"Hey."
Delan looked at Osian and asked in a calm voice.
His voice was normal, even though he knew he would have been dead if Osian had been any later.
He had an innately strong heart and it was easy to see why his siblings had tried so hard to kill him but that wasn't what mattered to Osian right now.
"Are you alright? Any injuries?"
"Nothing. Thank goodness. Oh, the blood from my head? It's just a scratch from the shrapnel from the door when it broke."
The problem was Sebastian's condition.
"When the door exploded and he threw himself to save me from the flying debris."
On the ground, Sebastian's back is riddled with shrapnel from the door and the bomb.
“He was trying to protect me.”Delan reached out to support Sebastian, but his hands were shaking.
Only then did Ossian realize that Delran was not indifferent to death, but was trying to appear strong.
“It’s more painful to not be able to help the butler who saved my life than to be secretly persecuted for being an illegitimate child.”
"Not yet. He's still breathing."
Sebastian was not dead. He was breathing, albeit very slightly.
But it wouldn't last long, and Delan and Osian knew it.
"You don't have any potions or anything like that on hand for backup?"
"I tried to find it first, but it was shattered in the explosion."
"How do we get to the hospital from here?"
"You should know how big the yard of this mansion alone is."
"Sebastian's wounds are no ordinary wounds. At this rate, he'll bleed to death."
"Don't I know that?"
Delan knew what Sebastian's condition was.
Even if he didn't want to know, he had no choice but to know. That's why Delan couldn't help but suffer even more.
To have to watch the man who had saved his life die like this.
"You foolish bastard. Why would you risk your life to save someone like me?"
Delan looked at his trembling hands and balled them into fists.
"I owe you my life, and you're going to walk away? Do you really think I'm so ridiculous?"
Delan's voice boomed with all the emotion he'd been suppressing.
"Wake up. Wake up, Sebastian. You're not going to die here when you have so much work to do. Wake up!"
The words were harsh for a man on the edge of death, but Osian felt like he was begging Sebastian to live.
However even if he felt sorry for him, there was nothing he could do.
He was powerless to heal the wounded.
Osian looked down at Sebastian.
They hadn't known each other long enough to really get to know each other but Osian didn't dislike him.
He admired the way the orc had persevered in the face of discrimination because he was an orc, at least more than any of the humans he'd encountered in this manor.
Sebastian, the orc, was so much more human.
'If only I were a priest or paladin instead of a knight.’
But it was a meaningless thought.
To think such thoughts was to disrespect his choice to be a knight.
"......I'm afraid you have to let him go."
Delan didn't answer.
He heard Osian's words, and he knew he should, but something in his heart wouldn't allow it.
Delan thought back to when he first met Sebastian as a child.
As an illegitimate child, he was shunned by his family and had no one to look up to but then Delan's eye was drawn to a young orc who did odd jobs.
He was bullied by the maids and servants, but he smiled and did the hard work, and he thought it was pathetic.
Maybe that's why.
-What are you laughing at, wandering around in frustration, you should be my butler.
He reached out his hand to Sebastian and took him away.
Maybe in that refusal to give up, he saw the strong man he had always wanted to be, because they were both loners.
Honestly, he didn't think he could handle the rejection.
Sebastian was being persecuted, but not so desperately that he would grab onto a rotten rope.
He still remembers.
There was a maid he had always treated gently.
When everyone else was gossiping behind his back and ignoring him, she was the only one who smiled and treated him with respect.
So Delan had asked her to join him, believing she was the only one in this mansion who had his back.
The maid's face fell as soon as she heard those words, and she looked down at him with a cold stare.
Even now, more than twenty years later, he could not forget it but Sebastian was different.
He smiled brightly and bowed low to him, as if he had done him a favor he didn't deserve.
At first, Delan wondered if he was trying to take advantage of him but Sebastian smiled anyway and stood by Delan's side for twenty years.
-Delan. You should always be healthy.
"Sebastian. I don't know what I would do without you......."
Osian was watching the scene.
There was a rustle, and someone stepped through the half-broken door.
Osian reflexively swung his sword, then withdrew it when he realized it was Elise.
"What's going on?"
"You seem in a hurry."
With that, Elise looked at Delan and Sebastian.
Her eyes, in particular, lingered on the wound on Sebastian's back.
"Do you need help?"
"Are you going to wait for him to die and bring him back from the dead?"
Osian asked with a growl, but Elise shook her head without batting an eye.
"I can heal him."
"What did you just say?"
"I can heal."
"You, a warlock?"
Osian knew all about black magic.
They specialized in cursing, destroying, and breaking things, not saving people but Elise's clear eyes told him she was serious.
Osian considered, but this decision was not his to make.
And Delan had no choice.
"Please."
Delan said, and Osian moved out of Elise's way.
Elise approached Sebastian and assessed his condition.
Unlike the hatred and discrimination others had shown toward the orc, Elise had no reaction to Sebastian.
Because she was different, she was able to examine him more purely.
"How is he? Can you save him?"
Delan asked, and Elise nodded.
"Yes. I can."
As if to fulfill her word, Elise went straight to work.
First, she summoned black magic to her fingertips and sharpened it.
Swoosh.
Sebastian's clothes split as her index finger swept across them. It was as if a scalpel was cutting into his skin.
Elise brushed the garment aside, then turned her black magic on Sebastian.
Rank 1 Black Magic [Paralysis]
It was a curse-type black magic that affects the opponent's nervous system, rendering them immobile.
However, in this situation, it was an excellent painkiller and anesthetic.
Using her magic, Elise quickly pulled out the splinters embedded in his back.
Red blood trickled from the wound, but Elise focused on removing the shards first.
All of the shards were out of Sebastian's broad back, but there was still a problem.
The wound that had opened as the shrapnel was pulled out was still bleeding.
Elise cast another black magic spell.
"Bloodline."
As Elise cast the spell, the blood from the wound defied gravity and floated to the surface.
Osian's eyebrows twitched at the sight.
‘Blood magic?’
It was a similar ability to the one used by the Mutants of Supremacy that Osian had defeated.
However, despite the similarity in method, what Elise was using was magic, not a mutant's superpower.
‘Blood magic. It's a subcategory of warlocks, but the number of people who have mastered it is small, and its power is considerable, so it's considered a separate magic.’
Osian hadn't realized Elise had mastered it.
Meanwhile, the droplets of blood began to return to the wound in a single thread.
The blood that flew out was replenished and no more flew out.
It was such an elaborate use of magic that even a non-mage could see how amazing Elise's display was.
Although she was unable to return all the blood that had flowed out, she was able to stop the excessive bleeding and overcome the critical situation.
"The impact of the blast broke the bone, and we need to stop it before it impales an organ."
Elise said, and this time, she activated bone magic, one of the branches of black magic.
A perfect knowledge of bones was essential to the art of command.
Finding the broken bone, Elise carefully channeled her energy to return it to its place, then reattached it.
Sebastian's body rumbled.
Osian wondered if it was okay, but Elise was too focused so he didn’t interrupt her.
Her expression was uncharacteristically serious, and beads of sweat were rolling down her forehead.
She was serious about Sebastian's treatment.
"I've fixed the broken bone and stopped the bleeding, and that's the last of it."
Elise drew long strands of black magic and made them as thin as thread.
Her control over magic was unwavering as the black threads of magic quickly closed Sebastian's wounds.
When the last wound was finally closed, Elise exhaled and rose to her feet.
"It's done."
Elise's words were not empty.
Sebastian's expression was proof of that, as he looked calmer than ever.
"It's a temporary measure, we need to take him to the hospital and give him antibiotics and medicine, that's all I can do."
"No, that's enough. Thank you so much."
Delan bowed his head to Elise.
Delan, who never seemed to bow to anyone, bowed to the warlock for saving Sebastian's life.
‘The warlock was so competent?’
Black magic, which specializes in killing people, was used to save someone's life.
It came as quite a shock to Osian, though it didn't show on his face.
"Are you sure he's okay?"
"Yes. His natural stamina is what kept him alive, and his muscles are large and strong enough that the shrapnel didn't reach his internal organs or bones."
Elise stared at Sebastian with an uncharacteristically emotional gaze.
"More than that, he had a strong will to live."
It was a wound that would have crippled even the strongest orc.
It was more than his strength that kept him alive, his desperation that he should not die yet.
"I see."
Osian looked Elise straight in the eye and apologized to her.
"I’m sorry."
"For what?"
"For labeling you a warlock, for ignoring you."
At Elise's confused look, Osian said.
"I have held a false prejudice against warlocks all these years. I always thought black magic was only used to destroy things, but what you showed me today was different."
The paralyzing spell reduced the patient's pain.
The magic to manipulate bones to create a skeleton pieced together broken bones.
Magic to draw blood and drain the life force stemmed the bleeding.
A lesser wizard would not have been able to save Sebastian.
It was only because she was a black mage who understood the human body, and because she was gifted, that she was able to save him.
"Thank you for making me realize that black magic isn't necessarily a bad thing."
"Of course."
Elise's eyes lit up at Osian's frank apology and she took a piece of paper from her bosom and held it out.
"Can you sign this for me?"
"What is this?"
"A body transfer agreement."
"......what?"
Ossian asked with a rare display of bewilderment.
"It's an agreement that when you die, you'll give me your bones, and with your bones, I'll be able to build the best skeleton in the world."
Osian's expression turned cold again.
"Get lost. I shouldn't have gotten involved with a warlock after all."