*Thud.*
Heavy footsteps echoed in the dark room.
Inside the room, a small figure wrapped in bandages looked towards the door.
There stood a one-armed man with an irritated expression.
“Is it going to heal up, Tiltitz?”
“No problem.”
“It looked like all your bones were smashed to pieces.”
“I said no problem.”
With great effort, Tiltitz moved her lips, growing annoyed.
She never expected this to happen.
Who would have thought she’d get beaten up by that guy?
If it weren’t for Durandal, she would have been dead without a doubt.
Moreover, she had now exhausted all of Durandal’s power, making it impossible to cross dimensions again. If a similar situation arose, escape would be out of the question.
“Hey, but is my right arm going to grow back?”
“Schlus Hainkel. Did you get him?”
“No, I’m asking about my right arm!”
“Schlus Hainkel, did you catch him? Start with that.”
“I killed him. Without a doubt. I burst his heart with my right hand. Then my arm got chopped off immediately afterward. So is this arm going to grow back or not?!”
“………”
His heart burst………
Tiltitz finally let out a sigh of relief.
No matter how strong you are, and no matter how skilled you are in magic, there was no way to reverse a heart that had burst.
There might be a way to survive for a little while, but she would definitely die soon.
“Are you some sort of lizard? It won’t regrow unless you bring back the severed arm to attach it.”
“Damn it······. Am I going to live my life as a one-armed person? This is ridiculous, seriously. Sneaking in disguised as a human······. Cowardly launching a surprise attack from behind······. Damn it.”
“But in the end, you won.”
“It’s not about winning!”
The Madman shouted, losing his cool.
He had never felt such a deep wound to his pride throughout his life.
He always enjoyed fair and equal fights.
He reveled in crushing opponents simply by a difference in pure power.
But this time, he had to resort to all manners of shameful acts just to kill a mere human.
“It’s important that you won······. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have survived.”
“Damn it. I could have escaped even with both arms chopped off.”
“No, you couldn’t have escaped from Schlus Hainkel.”
“Are you overestimating Schlus Hainkel too much? He wasn’t that great. Of course, I acknowledge his mental strength to wield a sword while his heart was smashed, but still.”
“Not that great? Look what he did to me!”
“That must have been because you let your guard down.”
Tiltitz sighed in frustration.
It felt like the conversation wasn’t really clicking.
Clearly, the Schlus Hainkel she had encountered exceeded even a Majin’s physical abilities.
But the Schlus Hainkel that the Madman described felt no different from any ordinary human.
“Could it be······.”
Schlus Hainkel is strong only in certain situations······?
That thought briefly crossed Tiltitz’s mind.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing. I don’t need it anymore.”
But that suspicion was no longer necessary.
Schlus Hainkel was already dead.
*
“Ahh······ aah······.”
Iris sat up in bed, wiping the cold sweat from her brow.
It was a chilling dream.
The carriage that had arrived at the Institution was splattered with blood, and inside lay Schlus, with a gaping hole in his chest.
She pushed through to check Schlus’s pulse, shoving aside a panicking Erica, and······.
“No, no······.”
It wasn’t just a simple dream.
It was clearly a prophetic dream shown by Future Sight.
Iris concluded as she hurriedly deployed the spell for Communication Magic.
She sent a simple message to check on Schlus, but—
“Please, please······.”
After a long wait, there was still no response.
Iris quickly drew another spell to send to Erica and Trie.
After two more minutes of waiting with her hands clasped, Iris’s hands trembled in fear. Did something happen to the both of them?
–I, Iris······.
“Erica? Is that you, Erica? Is there something wrong with Schlus because he’s not receiving communication? He’s just busy, right? Isn’t that so?”
–Iris······. It’s serious······.
Her heart sank.
It was already too late.
Iris felt something surge within her and squeezed her eyes shut.
She couldn’t let herself break down and worry Erica.
She had to remain as composed as possible.
“Is Schlus in critical condition?”
–His heart······ his heart burst······. I managed some emergency first aid, but I don’t know if it worked.
“How long ago was that?”
–About 20 minutes······. I’m loading him onto a carriage heading to the Institution right now······.
“Is he breathing?”
–Barely. But he keeps losing consciousness and coming back, over and over······. I’m so scared, Iris. What should we do?
20 minutes······?
Iris’s expression became strange.
It was physiologically impossible for someone to still be breathing after 20 minutes from a burst heart.
What on earth was the “emergency first aid” Iris spoke of?
Though she was curious to the point of madness, there was no time to question it now.
“Erica. I’ll come to you. Let’s meet halfway. And are you keeping the bleeding under control?”
“Bleeding? I just kinda wrapped it with bandages······.”
“Listen closely. To stop the bleeding properly, for a chest injury······”
Iris hurriedly threw on her outer garments and rushed out of the room.
She had to run out immediately.
She couldn’t allow the future she had seen in her dream to repeat itself.
This time, she would definitely save Schlus.
*
“Here! Erica! Over here!”
At the midpoint between the Development Area and the Institution, Iris waved her hands frantically at the approaching carriage.
Soon, the carriage came to a sudden stop, and the door creaked open.
Iris’s hands were trembling.
She was scared she might see the same scene as in her dream.
Finally forcing her eyes open, she–
“Iris! Hurry! Get in quickly!”
She could see Erica urgently calling out to her.
Erica was in a panic.
But not in a state of sheer panic.
Just this was somewhat reassuring.
Iris hurriedly stepped onto the carriage.
Without even sparing a moment to greet Trie, she rushed straight to Schlus.
The carriage took off again towards the Institution without any pause.
“What’s his condition?”
“He’s been unconscious for an hour······.”
Looking at the bandages that were tightly wrapped around his chest, it seemed she had done the first aid correctly.
The bleeding wasn’t severe.
When she checked his pulse, it was weakly beating.
He was breathing lightly on his own.
Iris took a blood bag from her bag and started the transfusion.
Then she checked the red-stained wound, inspecting the condition inside.
“Ah······.”
It was empty.
The place where his heart should have been was void of anything.
Instead, there was a bizarre mass of magic.
Iris looked at Erica, demanding an explanation.
“It’s an artificial heart······. It maintains blood circulation······.”
“That, that doesn’t explain anything. How is he still alive?”
The heart doesn’t just function as a pump for blood circulation.
It is also the core of the internal circuit and the place where the Mana core resides.
No matter how well blood was artificially pumped, if the core of the internal circuit was missing, the entire body would collapse and lead to shock death.
“I artificially created the core of the internal circuit. So I was able to prevent the collapse of the circuits······.”
“How on earth did you—”
“I got lucky. Schlus and I······ looked at a certain paper together. I tried replicating something I saw there······.”
Erica dropped her head, sniffling.
There was no time to comfort her.
Iris turned back to check Schlus’s condition right away.
Thanks to Erica, he was still alive, but there was still much to do.
Using Healing Magic, Iris stopped the inner bleeding, drained the pooled blood, and to prevent infection, also cast Purification Magic.
Until her Mana was completely exhausted, until they reached the Imperial Palace, Iris performed every possible treatment.
Finally, upon arriving at the Imperial Palace, the group desperately knocked on the door.
Soon, the guards and Holy Knights rushed out from inside, escorting Schlus in.
As soon as they received permission from the Emperor, they took an Elixir from the storeroom and administered it to Schlus, finally stabilizing his condition somewhat.
It was a moment of relief in an imminent crisis.
“But······ when will he wake up?”
“I don’t know about that. It could be tomorrow, the day after, or maybe······.”
He might never wake up.
Iris couldn’t bring herself to utter those words, her lips trembling.
*
*Rustling.*
A pleasant sound came from behind.
Warm sunlight streamed through the large windows.
And the soft bed.
I quickly realized where I was.
My room.
Inside the Chairwoman’s Residence of the Imperial University.
“Ugh······.”
As I tried to sit up, an overwhelming pain crushed my chest.
I barely turned my head and spotted Iris sitting on a chair, reading a book.
I felt something heavy on my legs; looking down, I found Emilia kneeling under the bed, fast asleep on my legs.
“I haven’t slept for three whole days taking care of you. Let her sleep.”
“Um······.”
I had been asleep for three days.
Iris’s calm voice was comforting.
She wasn’t fussing around.
It felt reassuring.
Struggling, I pushed my hand from beneath the covers and reached towards Iris.
Iris stared at my hand for a moment, then took it and placed it on her cheek.
Then she rubbed her cheek against it, alternating between that and gentle strokes.
“How’s your sensation?”
“I can fully feel it. Warm and soft.”
“That’s a relief······.”
Iris smiled brightly.
Even though she appeared so calm, she must have been quite worried.
I felt a bit guilty.
“Thanks to you, I survived.”
“No, it was entirely thanks to Erica.”
“Erica couldn’t have saved me alone. She saw the future where I died, didn’t she? Right?”
“………”
Iris kept her mouth tightly shut.
And her body trembled slightly.
I beckoned Iris closer, wrapping my arms around her as she tilted her head toward me, sniffling.
“You went through a lot.”
“No, huh······ what could I possibly······.”
“Thank you for saving me.”
“I didn’t do anything—”
“You did plenty. I’ll thank Erica too, so don’t misunderstand.”
“Huh······. I’m so glad······.”
Iris buried her face in my shoulder, quietly starting to cry.
It seemed she was deliberately stifling her cries for fear of waking Emilia.
I decided to wait until she calmed down.
By the way, my physical condition felt strange.
Overall, my sensations were intact, and aside from feeling slightly weak from lying down for so long, there didn’t seem to be any major issues.
However, I no longer felt any Mana within my body.
It was impossible to connect to the internal circuits······.
I couldn’t use magic or the internal circuits.
My body had become no different from an ordinary human.
“But what’s that book you’re reading?”
“Oh, this.”
After Iris calmed down, she lifted the book she had just placed on her lap.
It was a familiar title.
The cover read ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
“Julie lent it to me.”
“Julia? When did she lend it to you?”
“I’m joking. She asked me to pass it to Schlus. Saying it’s a precious book and hoping for Schlus’s quick recovery with it······.”
“Huh······.”
“Isn’t it cute? Right?”
“Indeed.”
To others, it might just seem like the innocent and adorable act of an 11-year-old.
But knowing it was coming from someone who had lived for hundreds of years, it felt even cuter to me.
Julia’s most treasured book.
I was really grateful.
Thanks to this book that stayed by my side, I could presumably wake up.
“But why are you reading it?”
“Is that a problem? It was interesting······.”
“It’s fine if you read it······. Have you finished it?”
“Yes. I’m on the third read. A man and a woman who can only meet each other in death. It’s so bittersweet that it hurts.”
Seems she really liked it.
She was on her third read!
Just as I was about to ask her to show me the ending of Romeo and Juliet—
“Iris! I hear voices! Why are you muttering to yourself······. Huh?! Schlus! You’re awake?!”
The door swung open with a *bang*, and Erica’s eyes widened.
Why is she here?
“Whew? Oh, brother? You’re conscious? Are you alright? Does it hurt anywhere?”
“What? Schlus woke up?”
“Where, where is he?”
Emilia also woke, and the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairs echoed around.
It seemed there were quite a few people downstairs in our house.
In no time, I was surrounded by Emilia, Iris, Erica, Trie, Aintz, and Pelaine.
“Are you feeling a bit better, Teacher?”
“How many pieces does this look like? Huh? Huh?”
“My friend! I thought I was going to die from worry!”
The noise was chaotic, making my head spin.
Maybe since my body wasn’t fully recovered, a headache crept in quickly.
As I frowned and raised my hand slightly, silence fell around me.
Much better now.
“My condition is fine. At least for the moment.”
“Th- just for the moment? What does that mean, brother?”
“Erica. How much time do I have left?”
“………”
Iris had said it before.
Erica saved me.
I could hazard a guess.
That paper Erica and I looked at earlier.
Thanks to what was written in it about how to artificially implement the internal circuit, I was still alive, without my whole body going into shock.
“Ah······ uh······ uh······.”
Erica looked at me, seemingly stunned, then slowly hung her head.
Aintz, who had been watching the two of us, chuckled as if it was absurd.
“Hey, what’s wrong? You took plenty of Elixirs, right? Then you should be fine!”
“It’s not such a simple matter, Aintz. I’m only artificially surviving using the core of the internal circuit and the Mana core. No matter how intricately the spell for the artificial heart is designed or how much Mana I pour into it, there are limits. My lifespan has definitely shortened.”
“By how much? Am I going to live for another 40 years? Huh?”
“One week.”
“Come on, Schlus. There’s no way it could have reduced that short······. Is that right? Huh?”
I glanced at Erica, signaling her to provide confirmation.
The doctor who performed the procedure should tell me the exact timeline.
“The longest might be a week······. The shortest could be about three days······.”
The atmosphere in the room chilled instantaneously.
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