小嫂子的味道

As I walked inside I heard the same rumbling sound again and looking back I saw that the gates had been closed.

In fact, once the gates were closed and my attention shifted back to the surroundings, I saw that a great number of people were guarding the gates. 

All of them were dressed in a greyish-black uniform and carried swords They looked like a combination of soldiers and knights so I didn\'t know how to address them, thus I decided to refer to them as guards—that\'s probably what they were in the first place. 

"You look heavily injured. Come with me I\'ll arrange for someone to take you to a hospital," said the guard who had checked my ID card. 

He was right, I was in dire need of medication. However, I wanted to see my family first. I\'ve gotten used to the pain and was sure that I could survive long enough to see them. 

"No, it\'s alright. I\'ll manage by myself," I replied. 

The guard looked rather surprised, which was not unexpected. Normally, you\'d think that someone who was injured to death like me would want to go to the hospital as soon as possible. 

"Still, you are in a bad state. I don\'t think you should act with such ignorance," he said. 

"I\'m not being ignorant, I\'m well aware of my injuries. It\'s just that I have something else I have to take care of," I replied. 

"What can be more important than your own life? Seeing that you have come from the outside I\'m sure you know the current situation. Human lives are the most important thing right now," the guy argued. 

"What I have to do does not concern you. Your duty was just to let me inside which you completed successfully. Now I\'d appreciate it if you left me alone," I said in a monotonous tone. 

Saying that I began to walk away from him however, it was then when I heard a voice. 

"Is this \'something else you have to take care of\' related to the academy?" the voice said. 

I turned around and saw the person I was expecting the least to be standing there. It was Ryfin. With hands inside his pockets, he had a bright smile on his face as he walked closer to me. 

"I\'m so glad to see you alive~," he said. 

"Well, as you can see. I\'m completely alive and fine," I replied. 

"Hmm, I can see that you are alive but I\'m not sure about the \'fine\' part, you know? Since you look a little…" he said while taking a look at me from head to toe. 

"That\'s none of your business," I said and turned around to walk away. But just then he put this arm around my neck and stopped me. 

"Come on, don\'t be so cold," he said. "You are going to see your sister, right? I\'ll take you there."

"I don\'t need your help," he was already suspicious enough by being a person who didn\'t exist in the novel, I knew nothing about him or his motives hence I didn\'t want to involve myself with him much. 

"Don\'t need my help, huh?" he repeated. "I don\'t think you are on the right track if you think that. Since well, I\'m sure you don\'t know the path leading to the academy. This is a new city after all."

Now that he\'d said it, I realized it too. Why didn\'t I think of this before? No, it\'s not that I didn\'t think of it. I was just way too desperate to meet with my family so I ignored it. 

The guard was kind of right, I was being ignorant—even if about a different thing. 

"Mr. Ryfin, I believe it won\'t be good to make him move around much in that condition. He is badly injured," the guard said. 

"Oh yeah, you are right. I forgot," Ryfin said while snapping his fingers. "Fine, let\'s fix this first." 

He took a step back and then raised his right hand toward me. 

A bright magic circle opened between his palm and my chest the next second. This magic circle radiated light and too much at that, unlike any other magic circle that I had seen before. 

Within the next few moments, a sudden wave of relief ran through my body. I didn\'t know the correct way to describe that feeling. 

But if I really had to put it into words, then I\'d say it was similar to the feeling you get after working hard for the entire day in the winter season and then coming home and taking a warm bath. 

All the cuts and slashes on my arms, legs, and the rest of my body started to heal. Or well, it was more like they regenerated since the skin that was cut was now growing back. 

I had expected it to heal the wound on my stomach too but it didn\'t, although the pain around that area reduced relatively. 

After a minute or so the light vanished and the magic circle closed. 

"There there, all done," Ryfin said. "I\'m not too good with healing magic either so this is all I can do right now, to get the complete treatment you\'ll have to come to the academy."

"So shall we go now?" he asked, looking at me.

I was not too sure about what to do. 

\'What do you say?\' I asked.

[Hmmm. I mean, why not go with him? He doesn\'t seem like he has some bad motives—at least not to me.]

She was right about that. Even though I was suspicious of him I have never sensed any malicious intent from him. 

And going with him meant I\'d probably reach there faster so, in the end, I decided to go. 

"Fine, I\'ll go with you," I said in a disinterested tone. 

"Good! I\'m happy that you decided to come along or else I\'d have to drag you there," he replied.