I Became the Academy’s Female Delinquent Chapter 37. Conclusion (2)

“Elsie? Your body is recovering right now. You absolutely mustn’t overdo it for a while, okay?”

Elsie shrank her shoulders at the nurse’s warning.

“B-But, aren’t I completely recovered?”

“It’s not just about the injuries you sustained this time. Really… how did you get poisoned by ‘that venom’?”

“Poisoned?”

Elsie felt her heart sink.

She had thought that Nidhogg’s venom would have lost its potency after it brought the Elsie in this world to complete death.

‘If the venom continued to function even after I possessed her, then I…’

She would have surely lost her life.

Nidhogg’s venom was one of the most potent poisons in the Aesir Saga, as deadly as Jormungandr’s venom.

“That’s impossible. If I was really poisoned by that venom…”

Elsie swallowed hard.

The venom still made her nervous.

“I wouldn’t be alive.”

“But you are alive.”

The nurse hugged Elsie, who was trembling slightly.

“Ugh-?!”

She was a more pitiful child than she had heard from Professor Regin.

“Listen carefully…”

Nidhogg’s venom, though almost completely ineffective, still remained in Elsie’s body, eating away at her recovery.

It was gradually stealing her life force whenever Elsie used her strength excessively.

If it hadn’t been discovered and detoxified during the treatment process, it could have become dangerous before long.

“So, just rest. Even if you’ve lost your memories, you can do well as the daughter of a prestigious family, right?”

“Uh, well…”

“I won’t let you go if you don’t answer properly, okay?”

Elsie, unable to escape the nurse’s large embrace, obediently nodded.

***

“Hmm…”

Elsie pressed her waist with her fingers.

Aside from the soft and tender sensation, there was no particular discomfort.

What was that tingling sensation she had felt briefly when the pain became clear?

It was definitely a familiar feeling.

Something cold and sharp piercing through, familiar as if she had experienced it before…

“Elsie, are you dressed yet?”

“Ah, not yet!”

At Thrud’s voice from beyond the curtain, Elsie hurriedly grabbed her blouse.

“Should I come in and help if it takes too long?”

“Absolutely… not!”

Recalling the dizzying memory of being made to try on clothes endlessly while shopping, Elsie hurriedly straightened her clothes and burst out.

Thrud scratched her cheek, seemingly disappointed by Elsie’s neat attire.

“It’s getting warmer, so loosen up a bit.”

“Not that again. A uniform should be neat, you know?”

“Don’t sound like an old man-”

“Who’s an old man! I’m still… vibrant…”

‘Wait… I can’t even say “still” anymore…’

It was a future that would never come if she didn’t win the martial arts tournament and obtain Ymir’s Horn.

‘If I don’t win…’

She would never be able to return to her home and would have to live as Elsie in this world forever.

Nervous about this fact, Elsie unconsciously placed her hand on her waist, where she felt uneasy.

*Throb!*

“Ugh…”

When she tried to recall herself from her home, she felt a chilling pain in her waist.

It was a momentary, breathtaking, and dizzying shock that made her body lean involuntarily.

‘What is this? Phantom pain?’

Was it because of the shock of being slightly pierced by Fenrir’s fang?

“Elsie… not yet. No matter how long I wait, you can’t be an old man- Elsie?!”

Suddenly, Elsie flinched, clutching her stomach and bending over, startling Thrud, who supported her.

“Why, why, why what’s wrong?! Did the wound open? Or is it the venom?!”

Thrud, well aware that Elsie’s condition was a mess, began to panic.

“I-I’m fine now. What was that?”

Elsie, startled by the momentary dizzying sensation, tilted her head, patting her waist.

“Really, are you okay?”

“Geez, why are you so worried? I’m fine, I said? I was just startled for a moment.”

Elsie seemed normal, but that behavior just now was clearly abnormal.

A myriad of thoughts began to fill Thrud’s head.

“Then why did you suddenly grab your stomach… Ah!”

After much deliberation, one conclusion flashed through her mind.

“Elsie!”

“Huh…?”

“Do you have a stomachache and feel weak?”

At the sudden question, Elsie answered with a sullen expression.

“My stomach doesn’t hurt. Of course, I’m going to feel weak.”

‘I fought like crazy.’

“Then don’t you feel anything strange? Like fatigue?”

‘What’s with all the fuss?’

Elsie’s eyes narrowed at Thrud’s seemingly serious but clearly trivial fuss.

Elsie stared at Thrud with a lukewarm gaze and sighed deeply.

“Your sudden questions feel strange. That’s why I’m getting tired.”

“Y-Yeah, I knew it!”

“Knew what! You’re not making fun of me, are you!”

Elsie, provoked by Thrud’s continued incomprehensible behavior, tried to storm out of the dressing room.

However, she had no choice but to hesitate when Thrud, blocking her path, knelt down with a serious face.

“Wh-What are you doing!”

“Just stay still.”

“Explain why you’re doing this-”

*Swish.*

Without asking or explaining, Thrud lifted Elsie’s skirt.

“Hmm… it doesn’t look like she’s bleeding-”

*Clang!*

Elsie, whose mind had momentarily stopped at Thrud’s sudden action, struck her on the head.

“You bi…”

She was the one who hit her, but it was her own fist that was complaining of pain.

Elsie, her face flushed, couldn’t help but feel terrified at the sight of Thrud getting up nonchalantly.

“Elsie, let’s go back to the infirmary just in case.”

“No way!”

Slam! Elsie, bursting out of the dressing room, recalled the nurse’s words not to overdo it.

The nurse had urged her to refrain from using energy, at least today, when she needed to finish treatment and focus on recovery.

Elsie, who had almost instinctively tried to boost her physical abilities using energy, had no choice but to stop.

“Hold on, hold on.”

She needed to be careful since she had overdone it quite a bit.

“I even used Blóðörn, so I really need to be careful.”

Blóðörn, a special skill that used stamina as a cost instead of energy.

In the game, it literally drained her stamina, but in this world, she needed to be careful because she didn’t know exactly what the stamina it required as a cost meant.

“If it’s something like life force, I might die young if I overuse it with this weak body.”

She needed to accurately understand the characteristics of the skill.

She needed to build up her stamina to reduce the burden of Blóðörn and, at the same time, have the physical condition to use Sigrdrifa Transformation.

Clenching her fist and steeling her resolve, Elsie saw Thrud following her and began to run away.

“Don’t follow me! I’m not going!”

“If it’s not that, then it’s fine, so don’t run away! If you keep running away… I’ll hug you?!”

“Hic-!”

Elsie’s body, which was not assisted by energy use to enhance her physical abilities, was weaker than she had imagined.

“Haa- haa- hee-eck…”

Out of breath and with trembling legs, Elsie could no longer run and leaned against the wall.

“N-No way…”

Placing her hands on her knees and breathing heavily, Elsie looked up at Thrud with teary eyes, out of breath.

“It’s unfair to not use physical enhancement…”

“Why would I do that? It’s enough to make up for it with my body.”

“….”

“Anyway, I’m glad it was my misunderstanding. But I’m still worried… Elsie, you don’t remember that either, do you?”

What on earth was she talking about?

Frustrated, Elsie caught her breath and asked.

“What the hell are you talking about, you bitch…”

“Well… um, you know. That day…”

Thrud paused for a moment, wondering how to explain it, and then patted her lower abdomen.

“……”

And that simple explanation and action were enough to make Elsie understand.

‘So, what she was saying about bleeding earlier was… Ah- Oh my god. Oh my god. This-‘

“Shit…”

Elsie, her face flushed red, couldn’t bear to look at Thrud and lowered her head.

‘Yeah, right now I’m… If that’s the case, then someday… No, it might not be long before…’

Adapting to this reality was still a long and distant road.

Thrud, with her arms crossed, looked at Elsie, who seemed a little uneasy, and opened her mouth kindly.

“It would be great if you regained your memories even a little before that, but if that day comes before that, be sure to tell me. Okay?”

Elsie, who had understood what that meant, could only nod silently with her face flushed red.

Doyun, who was walking down the hallway, spotted Elsie and Thrud and approached them, greeting them.

“Elsie! Thrud!”

He had once again witnessed Elsie’s unconventional appearance in the infirmary and had immediately left to head for the waterfront.

He had plunged his head into the water dozens of times to shake off the images that were clouding his mind.

Now that he had finally managed to cool down his heated mind, he was feeling quite refreshed.

Elsie, with a frightened cat-like expression, and Thrud, with her eyes sharply raised, looked at Doyun.

“Why are you so serious-”

“Doyun, we’re having an important conversation between girls right now, so let’s talk later.”

At Thrud’s resolute words, Doyun tactfully stepped back.

“Well, alright. If that’s the case, there’s nothing I can do.”

Elsie watched Doyun retreat with teary eyes.

“J-Just girls…”

He couldn’t help but tilt his head at her muttering in a seemingly shocked voice.

*

Back outside, Doyun lightly stretched his neck.

Elsie’s wistful gaze lingered in his mind.

“…Okay, should I head back to the water?”

It seemed he needed to dunk his head in the water a few more times to clear his mind of unnecessary thoughts.

As he made up his mind and looked up at the sky,

A massive shadow briefly fell over the academy before disappearing.

Thinking it was a cloud, Doyun carefully examined the sky, then his eyes widened.

“An eagle…?”

But it wasn’t an ordinary eagle.

Its enormity was even more apparent as it flew low in the sky.

Even considering its wingspan, its size was almost comparable to Fenrir.

Doyun couldn’t take his eyes off the giant eagle as it craned its neck this way and that, as if searching for something.

A glimpse of a hawk on top of the giant eagle’s head.

A memory flashed through Doyun’s mind.

From his Yggdrasil Ecology class, he recalled the giant beasts that lived on the World Tree, Yggdrasil.

Among them, the creature that lived at the very top of Yggdrasil.

The nameless giant eagle that carried a hawk called Vedrfolnir on its head.

It flew towards the city, then smoothly turned and flew back towards the academy.

In that brief turn, Doyun could see it.

It was a distance that anyone without his innate vision would have missed.

“Someone’s… riding it?”

The silver figure, reminiscent of someone, disappeared again behind the giant eagle’s wings.