The Academy Regressor is Obsessed

A sudden emergency alarm rang in the Academy’s medical department. Startled by the unexpected noise, all members including the sleeping medical professor hurriedly returned to the medical building and checked the location where the warning was triggered. Then they all made strange expressions.

“This is… the place we used as an injury reception area during the combat department entrance exam.”

The professor muttered.

On the Academy map placed in the center of the medical department’s emergency room. Three red lights were blinking at the entrance of the southern forest.

The remnants of the alarm magic were too strong for it to be a malfunction. A signal clearly sent with someone’s intention.

It was nonsensical. The magic used during the entrance exam was currently not in use.

Yet now suddenly that magic was activating? It wasn’t as if it was a tool made by some random magician, how could this be possible? It was more plausible that residual magical power from back then had reignited now.

But… the professor somehow had a premonition that this situation wasn’t a simple incident.

It was in the realm of intuition. All her senses, honed by rolling through battlefields as a healing magician, were telling her to head to that forest right away.

Her intuition, cultivated over many years of life, had never lied to her. She hardened her expression and said to those gathered in the emergency room:

“Let’s go check it out for now. Everyone prepare.”

So the medical department students, professors, and assistant professors all began a midnight march together. Fortunately, the distance between the medical building and the Academy’s southern forest wasn’t very far, so they were able to arrive there before long.

Steps continued while dispelling darkness through lanterns and basic illumination magic. At the end, they discovered three people collapsed in miserable conditions.

Quill, unconscious with organs spilling from his side, Warren, convulsing while coughing up blood, and Saya, spewing blood with a spear pierced through her abdomen.

Not one of them was in a decent state. Severe injuries that wouldn’t be strange if they died at any moment. It was fortunate there was no loss of body parts, but even so, they couldn’t be at ease. If not treated quickly, they would die from excessive bleeding or shock.

The judgment was quick. The professor prioritized transporting the patients over grasping the immediate situation. Then the assistant professors and students who had been blankly staring at the three people hurriedly transported them to the emergency room.

A thick smell of blood began to fill the previously calm emergency room. One of the assistant professors reported the current situation to Frida, and students lit anesthetic incense to dull the senses of the three people.

But the drug’s effects were too weak to put mana users to sleep. At most, it only slightly deadened their sense of pain. It was difficult to go beyond that.

“W-What should we do?”
“Bring the ampules! First, pull out that spear!”

The professor said while drawing up the clean magical power unique to healing magicians. The students, smelling the scent of death up close for the first time, nodded with tension and fear filling them.

No matter how high their grade, the injuries they had dealt with were only minor ones occurring during exams. Even they had only seen severe injuries requiring every minute and second in books. A situation where they had to handle it relying solely on knowledge in their heads, not to mention practical experience.

But they couldn’t just stand still. There was no one here who would stupidly stand around in a situation where they could save or kill someone with their own hands. They pressed down their trembling hands and moved in an orderly manner following the assistant professors’ instructions.

“…First, cut the spear in half. Then pull it out from the side with the spearhead.”
“Yes.”

The students nodded. They cut the spear with daggers whose cutting power was maximized through magic, and following the assistant professor’s order, pulled out the spear straight. Then the blood and organs thickly stuck to the spear shaft came out along with it.

“Aaaagh…!”

Saya let out a scream filled with pain. Although her sense of pain was partially numbed, the sensation of organs being torn out was accompanied by unimaginable pain.

As the spear blocking the penetrating wound disappeared, blood gushed out like a fountain from the hole. They hurriedly administered a hemostatic agent and the bleeding somewhat stopped, but the situation was still critical nonetheless. They needed to quickly use healing formulas to filter out bacteria or impurities remaining in the body and start regeneration.

“Everyone who can use magic, draw up magical power! We’ll start treatment now-”
“Ah, cough, Asel…”

Just as the assistant professor was shouting, Saya coughed up blood and muttered while painfully rolling her eyes.

For a moment, everyone’s attention focused on her. Saya met the assistant professor’s gaze and continued speaking.

“Where is… Asel…?”

“…Ugh.”

His eyes slowly opened at the sound of birds chirping. His eyelids felt so heavy they seemed about to close at any moment, and the intense pain felt throughout his body made him feel like he would faint again as soon as he regained consciousness. Why did his eyes hurt so much, it felt like his brain would melt just from keeping them open.

He had a guess.

What the spirit magician had said. Didn’t she say there were signs of opening magic eyes? It seems his eyes and magical power had resonated somehow from constantly stuffing magical power into his eyeballs. It was the result of his terribly strong mana sensitivity affecting his body.

Unfortunately, it would be difficult to expect similar results in other areas besides the eyes since it’s hard to contain magical power elsewhere, but this alone was sufficient gain.

It felt like receiving an unexpected gift. Asel smiled bitterly and closed his eyes.

It was good news that opening magic eyes wasn’t far off, but for now his body condition was a mess and even opening his eyes was difficult. Just moving a finger joint made all the muscles and nerves in his body scream.

Still, the fact that he could properly hear the chirping of birds meant his half-cut ear must have returned to normal.

‘Master must have done something.’

Asel let out a deep sigh of relief and half-opened one eye. The pain was too severe to open both.

He had no memory of immediately after teleporting. After entrusting his body to the magic, he fainted and when he woke up, a pure white ceiling was the first thing he saw. Given that he had all his senses, it didn’t seem to be the afterlife, so it seemed his master must have treated him.

It was a gamble he had thrown, but it seemed to have been the correct answer. Even the teleportation formula he had modified on the spot had worked well, though he had honestly been unsure about it.

He was lucky.

It was a miracle that could only be explained that way. Asel thought this while enjoying the soft sensation felt in his left hand.

“…?”

After a moment, Asel realized the sensation was somehow familiar and painfully turned his head slightly.

His gaze fell upon Ena, who was tightly grasping his hand with her eyes wide open.

There were clear tear stains on her cheeks as if she had cried for a long time. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks were slightly sunken as if she hadn’t eaten for days.

The cold impression she usually showed was nowhere to be seen. A pitiful appearance that would evoke sympathy from anyone who saw it.

In a way, it was natural. The disciple she had trusted and sent to the Academy had suddenly appeared as a half-corpse. The mental suffering Ena had felt while Asel was unconscious was no small matter. The tears she had shed while watching over him were enough to form a puddle.

Of course, Asel didn’t know these behind-the-scenes details, but he was still aware that he had given Ena a burden on her mind. So he smiled painfully and spoke in a cracking voice:

“It’s been a while, Master.”

At those words, Ena seemed to choke up, and with her mouth corners drooping, she pressed her cheek against Asel’s hand that she was holding.

Warmth was slowly returning to his hand, which had been cold for over a week. That fact conveyed warmth to Ena. She looked up at Asel without even thinking of wiping away her flowing tears.

Asel smiled bitterly as he looked at her blue eyes sparkling with moisture.

“I’m sorry. I made you worry unnecessarily.”
“No.”

Ena barely opened her mouth. It was a voice full of tears. She stood up from her seat and placed her hand on Asel’s cheek, smiling painfully.

“Thank you for coming back.”

During the week Asel had been unconscious, she had never left his side even once. When his magical power convulsed, she calmed it down herself, and when cold sweat flowed, she wiped his body alone without the help of magic. She didn’t even sleep in case he suddenly became critical in the middle of the night.

While doing so, she conveyed warmth to him. Until all the spirit magician’s magical power that had invaded his soul was expelled, she dispelled the coldness by directly touching his skin. None of it was easy, but Ena tended to him without any complaints.

It would be a lie to say it wasn’t hard, but Ena deliberately didn’t reveal that fact to Asel. To her, the fact that he had safely regained consciousness was more important than showing off to him.

She didn’t care about repayment or anything like that.

“Does anything hurt?”

Ena asked, wiping away her tears. Asel answered with a voice mixed with laughter:

“Everything hurts.”

Ena smiled gently at that quip. She briefly kissed Asel’s forehead and met his gaze.

“Seeing you joke makes me feel a bit better. As much as I want to ask what happened right away… I suppose resting comes first.”

Ena continued speaking as she stood up from her seat.

“Wait. I’ll bring the bishop. Stay still.”

She said this and opened the door to leave the room. Asel answered that he understood, then lay still and blankly stared at the ceiling.

Click.

At that moment, he heard a sound like the door locking.

“?”

Asel’s head tilted.

Fortunately, the archbishop left after saying Asel would be fine after just a few more days of recovery. Ena let out a long breath as if relieved by those words, and brought porridge from the dining hall to personally feed Asel.

“…I can eat by myself.”
“Be quiet. You were whining that it hurts even to move your arms.”
“……”

Having nothing to say, Asel obediently ate the porridge she offered. The porridge with chicken and vegetables evenly mixed in was quite edible, better than expected. The tomato juice brought as a palate cleanser was also decent.

After the meal, he spent all day lying on the bed. Asel tried to get up from the bed to do some rehabilitation, but whenever such signs showed, Ena used language magic to make him lie down.

Even Asel couldn’t do anything against that magic which forcibly controlled movement.

He did try to resist by finding gaps in the magic in between, but then Ena would directly climb onto the bed and lie down on top of him. Thanks to using magic that completely eliminated the weight others feel, no matter how much she lay on top of Asel, he felt no pain.

That was the case now. Asel stroked Ena’s hair as she lay on top of him and let out a deep sigh. Ena enjoyed his touch without any particular complaint.

Even when a nun entered the room to use sacred law, she remained unmoved. Rather, she gave the nun looks as if telling her to leave quickly.

However, the nun was someone who made no concessions when it came to caring for patients. She ignored Ena’s gaze and carefully examined Asel’s condition. While doing so, she used sacred law on areas that needed treatment and gradually calmed his sensitized pain.

That alone improved his condition. Asel slightly bowed his head towards the nun while still lying down.

“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. More importantly, how long does Lady Ena intend to stay there? The patient is having a hard time.”
“Hard time?”

Ena asked, looking down at Asel’s eyes. Asel smiled bitterly and shook his head.

“I’m fine. Please stay comfortable, comfortable.”
“He says it’s fine?”

Ena answered the nun with raised mouth corners. The nun let out a deep sigh and shook her head.

“I’m saying this just in case, but the patient still needs stability. Please refrain from ‘that kind of activity’.”
“That kind of activity?”
“Sexual intercourse, I mean.”
“…Huh?”

Ena’s face turned bright red. Regardless, the nun gathered the bowl and bottle Ena had brought and added one more thing as she left the room:

“By the way, this room isn’t soundproof.”
“Get out.”
“Yes. Take care.”

The nun left with a chuckle, closing the door. Ena glared at the door she had left through and wiggled her fingers. Pure white magical threads extended from her fingertips and manipulated the door’s lock.

Click.

The door locked. Ena checked once to make sure it was properly locked, then collapsed back onto Asel’s body, overlapping her upper body. While doing so, she muttered:

“Don’t mind what she said. I wasn’t thinking of doing that.”
“……”
“Asel?”
“Ah, yes. I’m not minding it.”

Asel answered roughly like that. As if there was something unsatisfactory about that answer, Ena pouted her lips and lightly tapped her forehead against Asel’s chest. Asel thought “Why is Master acting like this?” but just brushed it off and shifted his gaze.

The tightly closed door came into his view.

‘Why does she keep locking it?’

Earlier when she went to bring the archbishop a few hours ago, and now too. Why does she lock the door in a way that can’t be opened from inside?

“……”

An ominous thought crept up in Asel’s mind.