Chapter 53: Scar
It didn’t take long to get to Priscilla’s house and luckily she was awake.
She hadn’t been a light sleeper in the first place, so maybe that’s why she was awake.
After letting us in, Priscilla immediately spread a clean cloth on the bed, put Aizel on it, and assessed her condition.
“Trauma to the abdomen… The wound is shallow…”
Priscilla muttered as she removed Aizel’s clothes and examined the wound.
The wound on Eisel’s stomach was a rather unusual one. It looked like something sharp had grazed it, and the area around it was stained black.
[This must be… poison.]
Sierra’s meaningful voice rang in my head as I watched from the sidelines.
“Divine Clear.”
Priscilla placed her hand over the wound and began to heal.
The black poison that had spread from the wound to the rest of her body was slowly diminishing but it was a little slow. It seems the poison had spread farther than I thought.
“Hmm… It looks like the treatment will be a bit long, could you wait outside for a while?”
“…”
“…”
Yuri and I complied with Priscilla’s request, closing the bedroom door behind us and stepping out into the living room.
“…”
Yuri’s face showed a hint of shock as she exited the bedroom.
“What happened?”
At my out-of-the-blue question, Yuri’s gaze dropped to the ground and she seemed to be trying to remember.
“I couldn’t sleep, so I went out for a short walk at dawn, and I found Aizel lying on the ground at the back of the dorm…”
“…So you rushed to find Medical Officer Priscilla, and that’s when you noticed the wound in her abdomen.”
“Yes…”
Yuri confirms my words, and then sits back on the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling.
“I don’t know what happened, but it doesn’t look like a wound from inside the academy. Does Zetto have any idea?”
“…I don’t know.”
I answered Yuri’s question, but it wasn’t as if there were no clues at all.
Aizel had apparently gone outside the academy and fought an unknown enemy.
She was infected by a black and red poison of unknown type but as far as I could recall, none of the enemies she’d fought used that kind of poison.
‘What kind of enemy did Aizel fight?’
***
Lately, I’ve had to do a lot to keep my distance from Zetto.
The bewitching potion was a pointless drink, but I wasn’t about to let another woman drink it.
I also didn’t want to see Priscilla carrying a drunken Zetto back to her house, which was how I’d learned of his weakness for alcohol.
I wanted to stop it all but it wasn’t just the demons I wanted to stop.
I’d known all along that Zetto would defeat Lycanthrope in the Labyrinth and be summoned by Raina so I was able to get to the tavern that Reina and Priscilla frequented before Zetto, and naturally joined the instructors.
However, the nervousness of waiting for Zetto caused me to drink myself into a stupor.
I got drunk, and the whole plan went awry. Now that I think about it… It’s probably a good thing it went wrong.
The same thing happening twice would have made Zetto suspicious, to say the least.
As far as he was concerned, we didn’t have a long-term relationship.
I was a regressor so all the memories he had with me from the previous rounds were gone, and I had nothing left, but seeing his unchanging smile made me think I had him.
It’s not surprising that he feels overwhelmed by me.
I should have built up from the ground up, but the impatience in the back of my mind was getting the better of me.
When I woke up in the bed I’d been sharing with Zetto since the film broke at the bar, my head was spinning.
I managed not to show it, but… I had a lot on my mind.
That day, I opened my eyes and immediately took in the sight of Zetto’s immaculate flesh. Apparently, he had unbuttoned his shirt in his sleep and the sight was quite a turn-on for me, but…
..Zetto’s “spotless” skin.
At one point in the previous installment, I happened to catch a glimpse of his abdomen.
He was sweating like he’d been working out and when he casually used his clothes to wipe his sweat, his abdomen was clearly visible.
It was at that moment that I noticed a ‘scar’ on his abdomen and suspicious, I asked him about the scar.
‘Oh, this scar…? Who did that?’
At the time, Zetto seemed a little reluctant to talk.
‘…I had a run-in with a vampire once, and I got this scar by accident.’
I asked if it was dangerous, and he said it wasn’t.
Since Zetto had a necklace, the vampire didn’t seem to be a problem.
‘Revenge? Haha…Are you going to kill a vampire that’s already dead? Let’s just say it had a distinctive… unusually shaped tail. …What about the scar, is it ugly?’
It did bother me that a mere vampire had scarred his body, but…I couldn’t regress because of the scar and I didn’t even know when the scar was made.
However, Zetto’s abdomen, which I happened to be able to see this time, was clean and flawlessly white.
That meant that sometime after this day, Zetto would meet a ‘vampire’.
Now that Zetto had already obtained the Necklace from the Labyrinth, he shouldn’t have much trouble dealing with the undead. However, I didn’t like the thought of him having a scar on his abdomen again this time.
I immediately left the academy in search of the vampire with an unusual tail, however he was hiding so well that it took me a while, but I eventually found him.
According to my intel, he was holed up in a strange building called a ‘research lab’.
Sparks fly from my hand and the chimera collapses, unable to withstand the strong current applied directly to its head.
I immediately step over its corpse and push open the door behind it.
The door swings open to reveal a room filled with flasks and miscellaneous tools that look like they could be used for research and in the center of the room is a man’s back.
A “peculiarly shaped tail” was attached to the man’s hip. I’m guessing he’s the one who created the chimera here, but I wonder what kind of monster that tail belongs to.
He hears my footsteps echoing in the room and turns around.
“Not a subordinate…What are you? Is it mealtime already?”
He says, sweeping his dark hair back.
He looked preoccupied, as if he were in the middle of a study.
“Varsum…”
I stammered out his name.
Pale skin, jet-black hair, sharp vampire fangs that appeared as he spoke and a strange tail that swished behind him, this was definitely Varsum, a high-ranking vampire.
At my call, Varsum wipes a hand across his nose, inhales deeply, and opens his mouth.
“Hah… A virgin? I’m not much for ‘food’ that knows my name… Perhaps I should give my men some attention.”
“You should have some men left to pay attention to.”
I said to Varsum as I prepared for battle.
“You’ll die here.”
***
Fortunately, the treatment didn’t last very long and it wasn’t long before Aizel was awake and I could hear Priscilla talking to her from inside the room.
I was able to overhear the conversation through my ‘superior senses’, but all I heard was Priscilla’s explanation of the situation.
It was typical of Priscilla to not question Aizel.
I could hear Priscilla’s voice saying, “I’m not going to ask what’s going on, but don’t push yourself too hard.”
With that, I hear Priscilla’s footsteps at the door as she opens the door and approaches us.
“Sorry it took so long, I’ve never seen that poison before. Thank goodness it wasn’t a dangerous poison. I think it was just enough to make her faint… All the poison has been removed, and she’ll have a scar, but she’s healed.”
Priscilla, who was holding her neck tiredly, said.
“Thank you for your kindness in treating her so late in the day, Medical Officer. Is Aizel awake?”
Yuri asked Priscilla, swallowing her worries.
“Yeah, she just woke up, so go on in. I think she should at least thank you, don’t you?”
Yuri’s face brightens at Priscilla’s next words.
She was waiting for Aizel, and was worried about something but I wasn’t too worried since Priscilla was the one doing the treatment.
It’s likely that Aizel, the regressor, was aware of Priscilla’s skills and wanted to be treated by her in the first place.
‘It’s a problem that she collapsed before she could get near her…’
When Yuri and I enter the room where Aizel is supposed to be, we see her with an indifferent face.
“Aizel, you’re the reason I couldn’t sleep!”
Yuri suddenly snapped at Aizel.
“I don’t know what you’ve been doing…but I hope you won’t get hurt. It’s awkward when you get sick.”
At Yuri’s next words, Aizel smiles bitterly and opens her mouth.
“…I’ve heard about it from Medical Officer Priscilla, thank you, I’ll repay you someday.”
“I didn’t ask for anything in return, I just wanted you to not get hurt!”
Yuri glares and gets angry, and Aizel laughs.
“Thanks ……Zetto.”
After a pause, Aizel stops laughing and turns to me.
“I didn’t do much, I’m just glad the treatment seems to have gone well.”
I shrugged in response to Aizel.
It was strange that after so many battles, she got hurt but the issue was who did she fight rather than the wounds.
The scars indicated an attack that interfered with her divine power.
‘There must be few people who can do that.’
The demons that were Aizel’s immediate enemies had that trait.
There are also a few demons that use poison, but…She wouldn’t be facing them right now, besides, the poison was different.
The question was not easily answered, and I was falling into a labyrinth.
“Who did this to you?”
Yuri asked, sitting down on the chair next to the bed and Aizel hesitated, then opened his mouth.
“Just…Bandits.”
“Bandits…? There can’t be any bandits who could hurt you.”
“I must have made a mistake.”
“So you killed them?”
“I did.”
“You killed…?”
“Killed them, for sure so they couldn’t hurt anyone else.”
“That’s… That’s… good…”
Aizel’s rather firm words, followed by Yuri’s shaky reply, brought their conversation to a close but Yuri’s eyes widened in shock at Aizel’s words.
Of course, Yuri realizes that Aizel didn’t fight bandits, but her answer that she killed them was sincere.
‘I’m glad I killed him…’
Aizel had been exceptionally strong since the placement test, so she didn’t seem like she could lose. Still, judging by her wounds, it must have been a close call.
She was pushing herself too hard.
‘I don’t think she’ll tell me the truth if I pry further…’
…Anyway, I decided to put some distance between me and Aizel.
I decided that I didn’t need to continue the conversation, and that it would be best to walk away.
“Uh, leaving already?”
Yuri questioned as I moved to leave.
“Now that Aizel has woken up safely, I’m going to go back to my dorm and get some sleep….Could Yuri take care of her for a bit longer?”
“Zetto, don’t leave her and me alone like that!”
I put Yuri’s tantrums behind me, thanked Priscilla, and left the house.
After all, I just wanted this to have a happy ending for everyone.
I glanced at Sierra, who raised an eyebrow, before turning on my heel and slowly making my way to the dormitory.
It was eerily chilly outside.
***
“…Aizel, what happened with Zetto?”
Yuri asked me, her eyes narrowed but all I could see was the spot where Zetto had left.
I hadn’t set out to be recognized or praised by him in the first place since I hadn’t killed Varsum for him but for me.
I’d rather have a scar on my body than see a scar on his abdomen so I was satisfied with the outcome of killing Varsum, but I felt empty inside. All I had left was a scar in the same place as Zetto’s from the previous episode.
I couldn’t stop Zetto from going to rest and complain about why he was already gone.
I made my own wounds, and thankfully they healed well.
In true Zetto fashion, he didn’t question me about what happened.
That was it for him but this incident made me realize the distance between him and me.
My one-sided approach was pointless but I hadn’t thought about how he would take it.
Zetto entered the room and left without a single smile.
I could feel it vaguely that he was distancing himself from me.
‘I… Get it together.’
This isn’t the same Zetto, it’s a different Zetto.
I had to admit it but it was….a little heartbreaking.
“…Nothing happened.”
I replied in a weak voice to Yuri, who was staring at me in disbelief.
Nothing happened between Zetto and me when we sat in front of the bonfire and talked.
We talked about where we wanted to travel after graduation, and he said he wanted to see the ocean and how he promised to take me to the ocean.
The time he stood in front of me as I collapsed to protect me, fending off an enemy was all just a blur in my memory so nothing happened.