Chapter 36
“Move slowly.”
The cave we finally reached was much smaller than I had expected.
It was about the size of two dorm rooms put together.
A little flustered, I looked around the cave before carefully propping Kairos against the wall.
“It’s more of a hole than a cave.”
Leaning against the wall, Kairos looked up at me and joked.
“Wh-what could I do? It’s not like I’d been here before.”
I answered a little sheepishly, then bent down to inspect the cave floor.
Fortunately, there were no signs of wild animals.
“Anyway, this should be enough for the night. I’ll step outside and gather some firewood for a campfire.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“Are you crazy? Stop saying ridiculous things and sit still.”
I sighed and glared at Kairos, who had one hand pressed to his side.
“So how much mana do you have left?”
“Um… enough to last about three more hours?”
“That’ll do. I’ll be back soon, so wait here for a bit.”
“Rene.”
As I was about to leave the cave, Kairos called me again.
I pressed my lips together and turned around to see him chuckling.
“You don’t need to feel that responsible. In the end, it was my fault for letting my guard down.”
“Wow, what a saint.”
It was an absurdly magnanimous thing to say.
Did this guy think he was some kind of saintess of the battlefield?
“Enough. The patient should just rest quietly. Once we get back to school, I’ll properly compensate you for your injury, too.”
“Do you even have money to compensate me, Rene?”
“It doesn’t have to be money.”
“Really? Then what will you do for me?”
“Is there anything you want?”
If possible, I intended to do anything I could for him.
It was true that he had let go of the kid he had been interrogating because of me, and a fractured rib was a serious injury that would trouble him for at least two months.
“Something I want….”
Kairos folded his arms and fell into thought.
I turned away, leaving him to it.
“Think about it by the time I get back.”
I had to use my time efficiently, after all.
I left the cave and headed toward the bushes I had spotted on the way here.
When I reached my hand into the nearest bush, I felt a damp chill.
‘This should do.’
A little moisture was no problem when it came to magic.
As I snapped branches one after another, a pile of firewood about as large as my forearm quickly accumulated.
‘This should be enough.’
Finally, I gathered some leaves for Kairos to lie on, straightened up, wiped the sweat from my forehead, and pulled my wand from inside my clothes.
“Levitas Tendra.”
Whoosh—the firewood rose into the air.
A simple levitation spell placed little strain on Rene’s body. Even tripling one only brought it to three, after all.
With the firewood floating in the air, I slowly made my way back to the cave.
After walking for a while, I saw Kairos peeking his head out from the cave entrance in the distance.
“What are you, a rabbit?”
That guy really couldn’t stay still for even a moment.
I chided him as I quickened my pace.
“I was bored. Besides, I told you, it doesn’t hurt that much.”
Kairos gave an awkward laugh, staggered toward me, and hugged about half the floating firewood to his chest.
“Hey! I told you not to overdo it!”
“I’m not overdoing it.”
With that, Kairos hurried back into the cave.
I sighed and followed after him.
Kairos set the firewood down in front of the cave, straightened his back, and spoke.
“Just in case, let’s block the entrance with the extra firewood.”
“I was planning to do that anyway.”
I set my own firewood down beside Kairos’s.
“That aside, you seem to know a thing or two about camping?”
Even if you blocked the entrance only haphazardly, it helped maintain the temperature inside.
It could also block the smell and line of sight, keeping wild animals from approaching.
“I read about it in a book.”
“Do you normally read books like that?”
“If something looks interesting, I read it regardless of what it is.”
Kairos went back inside the cave.
I followed him in, carrying some of the firewood.
Starting a fire wasn’t all that difficult.
I simply stacked the firewood, used wind magic to blow away the moisture, and then fired a flame bolt into it.
Once the campfire was lit, the dim cave brightened.
I finally sat down and stretched my stiff back.
“It’s already getting dark outside.”
Kairos muttered as he added more firewood to the entrance.
I rested my head against the wall and answered absently.
“Staying out overnight is ten demerit points….”
“Don’t worry. I recorded our location.”
“Our location?”
“Yeah. Even if I get penalized, I can’t let you, Rene, get demerit points too.”
Kairos turned toward me and chuckled.
“Don’t worry. I’ll explain things properly to the headmaster.”
He was, I had to admit, remarkably kind to Rene, at least.
If only he would show Christina even half of that kindness.
‘Well… if it’s him, he’ll manage somehow.’
In any case, I felt reassured knowing Kairos was willing to step in personally.
Besides, the old headmaster already had a history of favoring Kairos even over me.
“All right. I’ll trust you.”
I answered casually and looked up at the cave ceiling.
Then, struck by a sudden thought, I asked cautiously.
“Are you going to tell the headmaster about that kid, too?”
I was simply curious. I also wondered whether what Kairos had done to that kid was something he could openly admit to others.
“I have to.”
Unexpectedly, Kairos answered without hesitation.
Was there really something special about that kid?
I answered, “I see,” and slowly stood up.
“Well then, let’s start the treatment.”
Kairos still looked fine, but no one could know what was going on inside him.
“Take off your shirt and lie down.”
I spoke firmly as I crouched in front of Kairos.
The awkward smile on his face froze in an instant.
“……What?”
“Lie down. Take off your shirt.”
It was an obvious request. The spell would be more effective if I cast it directly on his bare skin.
“T-take off my shirt?”
“Your ribs are what’s broken.”
“Y-yes, but….”
“Don’t worry. I’m not the least bit interested in your naked body.”
I was being sincere. What good would come from looking at some man’s body?
“M-my naked body….”
Kairos fidgeted and hunched over.
Unlike his usual self, he seemed surprisingly embarrassed by things like this.
“What’s wrong? You took my clothes off when I was unconscious, too.”
“Ugh….”
“You didn’t just take off my shirt then, either, did you? My uniform, my undershirt, and even my underwear—”
“Ah, fine! I’ll take it off, all right?!”
Kairos shouted as though he had just made some great decision.
I shrugged and took a step back.
Kairos first took off his robe and set it beside him. Then he grabbed the hem of his shirt, which had two buttons undone, and hesitated before squeezing his eyes shut and yanking it up.
As his shirt came off, pale… soft, plump-looking skin was revealed, as white as his face.
“Pfft….”
“Pfft?!”
Kairos looked at me in surprise.
“Ah, sorry, sorry…. Pfft.”
But I couldn’t hold back my laughter.
His body was… much… cuter than I had expected.
“Kairos, you really do hate exercise.”
“Ugh….”
“I thought someone like you would have trained your body, too.”
I had gained one more thing I could lord over him.
I snickered and poked his stomach with the wand in my hand.
“Don’t.”
Kairos gave me a genuinely stern look and knocked the wand aside.
He glared at me for a moment, then sighed and lay down on the pile of leaves I had prepared.
“Ahem, sorry, sorry.”
I put aside my teasing, tucked the wand into my clothes, and approached him.
I carefully reached out and lightly brushed my hand over his side.
“……Ugh.”
“Here it is.”
The third and fourth ribs on the left.
Thinking back, it seemed to be the spot where my shoulder had collided with him when we fell.
“Then I’ll begin.”
From now on, my task was to continuously supply mana to this area and help keep his natural healing going without interruption.
As I infused him with mana, Kairos flinched and trembled.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem particularly uncomfortable. After a long while, he looked up at me with a relaxed expression and spoke.
“Rene.”
“What?”
“Can I ask you one question?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why didn’t you perform properly on the midterms?”
“……”
I couldn’t believe it. He was still hung up on that?
“How can you be so sure I didn’t perform properly?”
“Because your abilities are better than that, Rene.”
“So how do you know what my abilities are….”
“Because I know you well, Rene.”
Kairos’s expression grew even more serious.
It was as if he was begging me to finally tell him the truth.
“……”
Seeing how serious he was, he must have had some kind of conviction of his own.
A certainty bolstered by the belief that Rene’s abilities could definitely have placed them in the top ten, or something like that.
‘So lies really don’t work on him after all.’
I fell silent for a moment and thought.
What should I say now? What answer could convince this persistent guy?
After thinking it over, I decided to twist the subject slightly.
“Are you disappointed that I didn’t move into a private room?”
He had insisted that it wasn’t because of the scholarship.
If that was the case, there was only one reason left: he was disappointed that Rene would remain somewhere outside his sphere of influence.
“……”
Kairos stared up at me without saying anything for a moment.
“Yeah, I am.”
His answer was astonishingly honest.
“Didn’t you say you don’t like me?”
I asked because I was dumbfounded.
Kairos answered with a calm expression.
“You can still want to stay close to someone as a friend, can’t you?”
“What does that even….”
“Then why do you, Rene, think that all the kindness I show you is romantic interest?”
Kairos’s eyes narrowed playfully.
“Could it be that you’re the one who likes me….”
“No, I don’t!!”
That lunatic was spouting absolute nonsense, so I shouted at him.
“Ugh….”
“Ah.”
I must have unconsciously tensed my hand, because Kairos’s expression twisted in pain.
I hurriedly relaxed the hand that was infusing him with mana and snapped at him.
“T-there’s no way!”
“Then do you hate me?”
“Of course I hate you!”
I added, as though it were obvious.
“Think about everything you’ve done to Rene. You haven’t even properly apologized for erasing my memories.”
“I told you, that was only because your mana went berserk….”
“Can you stop using that excuse already? You know it doesn’t make any sense, either.”
I sighed and was about to continue when….
“……Wait.”
Inside the cave, only a deep silence remained apart from the crackling of the campfire.
At that moment, I sensed three points.
They were signs of life caught by the detection spell I had spread over a radius of fifty paces.
“Rene?”
Kairos looked up at me as though he had no idea what was going on.
Even then, the three points were drawing closer to us.
With a sinking feeling, I looked down at Kairos.
“Kairos, earlier, you said….”
Come to think of it, while interrogating that kid earlier, Kairos had asked them something.
“That kid you were harassing… Were there three people in their group?”
He had definitely asked, “Where are the others?”
“Ah.”
Kairos’s expression hardened.