Could this be possible?

Could such luck come to him?

He couldn’t utter a word about this fateful coincidence, nor could he remove his finger from her skin.

As if rubbing the mark would help him understand this situation, he kept circling his fingertip while unable to take his eyes off her face.

The proper healing he was receiving was truly addictive. It felt like he had taken some unknown drug sold in the underground.

He thought he wouldn’t want to leave her even if it meant death.

He recalled what Astin had jokingly said.

“They say it might manifest late…”

He even began to wonder if Astin had some sort of foresight.

But such thoughts were only momentary. Louis touched her mark again as if entranced.

“Ugh…”

At the sound of a small groan, Louis startled and removed his fingertip.

Seeing her shiver as if cold, Louis tightly closed his eyes at his own shameful behavior.

Even as he hurriedly covered her with the bedding, his gaze kept drifting to her collarbone where the mark was.

After hesitating for a moment, he slipped his hand under the covers and held her hand.

“…You allowed me to hold your hand before.”

Muttering an excuse to himself, he knelt beside the bed and gazed at Aer endlessly.

Occasionally, he wiped the sweat from her forehead with a wet towel.

Around dawn, Aer’s fever began to subside. Only after confirming her visibly more comfortable face did he finally straighten his knees that had been bent all along.

But he didn’t want to let go of her hand.

At that moment, the communication device connected to Astin rang from inside his jacket.

Only then did Louis reluctantly release the hand he had been holding.

“Huu…”

It was just letting go of her hand, but it felt as if a connecting thread between them had been severed. Anxiety welled up, and he wanted to hold it again, but he couldn’t due to the communication device ringing again.

Instead, he placed the communication device he had brought for her on the bedside table.

With each step he took, he turned his head to look at Aer. Louis reluctantly left the dormitory before dawn fully broke.

As he headed towards where Astin was waiting, he felt something strange. Surely there were others in the dormitory, but he couldn’t hear their inner thoughts.

It was truly strange.

No, it was marvelous.

The thoughts that had tormented him his entire life were gone.

Was dawn always this quiet?

With Astin’s help, he passed through the wall and boarded the carriage.

“My lord! I thought my neck would fall off waiting!”

He couldn’t hear Astin’s inner thoughts as usual. Louis stared blankly before focusing on his ability.

Then, as before, Astin’s inner thoughts came through vividly.

No, there was a slight difference from before. It was that he could reconstruct what was in his mind.

Just as Astin disassembled and reassembled objects, he changed the words floating in Astin’s mind.

“It’s fortunate you came out on time, my lord. Well then, shall we return?”

Unlike his previous impatient nagging, Astin spoke with his usual energetic expression.

Sweat immediately beaded on Louis’s forehead.

Just manipulating someone else’s memory for a moment seemed to make the healing power that had filled him disappear.

It felt as if her warmth was fading away, so he clenched his fist tightly.

As if doing so would prevent the remaining warmth from flying away, Louis looked out the moving window with his fist clenched.

His lips reflected in the glass window were curved in a deep arc.

‘I’ve found her, my mate.’

***

When the sun was high in the sky, Aer opened her eyes. Though there were still some aftereffects of her illness, her body felt refreshed.

“Ugh… I almost died.”

Was this punishment for ignoring a summer cold?

It seemed she had been sick for nearly ten days. Although she was conscious at first, as days passed, she couldn’t even move.

“Summer colds are scary…”

She grumbled inside the bedding. The rustle of bedding against her body made a strangely refreshing sound.

“Hm?”

She remembered sweating profusely even while unconscious.

But the bedding feels crisp and dry.

Could someone have entered her room? If so, who could it have been? The dormitory supervisor, or someone from the academy?

Since she couldn’t attend classes, could it have been one of the teaching assistants?

Aer looked around and tilted her head at the sight of fruit and a water bottle on the bedside table.

It seemed she had definitely received care, but she was curious about who it could have been.

“If I knew who it was, I could thank them…”

Though her memory was hazy, she felt like someone had wiped her forehead and face, held her hand tightly, and told her to get well soon…

“Who could it have been?”

In the midst of this, she discovered a transparent orb next to the water bottle.

“What’s this?”

Could it be something the visitor had forgotten and left behind?

As she pondered, the orb glowed brightly and vibrated.

“Oh, oh?”

While she was flustered, a familiar voice flowed from the glowing orb.

-Aer.

“…Louis?”

-Yes.

The voice, tinged with amusement, was definitely Louis. Had he come here?

Surprised, Aer’s lips quivered before she finally managed to speak.

“…How did this happen?”

-I came to check on you briefly… Sorry for entering without permission.

“No…”

The dormitory where Aer stayed was for women only.

The questions ‘How did he even get in here?’ and ‘Did I tell Louis I was staying in the dorm during the break?’ crossed her mind briefly, but then her eyes fell on the fruit and water bottle.

“Did you take care of me?”

-Um… Sorry for acting on my own.

“No… No! Don’t be sorry! I should be thanking you instead.”

Although she blurted it out, Aer felt embarrassment wash over her belatedly. The thought of him seeing her messy room and disheveled state hit her a beat later.

“Ack, ugh!”

-What’s wrong? Are you in pain?

“No! It’s nothing!”

She sat on the bed, stomping her feet. After flailing silently for a moment, Aer asked what she was most curious about.

“What is this orb?”

-It’s called a communication orb. We can use it to contact each other from now on.

“Wow, it’s a magical tool. I actually suggested this idea to the head of an information broker… So it already existed?”

-…You did?

“Yes! Wow, this is great. Actually, Louis, I felt lonely without you.”

-…Me too.

“Hehe, I wish the second semester would start soon.”

The two chatted casually. Louis explained how to use the communication orb. After ending the call, Aer got up to wash her clammy body.

Entering the bathroom and taking off her negligee, she was about to fill the tub when she caught sight of herself in the mirror and her eyes widened in surprise.

More precisely, at the mark that had appeared on her collarbone…

“W-What is this?”

She brought her face closer to the mirror to examine the mark. The mark, which looked somewhat like flower petals, was different from the marks she was familiar with.

“It wasn’t a summer cold, but manifestation fever!”

Not knowing exactly when healers manifested, she had simply thought it was a summer cold. But was this the normal time for manifestation? Or had it been accelerated?

“…So, am I a healer now?”

She was conflicted. Should she reveal that she was a healer and look for her mate, or should she hide it for now and live as a normal person?

The deliberation was brief, and once she made her decision, her mind became clearer.

As she lowered herself into the bathtub, she made plans for the future.

“In the original story, I died without meeting my mate. That means it must have been a mate that was difficult to meet. Even my mark is unfamiliar.”

Aer rubbed the mark with her fingertip. Thinking it fortunate that it wasn’t in a visible area, she recalled the awakened ones whose marks were exposed.

“Right, I should first look for the marks of the awakened ones. It won’t be too late to reveal it after that.”

Transferring to the healer class would be troublesome.

Moreover, the healer class, mostly filled with noble young ladies including Anna, would certainly not be friendly to her.

“I still have a lot to do, there’s no need to create unnecessary trouble in advance.”

Aer submerged herself in the water up to her lower lip, her eyes gleaming.

She absolutely would not die in vain like in the original story.

***

Time passed quickly. After the sweltering midsummer without a breeze, it was only when the days fell somewhere between late summer and autumn that the academy began to bustle again.

Aer, who was reading a book about marks in the library, briefly glanced at the commotion outside.

The academy library was grand in scale with a stylish interior. Befitting an academy library, it housed a large collection of books, offering plenty to read.

Convenient facilities were also provided throughout for students to use comfortably.

She sat by a window of the library, watching the stream of carriages and people arriving.

As she quietly observed the people, she suddenly stood up when a familiar face caught her eye.

Aer put the book back in its place and hurriedly left the library.

Her steps quickened with excitement. As she rushed down the stairs, her uniform skirt fluttered in the breeze.

Her sky-blue hair, fitting for summer, danced in the wind, and her pink eyes, tinged with joy, were as beautiful as flowers.

Finally, the person she had been waiting for was entering the building with luggage.

Although they had been in contact through the communication orb throughout the break, it had been a long time since they met in person, and she couldn’t contain her excitement. Aer called out to him.

“Louis!”

Still wearing thick glasses but with a subtly different aura, he spotted Aer and curved his lips into a deep smile.

“Aer.”

His voice, once a boyish tenor, now resonated with a deeper baritone.

For both of them, this summer had been a season of change.