Chapter 36: And Then The Incident That Occurred
TL: Krrizis
Editors: Nahct & Wafflez
And so, those mutual exchanges and experiments were repeated for ten days.
Compared to when we first began, we were able to see clear results; we were able to get a grasp on the improvements to both the consumption rate and shield endurance.
When I first started assisting with the experiments, the enchantment’s magic consumption was absurd; it was at a level where ten deployments of the enchantment was enough to flatten me out. Nowadays, the magic consumption was fairly tolerable. If it was the Magic Institution staff, then they would be able to withstand up to five shots, whereas I’m able to use it as many times as I liked. However, the reason I’m using it is because the intention of my invoked sorcery is sturdy and the consumption is low.
Right now, it was just the two of us in the training room. We waited for Caldina-san and the others to arrive but ….. It’s been more than an hour since the scheduled time and there was still no sign of them.
As he walked up towards the entrance, it seemed that Cecil-kun was reaching the limits of his patience. Then, just like a little kid, he decided to push the heavy door ….. and stopped. No, he did push the door but you could say that it didn’t yield.
It was likely that Caldina-san and the others were reading too much into things. They saw me just moderately working as I cared about and chased after the runaway Cecil-kun. Therefore, Caldina-san, who knew I wanted to become friends with Cecil-kun, showed me a friendlier method.
「….. Caldina」
A resentful voice followed by the smacking of his lips. Even though we were of the same age, he didn’t seen like a seven year old because, well, you don’t say.
「It’ll eventually be unlocked」
「Nope, it’s not as if I wished to be shut in here with you. If there was only just me and Cecil-kun, we won’t be able to conduct our experiments」
I shook my head to indicate that it wasn’t like that and appealed to him. It was meaningless if we weren’t able to do our work; the promise only applies during work hours.
Cecil-kun wasn’t going to attack me with sorcery. In fact, I’ve never seen him use sorcery before. He was constantly working just his brain, just like a bona fide researcher.
Having an inner debate about whether it was because he couldn’t or won’t shoot, I had a hunch that it would be rude if I asked him.
「Shall we take a break from the experiments for now? It doesn’t seem like Caldina-san and the others are coming」
「Let’s just stop. It’s not like Cecil-kun can use the enchantments」
There wasn’t anyone around who could chuck sorcery at me for the experiments. Even though swapping roles could work, if the barrier broke, it would be troublesome if we didn’t have any magic left in us to stop it. I realized that I truly was a person who was precise when it came to experiments.
Should I keep talking to Cecil-kun until Caldina-san lets us out? Just as I thought of that, I met Cecil-kun’s gaze ….. “Ah, crap” and regretted.
「….. I can. I’ll do it」
Cecil-kun glared at me with an extremely black face. I understood immediately that I’d touched on a sensitive topic.
「Hey, it’s not like it’s an urgent experiment, you don’t have to overdo it」
Although Cecil-kun stubbornly asserted that, his tightly grasped fist was trembling. Was he trembling because he was angry, or was it due to other reasons?
I’m certain that I’d added fuel to Cecil-kun’s fire.
Are you seriously going to do it? I glanced at him questioningly with my eyes, but it didn’t seem like he wasn’t going to budge. He just gritted his teeth and glanced back at me with sharp eyes. From deep within them, I perceived hostility, or rather, an antagonistic-like spirit.
「….. Then, please do. Step back a bit further」
I knew it was going to be a waste of time to convince him otherwise, so I quietly complied with his intentions. As this was virtually my fault, there was nothing else I could do.
As he obediently moved away to a good distance, I double-checked the improved enchantment. Even if we were to remove the automatic invocation, it still had sufficient endurance. The power of the enchantment used would be significantly more powerful unless the damage was concentrated on a single point, then it would be likely to burst.
It should be fine since Cecil-kun, who doesn’t seem like he uses enchantments, is unlikely to use any high-ranking enchantments. By the way, just saying that is like the equivalent to raising a flag, which is scary.
「I’m ready」
Calling out to him, Cecil-kun nodded his head and concentrated. His mouth slightly moved. Dimly, I had a hunch that he was telling himself that it was going to be ok ….. Will this turn out alright?
And slightly off-topic, but Cecil-kun was carefully putting his magic together. In contrast to my method, he was the type that puts emphasis on power.
*Shiver* From behind my neck, I felt I’d imagined a scorching pain.
The unstable, warped, and overflowing magic burst, scattering around. Countless lumps of magic in the unseen wind flew around me.
*Splat* Fresh blood spilled out together with a sharp pain that I felt from all over my body. I certainly hadn’t expected that the power of the barrier I had created as a guard till now would hypothetically fail. No matter how many times the barrier resisted, it was being destroyed as the wind blades came at it one after another.
Although I tried to immediately release my magic to offset it, because I was delayed due to the pain, my body was torn apart by the wind. Fortunately, the shock blew my body out of the range of the storm. Instead, my back was thrown against the wall.
Mid-way, I cushioned my back by invoking wind sorcery so that my backbone wouldn’t be damaged like in the kidnapping incident. I’d like to say my torn up body was in a state of being embraced by a terrible sore but …..
「Huergh ….. — it hu–rts ..…」
With my back thrown against the hard wall, I coughed violently as I slid down to the ground and steeled myself before casting a glance towards the centre of the storm.
Cecil-kun was crouched down, hugging his own body. Trembling with a clatter, the released magic wasn’t settling down. ….. That’s odd, judging by Cecil-kun’s magic abilities that’s supplementing the power of the sorcery, it was likely to run out soon.
….. Let’s think about that later, I have to stop Cecil-kun right now.
As if a whip struck my body, I whined at the pain and bleeding from my body, staggering as I got back on my feet. All in all, there weren’t any deep cuts, just gashes here and there. For the time being, as a first-aid treatment, I applied healing magic to myself.
Thanks to the healing magic, the blood stopped and the surface of my skin seemed healed, but the actual condition was at the adhesion degree of haemostasis with light bruising. I’ll leave it to the professionals to heal it later. At a time like this, my incompetence was reproaching. Even if I had magic power, it was of no use.
「Cecil-kun!」
This time, I’m going to force him to accept things and, whilst channeling dense magic to get rid of the wind blades, I headed towards Cecil-kun.
As I was walking into the headwind at the centre of the storm where Cecil-kun was, it became extremely difficult to walk. Though I slipped mid-way and grazed my knee, I slowly moved closer towards him.
「Please pull yourself together!」
「–aaa, guhh…..」
Compared to the average person, the diminishing rate of Cecil-kun’s magic power was abnormally slow even though he seemed to be groaning in pain from using a great deal of it.
The wind blades were unstoppable. And it wasn’t limited to just me, the blades were destroying the walls and the floor as well, scattering destruction everywhere. At last, when I finally arrived next to him, the stripped off tiles from the floor around him were scattered to the edges of the walls.
Even when I shook his shoulders, he simply wheezed back weakly while suffering. His body trembled and was drenched in cold sweat; it was probably from bearing a considerable amount of magic power.
Unless he was fully conscious and stopped it by his own will, it wouldn’t stop until he used up all of his magic.
*Hyuuhyuu* Enduring the cough ringing from my throat, I supported Cecil-kun. Since I understood what it meant to be unable to control one’s magic power, I helped him sit up and just firmly embraced him.
If it couldn’t be controlled internally, then it would be fine to put it under control externally by force.
It was easy to say, but it was extremely difficult by nature to intervene in another’s enchantment. In the first place, since the magic power will decline, the magic power that’s flowing will also start resisting.
The difficulty was absurd but I had no other choice but to do it.
「Cecil-kun, can you hear me? It’s Liz. It’s alright, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Let’s just slowly breathe in. It’s alright, I’m here」
When I rubbed his back while calling out to him in a gentle voice, Cecil-kun jolted with a start and then pushed me away. As expected based off the timing of the push, he was mainly suffering in his heart.
Having pushed me away, Cecil-kun incoherently muttered in a pain-filled voice「Don’t come, don’t come」as he rejected me.
Slowly, with my magic power pouring into him, Cecil-kun’s raging flow eased. That was when I realized, even if it was a different enchantment, the magic in his blood felt out of place. It was horrible; I felt that the magic was compressed.
….. When I first experienced Cecil-kun’s magic abilities, I had thought that the amount consumed by the wind sorcery did not make sense. So that’s what it was. Was it an idiosyncracy? That he had denser magic compared to the average person, hence why his powers were so strong. And because of his unstable control over it, it ran wild. Surely, the person himself was unaware of this.
If that was the case, I’ll thin down Cecil-kun’s magic with mine. If it was dense, then thinning it down would be fine. Even if there were concerns for the side-effects, magic was homogeneously converted so it probably wouldn’t be a problem.
Though it was temporary, it should work.
「Cecil-kun, can you hear me? You’re probably able to suppress your magic power if you do it now」
「….. It’s alright, I’m here. If you’re unable to, I’ll stop it. Or, Cecil-kun, are saying that you’re unable to do it yourself?」
Although my words were harsh, I still patted his back to relieve his hesitation that appeared to be radiating from Cecil-kun, calming him down. Since it was a state of emergency, Cecil-kun had no reason to refuse, and somewhat spilling a sigh of relief, he concentrated.
Somehow, I felt that everything was going to be alright.
The tiles that danced mid-air fell to the floor with a resounding clang.
Even the torrent of magic power had now completely ceased raging and became a gentle flow. As expected, it appears to have been successfully controlled.
Well done. Instead of saying these words to him, I conveyed it by patting his head, but as if to say I was getting too caught up in the mood, Cecil-kun pushed me away. That’s an awful way to handle a person who overcame the crisis with you, but that’s just like Cecil-kun.
「….. ugh!?」
After getting away from me, Cecil-kun examined my state and his face seemingly warped into shock. That reminds me….. I looked at my body as well — oh dear. I reflexively raised my voice as though it was someone else’s problem.
Having been cut to shreds by the wind, my clothes were quite tattered. There were minor cuts on the skin on my collar and there were relatively deep gashes around my lower back. Additionally, when I slipped down, I had cut my knee.
Furthermore, I can say that having used magic on the barrier, the healing sorcery, concentrating the magic power and converting it to negate the wind, and pouring them into Cecil-kun, I’m almost out of magic.
As I hadn’t used this much in the experiments till now, I didn’t think my body would be this sluggish. I was losing focus and my fading consciousness was flying away.
「But, I …..」
「….. Don’t die, huh ..…」
However, I lost consciousness.
Having reached my limits and with heavy closed eyelids, I decided to leave the aftermath to the others ….. and decided to sleep at ease. Although I heard a flustered voice, please forgive me as I’ve already done my best for today.