Only the Party Members Returned, Not the Hero - Chapter 44



44. Mask of Healing (2)

44.

Just like last time, Nia covered my eyes with her hand and flicked her fingers lightly with her.

I felt like my body was floating in the air, but my whole back was lowered onto something soft.

Nia’s palm, warmed by her body heat, slowly fell.

Light breaking through her fingers.

I see a familiar ceiling instead of a black sky.

It was a room in the temporary lodgings for the warriors.

“Hello, Ellen.”

I hear a soft voice mixed with breath.

Nia brought her chair and sat down at her bedside, and greeted me with a bright voice.

“Last time I ran from my room to the pasture, but this time I came back from the pasture to my room.”

“… I thought it was a dream.”

“Really? Shouldn’t I have let you believe it was just a dream?”

“No, come now. Should I say hello too?”

“Okay, come now.”

I wanted to get up from my seat and say hello.

But maybe it was because he used too much body and mana.

She didn’t want to move a single tip of her finger.

I didn’t feel it right after the fight, but when the situation was over and I lay down on a comfortable bed, I felt helpless tying my whole body.

I’m relaxed, however.

I suddenly turned my head and looked out the window.

Even though the memories of the subjugation battle where he risked his life were still vivid.

The moon was shining normally as usual.

“It is quiet.”

“It’s quiet.”

The Apostate’s Prayer, and the Moonlight Colcasus.

As if it had never happened, only the sound of the wind gently brushing the trees could be heard.

“… No water today?”

It seems too quiet, so I just say that.

Nia looked at me with round eyes.

Soon, Nia opens her mouth small and laughs like a mischievous cat.

What’s so good about it is that even the eyes are curved long like a crescent moon.

“You were so unfamiliar with it until yesterday, but now you ask for it yourself?”

“When did I say I was so unfamiliar with you?”

My timid talk back.

Nia didn’t mind.

“Well, good. Because that’s Ellen’s strength.”

“Is that an advantage?”

“The ability to adapt quickly is an advantage. It allows people to live.”

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“After listening to it, it seems like that.”

“Would you like some water?”

“I’ll drink it if you have it.”

Nia lifted her hand, half-curled.

Bright blue mana began to gather on her concave palms, and then a small light the size of a star was emitted.

The small light instantly lengthened into a cylinder shape and transformed into a wooden bucket.

Tak.

A wooden water bottle falling fully formed from a span of air.

Nia lightly snatches the wooden bucket.

Nia rocked the wooden water bottle in her hand from side to side several times.

I heard the sound of the liquid inside shaking.

As always, it was a beautiful magic.

“… I am amazed every time I see it.”

“Don’t praise because it’s embarrassing. Drink it quickly.”

Nia put a wooden water bucket in her hand with a happy face at my compliment.

A wooden water bottle nestled in my hand before I knew it.

I sat up on the bed to drink water.

At some point, I opened the lid of the wooden water bottle I was used to and took a few sips.

The content was the same as the one I drank last time.

It may seem sweet and warm,

It seems cool,

If you drink it, it seems that some of the body’s fatigue is recovered….

It didn’t seem like simple water.

“Pha.”

“Is it worth drinking?”

“It’s not just drinkable, it’s delicious. I was wondering the other day, what kind of water is this?”

So I asked my friend Kim.

I’d like to think that Nia brought me good water on her own, but I still have academic curiosity about exactly how it’s done.

If it’s the kind I can make.

Wouldn’t it be nice in many ways if I could at least ask Elish for a favor?

Nia said with a soft smile that matched her voice.

“Drink it all at once.”

“Yes.”

Clap clap.

The water in the small wooden barrel ran out immediately.

“So what kind of water is it?”

“Yeah, that one?”

Nia wiggled her index finger as if to tell her to come closer.

I awkwardly leaned towards her.

“Closer.”

“… You’re bothering me.”

“Come on.”

So I leaned her body a little closer to her.

When Nia lowered her head, her lips touched my ears.

“That.”

Her whispering voice tickles my ears as if something big will happen if anyone hears it.

“It’s my mana.”

“… ….”

I slowly straightened her body and turned her head to look at her Nia.

Nia was staring at me with a childlike expression, full of laughter, ready to burst out laughing at any moment.

That.

No matter what I say, they will always smile.

“… Really?”

“Pu, poo, hoo, hoo. Ahahahaha. It’s bullsh*t. How can I feed mana It’s just water with a healing spell cast on it. Water.”

I’m pissed off.

As I watched Nia wince with a cool smile as if she had been waiting for it, I had to barely resist her desire to put at least one chestnut on her swaying silver hair.

But he’s the owner of the mage tower.

It’s the Archmage.

“Are you having fun?”

“hehehe, yes, that is interesting.”

“This is really childish.”

“Originally, childish things become fun when you live a long time.”

“No, I really…. Then why sweet? Is there any magic to sweeten the water?”

“Is that just sugar?”

“Let’s not talk.”

Still, thanks to Nia’s cool smile, she seemed to completely relax her body.

When the tension in her body was released, she began to feel the soreness from the wounds all over her body.

The battle, which felt like a dream, conveyed realistic pain through the whole body as if showing off its presence.

I tossed and turned for a while with an uncomfortable expression on my face.

“… Come to think of it, I couldn’t even properly treat myself.”

“Ah, I see. Because I brought it in a hurry.”

Nia clapped both hands as if she had forgotten.

“Take off her jacket. I’ll take it lightly.”

“Do you know how to use healing magic?”

Of course he knows how to do it, he’s a great wizard.

I asked a stupid question.

“I know how to do it, but it’s much more effective to treat big wounds with divine power, so go see EL later.”

I nodded and took off the neat shirt Elise gave me.

There was blood all over the cut on the inside of the shirt.

Nia looked closely at my chest, shoulders and stomach with a small magic circle floating in her hands.

It didn’t take long, but I didn’t feel like I was overlooked at all.

“There are no bigger wounds than I thought.”

After looking at the front, he told me to sit back and look at the back.

“It would be better to get treatment from EL for shoulder and back injuries. As for the rest, this is a medal for a boy.”

“The boy is sick too.”

“Uh huh, you have to get used to pain to become a hero.”

“I am still a warrior.”

Nia cast light healing magic on her minor wounds.

It was like a kind of painkiller.

Feeling much refreshed, I put on my shirt again and spread myself out on the bed.

“Huh.”

A quiet voice that bursts out on its own.

I’m staring at the ceiling.

Nia looks at me.

There is silence for a moment.

It was Nia who broke the silence first.

“Ellen.”

“Yes.”

Her voice, somewhat subdued, was still soft, but felt heavier.

I turned around and met Nia’s gaze.

Her face, which had been smiling lightly, was also serious.

As if you have something urgent to tell me.

Of course, it must have been because I had something to say personally that brought me here.

Nia carefully looked me in the eye for a few breaths before opening her mouth carefully.

“My image changed.”

Image.

The heart that determines the shape of mana.

Although my memory wasn’t perfect right now, I remembered that one thing clearly.

A blow in the shape of a blue rose that was manifested from my sword and pierced.

Pounding-

My heart beats once.

Just thinking about it made me feel like I could smell an old book coming from an unknown place.

I hear someone’s voice through my foggy head and it breaks.

Blood rushes to the temples and a chronic headache comes from the head. As always.

I unconsciously placed the back of one hand on my forehead.

It was a method often used to check if there is a fever in the head.

Unfortunately, the forehead was cool rather than feverish.

“… Yes, I will.”

“What change of heart did you have?”

“Well, I can’t remember. I couldn’t afford to think about it.”

Mentally and physically, I was pushed to the limit.

When I think about it after it’s all over, it still felt like it was finished without much happening.

Because I thought that I could really die from my point of view, living in that moment.

One thing is certain: the color of the mana flowing from my heart is still changing.

From deep, dark indigo to almost bright blue.

It wasn’t even pure white when it bloomed.

“If only.”

Nia got lucky.

To tell you why she hastily brought her Ellen to her temporary lodgings.

To decide how to save his half-broken restraint.

“The difficult memories that have become dull now, the forgotten memories, the good memories…. If only I could remember them all vividly.”

Although she didn’t want to tell Ellen about her past.

She wanted to give her the least choice.

“If only I could remember like that, like living Ellen’s life once again.”

If Ellen wants to live as she is now, forgetting everything about her, she will do it.

She said, on the contrary, she could be difficult and painful, but if she said she wanted to regain her past memories, she would do the same.

At least I had to let Ellen make the choice.

That was the least rational in Nia’s opinion.

“Then, would you like to do that?”

Ellen looked into Nia’s serious eyes.

His dark eyes blink slowly.

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I forgot about it.

I tried hard to erase it, and I’m living like it’s not there.

Although, she knows that there is something from the past that she still clearly misses.

Still, he thought he was too tired.

“… ….”

If I could remember everything as Nia suggested.

I was afraid that I would have to deal with the pain in my head just by touching a strand of memory, and the sadness that my heart was pounding in frustration.

The world branded him an apostate from the beginning.

The goddess wants her own isolation.

In a world where all the powerful want his downfall.

He thinks about whether he can afford to take on other things.

“Okay.”

The low voice drags on slowly.

And Ellen laughed a few times.

“Why are you laughing?”

“… What is that, I wonder if I would have chosen differently if I had been given a wooden bucket a few more times.”

“I can continue to bring it to you in the future.”

“In that case, I’ll think about it again then.”

Although Ellen was grateful to Nia.

I was grateful for Nia’s thoughtful consideration and a small but sweet bowl of water.

Still, she didn’t want to.

“I want to focus more on what I have to do now, Nia.”

Ellen smiled dryly.

Still, as if a few drops of water had fallen, a better smile than before.

Ellen was still dwelling on the past she wanted to forget.

“You look pathetic, me.”

Ellen laughed bitterly.

Nia smiled softly.

“Not at all.”

Nia stroked his hair and blinked her eyes slowly.

She agreed to do as he wished.

Reattaching broken tabs.

Even if it’s one step away from the truth, even if it means nothing in the end.

Ellen decided to do something more comfortable for a few days.

.

.

.

A few hours later.

When Ellen, exhausted from her exhaustion, fell into a deep sleep.

A breathy voice echoed quietly through the room.

“…… Pliaote.”