I Will Not Fall For the Villain’s Flirtations - Chapter 41

I was momentarily frozen, but soon I snapped back to reality and slapped his hand away. Staring directly at the man who hesitated, I straightened my posture to avoid showing any signs of tension.

“If you like blasphemy so much, go find a heretical group. I told you, I don’t want to be toyed with by you anymore.”

Just because a part of me welcomed the reunion with him didn’t mean my rationality was completely paralyzed. Although I still had an unfounded belief that this man wouldn’t harm me, it didn’t mean I trusted him completely.

I resented living a life as someone’s sidekick, and I was grateful to him for making me forget that miserable reality. But.

“I’m not curious about you.”

Even if it wasn’t entirely true, I had no intention of diving deeper into this dangerous relationship. I wanted to believe that my self-esteem wasn’t so low that I had to rely on the fickle affection of this capricious person.

“I have no desire to get entangled with you.”

“……”

“You’re someone who might change your mind and hurt me at any moment.”

In the silence, sharp glances were exchanged for a while.

As the hot wind swirled from my feet to the back of my neck, Keene, who had been silently watching me, showed an unexpected reaction. Instead of answering, he suddenly opened a subspace and took out a necklace, which he then handed to me. As a result, I had to change the topic abruptly.

“…What is this?”

The necklace was in the shape of a locket with a teardrop-shaped amethyst embedded inside. I couldn’t fathom why he was giving me something like this all of a sudden.

“It’s a life stone.”

“…A life stone?”

The name itself was unusual. I had no idea what it had to do with anything. But then, in the next moment, he said something extremely ominous.

“If my visits are so dreadful, and you’re worried I might harm you, break it.”

“…What happens if I break it?”

Sensing the anxiety in my trembling voice, he smiled faintly and pressed the necklace into my hand. I felt an enormous wave of magical power emanating from the small gem, more than I could believe.

“Don’t worry too much, I won’t die.”

“W-What do you mean, you won’t die… No, it’s not about worrying…”

Who’s worried about whom here?

Just as I was about to argue against his ridiculous words, he leaned in to meet my eye level. When his face suddenly drew closer, I momentarily held my breath. He scanned my features from my eyes to my nose and mouth, then smiled softly.

“Seeing you after a long time, you look better than I thought.”

“……”

“I’ll come back in a week. If possible, don’t break it, and let’s meet again.”

I couldn’t find the words to protest. Even if I had, it would have been useless. The next moment, he disappeared in a flash of light.

It felt like I had been dreaming while standing. Blinking slowly, I alternated my gaze between the necklace he had handed me and the Mattnum Possun bag at my feet.

The forgotten sound of cicadas noisily invaded my eardrums, bringing me back to reality. I let out a hollow laugh at the incomprehensible situation.

“Ha.”

I crouched down and took out the contents of the bag. The turquoise tin holding the tea leaves boasted a bright color and an elegant vine pattern. The delicately painted edges of the lid made it look truly luxurious.

Opening the lid to check the black tea, I let out a long sigh. Both the necklace and the tea tin were incredibly light objects, yet they felt unbearably heavy, as if they were dumbbells.

“I wanted to eat scones there, not drink tea.”

Mumbling to myself, I buried my face in my hands.

Thus ended the reunion, with two mismatched items, not knowing what I had expected.

* * *

Thud. A gyursh fell and rolled across the desk.

Holding a scalpel, I sighed and picked up the fruit that unexpectedly managed to break free.

“Why do you keep falling?”

I grumbled at the fruit, now a lifeless object, then leaned my chin on my hand and picked up the scalpel again. However, I was startled by a sudden thunderous shout, causing me to straighten my back.

“Are you not going to do it properly, Duna Valorem?”

“……”

Pouting, I looked at the healing mage who had come to supervise with a stern expression. Looking around, I saw that the other novitiates who had been assigned extra study had already left, having finished their practice.

Once I realized I was alone, my already nonexistent motivation dwindled even further.

“Sir Pete, honestly, I can’t tell if I’m peeling the gyursh or reviewing healing magic.”

Learning healing magic for the first time was fun, but not all the practical exercises were enjoyable. The peeling process, in particular, was the worst.

“Ahem. Peeling and healing magic often go hand in hand during actual surgeries. Even with scars, you think they just disappear with a wave of magic?”

Despite his explanation, I glared at the gyursh with a face that clearly showed I wasn’t convinced. While separating the peel without bursting the flesh might be similar to real practice, there was one crucial difference.

“But it’s much harder to do it on something hanging from a tree. You don’t treat people while they’re dangling precariously like this.”

“That’s why you use a stabilizer.”

“It falls off when you try to fit it into the stabilizer…”

Healing magic can only be used on recoverable, living subjects. As a result, once the fruit is separated from the stem, magic no longer works on it.

“It’s a tough job for someone with clumsy hands.”

“You’re just not being careful enough.”

He clicked his tongue and pretended to flick my forehead.

Pete Darter was a healing mage and a secular priest who taught healing magic at the temple.

Of course, I didn’t start out being so cheeky with such a revered senior. But he somehow heard that I had once found vigra for Peidos, and that it was none other than me who had retrieved it, and he started acting friendly towards me.

There was no need to investigate where that information leaked from. It must have been the apothecary Medin. The two were quite close, having come from the same public office.

[For now, I will keep it top secret. Do not worry.]

Top secret, my foot. At least it seemed he only told Pete, since rumors hadn’t spread wildly.

“Hey, so, do you write letters to Sir Peidos?”

“I told you, it’s not like that. I mistook it for a fatigue recovery potion, and Sir Peidos defended me.”

“No one would defend just anyone like that. Don’t you think?”

“He’s kind to everyone.”

Letters, huh. I scoffed.

Far from such sweet things, I hadn’t seen him even once after giving him the key until he went on his expedition. Since Sir Peidos left the main temple, I’ve been busy with my own life, so now the time we spent together feels almost like a dream.

I thought I had gotten a bit closer to him. Was that just an illusion too?

“Hey, that’s not how you do it.”

Switching back from being a nosy busybody to an instructor, Pete took the stabilizer from me. He carefully placed the gyursh into the stabilizer and explained.

“It may seem unrelated now, but it all connects later.”

He made sure the stabilizer wasn’t pressing the fruit too hard and that there was enough distance from the part to be peeled before continuing.

“Think about it. If you treat internal injuries before external ones, you might have to cut the skin again. If your colleague is pressing too hard to stop the bleeding and you use restoration magic, it could cause vascular constriction. To avoid that, what should you do? First and foremost, be careful. Second, be even more careful.”

“……”

When I imagined healing magic while reading fantasy novels in my past life, I thought it was just about shooting magic at the wound. But in real life, it’s practical, and it surprisingly required a lot of anatomical knowledge.

Who would have guessed that even simple healing magic had such a complex mechanism? Of course, what I, a novitiate, was learning was only the basics.

“Still, you have talent. You know that, right? Consider pursuing this path later.”

“Me?”

“You didn’t know? I wouldn’t waste my time on someone without talent. What glory would I gain by making a novitiate do extra practice?”

His blatant admission of a mindset unfit for an instructor was shameless, but his praise wasn’t entirely unpleasant. Although I wasn’t completely convinced.

“There are many who are better than me.”

“Better? Who?”

“……”

I fidgeted with my fingers, stalling for time. The image of the woman who had restored more than 80% of the gyursh’s peel with a brilliant light during the morning class came to mind.

After some hesitation, I mentioned the name.

“For example, Primis Starring…”

“Oh, that pink-haired friend.”

Naturally, I thought he would react enthusiastically. After all, Primis was a genius. An ideal novitiate with innate holy power and added effort. However, Pete smacked his lips with a bitter expression for some reason.

“She’s good. That friend is really good. But…”

“……”

“She’s too good.”

“…What does that mean?”

She’s too good, so why is he reacting like this?

Pete ruffled the back of his hair, frustrated.

“I’ve been teaching for over ten years, you know. I’ve seen plenty of exceptional kids. But that friend, how should I put it…”

He hesitated for a long time, choosing his words, then slowly opened his lips.

“She feels like a graduate.”

“What?”

“She doesn’t have that beginner’s feel, you know.”