Chapter 70
――The afternoon of the day after his duel with Rento.
"Ugh... It hurts..."
Guy woke to pain all over his body.
He was lying on a clean bed.
An unfamiliar sight.
"Where am I...?"
He tried to sit up, but the pain made it difficult.
After taking his time, he somehow managed to slowly raise his upper body.
He looked around――.
Three beds stood in a row.
The other two people lying there seemed to be his party members, Misa and El.
He couldn't be sure, since both their faces were completely wrapped in bandages, leaving their hair color as the only way to identify them.
Guy touched his own face――and finally realized that it, too, was completely covered in bandages.
His memories gradually came back into focus――.
His duel with Rento.
Being beaten to a pulp.
Rento's warning after the duel.
――Don't put up any pointless resistance. Repay all the mana you owe.
――Buy as many magic recovery potions as you can and put them toward repayment.
――Otherwise, real hell will begin in a week.
"Tch, damn it...!!"
Humiliated at having been thoroughly beaten, Guy felt anger flare up inside him.
He'd completely underestimated Rento.
Rento didn't have any decent combat Skills.
He seemed to have acquired a Skill that let him steal mana from them, but Guy had been sure they could beat him to a pulp without any trouble if they fought.
――He'd believed it without a shred of doubt.
But when it came down to it, Rento, whom he'd looked down on as far beneath him, had toyed with him one-sidedly.
He'd never experienced such humiliation before.
And he'd never before taken enough damage to be gravely injured.
The fighting style of 'Sky-Cleaving Sword' was to overpower opponents with their abundant mana.
They'd only ever fought monsters they could beat that way.
Usually, they took no damage at all or came away with only a scratch.
El's role was to cast buffs and debuffs with 【Enhancement Magic】, not use 【Healing Magic】.
They'd never fought a close battle, and they'd hardly ever been injured.
The first time they'd been battered was in their fight against the High Orc the other day.
Even then, they hadn't passed out.
For all three of them to lose consciousness...
"How much time has passed?"
Just after Guy let the words slip out――the door opened, and a young woman came in.
"It seems you've woken up. How are you feeling?"
She was a healer affiliated with the Adventurers Guild, dressed in a white coat.
"...The worst."
"If you can speak, then you're doing all right."
"Where is this?"
"It's the infirmary attached to the Adventurers Guild."
The healer replied as she fastened a band-shaped magic tool around Guy's left wrist.
"What time is it?"
"A little after noon."
As she checked the magic tool, the healer wrote the readings down on a sheet of paper.
She was checking Guy's vital signs.
"After noon?"
"Yes."
Guy found that strange.
He'd fought Rento around one in the afternoon, if he remembered correctly.
Had so little time passed?
That couldn't be right...
"Ah, it seems you've misunderstood. Today is the day after your duel."
"What?!"
"It's the next day."
"I slept for an entire day...?"
His loud exclamation of surprise sent a jolt of pain through him.
His injuries hadn't healed completely yet.
"Your vitals are fine."
The healer took her eyes off the magic tool and told him.
"Your injuries are healing, but you've lost quite a lot of blood, so you should rest for a while longer."
"...Yeah."
The healer removed the magic tool from Guy's wrist and began to explain.
"Since you're able to talk, I'll explain your treatment from here on and the costs."