Chapter 14

Kanna sighed and added nonchalantly, 

“Alright, I just have to earn my keep, don’t I?”

“Kanna. I’m not blaming you right now—”

“Doesn’t matter, does it? Whether you’re blaming me or whatever.”

“……”

Michael pressed Kanna’s cheeks with one hand.  

Kanna, whose face now resembled a goldfish, blinked and stared at Michael.  

“……What’s this?”  

“Kanna. Let me ask you again.”  

Michael’s voice dropped a tone.  

The atmosphere turned serious in an instant, and Kanna, unable to even complain about her squished cheeks, simply raised her eyebrows and looked at Michael.  

The question wasn’t as significant as she expected.  

“Did it hurt?”  

Even then, Kanna barely managed to blink.  

Michael released her cheeks and ran his fingers over the tip of her nose.  

It seemed he easily figured out it was a nosebleed.  

“Did it hurt? Were you startled?”  

“What’s the big deal about a nosebleed…”  

Kanna muttered as she wiped her nose roughly with the back of her hand.  

“It’s not like I can’t answer that.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a little blood.”  

“So, what’s your answer?”

He was oddly persistent about strange things.  

Michael’s unwavering gaze made Kanna clear her throat awkwardly.  

“Uh, well… No, it didn’t hurt?”

Even to Kanna, her words sounded awkward.  

But she was being honest. 

What’s the big deal about a nosebleed?  

She had experienced this kind of mana exhaustion side effect thousands of times.  

“Kanna, do you know that pain isn’t always a bad thing? It actually serves a very important purpose.”  

It was as if Michael had been waiting for that answer all along.  

“Pain helps us protect our bodies. So, Kanna, you’re saying you bled but didn’t feel any pain?”  

“Huh?”  

Michael pressed the bridge of Kanna’s nose with his finger, his expression serious.  

“You can’t possibly have no sensation in your nose.”  

“What nonsense are you—”  

“If it worsens, it could lead to a serious accident.”  

“What nonsense—”  

“In this case, it’s best to call the physician again. This time, we’ll have them thoroughly examine you from head to toe all day—”  

“Alright, fine! It hurt!”  

“You admit it?”  

“I admit it!”  

“And you were startled?”  

“……Of course, I’d be startled unless I intentionally stabbed my nasal membrane myself. What are you even trying to—”  

Kanna couldn’t finish her sentence.  

“It hurt, didn’t it?”  

Michael leaned in and embraced Kanna tightly.  

He patted her back gently and murmured again.  

“You must’ve been startled.”  

Kanna, her cheek pressed firmly against someone else’s chest, let herself be enveloped, her back being patted, and Michael’s voice resonating in her ears.  

The warmth of another person’s proximity wasn’t as overwhelming as she had thought.  

It was comfortingly simple, almost anticlimactic.  

So this is what comfort feels like.  

Kanna looked down at her still slightly trembling hands, the aftereffects of mana exhaustion.  

Strangely enough, the trembling began to subside.  

“But Kanna, picking your nose can lead to chronic conditions. It’s best to be cautious.”  

Michael pulled back abruptly, gripping Kanna’s shoulders and inspecting her nose with a serious expression.  

“Was it the right nostril or the left?”  

Kanna was dumbfounded.  

“…I didn’t pick at anything.”

“Kanna, it’s okay to be honest about these things.”

“I said I didn’t.”

“Alright, as long as you don’t do it again.”  

Kanna clenched her fists instinctively.  

But since she couldn’t outright confess the truth, she had no choice but to come up with an explanation that even she found unsatisfying.  

“It’s because it’s dry. It’s winter! It’s dry!”  

Michael, with no intention of hiding his amused grin, nodded as if he understood.  

“Alright, if you say so.”  

“It’s not ‘if I say so,’ it’s the truth. It’s really because of the weather.”  

“I understand, Kanna.”  

“You’re so—if it were Kanis, seriously—”  

Michael frowned.  

“The Master of the Mage Tower doesn’t pick her nose.”  

“Hey! I said I didn’t either!”  

At that moment, Jehel entered the room, her face lighting up as if she’d heard something amusing.  

“What’s this? Did Miss Kanna pick her nose?”  

“I didn’t! I said I didn’t!”  

“Jehel. Let’s assume Kanna didn’t….”  

“Oh! Then it’s a secret?”  

Kanna gave up speaking altogether and flopped onto the sofa.  

Naturally, her plan to inquire about the portrait was wiped clean from her mind.  

Behind her, Jehel and Michael exchanged a quiet glance.  

***  

It’s hot.  

Kanis wiped away the blood blocking her vision with her hand repeatedly.  

Her hair was matted with sweat and blood, and the light armor she wore felt like it would sink into the ground under its weight.  

The monsters that had fled south of the border during the monster wave had attacked a nearby village.  

Though they were eventually caught and eradicated…  

It was far from perfect.  

The village now looked like the remnants of something enormous that had clawed through it.  

Corpses were gradually being recovered, and the injured were receiving treatment.  

But the despair was only beginning.  

Over the chilling silence, the cries of the survivors began to overlay one another.  

Why did my child, my parents, my family, my friends not survive?  

Why am I alive, while you, who were laughing with me just moments ago, are now lying cold and lifeless?  

Why are you bidding farewell in such a broken state?  

The fact that countless tragedies occurred simultaneously, each a burden for someone to bear, might have made the shock all the more unbearable.  

This goodbye didn’t have to be today.  

Someone staggered toward Kanis.  

The people trying to stop him didn’t fully restrain him.  

The man grabbed Kanis by the collar.  

Kanis raised her unfocused eyes to look at him.  

She couldn’t tell whose breath reeked of blood.  

“Why, why didn’t you turn around?”  

“……”  

“I told you to save my mother first.”  

“……”  

“She’s trapped here, under this rubble! I begged you to save her! I screamed, pleaded for you to help! You heard me, didn’t you?”  

His voice sounded muffled, as though submerged in water.  

His flushed face, smeared with ash and sweat-matted hair, was blurry, but one sensation was clear.  

The hand gripping her collar, the skin contact—it burned like fire.  

“If you hadn’t gone to those girls, my mother would still be alive! If you hadn’t been late!”  

“……”  

Kanis slowly turned her gaze to where the man was pointing.  

There, two young girls were crouched over their parents’ corpses.  

The older girl, disheveled and tear-streaked, glared at the man.  

The smaller girl, sitting dumbfounded on the dirt floor, seemed oblivious to her surroundings.  

Kanis turned her head away.  

“You ignored my mother to retrieve corpses for those brats?”  

“……”  

“How could someone eaten by a monster still be alive? How could they survive? How could someone like you be swayed by the senseless pleas of a mere child?”  

People approached and tried to console the man, who had begun to sob uncontrollably.  

As they attempted to pull him away from Kanis, he clung to her desperately, teeth clenched.  

Kanis’s shoulder shook as blood dripped from her hair.  

She stumbled back a few steps.  

Her footsteps left dark red stains on the dirt.  

People would never realize.  

The crimson blood that soaked Kanis Riventi’s body after every battle—whose blood was it?  

Covered in blood to the point where her silver hair was no longer visible, Kanis inspired both fear and awe, yet no one ever knew.  

Monsters don’t bleed. 

Kanis Riventi was someone who willingly drenched herself in her own blood every time.  

“Say something, anything!”  

The man used all his strength to shove Kanis.  

As Kanis lost her balance and stumbled, the scene shifted.  

A moldy, decrepit floor.  

A young Kanis fell onto her backside.  

“Get lost, will you?”  

A young woman glared down at Kanis with an irritated expression.  

“Why do you keep hanging around, being such a nuisance?”  

The woman withdrew her hand after shoving the child and muttered a low curse.  

A man sitting across the table kicked its leg.  

“Hey, it’s your turn. Hurry up.”  

“Hold on, idiot. Don’t rush me like a brat.”  

The woman shuffled her cards irritably, then played one.  

As soon as she did, the man threw down his remaining cards and shouted.  

“Uno! I win! I told you, women are terrible at games.”  

“……”  

The moment Kanis tried to get up, a pile of cards was dumped over her head.  

One card grazed her cheek as it fell.  

Kanis sank back to the floor.  

The scratch on her cheek stung and burned.