The Academy’s Ankle Reaper

My abdomen feels like it’s on fire.

It’s a burning pain, as if something’s searing me with a branding iron.

‘If I pull this out, I’m going to bleed like crazy…’

The rapier has pierced my abdomen.

It feels like I’ve damaged some organs too.

Normally, when you’re stabbed like this, removing the blade is a fast track to death, but that’s only the case for ordinary folks.

‘Should I stab with the Aura Blade…!’

The rapier that’s lodged in my gut is wreathed in flickering blue aura.

The searing aura is continuously dealing damage to my wound and organs, making it worse to keep the sword embedded rather than pulling it out.

Thanks to my Master’s body, I have a high resistance to pain, but an ordinary person would have been dead by now.

The blazing blue aura from the rapier looks like it embodies her anger.

“…!!”

But despite the furious flames, Casey’s hands gripping the rapier tremble like aspen leaves.

For just a brief moment after stabbing, her expression shifted noticeably.

It’s as if she didn’t truly believe she would stab me.

“Uncle, why are you taking this…?!”

“Is stabbing the right thing to say?”

“I thought you’d dodge like usual…”

The look on Casey’s face shows she’s even more shocked than I am.

I’ve never properly been hit by one of Casey’s attacks before, so I’m baffled.

“You…!!! What are you doing…!!!”

As soon as Lucia grasped the situation, she charged at Casey.

Normally, she’d have had her sword ready, but coincidentally, neither of us was prepared on this outing.

Instead of a sword, she recklessly rushed at Casey with her fists while Casey held the rapier.

Casey didn’t even glance in Lucia’s direction.

The trembling hands of Casey regained their composure.

“You’re not my target.”

“Ugh… I can’t move?!”

As Casey raised her hand at Lucia, a magic circle unfolded, and Lucia suddenly floated into the air and slammed against a wall of an old building.

It’s telekinetic magic, her specialty.

It seems she adjusted the power deliberately to focus on me.

Seizing that moment, I pulled my body back.

The rapier that had been embedded in my abdomen popped out.

-Thud!

Bright red blood erupted from the hole and spilled onto the floor.

I had put on expensive clothes, only for them to be torn and stained with blood; it was an absolute mess.

In an instant, I touched several spots on my body, trying to stem the bleeding.

“Ugh….”

The pain twists in my stomach, forcing my face to contort.

But the effect was impressive.

The bleeding from the gaping hole stopped abruptly.

I forcibly closed the wound, suppressing the hemorrhage.

Though it felt like my muscles and flesh were being crushed in a vice, it was better than dying.

“Ah… it stings…”

“Getting stabbed by something like this means you’ve really gotten dull…? I thought I was busy living life.”

If you hadn’t been careless, you wouldn’t have gotten stabbed.

No, that’s just an excuse.

Right now, being stabbed hurts more than the embarrassment.

Even recently, when I was attacked by the Commander, I got through without a scratch, but here I was, suffering real damage from Casey, who’s weaker than that… It’s incredibly humiliating.

I’m shaken.

The little one I raised in the Knight Order, Casey Keppel, stood there, her eyes cold as she gripped the flaming rapier.

She was never the type to smile much.

‘If only it were another member, I could have hit her without a care…’

I had heard that Casey was chasing me from the Commander, but I never imagined we would cross paths here.

My abdomen hurt a lot, but I could still move, thankfully.

It seemed Casey wasn’t planning to attack again, either.

With a broad smile on her face, she said,

“Casey, you could’ve at least sent a message before showing up. You startled me.”

“…If that’s a joke, it’s not funny. Is that what you’re going to say after getting hit by someone weaker? Uncle, you’re washed up now.”

The cold response came back.

It was the reaction of a teenage daughter who’s in full rebellion against her father.

“I thought leaving the Knight Order would mean you were doing something impressive… but was it just playing around with a girl?”

“Leaving? I just stepped out for a moment.”

“Don’t lie to me anymore. I’m not falling for your tricks again…”

Casey’s lips quivered as she bit down in frustration.

She had a habit of saying it was better to fix a broken lip, and she was still doing that.

“…Who’s that woman to you?”

“A new friend.”

“Is that so… So you’re into tall women?”

“I said she’s a friend.”

Casey seems mad that I left the Knight Order.

But something feels off.

I did bolt from the Order, after all.

When I left, I had written two letters: one was for the Commander, and the other was to Casey.

“It was urgent… I wrote a letter, didn’t I?”

“That garbage?”

Upon mentioning the letter, Casey’s face twisted even more.

In my rush, I couldn’t recall exactly what I wrote, but calling it garbage?!

“That’s garbage…?”

“Did you really think you could write that you’d be back after sleeping a hundred nights like a good boy, and I’d believe you? I burned that after the two hundredth.”

‘So that’s how I wrote it back then.’

Thinking back, it made sense.

I had heard that the Elixir of Growth was hidden in the Snow Country and planned to return within two months, so of course, I would write something like that.

“It’s been about three years now, so it’s over a thousand nights… Got any more excuses?”

“That part… I have no words. I’m sorry… I did end up delaying things.”

I truly had nothing to say for myself.

The place I aimed to breach in two months turned out to be difficult even with knowledge of a strategy; without a reliable team, it was nearly impossible, and building a trustworthy one wasted three years.

‘Have I really made her wait more than two years…? I can’t blame her for being mad.’

I had said I’d return in three months but ended up taking three years without so much as a word; it’s normal she’d be upset.

I could have sent letters in between, but I had been so consumed by finding the Elixir of Growth, and there was a baseless belief that Casey, being grown and established within the Order, would manage just fine.

After all, Casey was a smart kid; she learned more than what she was taught.

“And! I heard it from the Snow Country Exploration Team! They already found the Elixir of Growth there!!! I’ve finished everything I mentioned in my letter, so why aren’t you back yet?!

I… I’ve been abandoned, haven’t I…!! Uncle… in the end…!!”

The aura from Casey’s rapier flared fiercely as her emotions escalated.

She seemed ready to attack again.

“Casey, calm down! Let’s talk!”

“I don’t want to hear it anymore!!”

The rapier, now blazing with intensity, surged towards me.

I clearly said I wanted to talk.

It was Casey who rejected it.

“Well then… I’ll just have to make you calm down…!!!”

The short dagger I held began to glow with aura as well.

No need to complicate things.

I just need to knock her down and calm her before talking.

My abdomen had a hole, but I’m still the Master.

As long as I don’t let my guard down, taking down Casey in this condition isn’t a problem.

“Get away from Atlas!!”

Just then, Lucia, covered in dust, woke up.

Still, Casey didn’t spare her a glance.

Did she not feel Lucia was worth her time? But this time, Lucia was different.

Seeing that it’d be hard to handle with bare hands, she sought for her weapon.

The weapon she grabbed was nothing less than a column from the building.

“Ugh….”

Lucia braced herself against the firmly-embedded column.

“AAAAHHHH!!!!”

-Crack!

The giant column Lucia held bent to her will and was uprooted completely.

Debris and dust exploded in all directions from the building as the column was pulled out.

Lucia wasn’t just wildly swinging the column; she was swinging it with swordsmanship.

Red flames erupted from the makeshift wooden sword that couldn’t contain all of her aura.

Russell’s famed Stone Sword was executed with the thick log column.

“Uh… uh…??”

-KABOOM!!!

A sound roared through the downtown like an explosion.

——————————–

Thanks to Lucia pulling up the column and executing her sword technique, the downtown was left in utter chaos, and I slipped away amidst the crowd.

But it truly was an attack swung without a care.

I nearly got caught up in it, being directly in front of Casey.

“Ah… Atlas, my abdomen… what should I do…”

Carrying me and running, Lucia was in a state of panic.

With blood all over my lower half, she was covered in it as well.

Pale with shock, she looked down at her blood-stained clothes and began to tremble.

“It’s okay; I’m not dying… I’ve spilled some blood and might have damaged my insides, but… this is a wound that will heal quickly.”

“This is a huge deal!!”

“…I don’t see any hospitals around here… Could you please buy two bottles of water and healing potions and a couple of rolls of bandages from just ahead?”

There might be a hospital somewhere in the downtown, but nothing was in sight.

I missed the large hospital at the Academy that could quickly heal severed limbs.

“Ah… got it… if I have those, you’ll be alright?”

“Right, the bleeding has almost stopped now.”

Though it still hurt like hell since I was holding it in, at least it had ceased.

I’m familiar with treating my own wounds.

While I could manage an emergency treatment alone, having what I mentioned would make things much easier.

“I’ll be back quickly… so you have to stay safe…”

“I said I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Lucia realized that was all she could do to help and dashed out through the dust-filled buildings.

After confirming she had vanished down the street, I muttered to myself.

“Phew… were you hoping to talk to me now…?”

“…..”

From the shadows of the building, Casey emerged without a sound.

Even in a state of panic, she was so well concealed, I didn’t notice her, despite an expert being right next to her.

I don’t know who taught her, but they did a hell of a job.

‘Was it me?’

Moments ago, Lucia had unleashed a wide-scale attack that left things in disarray, but there were still unresolved matters between Casey and me.

I tried to pull out my dagger as before, but Casey’s reaction was nothing like I anticipated.

“Ah… Uncle…”

Casey’s demeanor was strange as she reappeared.

She looked like a completely different person from the one I saw just a while ago.

She trembled as she looked at the bloody wound on her abdomen.

“…Take this.”

Casey gazed at my injury as she tossed a small box toward me.

It was a first-aid kit issued by the Knight Order.

“I’ll gratefully accept this.”

“Don’t go telling people you’re a member of the Royal Knight Order if you can’t even dodge stuff like this. Ugh, Uncle… I really hate it.”

“Just… don’t tell the others; it’s so embarrassing.”

“…I’m going to tell everyone how dull you’ve gotten from getting ambushed…”

Her shivering escalated; tears started to spill down her cheeks.

This was definitely Casey, but she felt so unlike the one I’d just seen moments before.

It was as if the mask she had been desperately wearing fell away.

Realizing tears were streaming down her face, Casey wiped them hastily with her robe’s sleeve and hastily ran off.

Left behind with the first-aid kit in hand, I sighed.

“Should I call this a late teenage rebellion…?”