〈 Episode 172: Water Sage (4) 〉

*

A vast expanse of plains.

And she was inside a wagon running through those plains.

‘Where am I?’

Yusera blinked at the suddenly revealed unknown space.

Just a moment ago she…

‘What was I doing?’

She seemed to have been in immense pain not long ago.

However, all that remained in her mouth was an indescribable salty taste, and she couldn’t remember what situation she had been in.

‘By the way…’

She started looking around her.

Then she noticed other wagons running alongside, along with the cargo loaded behind them.

Finally, she even spotted the emblems marked on the wagons.

‘Crow emblem.’

She realized it now.

This was the Crow Association.

‘Does that mean the Crow Association has been revived?’

Thank goodness.

It looked like it had quite a substantial scale.

But…

‘Where’s Allen?’

Of course, the revival of the Crow Association was important.

But to her right now, Allen was just as important a figure.

Even if the Crow Association succeeded in its revival, if he wasn’t there, she would feel quite sad.

Fortunately, Allen was close by.

“Sara.”

Allen called to her from the seat beside her.

His relaxed demeanor looked incredibly reassuring.

“Yeah?…Why?”

For a moment, she almost switched to honorifics.

Seeing her like that, Allen smiled.

And then he said.

“Want to do it here?”

“Do what?”

Suddenly, he grabbed her forearm.

“Allen?”

“Wrestling. This time, I’ll teach you properly.”

Boom.

Her face inexplicably flushed red all of a sudden.

“W-wrestling?”

Suddenly, Elsie’s words flashed through her mind.

“I like Mr. Allen, but I don’t really plan on monopolizing him…” “Elsie? What does that mean?” “I’ve already kinda given a little leeway to Miss Gwen… So adding one more person would be fine…” “But didn’t Allen like you?” “Of course. But as the saying goes, great heroes are always philanderers, and if I end up alone with Yusera, it’s obvious what will happen.”

That’s why she had been willing to concede under the name of an agreement.

“As I requested before, you have to fill in for me. He may not seem like it, but he’s quite lonely deep down.”

“But what does filling in mean?”

“Hmm… I suppose the most effective method would be wrestling.”

“Wrestling? Just hugging tightly? Is that enough?”

Of course, just that was already embarrassing enough for her.

But Elsie denied it.

“No, that’s not proper wrestling.”

“It’s not? Then what is proper wrestling?”

“Proper wrestling is… I think Mr. Allen will teach you.”

And then the moment suddenly arrived.

“I’ll teach you wrestling.”

“W-wait a moment…!”

She wasn’t fully prepared mentally yet.

Still, Allen started to strip off his clothes with a primal touch.

‘I didn’t know.’

She never expected that the seemingly gentle Allen could have such a wild side.

As he continued to take off her clothes, his hands eventually reached her underwear.

“W-what about that…!”

She flinched.

It was a moment where her body trembled.

‘Huh?’

Her eyes opened.

That meant she had been closing her eyes all this time.

“You’re awake?”

In front of her was the blue-haired hero, Lucy.

She had just been reaching in to take off Yusera’s underwear.

“What’s going on…?”

She couldn’t grasp the situation.

Her memory of being on a ship just surfaced, but it wasn’t smoothly connecting with her current circumstances.

“Now that you’re awake, you should change your clothes yourself.”

Lucy took her hand off Yusera’s underwear and pointed to her clothes that had been tossed in one corner.

Everything was soaking wet from seawater.

Yusera finally grasped the situation.

‘Ah, my clothes are wet, and she was helping me change.’

Her face turned red.

She had felt that in a dream and ended up with a weird imagination.

“Ugh…”

To her, Lucy handed over spare clothes and said.

“To be honest, I got a bit awake. Sis.”

“Yeah?”

“You look quite charismatic, yet you end up blushing and acting childish in front of Allen…”

It seemed she had completely unleashed her dreams while sleep talking.

“Hey, can you leave?”

It wasn’t that she was terribly embarrassed because of the sleep talking.

She just didn’t want to show her underwear, even if it was to another woman.

“Got it.”

Lucy nodded with a playful smile.

And then she obediently stood up and headed for the door.

Just as she was about to leave the room, she suddenly turned her head as if she remembered something.

“Oh right. Don’t enter Luel’s study.”

Her expression had become quite serious.

So Yusera also realized that it was an important topic.

“Why?”

“Luel is teaching Allen Blood Magic. And that could be dangerous if he gets interrupted even a little.”

“Blood Magic?”

That was something she had never heard of before.

Lucy said to her.

“You don’t need to know. Anyway, unless you’re one of the few born with it, you can’t use it. It’s surprising that Allen has it. Plus…”

Her expression darkened a bit.

“It’ll probably be tough. It’s nearly impossible to learn that in a short time.”

What she said she shook her head and rephrased.

“No, from what I see, it’s impossible.”

Lucy staunchly asserted that Allen learning Blood Magic was impossible.

But Yusera countered.

“No, we don’t know yet.”

As Allen always said, you wouldn’t know until you tried.

And he had overcome everything that seemed impossible up until now.

So maybe this time too.

“Well, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to think that way. Right? Maybe not having expectations will make it hurt less if it fails.”

Lucy returned to her characteristic loose smile.

Then just before she left the room, she said to Yusera.

“By the way, sister, you have quite an amazing figure.”

Only then did Yusera realize that she was naked.

‘That brat… I really don’t like her.’

*

Blood Magic is extremely dangerous.

She knew that much.

Besides, even in Sung Yoo-rang’s memories, Allen Pleuk had never learned Blood Magic.

‘To begin with, accumulating the SP needed to inherit the fourth Stigma as Allen Pleuk is impossible.’

Before that, either Allen Pleuk would die, or the world would end; one of the two.

And her first impression of learning Blood Magic with Allen Pleuk was…

‘Damn it.’

It was a swear word she hardly used lately.

Yet, the curse slipped out.

Controlling the blood flowing inside her body in real-time was indescribably dangerous.

“Now, slowly raise your right arm.”

I followed Luel’s command and raised my arm.

But that was not done with muscular strength.

‘Only using Blood Magic.’

It was about controlling the blood in my right arm to raise it.

Once this was trained, I could move on to the stage where I add the strength of my arm to Blood Magic later.

However, even that basic stage was tough for me.

‘Damn it.’

I made a mistake.

It seemed my mental focus had wavered for a moment.

In desperation, I grabbed the nearby bucket and bowed my head.

Cough.

Then a mouthful of blood was vomited up through my esophagus.

Naturally, that was a considerable critical condition.

If I were an ordinary person, I might have reached a near-death state.

“Ugh…”

I collapsed onto the floor.

Though the Water Blessing was healing my body, that ‘minimal regeneration’ was barely felt in my current state.

So it was primarily Luel who treated me.

“Stay still.”

A cold potion was spread across my back, and Luel’s warm hand rested on top of it.

Then she began to use her magic to absorb the potion through my blood vessels.

It did indeed feel like my condition was improving.

But…

“At this rate, how long will it take to master Blood Magic?”

It seemed I was still struggling with the basics.

Of course, even Lucy said it took a month to grasp the basics of Blood Magic, but I needed to hurry a bit more.

After all, even Lucy took three years to actually use it in practice.

‘Moreover, she was talented while I barely have any talent at all.’

What I was attempting was akin to a sparrow trying to outpace a stork.

And of course, the result seemed obvious.

‘I’ll keep vomiting blood like this.’

It seemed Lucy hadn’t used such a crude and violent method by choice.

After all, she was a genius.

Even if she learned it steadily, it would still take her three years to fully control Blood Magic.

But I wasn’t that lucky.

‘If vomited blood is what it takes, then so be it.’

If that’s how I could learn quickly, I was okay with it.

To me, Luel said.

“Of course, I can heal you right now, but if you keep this up, your lifespan won’t last.”

“I’m fine. I’ll judge my lifespan for myself.”

If I felt like a lot had been taken away, I would likely realize I was about to die.

But right now, if it was less than when I used sublimation, I didn’t feel like my lifespan was being cut any more than that.

However, Luel said to me.

“No, I can roughly gauge your lifespan.”

“You can gauge it?”

“There are various indicators that show the durability of a person’s body. And from that, it can be inferred that you still have plenty of lifespan left.”

It was a relief to hear I had a lot remaining.

I had worried I wouldn’t have much left since I had used sublimation so much.

“But if more than half of that lifespan gets cut here, we should stop this madness immediately.”

What she said was somewhat valid.

Of course, having Blood Magic would be good, but if I didn’t have it, there was nothing to stop me from attempting to rescue Gwen.

However, losing half my stamina was a bit unsatisfactory.

“One quarter of my stamina.”

“If a quarter is lost, you’re saying to stop?”

“No. If a quarter remains.”

Then Luel paused her words for a moment.

She finished treating me, then gave me a light smack on the back and said.

“Let’s make it one-third.”

It seemed she wouldn’t budge on that either.

Since she was the one teaching Blood Magic, I had no choice but to agree.

“Alright then.”

For now, the roughly necessary treatment was done.

But before attempting again, I needed to take a bit of rest.

It was obvious I would vomit blood again if I tried another attempt without stabilizing.

“By the way, Luel.”

Since I had to lie down anyway.

There was actually another thing I needed to ask her.

I wasn’t sure if it was a question I should ask the person who had just saved me.

“Why did you save me?”

“Well, is there a reason for a person to save another?”

She answered calmly.

To her, I replied.

“There could be reasons not to save someone.”

And what I knew of her was…

“Wouldn’t it have been better for you not to save me?”

*