All of your injuries should be healed, but try not to move too much for a while,” Gabriel said.
“Thank you,” Alicia replied.
Gabriel himself had used his own healing magic with its high potency to mend her arm. There was not a single scar visible on her arm. She was quite amazed by it. He had used life maneg to heal her shoulder and other injuries while keeping in mind her privacy.
“There shouldn’t be any scars,” the Life Guardian continued. “Do tell me if there is. It’s not good for a lovely lady such as you to be tainted with a scar.”
“I will.”
“Good,” Gabriel smiled. “You may leave.”
She went outside to find her father talking (read: lecturing) with Owen and Haruto. Russel was standing on the sideline with a look of sympathy. She also saw her mother chatting with Aqua, Rose, and Jill. James and Richard seemed to be dragged here and were awkwardly standing there which only made the infirmary more cluttered.
“Alicia, are you alright?” Rose was the first to notice. Reinforcing her leg with her loyal maneg, she stood up and grabbed Alicia’s hands. “Are you still hurt anywhere?”
“I-I am fine,” Alicia assured her, slightly taken aback by Rose’s suddenness, but appreciating it overall.
“Oh, thank goodness…” The vampire sighed in relief.
“Idiot,” Jill said angrily. “Do not make us worry like that! Almost getting yourself killed!”
“Forgive me, I promise not to do that again.”
“Well, it is not really your fault,” Jill puffed her cheek. “It can not be helped.”
“Oh, thank the Great Spirits you are alright.” Alicia’s mother praised, burying her daughter in her chest. Aqua reacted to her statement, being the Great Water Spirit.
“M-Mother, you are choking me!” Alicia cried. Her mother let go and she gasped for air. Then, she was hugged by her father.
“Thank you, Gabriel, for healing my daughter,” Ronald thanked.
“I am simply doing my job,” the Life Guardian humbly stated.
“Why are you here, mother? And you too, father,” Alicia asked.
“I have a feeling you got into trouble, so I came here. I brought Irene as well,” her father explained.
In other words, parental instinct.
“I-I see…”
CREEK
A man in a military uniform and a village girl came in, it was Hanz and Crea. But the soldier’s outfit was in tatters and blood. They were supporting each other. Beside them was Alice, the Ice Guardian, who was slightly scuffled.
“What happened?” Gabriel calmly asked.
“Uh, we kinda made a bunch of Maneg Beasts on the Training Grounds,” Hanz explained.
“One of my [Icicles] redirected itself to hit his Order,” Alice muttered. Her head down. “And Hanz blocked an attack from a wolf-type when it tried to strike me from behind by surprise.”
Alicia winced hearing ‘wolf-type’. It looked like it will be something uncomfortable for her to hear for a while.
The Life Guardian simply sighed. “Alright, no need to feel guilty, Alice. Come inside, Russel, assist me.”
“Yes, Master.” Russel followed suit.
“We should leave this room,” Ronald announced. “It’s not exactly the best room to hold many people.”
“So, what did you do, Voice?” Alicia asked the pixie in the middle of the table. They had moved to the balcony of the Fire Guardian’s Chamber. The vampire and its hunter, a knight, and another knight had other business after confirming Alicia’s wellbeing. Haruto meanwhile, was busy filing the report of the mission to Aqua.
“You were going to die, and you felt scared.” Voice declared. “So I had to do something!”
“It’s a ‘defense mechanism’ in every Maneg Soul,” Ronald explained. “When a Court Wizard under the suppression of emotions breached the suppression, normally in fear of death, the Maneg Soul partially takes over. There are two cases: the first, it will simply increase the efficiency and power of the Orders given without its master’s consent; the second case, the Maneg Soul will make its Orders and carry them out whilst ignoring its master’s command. Yours is the latter case, aa with… Voice’s behavior.”
“Then how did Owen stop her?” Alicia asked.
“It stops when the Maneg Soul had deemed no threat remains or a Court Wizard who is…” Ronald took a peek at Owen. “Close to you told it to stop.”
Owen averted his gaze while sipping his tea. A tinge of red can be seen on his cheek. Alicia felt heat gathering on hers as well.
“I’m sorry, Alicia.” Voice bowed her tiny head to her master.
“It is okay, Voice.” Her master picked her up. “You were trying to protect me, I thank you.”
“I- Waaah!”
A little red pixie letting tears out (how she was able to, who knows), wetting her master’s shoulder as she gently hugged her. Owen and Ronald pulled out their smartphone (don’t ask how Owen’s smartphone survived) and started recording.
Once Voice was done crying, they both quickly pocketed their recording for ‘future use’.
“I’m glad that this has resolved well,” Ronald murmured. “Frankly, I wouldn’t let you come here anymore, but by my experience, even if I did, you will inevitably come back here anyway.”
“I feel quite the same way.”
“Well now, I believe you still have unfinished business, correct?” Ronald said. “It’s not good to leave it unfinished.”
“You guys left me!” Emile shouted.
“Sorry, sorry!” Haruto apologized.
“On a side note, you alright, Alicia? That wolf-type did a nasty wound on you.”
“I am fine,” Alicia replied, showing her completely healed arm.
“That’s a relief.” Emile sighed. “Anyway, Rina’s worried sick when I came back alone. Haruto, you better go apologize to her!”
“Alright, alright.”
“Hey, Rina.” A white-cloaked Court Wizard stood across a black-haired village girl. Haruto simply smiled at her. “My friend Alicia got a bad injury while we fight that wolf so we transferred back to court.”
“Is she okay?” Rina asked.
“Yeah, she is. Full recovery as if it never happened.”
Alicia waved her hand to Rina.
“Are you okay?” Rina asked him.
“Yes.”
Rina approached Haruto and then wrapped her small arms around him. “I’m glad.”
“I’m glad too.” He hugged her in return.
She was more concerned about us than the Maneg Beast.
True true!
I believed he said his sister was similar to Rina, do you know, Owen?
Yeah, Haruto kept preaching of his precious ‘imouto’. She made Master Darc smile which is basically like telling an ostrich to fly with its wings. (Owen)
I see, I would like to meet her someday.
I wanna meet her too!
Let us hope so.
The village chief thanked the slayers of the Maneg Beast. They then prepared to take off for Southwood.
“Can I see you again?” Rina asked.
“Sure, and maybe you can see my sister too,” Haruto answered. “I’m sure you’ll be great friends with her.”
“Really?”
“Yes, I’m sure of it.”
“Oi, Haruto, we’re going!” The eye-patched hunter called. The engine of his auto-mobile Catalyst raring to go.
“Well, I gotta go. See you later, Rina.”
“Yes, see you later!”
VROOOM
The auto-mobile drifted off beside the sunset. Rina waved her hands, smiling, along with other villagers
Southwood.
“Oh, you’re back!” the guildmaster of Southwood’s hunting guild, Rudolf, exclaimed. “I was worried something happened.”
“Stuff happened, but we’re fine,” Haruto replied.
“I see, come sit here, I would like to hear the report myself.”
“So that’s what happened,” Rudolf said. “Well, it had all ended well. This quest is complete. I will distribute the bounty, you will get a cut as well, Emile.”
“Eh, why?” the eye-patched hunter asked. “My team failed.”
“You have assisted Alicia here in dealing the D rank Maneg Beasts which proved to be too much for her considering her… Accident.”
“Ah, I forgot to say about that,” Alicia said. She bowed to Emile. “Thank you for assisting me, and forgive me for that incident.”
“N-No, that’s fine,” Emile got all flustered seeing a young red-haired woman lowering her head to him. “P-Please, raise your head!”
“Huh, I wonder what would Jess do if she finds this,” Haruto snickered.
“Hey, leave her out of this!” Emile yapped.
CREEK
Just then, the door opened and a girl peeked out of it. Her long-pink hair looked burnt and she had bandages all over her body.
“Emi~le, what is it that I see?” She said, with a creepy tone.
“Crap,” was all Emile could say.
Ohoho, this is getting interesting!
“What just happened?” Emile asked, taking a spoonful of grain and meat.
“Dunno, man.” A rather buff guy with tanned skin and casting on both arms replied to Emile. This was Harry, one of Emile’s companions.
“I must say,” A bespectacled boy under a red hood said. He took a spoonful of soup and fed it to Harry. “Her ability to get along with Jess is terrifying.”
“You got that right, Rufus,” Emile said.
They were seeing the red-haired girl talking with the pink-haired girl, giggling. The boys were sitting in the corner, having dinner as it was the start of the evening.
“Well, it’s nice she could have someone to talk to,” Owen said, taking a bite out of his sandwich.
“You said like she never had this opportunity before,” Haruto said, slurping his noodle.
“She didn’t.”
“How so?” Emile asked. “She seemed the type to have lots of friends if she got Jess.”
“It’s something that held her back in our world. I’m also partially responsible for it.”
“Now I’m curious,” Emile said.
“Same here,” Harry added.
“I would like to hear it too.” Rufus joined in as well.
“Hey, you guys shouldn’t really dig into people’s past.” Haruto scolded.
“Hmm, sure, why not.” Owen surprisingly said. “I’ll tell ya guys.”
“Well now, it was nice knowing you,” Haruto said.
In the evening, they were back in the Otherworldly Court, in the Transporter Room.
“It’s getting late, I’m pretty sure Rin had already eaten dinner without me,” Haruto muttered. “John, get me to Rakarok-Earth, at my house, now!”
“Sure sure, you doting brother,” John, one of the operators of the Transporter Room, snarked. The staff that operates various stuff in the Otherworldly Court are non-Court Wizards that are from other worlds or in Manegia. Sometimes Court Wizard part-time in handling the transfer.
“Well, bye now!” Haruto waved his hand.
“Yeah, later.”
“Goodbye.”
Well, this was an eventful day.
Mhm!
Although the extermination of the Maneg Amalgamation had its problems, most of it was generally fine. Another day in her life as a Court Wizard.
CRACK
“Huh?”
CRACK
“Crap.”
The transfer process was interrupted by a cracking noise.
CRACK
“Hold on to something, now!”
BOOM
The operators are holding on tightly to whatever was within their reach. Alicia felt a tug from the back. She looked back.
WHIRL WHIRL
A vortex of blue swirled about, across the entrance. It was sucking everything in its vicinity. The operators were holding very tightly to their grip so as to not get sucked in. Owen backed himself against the wall beside the entrance. Haruto materialized his sword and stabbed it to the floor outside the circle. Alicia however, was right in front of the entrance with nothing to grab onto.
“Aaah!”
“Alicia!” her childhood friend shouted, going out of his cover as he tried to reach for her.
THUD
He was instead pushed right back to where he was.
STAB
Then a katana dug into his cloak, pinning him to the wall.
“Haruto, what the hell are you doing!” Owen shouted at Haruto. He had stopped Owen from saving Alicia from getting sucked into the vortex because…
“You don’t need to experience this, again,” was Haruto’s simple answer.
“What?”
Haruto grabbed Alicia’s hand and swung her back to the entrance. Owen caught her and pulled her to his side. However, the momentum caused Haruto to be sucked in instead.
“Tell Rin I’m sorry,” Haruto smiled as the vortex pulled him in.
BOOM
An explosion was made as the vortex finally collapse.
“You idiot…” Owen cried.
Azhure: So, what do you all think of this sub-chapter? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback is appreciated as long as they’re not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.
Voice: Don’t do that to people! Not even on the internet!
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