been dormant for three years, doing that with another woman?
Unfavorable feelings gradually came up through my body.
Someone is whispering in my ear.
I don’t remember much after that.
It was as if someone had taken control of my body.
When I woke up, Casey was inserting a rapier into Atlas’ abdomen.