refuse
“Hori?”
After breaking up with Marina near the entrance to the academy, the first place I found when I returned to the mansion was Hori’s room on the second floor.
He slowly opened the door with his hand on Youngta’s hilt, but there was no Hori inside.
It looked as if he hadn’t been in the room for at least a few days, seeing the blankets arranged and the desk a bit dusty.
There is no way I would have gone back to the dormitory expecting this to happen, and if I wasn’t here, I would in all probability be in that studio.
As soon as I closed the door, I went to my feet and frowned at the strange smell that I could feel even outside the workshop.
For some reason, I thought that his body had a strange smell recently, but after staying here for a few days, it seems that the smell is on his body.
‘Okay, just wait… .’
Bang!, I kicked the door with my foot and went inside, and a strange stench stung my nostrils that was incomparable to anything I had smelled outside.
The inside of the studio could only be described as chaos, but papers believed to be research materials were rolling around on the desk as well as on the floor.
It was when I was carefully going inside, avoiding the paper rolling on the floor.
Reat at noblemtl.com
My jaw and foot caught something, so I stopped for a moment and looked down to see a bucket with a vibrating bloody smell on the floor.
‘what’s this?’
Wanting something, I lifted the bucket and found it was about 1/3 full of blood that had thickened over time.
I was startled to see the blood in the bucket, and as I put the bucket back on the floor, I heard the creaking of the bed from a distance away.
This sound, obviously, was the sound of an extra bed that I had left in the studio just in case I stayed up all night.
After waiting for a while, Hori, wrapped in a blanket, appeared with the sound of weak footsteps like those of a ghost.
“Mr. Ian… . What’s going on in the middle of the night… ?”
Hori’s complexion, who answered in a voice that was weak enough to think she was a terminally ill patient, had no energy beyond her voice.
Her pale, pearly skin, like the vampires once depicted in the original novels.
I could tell why my skin had changed so much in just one day just by looking at the bucket I saw earlier.
“Did you test the drug you gave me with your own body?”
“… Yeah? Hey, can’t I give someone else a drug that I can’t take? There is still room for improvement, so I drank it one more time and it was like this. But there is blood on Mr. Ian’s uniform… What happened outside? It seems a little cold… .”
He’s been sleeping here all the time, so he doesn’t seem to know what’s going on outside.
Hori asked with a frown when he briefly told me what had happened while he slept.
“… No, it’s pierced again? Even on the day of the prom with strict boundaries… .”
“Don’t say too much. How do you stop the archmage who has come to break through?”
“It is, but… Rather, the fact that the uniform was soaked in blood means that Mr. Ian was also fighting, right?”
“Oh, but you should have told me in advance if there were any side effects like that!! You must have almost died!!”
I came here to hit Hori with a single blow, but my hands didn’t move because I might actually die if I hit him now.
“… … You almost died?”
“Yeah, it’s a godsend by stabilizing the flow of blood through speculation in the middle, otherwise I would have really died.”
Hori said, tilting her head as if she didn’t really know what he meant.
“It bleeds profusely, but it’s not a side effect that’s strong enough to die… . Above all else, I took the same drug and I am still alive, right?”
“It is, but… .”
“Didn’t anything happen in the middle that could change the side effects of the drug? Maybe he took other drugs or was exposed to strong mana for a long time… .”
“Strong mana?”
Come to think of it, I had been exposed to the mana emitted by Marina and the puppet wizard for a long time before leaving the academy grounds.
“… Could it be because of that?”
“I don’t know unless I try it, but there is a possibility. Please tell me the story of your fight!! The fact that I used my doping drug means that there was a situation like that, right?!”
Hori, whose face was flushed with anger, ran towards me as if it had been a lie until a while ago.
“What… It’s not a great story.”
The story related to the possessor was cumbersome to explain one by one, so I told Hori what had happened in an appropriate adaptation.
At first, I was bored because there was no sign of anything related to the drug, but from the moment the whip came out, my eyes lit up, and when the story was over, my body trembled with joy.
“This is it!! This is the rational use of doping drugs that my father and I wanted!!”
“I never understand. Are you that happy?”
“Of course it is!! I get excited just imagining the moment when I use my medicine to vomit blood and defeat a formidable enemy I can’t normally defeat… !!”
A stream of blood trickled down from Hori’s blushing nose, whether it was not a lie to say that she was excited.
“Ah… !! It’s dangerous to bleed now!!”
Hori tore up one of the research materials that had fallen on the floor, rolled it up, and hurriedly shoved it into her nose.
However, perhaps because he had already shed quite a bit of blood, he managed to hold onto the staggering body that was about to stumble and fall backwards.
“hey! Are you okay?!”
“It’s okay, but I think I need to rest a bit… . Mr. Ian, if you think the next time you need to use medicine, please call me too… .”
With that said, Hori slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.
In this cold weather, I couldn’t leave it in a place without a heater like this, so I went to the mansion with Hori, who had fallen.
“uh… .”
As I was heading to the mansion, I suddenly looked up at the sky and found that the clouds that filled the sky had all dispersed and disappeared, and the white moonlight was illuminating the road along with the snow piled up on the floor.
‘I’ll have to make a stronger drug in the future, but until then, can this guy’s body hold up?’
The stronger the drug, the stronger the side effects are, so the side effects will definitely get stronger in the future.
And every now and then this fool will try to test the side effects with his own body.
‘… … Should I buy one for an orphanage? Or even a death row inmate or a felon in the territory… .’
*****
A few days had passed since the attack of the Demon Swords Association, but the uneasy atmosphere felt the previous day when Ganryu attacked was not felt.
What a surprise for a student almost kidnapped and a fantasy film shot in the sky.
‘I can’t hide it, so I don’t think publicly revealing it would have such an effect… .’
Because they fought splendidly by changing the climate, they couldn’t cover up the attack itself like it did when the Demon Swords Association first attacked.
The academy, contemplating what to do, moved in the direction of revealing the truth rather than instigating anxiety by hiding the facts in a haphazard manner.
Of course, in a way that is both true and not true, so that the truth is not revealed as it is and it is not a lie.
The wizard, who left because he had accomplished his purpose, lost the fight with Marina and changed to fleeing with his life in jeopardy.
Also, Jessica’s almost kidnapped event didn’t go out of the academy, but turned into something I found and saved by accident while on the way out.
Having said that, the students who witnessed the power of the Archmage with their own eyes were able to live a normal life with peace of mind.
‘In the first place, even if you are a high-ranking aristocrat, the low-ranking aristocrats should be attached to the academy even for socializing… .’
The high-ranking aristocrats had no choice but to remain in the academy to avoid the slander that they ran away because they were afraid of the enemy.
Thus, the academy is still dangerous and nothing has changed, but the students lived peaceful days today without knowing anything.
“Dean, isn’t this a scam?”
Reat at noblemtl.com
Marina sipping tea elegantly with a grin, slowly set the glass down.
“Rather than an expression… I wish I could say that it is an information warfare that raises the morale of allies and stabilizes the people. There is nothing good about instigating anxiety without meaning.”
“Good packaging doesn’t change the essence… . But, what are you saying when you come here, but then the dean squirted mana randomly, and I almost died.”
“You almost died because of me… What does that mean?”
When I explained what had happened that day, Marina put on a sad face.
“Student Ian, why is it my fault? In the first place, it is wrong for Hori to create such a bizarre drug that it is a shame to say that it was such a failure.”
“… … yes?”
“It seems that you have been with Hori for too long. Think carefully. If you didn’t do the weird thing that intentionally created side effects in the first place, wouldn’t you be suffering from side effects?”
“… … … Really?”
At that time, Hori had spilled so much blood that I didn’t even think about it, but if I hadn’t intentionally created side effects in the first place, I wouldn’t have almost died.
“But he said he couldn’t make it without such a drug… .”
“She looks like a weak girl, so I think she will stop acting like that right away after swearing a few times… .”
“No, probably not.”
He’s a guy who tests the side effects of drugs with his own body, so even if he tortured him, nothing would change.
“ha… . Why did you stop talking about Hori and call me?”
“Student Hori was the one brought up by Student Ian… Anyway, the reason I called Student Ian like this today is none other than an honorable mention that the royal family wanted to commend Student Ian.”
“A commendation?”
“Yeah, he said he wanted to congratulate the Peer family for repulsing the raiders who raided the Academy multiple times. It won’t come out with a great prize, but it’s truly an honor… .”
“I refuse.”
“… … … Yes?”
To receive a commendation, you must kneel in front of the king at least once in the process.
But I do not kneel in front of anyone who does not use podiatrist under any circumstances.
Even if he’s a king, if he doesn’t use foot swordsmanship, he’s just a stupid old man to me.