Finally, Dayton came out of the room after putting on his clothes.
“Did I keep you waiting long?”
Dayton’s outfit was quite polished. His hair was neatly styled, and he wasn’t wearing the usual short-sleeved t-shirt.
Although it certainly wasn’t something comfortable to wear at home, it wasn’t his clothes that caught Luke’s attention.
“Dayton, what happened to your arm? Is it an injury from battle?”
Dayton had wrapped bandages around his right arm, as if it were in a cast.
Indeed, with a hand like that, it must’ve taken a long time to get dressed.
“A battle….”
At Luke’s worried question, Dayton seemed to ponder, closing his eyes slightly.
Honestly replying, “Actually, Yerna hit me. It hurt a lot,” wouldn’t sound cool at all. Plus, he would have lost face in front of Luke.
Since Luke didn’t know, it seemed Yerna hadn’t said anything either.
Dayton decided to keep his mouth shut for both their sakes.
“Yes, it was a battle.”
‘Indeed, she was just as reckless as a monster…’
Dayton recalled Yerna as she had been attacking him.
While it didn’t feel like she was genuinely trying to hurt him, it still did genuinely hurt Dayton.
The body enhancement magic of humans and the exceptional magic sensitivity of elves meant that even the same spell had a stronger effect on them.
Furthermore, body enhancement magic becomes more effective the more it is used, adapting the body to be more suitable for that magic.
Yerna’s experience as a Forest Keeper spanned over ten years.
Her well-trained body, honed through practical enhancement, would likely not fall behind compared to a monster.
Yerna felt a bit guilty for injuring Dayton but was also puzzled.
‘He looked fine no matter how much I hit him…’
Yerna was usually one to hold back when it came to Dayton.
In truth, most of the time it was Dayton’s own fault, which is why she didn’t say anything. Plus, Dayton had never shown his pain when he was hit since he was too embarrassed.
So Yerna thought, ‘Ah, I guess he can take it! Dayton is really a tough guy.’
But since there was a bit of emotion behind it, she lost control of her strength.
“A monster… If only you’d been more careful.”
Luke nodded in understanding at Dayton’s words.
In reality, Forest Keepers often faced monsters directly on the front lines. Therefore, injuries were almost a daily occurrence for them, which wasn’t surprising at all.
Luke was more puzzled by another aspect.
“Didn’t you use healing magic?”
“I wasn’t injured that badly.”
Healing.
A magic that analyzes a person’s mana configuration and reconstructs the body using mana.
And it was quite an expensive, top-tier medical technology.
Healing was classified as high-class magic above level 6.
While there are many detailed criteria in the classification of magic, one of the main focuses is the side effects from its abuse.
That’s why any magic related to medicine starts at a minimum of class 5.
Medical magic is the most devastating when used in reverse.
What if ‘healing’ was used not to fix the body but to focus on bodily alteration?
What if ‘cure poison’ was misused to eliminate all chemical substances while disregarding the balance of chemical processes in the body?
The fact that magic can directly manipulate a person’s body means it can just as easily harm a person’s life.
Any magic directly affecting the body is bound to be dangerous and thus classified as high-tier.
Because it can always become a lethal technique.
So Dayton’s bandage was simply enchanted with the haste spell of class 4.
It aimed to speed up his recovery through partial body acceleration.
Luke, reading that with magic sight, tilted his head.
‘Why use Haste? Wouldn’t using divine power be simpler and faster?’
Since the subject of magic is a human, magic based on human understanding isn’t actually suitable for recovery.
However, divine power is different.
Because humans are creations of gods, and gods perfectly understand humans.
Thus using divine power as a ‘filter’ (an expression that would offend priests, but Luke enjoyed calling it that) made it much more suitable for healing even while using the same mana.
“Don’t you pray to the gods?”
“Huh?”
At Luke’s abrupt statement, Yerna and Dayton were both taken aback.
“The gods? What do you mean by pray?”
In response to Yerna’s question, Luke looked at her and asked again.
“I mean, isn’t there a temple around here?”
“A temple? Ah, so you believe in the gods.”
Yerna nodded, thinking.
“Well, it’s not surprising that Luke believes in a god.”
Things must have been quite dire for him; he probably wanted to cling to anything.
With that thought, Yerna looked away, pouting slightly.
Diana, seeing this, exclaimed, “Yerna, what’s wrong? Did something get in your eye?”
Luke was flustered.
“Believe or not, the concept of gods surely exists….”
Weren’t the ones who granted Renie the power of immortality ‘gods’?
Even if the relationship wasn’t great between mages and temples 5,000 years ago, they didn’t deny the existence itself.
Mages are believers in reality. And the gods of that time proved their existence.
Yet, why now was there a saying about believing in something?
It was as if believing in gods was no longer a universal concept…
“Are you saying there aren’t even any gods in this world anymore?”
As Luke’s thoughts reached that point, it felt like the puzzle pieces about why Renie died started to fit together.
Had the gods vanished for some particular reason?
Why could that be? The concept of ‘gods’ shouldn’t be easy to make disappear.
Destruction? Disconnection? Or are they just ignoring us?
As Luke theorized and countered his thoughts in his mind, Yerna, noticing his serious expression, suddenly switched the topic with a look of realization.
“Hey, Dayton! Here! Catch!”
With an exaggerated gesture, although it was awkward to behold…
“No, what are you handing me…?”
Dayton accepted the fruit basket Yerna was handing him with a pleased smile.
In truth, Dayton hadn’t even been looking at Luke. His attention had been focused entirely on Yerna.
Dayton pondered, looking at the fruit-filled basket.
‘This is completely a case of giving a gift while causing a wound…’
Still, he was grateful that Yerna came to visit him personally during his illness!
He felt like he was successful in life.
If this was the kind of reward he received, he could honestly accept his injuries with pleasure.
Of course, it wasn’t because he had any masochistic tendencies.
In any case, receiving Yerna’s worried gaze made Dayton feel good.
“Uh, is your body feeling better? Did you rest well?”
With Yerna’s concern, Dayton laughed heartily and tried to act cool.
“Of course! Haha! I’ll be back in no time!”
At Dayton’s words, Yerna sighed, seemingly relieved, and said.
“Ah, that’s a relief. You seem to be looking better, perhaps because you’ve rested well.”
“Well, yes, that is true!”
In fact, the reason he looked better was merely because he was excited that Yerna had come to visit him.
“Oh right, I need to get you something. Wait a moment, I’ll fetch some tea…”
It was then.
“Brother! Brother!”
Diana had come to his side and was pulling at his pant leg, calling out to Dayton.
“What is it?”
Dayton spoke in the kindest tone he could muster, being mindful of Yerna.
Diana, already grinning with success, replied.
“Since we have a guest, I want ice cream!”
“Ice cream?”
Diana’s declaration was a logic leap for anyone hearing it for the first time.
What on earth did guests and ice cream have to do with each other?
However, Dayton understood well how that logic connected.
Whenever a guest came, tea or snacks were typically prepared, and each time, his little sister would be right there, willing to share them.
No one would be angry about a child enjoying the food presented. For Diana, it was a chance to indulge in snacks without restraint. Normally, she was barely allowed any treats, as they were deemed unhealthy.
That was why, this time she was asking for not just any snack, but ice cream.
The weather had warmed up, and no child could dislike ice cream.
“But we don’t have any ice cream.”
But just a few days ago, the weather was still cold, right?
It was only natural that there wouldn’t be any ice cream at home since Diana could get sick from having something cold in such chilly weather.
“Ugh! No way!”
Hearing that, Diana cried out in despair.
“Then let’s buy some!”
“That’s just what you want, isn’t it? No way.”
His answer was firm.
Realizing that whining wouldn’t work on Dayton, Diana decided to change her target.
“Luke! You like ice cream!”
Diana thought to herself.
A girl around her age couldn’t possibly dislike ice cream.
However, Luke’s response was far from Diana’s expectations.
“Diana, um… what exactly is ice cream?”
“……”
Diana looked at Luke as if she had heard something terrible.
“Don’t joke! You’re lying, aren’t you?!”
“……”
Luke was just as flustered as Diana kept staring at her in disbelief.
Diana then tugged on Luke’s arm, whining, “Ice cream~ ice cream~,” and Luke felt awkward as if he had caused the situation.
“Yerna? Please say something. That it’s not a lie.”
But Yerna was already resolute in her stance.
“…Dayton, shall we go buy ice cream?”
“Huh? Y-yeah!”
Dayton was secretly cheering for the unexpected win.
