novelraw Chapter 117 : Side Effects (1)
Chapter 117 : Side Effects (1)
Chapter 117: Side Effects (1)
Left alone in the headmaster’s office, Etar stared blankly at the portal Artel had ridden.
When something you had longed for too desperately finally came true, didn’t people say it felt so unreal, like you were dreaming?
Just moments ago, he had definitely been talking with Artel, who was Arkis Eimer, but once he left the headmaster’s office, despite having experienced it moments before, it felt like something that had happened in a dream.
There was absolutely no sense of reality.
That was why Etar had still not closed that portal, hoping to feel that sense of reality.
Whenever he looked at the portal, a smile spread across his face for no reason.
Even if it didn’t feel real, it was reality nonetheless.
Arkis Eimer had returned alive.
And he was right downstairs.
He could meet him anytime.
He no longer needed to wander around searching, nor did he have to keep up the headache-inducing smokescreen operations he had been doing all this time.
Filled with hope, Etar closed the portal.
But as soon as he regained his sense of reality, anxiety quickly crept in.
It was because of Banshi in the 5th Class.
Etar quietly played a single recording mob.
Honestly, I can’t say I’m not afraid like my three older brothers…….
It was a mob containing the last voice of Laren, Delsere’s older sister.
“Banshi. No, Delsere. You believe that I brought ruin to your family…… and that’s why you entered my school to take revenge.”
Banshi was clearly misunderstanding things, but to be coldly honest, it had somehow ended up becoming the truth.
The survivors of the Emmet Family who had been sacrificed to protect Artel.
They had stepped forward readily, saying they were fine, saying it was worth it, but when Delsere learned of this fact, would she really forgive him?
She probably wouldn’t.
After all, it was true that they had died because of Etar himself.
No matter how unavoidable it had been for the greater cause, Delsere wouldn’t accept it that way.
More than that, wasn’t Delsere a member of the Emmet Family?
A survivor who had directly witnessed, 250 years ago, the Royal Guard disguised as himself burning it all down.
The misunderstanding had been piled up far too intricately.
“It seems I’ve been given a difficult problem as well.”
Soon, he would have to meet Delsere too.
And at that time, he would have to resolve the misunderstanding with Banshi without Artel’s help.
For Etar, excluding the Tyrant, it might have been the most difficult problem of his life.
“Still, I can’t avoid it just because it’s difficult. I have to resolve it myself. Arkis-nim told me to do so as well…….”
The 5th Class Student Ability Evaluation that would be held at the end of next year.
He planned to personally evaluate Banshi then as well.
“See you next year, Delsere.”
They were words that would never be delivered, but still, saying them out loud put Etar’s mind at ease.
When I arrived at the training grounds, I kept taking deep breaths while staring at the ceiling.
“Whew…… ha…… whew…… ha…….”
It was an automatic action, because I knew all too well the side effects of using Vision Power.
Unlike mana, a resource that placed a huge burden on the body, Vision Power.
It hurt as if my body were being torn apart.
No matter how much my body from my previous life could endure, it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
It was a resource I had used while enduring that pain.
Because of those side effects, I couldn’t use it often, and I only used it in truly special situations.
Moreover, the biggest problem was that my body would quickly be completely drained, leaving me unable to move even a single finger, a state that occurred all too frequently.
Even during the Battle of the Full Moon, a fight I had risked my life in 450 years ago, I had tried to use Vision Power, but back then, my master knew those side effects well and absolutely forbade me from using it.
“This is a situation where if even one person falls, it’s immediately our defeat. If we lose here, both societies will be completely annihilated.” That was what he emphasized.
I steadied my mind and manifested a single Flewd sphere in midair.
For now, I used mana.
Vision Power was a superior resource to mana.
It could also be said to be a resource that mana had evolved into.
Therefore, you started with mana and gradually changed it.
A massive Flewd sphere.
Right now, it was filled entirely with mana.
Just as I was about to gradually convert it into Vision Power—
Pshut-!
“Ugh……! Cough!”
I hadn’t even properly started yet, but my skin tore, and blood burst out of my mouth as if I had suffered internal injuries.
At the same time, my breathing grew labored, as if someone were strangling my neck.
Already……?
No matter how sickly this body was, it felt excessive to this extent.
But even so, I didn’t stop.
Because it couldn’t be a body that couldn’t use Vision Power at all.
If not 1, then 0.5.
If that wasn’t possible, then even 0.1.
I had to manifest Vision Power no matter what.
Even for the sake of the future.
With that single thought, I forcibly began using Vision Power.
And immediately after that.
Crack-!
Pshuuuk-!
With the sound of something snapping, streams of blood burst from my body.
At the same time, I lost consciousness.
“…….”
When my eyes opened automatically, what greeted me was a soft pillow and blanket.
Turning my gaze slightly to the side, I saw white curtains.
‘The infirmary……?’
Back in 1st Class, I had once been hospitalized after making Banshi detonate a massive sphere and taking it head-on with my entire body.
The curtain I was seeing now was exactly the same as the one that had been in the 1st Class infirmary back then.
After coming to my senses, I tried to slightly lift my body, but indescribable pain washed over me.
“Guhhh…….”
On top of that, my entire body, including my arms and legs, felt constricted.
Looking at my body, I saw that it was tightly wrapped in thick bandages.
“What is this…….”
Shrrrk.
The moment I made a sound, the curtain was pulled aside and Former appeared.
“Have you awakened, Arkis-nim?”
And with that, a kind first greeting directed at me.
Seeing that he called me Arkis, it seemed he had already heard everything from Etar.
“…….”
“Ha ha, it’s awkward, isn’t it. Let me properly introduce myself. I am Ed Root, disguised as Draco Former, the vice headmaster of the Ed Branch School.”
He bowed his head politely as he greeted me.
“It doesn’t feel like the right time for introductions.”
As I spoke, a throbbing pain surged up from deep in my chest.
“This looks like the infirmary, but how did you end up in front of me?”
“That’s what I want to ask. What exactly happened? Kiena and Hei found you collapsed in the training ground, covered in blood. I received word from Lord Etar and hurried back to the school.”
Listening to the details, it seemed Hei had carried me on his back, bleeding profusely, while wandering all over 6th Class.
However, until we arrived, there hadn’t been a single student in 6th Class, and because of that, there were no infirmary teachers nor any element instructors either.
On top of that, since it was vacation, even if they had been there, there would have been nowhere to ask for help.
In the end, Kiena and Hei, driven to despair, had collapsed in the hallway and done nothing but cry.
Then, through the mobs installed throughout 6th Class, Etar belatedly learned of the situation and called Former in.
Etar explained that since he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t freely leave the headmaster’s office, Former had come in his stead.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Two weeks.”
“……What?”
For a moment, I thought my ears had malfunctioned.
I thought it had been a few hours, but two full weeks had already passed.
I hadn’t even been able to use 0.1 of my Vision Power, yet I’d been unconscious for two weeks.
This was far too serious.
“We went through great difficulty to bring a guest for Arkis’s treatment. Sir, please come over here.”
Former spoke while glancing to the side.
Following his gaze, I saw an old man appear—fat, with a thick white mustache and curly hair.
“……Who is that old man?”
White was a welcome color to me.
But the old man’s eyes were black.
Judging by his appearance, he could be called a commoner.
Yet at my question, the old man merely smiled gently.
Former did the same.
“Heh heh…… Is it that you don’t remember me, or that my disguise was flawless? Which do you think it is?”
The old man spoke.
His tone sounded as though he knew me well.
“Somehow, it wouldn’t be polite to meet Arkis in this appearance.”
The old man continued.
Yet he knew Arkis Aimer.
That meant he was someone connected to my previous life, but I didn’t know anyone who looked like that.
Moreover, after becoming a mage, I had never once encountered a commoner.
“Who are you?”
Even to my forceful question, he didn’t reply. Instead, he pulled out a potion from within his clothes.
And immediately after downing it in one gulp—
His body began to boil violently, as if it were about to burst.
“……W-what? What’s wrong with this old man?”
But the instability was brief.
Like steam wavering when water was poured over a chunk of metal heated red-hot, steam rippled from his body, and his form changed.
The fat build, white curly hair, and mustache vanished without a trace……
And the figure that appeared was unmistakably one lodged in a corner of my memory.
“……Vise?”
“So you finally recognize me. That must mean my disguise was flawless, then?”
An utterly unexpected guest.
“How long has it been…… Arkis…….”
Spiky hair, small stature.
Vise, like Etar, had aged a bit, but he still retained the 모습 I remembered.
“Allow me to formally greet you. Emmet Vise. It is an honor to meet you again, Arkis.”
Just as Former had done, he bent at the waist and offered a bow.
“Hey, skip the formalities. Former—no, should I call you Root?”
“Please call me whatever you’re comfortable with. Either way, they’re both my name.”
“Then I’ll just call you Former.”
“Yes.”
“Why did Vise come all the way here?”
“Didn’t I tell you? It was for Arkis’s treatment.”
I looked straight at Vise.
“You don’t know medicine.”
“I may not know medicine, but I do know pharmacology. Therefore, I can make a potion to heal Arkis’s wounds. But more importantly, what in the world happened for you to suffer such severe injuries?”
Vise asked the same question Former had.
“I…… ended up like this while practicing Vision Power.”
“…….”
“Ha ha…….”
Yet at my answer, Former and Vise looked at each other and laughed hollowly.
“What is it?”
“I’m Flewd myself, but I can’t even manifest Orbification, and yet Arkis is talking about Vision Power……. Even though I already knew it, hearing it directly like this leaves me feeling empty.”
“And how do you think I feel, sir, when I’m not even Flewd?”
“Is that really what matters right now? You brats, what matters is that I was down for two whole weeks.”
At my words, Vise stepped closer and explained.
“Still, your wounds are healing normally. In another two weeks, you should be able to move.”
Just as he said, my entire body hurt so badly that I couldn’t even walk.
“To think I’d spend half of vacation in bed. I was already short on time as it was.”
“Your body comes first, doesn’t it? That said, it seems you used quite a large amount of Vision Power. For injuries this severe to occur.”
“……No, I couldn’t even use it. I lost consciousness while forcing myself to try.”
“……Pardon?”
Vise looked shocked.
At the very least, he knew what I had been like in my previous life.
That was why he couldn’t understand my current state.
“I think it’s because this isn’t my original body.”
“……Then does that mean you’ll never be able to use it, if your body can’t endure it like this?”
“Don’t say such unlucky things.”
“My apologies.”
“I have to make it usable no matter what. At least the good thing is that I understand it in my head, so all I need to do is make my body stronger.”
“That is the most difficult task for a mage.”
“Tell me about it.”
Vise resumed my treatment, and I quietly watched him.
Then, in that moment, a single realization flashed through my mind like lightning.