Blood.
Handkerchief.
And a blood-stained handkerchief.
The handkerchief belongs to Luke, and it came from Luke’s pocket.
If that’s the case, isn’t it reasonable to think this is Luke’s blood?
My hands are trembling.
‘Why is there blood on it?’
Where could he have been hurt? Or maybe something is wrong with his body?
Could it be that day…?
No, it can’t be.
Even if it was that day, he wouldn’t have wiped it with a handkerchief.
A multitude of thoughts rush through my mind.
Now that I think about it, Luke went to bed earlier than usual today.
Was something tiring at school?
Could it be bullying?
As that thought crossed her mind, Yerna’s mental focus sharpened.
Luke is being bullied?
Why?
If there is a reason, it might not be much.
Just being different from others would be enough for bullying to occur, wouldn’t it?
If he’s pretty, he’ll be bullied for being pretty, and if he’s not, he’ll be bullied for that too.
It’s common for kids to band together and ostracize someone who doesn’t fit in, whether in the past or now.
Why do the words “school violence” even exist?
It’s because it happens so frequently.
“……”
Thinking back, it did seem like Luke had trouble adapting to school.
Maybe the reason he didn’t want to go to school was…
No, I shouldn’t be so decisive.
If I think about it with the premise of there being bullying, nothing good will come to mind.
I just found a blood-stained handkerchief.
He could have just been using it to wipe blood, right?
I don’t know why he had blood, but…
Yerna suddenly envisioned Luke coughing up blood.
Could it be a side effect of the experiments…!
No. That can’t be.
Think about the test results. Aside from his strange lineage, everything else was normal. His weight is still severely low, but with all the delicious snacks he’s been eating, he’ll gain weight soon.
Thud.
Yerna banged her head against the wall to shake off those thoughts.
Her imagination was running wild.
‘Let’s talk about the details when Luke wakes up.’
For now, she thought she should just get some sleep…
———
Tweet, tweet.
With the weather warming up, the sound of the birds singing each day is a pleasant way to start the morning.
Where are those early risers flying off to?
Do birds have worries too?
Maybe they worry about getting enough food.
If they skip a meal today, they’ll have to wake up earlier tomorrow; perhaps that’s what they think.
Click, the door opens.
As she turned to look, Luke was stretching and yawning as he pushed the doorknob and came out of his room.
“Did you sleep well, Lu?”
In response to Yerna’s hollow morning greeting, Luke instinctively returned the greeting.
“Yawn… Yerna… you woke up early…?”
Luke noticed something while greeting her.
Zoned out.
Yerna looked absolutely exhausted…
Honestly, it was not a pretty sight.
Luke, with a slightly pale expression, looked at Yerna and said,
“Oh… it looks like you didn’t sleep at all. What on earth happened? Was your bed uncomfortable…?”
Luke approached Yerna while removing the earplugs he had stuck in during the night.
Then, with a worried expression, he felt her forehead.
“Oh dear, you still have a bit of a fever. Are you feeling unwell? Did you drink the Milif flower tea as I advised?”
“That’s nothing to worry about, Lu.”
“Really?”
Yerna gently grasped Luke’s hand and swept it away from her forehead with a more serious expression.
Luke realized from her demeanor that she seemed to have something to say.
Luke became serious too, affected by her unusual mood.
“What’s going on, Yerna?”
Yerna hesitated for a moment and then spoke as if she had made a decision.
“Recently… do you have any troubles?”
“Troubles? Not at all. You have nothing to worry about…”
“None at all? You don’t have to hide anything from me. I’ll never give up on you. I will definitely help you.”
“…?”
Luke could only look puzzled.
He couldn’t understand why Yerna was so worried.
He didn’t think he ever showed any signs of struggle…
Maybe it was because of the constraints when he was attending school, but right now, there are absolutely no hardships or adversities. He was living a very smooth modern life…
As Luke rubbed his chin with a strange expression, Yerna was losing her mind.
Could it be that he was being bullied but didn’t realize it?
Maybe he had endured so much abuse that a child like him just thought it was normal bullying.
“Was nothing happening at school?”
School?
Nothing at school…
Oh.
Luke recalled the chaos in the music club room.
A piano cursed by a ghost? It was just Py playing alone.
An ethereal monster and a spirit are entirely different entities.
How can you compare a ghost trying to bring harm to humans with a spirit living alongside them?
However, that incident, which had unintentionally made him famous among the students, was troublesome.
Was she referring to that?
Luke started to recount the story.
“After lunch yesterday… I went to see what was going on in the music room because they said a ghost appeared. Apparently, the piano was playing on its own.”
“But it wasn’t a ghost; it was my spirit, Py. She was just excitedly playing the piano by herself. When I approached and told her to stop, she did.”
“But it looked as if I was cursed by a ghost attached to the piano, and the kids started treating me like I did something incredible.”
“It was a troublesome situation… So we can’t use the music room anymore.”
After hearing Luke’s explanation, Yerna thought with her tired brain.
She didn’t understand the spirit part, but anyway, it sounded like he exorcised a ghost.
A ghost? Does that mean a ghost appeared at school?
Such ethereal monsters are common enough to be seen in the city.
Of course, their danger varies from individual to individual, but as long as magic is used, it shouldn’t be impossible to exorcise them.
A weak individual isn’t much different from a slightly large bug.
Suddenly, Yerna felt a little excited, realizing Luke was finally talking about his experiences at school.
The previous story was, to be honest, just the reason he had called for a guardian.
“Lu, you exorcised a ghost too?”
“I could, but… it was just a spirit.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Anyway, that means he exorcised it.
He would have to use magic to exorcise it, but Luke said he could handle circles.
If he can manipulate mana at will using the heart’s circle, then exorcising ethereal monsters shouldn’t be too hard.
It’s abnormal that Luke can freely manipulate that circle but…
‘Is that effect of human experimentation…’
Yerna felt a throbbing pain in her head again and let out a groan.
“Ugh…”
‘I’m tired… I have to be at work too, so why am I like this?’
Her mind was just blank now.
A sense of relief and fatigue caused her head to dip.
Luke looked at Yerna with concern and said,
“Are you okay? You look tired. Why on earth weren’t you sleeping?”
“That’s…!”
Yerna suddenly snapped her head up.
“Lu, so there wasn’t any bullying, right?”
“Bullied? Well, of course, not.”
Luke hadn’t even been attending school properly.
He probably didn’t have time to be bullied.
“Then what in the world did you get blood on you for?”
Yerna, unable to hold back, took out the handkerchief.
“That, that’s… Did you take that out of my pocket?”
Luke opened his eyes wide in surprise.
Oh no.
Yerna realized that she had been too direct.
For a long time, she had been thinking about how to ask indirectly, but now, in her fatigue, only straightforward words surfaced.
Yerna flusteredly tried to gather her words.
“No, I just… smelled blood, so I was worried…”
Luke nodded, seeing her flustered and floundering.
A blood-stained handkerchief would certainly lead to many thoughts.
In the end, the reason she lost sleep was because of him.
Should I have spoken up earlier?
Luke shrugged and said,
“Yerna.”
“Uh, yeah?”
“That’s not my blood.”
“What… do you mean…?”
Yerna felt as if all the scenarios she had thought of were denied in a single line.
It’s not Luke’s blood?
“Then what is this?”
“That… it’s not something you need to worry about.”
“What?”
Luke walked over to his phone, picked it up, and manipulated it.
After a moment, he showed her a picture.
“This is what happened.”
Four kids surrounding and bullying a single child.
Judging from their appearances, they looked about ninth graders, and it seemed like they were extorting him.
Luke pointed to the seemingly weak child being bullied and said,
“I helped this young man here.”
“Ah…”
Yerna relaxed with a sigh of relief.
“Then the blood…?”
“It’s what I got on me at that time. It’s not my blood.”
“I see…”
With the tension relieved, her energy drained as well.
Yerna slumped back on the sofa deep in thought.
‘So that blood must have come from the kid who was getting beaten up. Luke is kind-hearted.’
Then suddenly, Yerna sprang up and sat in front of Luke, grabbing his arm.
“Wait, that was dangerous! Lu! You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”
“Of course… as you can see, I’m not hurt at all.”
“Phew…”
Luke is a smart kid, so he surely must have called the police.
‘Wait, that means he could face retaliation…’
Yerna said earnestly.
“Lu, if those guys come after you or bully you later… No, if you see them anywhere, you must definitely call me. I’ll handle it well.”
Luke seemed slightly startled and avoided her gaze as he replied,
“Uh… lets do that…? Thank you.”
Luke thought.
‘In this age, they probably won’t hesitate to double penalize robbers…? It’s a bit strict.’
Even by past standards, that seemed a bit cruel, so it would be better not to inform Yerna if he saw them anywhere.
