The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

“Are you looking at that again?”

Irina said, blowing out cigarette smoke. She roughly pushed aside a corpse rolling at her feet and approached Ena, who was sitting on a rock reading a letter. Ena completely ignored her and smiled faintly.

It was because she loved the sentence written in the last line of Asel’s letter.

[I miss you, Master.]

“Ugh, so cheesy.”

Irina muttered, resting her chin on Ena’s shoulder. Ena pushed her face away firmly.

“Get lost. You smell like cigarettes.”
“Forget about cigarette smell. You’re seriously ill at this point. How many times a day do you read that letter? If Asel saw you like this now, he’d be so disgusted he’d run away.”
“Asel wouldn’t do that.”
“What do you know?”
“What do you know? He’s my disciple.”

Ena said this as she stood up. She dusted off the stone powder on her buttocks and turned her head towards the investigation team walking out of the forest.

Wearing heavy armor, they approached the two great magicians, reeking of blood, not even bothering to wipe off the blood covering their entire bodies.

Imperial knights exuding a neat atmosphere. The man standing at the very front took off his helmet and opened his mouth.

“We’ve dealt with all the remnants inside the cave. As for the demon worshippers who fled…”

The man deliberately trailed off. Instead of answering, Irina pointed to a corpse lying on the ground with the end of her pipe. That was enough. The knight nodded and had his subordinates gather the corpses together. Then he used an ignition device to cremate them all.

Among demon worshippers, most mana users have traces of human sacrifices left on their bodies. If left alone or just buried, they sometimes resurrect through rituals, so they had to be killed thoroughly when killed.

Fortunately, thanks to Ena pre-emptively turning several corpses to ashes with lightning, the cremation didn’t take long to finish. The knight crushed the corpses that were instantly reduced to bones and turned his head.

The cremation of demon worshippers who died inside the cave was also complete. There were no more demon worshippers left around the empire.

They were ones found by searching even lawless zones where no country exists. Having lived with blood on their armor and swords for quite a long time, it seemed there would be no need to be wary of demon worshippers for a while. Of course, they didn’t intend to let their guard down completely.

Demon worshippers are creatures that wouldn’t be strange to crawl out from anywhere at any time. They don’t get eradicated no matter how many are killed, and occasionally some even have regenerative abilities.

A vitality so persistent it’s nauseating. A tenacity that even druids who receive life from nature would be amazed by. Demon worship groups are places where such beings swarm.

No matter how much cleaning is done, one can’t let their guard down. Thinking this, the knight slightly bowed his head towards Ena and Irina.

“Thanks to you two, the subjugation ended much faster than expected. As the representative of the special task force fully entrusted with this matter, I express gratitude to Weiheim in the name of the empire.”
“That’s enough. More importantly, can we go back now? I’m a bit tired from killing those playing around near Weiheim and helping all the way here.”

Although Ena and Irina were currently in a lawless zone near the empire, they hadn’t been here from the start.

After dealing with those around the city with Weiheim’s magicians, they were dispatched alone at the empire’s earnest request. They did the job because they were compensated, but they wanted to return home as quickly as possible.

Both of them had mountains of work to do back in Weiheim. Irina had to participate in a project conducted by the federation, and Ena had to leave to search for information about the demon of gluttony after seeing Asel’s face for a bit.

Neither of them were particularly free. So they blatantly expressed their desire to disband now.

Since they had already finished everything instructed by the empire, and there were orders not to disturb the great magicians’ mood, the knight nodded obediently.

“I understand. Do you have any intention of participating in the banquet held in the empire?”
“No.”

Ena answered. She put away the letter with an indifferent expression and fixed the slightly disheveled position of her hat.

“…?”

At that moment, she realized that Asel was sending something to her.

It was a sudden connection. Ena felt the remnants of a teleportation formula in the faintly felt magical resonance. Then she smiled gently.

“Asel wants to come to me.”

She said, looking at Irina with a triumphant expression. Irina exhaled smoke with her pipe in her mouth, as if to say “so what?”

“He said he missed me, so I guess he couldn’t bear it after all. You were wrong.”
“What are you saying? Didn’t you badger him?”
“No. Shut up.”
“Can’t you be nice to me like you are to Asel?”
“Take your own disciple then.”
“That’s creepy.”

Ena ignored Irina, who started stroking her forearm, and immediately responded to the magic Asel was sending. Then the faintly felt resonance changed to become clear, and Asel suddenly appeared in front of Ena and collapsed on the ground.

A thick smell of blood overwhelmed everyone present.

“Cough…! Ugh…!!”

Asel, who collapsed upon appearing, gasped for breath and coughed up blood. The backlash from forcibly pretending to be fine in front of the spirit magician and the magic he forcibly manifested were eating away at his body. Blood flowed from his mouth and ears, and his pierced hands trembled violently.

“Draw swords!”

The knights, mistaking Asel’s appearance for an ambush by demon worshippers, drew their swords simultaneously. But Irina hardened her expression fiercely and projected magical power towards them.

“Stay still. If you don’t want to die.”
“Lady Yeonhwa…!”
“It’s not what you think, so don’t move.”

Irina barked this out and then examined Asel’s condition.

“…Ugh… Argh…”

An ear half cut off. Clothes and face covered in blood. Organ fragments thickly smeared around his mouth. Both hands violently torn and gushing blood, and broken wrists. Upper and lower body dyed red due to bleeding pouring from his back.

These were severe injuries that would have caused someone with normal mental fortitude to faint from shock and die long ago. It was strange that he was even alive.

In other words, it wouldn’t be strange if he died right away.

Figuring out what happened where was a matter for later. Irina quickly gathered her wits and sprayed the recovery potion she had in her bosom all over Asel’s body. While doing so, she shouted at Ena, whose lips were trembling:

“Ena!”
“Uh, uh…”
“Ena, you crazy bitch! Get your act together and move quickly! Are you going to let your disciple die?!”

Disciple. Death.

Those two words invaded Ena’s mind. Something that should never happen had crashed into reality.

Asel’s figure was reflected in her blue eyes. A precarious appearance as if he might die at any moment. Just seeing it made her breath catch and her mind convulse madly. Her reason as a great magician was completely useless. Her brain heated up, and her tear glands malfunctioned as if broken.

Where, where did I make a mistake? Did I make a mistake in the process of resonating with Asel’s magical power? Or why is Asel injured like that? What was he doing where?

Why?

Why?

“Why?”
“Ena!”

Her questions were cut off by Irina’s voice. Irina grabbed Ena’s collar and met her gaze head-on.

“I understand it’s shocking, but if you want to save your disciple, get your act together quickly. If you don’t want to cry at his funeral, hurry!”

With her shout, light returned to Ena’s pupils. Her mind, which had been hazy as if covered in fog, became clearer than before. She bit her lower lip hard enough to tear it and hugged Asel’s body tightly.

It was cold. She could clearly feel life draining away. Tears flowed from tear glands she thought had long since dried up.

Ena disappeared with Asel, becoming a streak of lightning, not even realizing that her lips were bleeding from biting them too hard.

“…Ah, shit.”

Irina cursed after confirming this sight.

Asel, who was a being she cared for in her own way as someone without a disciple, had returned as a corpse.

Anger boiled inside her.

Her appearance was always sudden, as usual.

With her unpredictable mobility of moving by riding lightning and her arrogant personality of acting as she pleased. A peculiar person who would suddenly come and demand information about demons or ask about the locations of demon worshippers she had found out.

But someone whose appearance was quite cute, and who couldn’t be completely hated because she would look apologetic when she got seriously angry sometimes. A peculiar type of long-lived being who, despite being a magician, didn’t show much hostility even towards clergy.

Ena Renatus.

Thanks to this, even when she burst open the doors of the grand cathedral and entered, there was no one who truly hated and disliked her. Rather, old clergy would often bring her cookies or cake and chat with her. Young and devout believers were the same.

So they smiled bitterly at the thunderous sound that now felt familiar, even intimate, in the middle of their prayers.

As far as they knew, there was only one person who could make lightning fall from a clear sky.

As if to prove that expectation, the prayer room door burst open and Ena rushed in. The archbishop, who was presiding over the prayer, was about to scold her with a smile, but seeing the young man in her arms, he quickly ran out.

At that commotion, the gazes of all the believers praying turned towards Ena, and Ena, not even noticing their gazes, shouted at the archbishop with tears in her eyes:

“S-Save him. He’s my disciple. Please, please save him. If you tell me to die, I’ll die. If you tell me to destroy, I’ll destroy, so please… just save my disciple once…”
“…Oh my.”

The archbishop let out a regretful sigh.

Who would have thought that Ena would show such a broken appearance? Even he, who prided himself on knowing her for a long time, had never seen such a precarious mental state. It meant that her disciple was a being more precious to her than anything else.

It was something to celebrate that someone precious had appeared to her, who had acted as if she would live alone for life.

But the situation was not favorable. The archbishop confirmed that priests with medical expertise were approaching from among those praying, then examined Asel’s condition. At the same time, he manifested sacred law.

Woong.

The golden energy that bloomed from his hands gently permeated Asel’s entire body. Then his gasping breath gradually returned to normal, and some external wounds began to heal.

But it wasn’t complete. The archbishop let out a small sigh and said to Ena:

“He was dealt with by quite a high-level spirit magician. As a result, it’s impossible for me to heal this brother completely at once with my level. It seems we’ll have to take turns with our order’s priests and observe his progress for several days.”
“You mean he needs to be hospitalized?”
“Yes. For now, there are a few empty rooms in the cathedral, so we can use one of those.”
“O-Okay. I’ll pay a hundred or a thousand gold coins, so just please save Asel.”
“We won’t accept money. It’s only natural to treat a patient when one is before us.”

The archbishop said this sincerely and had a nun guide Asel and Ena to a clean empty room. Ena followed her into the room, unable to stay still.

The nun undressed Asel, who was covered in blood, wiped off the bloodstains on his body, and changed him into appropriate pure white clothes. Then she gently laid him on the bed.

“I’ll stand by here in case of any unforeseen situations. Is that alright?”

The nun asked as she covered Asel with a blanket. Ena nodded once and grasped Asel’s cold hand with both of hers, pressing her skin and lips against it as if trying to breathe her warmth into it.

Not stopping there, she moved her hand to his forehead, cheeks, and neck, continuously transferring warmth. Until the falling tears pooled on the floor. Until Asel regained consciousness.

For a long time.