Ch. 202
They stared at me with half-lidded eyes that clearly suspected I’d done something.
These brats.
I smacked their faces with the rabbit I’d been holding while watching the scene.
“Rude! How dare you look at your lifesaver like that!”
“Ugh!”
“Argh! You hit people with that because there’s nothing else to swing? You’re perfectly fine now!”
“No, I’m not! I’m still an injured patient!”
It wasn’t like the rabbit died because I hit someone with it. It had been dead already.
I tossed the rabbit I’d used as a weapon to Gale and ordered:
“Turn it into jerky. I’ll eat it once my stomach settles.”
[Poor rabbit, poor Ash… Sweet Ash got devoured the moment Lox stepped away.]
[“Don’t add weird narration, you spirit brat.”]
[Master went chomp.]
[“Shut it! I only kissed a man who said he liked me… just a few times! If anything, I granted him a blessing. Who else would be a saint in this era but me?”] (t/N: Wait what? Few times!? Haha, poor Ash, got traumatized by Geenie hahaha)
[Only when it’s convenient, apparently.]
It was one of my mottos: swallow what’s sweet and spit out what’s bitter.
As for Ash—obviously the former. The prince’s first kiss tasted quite good.
I wouldn’t mind doing it again. Not that I’d take responsibility.
[But you know, Rai? Why doesn’t he look happy? I kissed him. Shouldn’t he be the happiest man alive?]
[Well… I’m not human, so I can’t say for sure, but Ash is the ascetic type, right? The model of upright living, the righteous perfectionist. The complete opposite of Master.]
[“Are you insulting me again?”]
[But he couldn’t overcome a moment of desire and broke his own principles, right? He fell for Master’s temptation, so maybe he’s suffering.]
[“…He lives such a hard life.”]
Good things should stay good.
I enjoyed the kiss. Wasn’t that enough?
[Master, honestly! You’re so heartless. That’s not what Ash wants.]
[“Then what does he want?”]
[For you to love him, obviously!]
[“…Rai, do you… know more about romance than I do?”]
[Yes. Master is more clueless about romance than a spirit. You’re realizing this only now?]
It was shocking. My romance instincts were worse than a metal spirit’s.
[And you know I dont have a gender, right?]
[“…I was trying to ignore that, thanks. Fine! My romance instincts suck! Even worse than a genderless spirit!”]
[Don’t be sad. Romance isn’t required for survival. Though that’s just something hopeless romantics say to console themselves… But Master has strong attack instincts, so— eek!]
I’m going to kill him. This brat!
—
At a dawn that opened my eyes naturally, I rose pleasantly from a stack of six sleeping bags.
Rubbing my eyes, I saw the three men groaning on the straw next to me.
Curled up like that, they looked like strays with no owner.
I remembered last night—Enk and Gale staring at me pitifully, unable to bring themselves to ask for the sleeping bags back. So I’d hurried to claim the bed first.
What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is also mine. That should become common sense around here.
I felt a little bad they had to sleep on bare ground, but nothing was more pitiful than me, the internal-injury patient.
I passed through the trembling men—shivering like they were having nightmares—and headed outside.
The world was still a dark violet.
“Haaam.”
As I stretched in the cold air, Rai clung to my side before I noticed.
[Did you sleep well, Master!]
“Best sleep in a while.”
[Those guys groaned all night. Weren’t they noisy? I couldn’t stand it.]
“I slept great.”
Quality sleep mattered.
My body felt much better than yesterday.
Stretching lightly, I looked for a good spot. I usually chose a quiet place for morning training, but this whole area was quiet, which was nice.
After glancing around a bit, I walked toward the broken wall where Ash had sat zoned out yesterday. It was close to the house and decently secluded—perfect for mana training.
“Mm, so that’s why Ash sat here.”
Maybe because it was tucked away, it was easier to focus. I leaned against the wall, closed my eyes, and loosened my neck.
I took in a deep breath and felt the air brushing against my skin.
Mana is like air. Invisible, but undeniably there.
Whether you can sense and control it determines your limits.
The basics of mana training are drawing in natural mana—mana that isn’t yours—circulating it inside you until it becomes your own.
But with internal injuries, most of the mana you draw leaks out, making proper circulation impossible.
Today’s training wasn’t to accumulate mana, but to reset the tangled flow inside my body.
Forcing it would backfire, but I wasn’t the ignorant ten-year-old I used to be.
I’d learned how to heal myself.
Of course, the fact that I learned it from constantly injuring myself through reckless training didn’t change that I was still kind of stupid.
But safe training doesn’t exist.
Aiming for higher realms while insisting on safety is nonsense. Taking risks was also training.
Many humans risked themselves on adventures for the same reason—self-discipline.
If you don’t take risks, you don’t grow. If you don’t explore, you don’t advance.
[Still, don’t use Endairon like that. It’s idiotic.]
[…Don’t eavesdrop!]
[Master just has too much strength for their own good.]
I circulated mana lightly, gauging where it leaked, where it was blocked, and focused on restoring those areas.
Even though Rai disrupted my concentration, fortunately my condition wasn’t as bad as expected. I’d kept my injury in mind, so I avoided the worst.
If recovery kept going smoothly, I’d be able to summon Undine by the day after tomorrow.
Honestly, I could summon her now.
But if I did, my internal injury would worsen and I’d need three days of rest instead of two.
Satisfied with my decent condition despite the recklessness, I stood up.
I was a little sweaty and my insides stung, but it was better than yesterday. Still massaging my throbbing bones, I tilted my head.
“Ash, why are you hiding?”
Ash stepped out from behind a skinny tree. His broad shoulders had been sticking out—did he really think he wasn’t noticeable?
“I didn’t want to interrupt your training.”
“You could’ve kept sleeping.”
“…I wanted to protect you.”
Honestly, how could anyone hate Ash?
If only Rai and Ash could swap personalities. Though then the Empire would probably collapse.
“Thanks. You really are the only one who thinks of me.”
[Among humans. Among spirits, I’m here.]
Delusion is free, I guess.
I shoved Rai away as he tried to cling again, and Ash took a step closer.
“Geenie, I want to ask something.”
“About yesterday, right?”
His serious expression made it obvious. We kissed yesterday, and unlike me, Ash had been pondering it nonstop.
“I thought about it a lot… Yesterday didn’t… mean anything, right?”
“Meaning? What meaning?”
A kiss is a kiss.
“…I knew you’d say that. It meant a lot to me. But to you… you just enjoyed it.”
“Kissing felt pretty good. Isn’t that enough of a reaction?”
“…That’s not what I meant…”
“Oh, we can do it again.”
Wasn’t that enough?
When I smiled with that thought blatantly written on my face, Ash covered his own with his large hand, looking agonized.
Why was he like this…?
[Naive Ash did not know! That Master was a hedonist!]
“Stop.”
[A world-class moderate hedonist!]
If not for my conversation with Ash, I’d have grabbed Rai and hung him from a tree.
He’d already fled far enough his whiskers wouldn’t get plucked again. That brat was getting better at teasing me.
[Ah, cruel fate!]
I truly wanted to kill him…
Grinding my teeth, I noticed Ash seemed too hurt, so I offered a comforting hand.
It was ironic—giving the disease and the cure. I hadn’t expected him to be this wounded just from a kiss.
Such a delicate guy.
He kissed someone he liked—what was so confusing?
“Ash, look at me.”
“No need to comfort me. I was the one who kissed you even if it was meaningless.”
“No, no. I’m sorry for treating it too lightly. Your noona was thoughtless, okay? But I really did want to kiss you then.”
“Really…?”
Even though I casually called myself his noona, Ash was too distracted to notice.
“Yeah. I wanted to see whether kissing you made me see you as a man or not.”
“Th-then what was the result?”
“Mm. I can’t tell from one kiss. I need to try a few more times.” (T/N: Damn Geenie! hahahaha)
[Master was a royal pervert!]
“Wait there. I’m burying him.”
If only I could catch him first.
If not for my internal injury, I’d summon Endairon and crush him to dust.
“Hey! Stop right there!”
[A person with zero sense of mood!]
How could a spirit be this fast?!
Should I turn him into a turtle? A worm? Maybe a starfish…
[I was wrong! I love you, Master!]
Rai returned as fast as he fled, hugging the ground before me.
I grabbed him by the hair and dragged him behind the wall. When I came back out, I was holding a cute little pot.
“Where’s Rai?”
“No idea. Must’ve run off. Let’s cook breakfast in this today.”
“…Have we always had a pot like this?”
“Oh, I found it.”
Ash took the pot I handed him with a wary expression.
Of course it was Rai.
He was the real hedonist—he couldn’t resist teasing me and making the same mistakes over and over. Turning him into a legless inanimate object was the best punishment.
Half a day as a pot would be good experience.
[I’ve never seen a Master who always finds new ways to torture their spirit…]
It took me a moment to realize what he meant. Now that I thought about it, it had been a while since Rai talked about his previous masters.