The Sword and The Shadow

Shock and Relief

"Alright, looks like it'll be fine now!" Eirinn said as she comforted the terrified server.

"Thank you…" she said. She was only a lowly servant. How did she deserve to be treated by a priestess almost of the high order, one so pretty at that?

"Don't worry about it! I'm the academy doctor, so come to me if you need help!" Eirinn replied with a smile. While she didn't get anything in return, the happiness and relief she felt after treating others were all she could ask for.

Just as she was about to head to the arena in the best of moods, she heard a loud cry coming from outside. "Eirinn!"

Crash!

Leguna ignored the glass door and rammed directly into it.

"Take this for the damages!" Leguna threw a sack of money to a dumbfounded server. There were more than 300 gold coins in it and was enough to make up for the mess.

He dashed to Eirinn and dragged her along without another word.

Though the half-elf was shocked at all that, she didn't ask anything. She knew by the look on him that something had happened and focused on dealing with that first.

"Come, I'll carry you on my back!" Leguna said as he got down when they were out of the store.

"What happened?" Eirinn saw that Leguna ignored all the safety rules of the academy. Something huge had obviously transpired.

"Innie is injured. There's a hole in her heart. She needs your healing," he explained as he dashed like a madman.

"How did it happen?!" Wasn't Innilis out with Leguna? How could she have been injured by that magus with him around?

"It's a long story, I'll tell you later. Annie is there too. She's stabilizing the situation."

Even though school had just started, the street ahead was already quite busy. Leguna found the crowd to be rather distracting and used his impetus to jump up to the roof, much to the shock of many students.

"Hey, isn't this a magus academy? Why's there someone with such great physical prowess? Is he really a magus too?" a student asked.

"How would I know? But I heard our principal thinks magi have to train our bodies too, so we have an additional physical education class that First Magic Academy doesn't. I think that fellow could be the instructor of that class…" the other guessed.

"Wow… Someone who can practically fly and run on walls will probably snap our legs by sheer accident, huh? He's also carrying someone on his back. Don't tell me we have to learn to scale walls just like that too…"

"Who knows? We're in school now, you know. We aren't exactly here to enjoy life."

"You've got a point…"

The two students grew ever more worrisome the more they talked.

……

"I'm here!" Leguna kicked the arena doors open. The old man had wanted to stop them at first but dropped the notion when met with their glare.

"You came just in time!" she said with a relieved look.

"Quick, Eirinn, it's your turn!" Leguna carried her through the last stretch on his back.

When she got down, she saw a pale Sasha sitting in front of Innilis holding her wrist, seemingly focusing hard on doing something.

"I cut her vein a little, so you might want to pay attention to that," Annelotte said.

"Alright, Sasha, thank you. Leave the rest to me," Eirinn said. She guessed Sasha had some part to play in maintaining Innilis's life.

When the girl heard that, she was already at her limits. Her muscles relaxed as she slumped to one side.

Annelotte hurriedly grabbed hold of her. She was quite thankful for what she had done.

Eirinn used a divine miracle to seal the wound on Innilis's wrist before dealing with the other injuries. Even though she was quite worried about Innilis's injuries, her hand didn't jitter in the slightest. The late nancy had told her that a qualified medic wouldn't shake no matter what even on the battlefield.

Eirinn took out the medical supplies she always carried around with her and used her medical techniques to complement her divine miracles.

Pyro… Annelotte began to think about him at the sight of the pure and sacred light and felt some questions welling up in her mind.

In comparison to most other deities, Sun God Pyro was a benevolent, just and kind deity. That was obvious from the rapid development of the Church of the Bright Sun in Hocke. However, Annelotte still didn't understand how Eirinn became divinely favored.

While she was indeed kind, there were probably countless people like her. What part of her stood up to Pyro? Additionally, Pyro's treatment of Eirinn was different. While medics and priests treated people all the same, they worked using fundamentally different principles. Usually, nobody would be able to work as both, yet Eirinn was able to do so all the while being divinely favored, someone Pyro often paid attention to.

This was even less sensible, as even Pyro wouldn't allow his devotees to delve into medicine and even forget daily prayers to him. Perhaps the reason for that was it would affect the strength of their faith in him. Why, then, did he make an exception for Eirinn?

The only explanation she could come up with was Pyro had a goal in caring for Eirinn so much. There was something he could only realize through her.

In actuality, her guess was not far off. What she didn't think was that apart from Eirinn, both herself and Leguna were also indispensable for Pyro's ultimate goal.

Eirinn worked really quickly and Annelotte helped out by using more of her potions. She spent only ten minutes to stabilize Innilis's condition. She only had to be treated at the school infirmary.

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have let her take the risk…" Leguna admitted his wrongdoing now that the crisis was over.

"Thankfully, Innie's fine. Otherwise, you'll have gotten what's coming!" Annelotte hissed.

"And Hoffman!" Leguna turned to look for the magus and was surprised to find that he was gone.

"Where is he?"

"He probably escaped while he had a chance," Annelotte guessed. She was so busy just now that she didn't pay attention to that fearful low-order magus at all.

He couldn't just escape without consequences, however. The fool probably thought that someone like Leguna wouldn't dare touch him, given his family background.

"You may deal with this your way, but don't be too reckless," Annelotte reminded, "First Magic Academy is Geoffrey's territory. It won't be easy to deal with a commotion there."

"I know." Leguna felt a little relieved at hearing that. While Annelotte was now less familiar with him, she didn't hesitate to stand by his side at moments like these. It was like he said back then. Some things didn't change even after she lost her memories.

"That will be it for now. Look into this matter later. I still have to deal with the aftermath here, so you won't be needed here," she said and stiffly chased Leguna away.

……

The next morning, Leguna and the others went to First Magic Academy. Needless to say, Geoffrey wouldn't be so ready to comply. He didn't even bother meeting Leguna and had someone tell him that First Magic Academy would deal with their own students and it was not the bureau's business to meddle.

Leguna was naturally fuming at that, but after the lessons he learned, he no longer acted that rashly. He gave it some thought and decided to throw the matter to Larwin. After all, it was the first direct conflict between the two academies. If it wasn't settled properly, it wouldn't bode well for the future relationship of the academies.

When he faced Larwin, Geoffrey didn't dare to make things up. However, his response was even more shocking. He mentioned that while Hoffman was indeed a student registered in the academy, he disappeared after reporting attendance on the first day. There was no trace of him in First Magic Academy.

"Don't mess with me!" Leguna broke into an argument with Geoffrey on the spot. Annelotte also had the right to participate in the meeting as the principal of the other academy, but she merely watched them fight without interfering. She was more than happy to let others do the heavy lifting.

"What a joke. Why should I of all people lie? I wouldn't lie to my father!" Geoffrey said.

"You…" Leguna wanted to say something else, but a guard came into the room and approached Larwin to say something in a whisper.

"Hoffman is found," Larwin said as he looked at the two and sighed. "He's dead."