Ch.5151. Numerous Worries Are Burdensome, But…

“Well, I’m fine now. It’s actually easier to move around than when I first woke up. If I could leave now, I could get going right away…”

“No, wait.”

The one who stopped me was Blanc.

“Your body hasn’t fully recovered yet. Where do you think you’re going?”

“Blanc, you confirmed it yourself. My magical output has returned, and my body…”

“It’s not about magical output levels; it’s about putting strain on your body. Think about how long you’ve been bedridden.”

“This kind of stiffness will go away once I move around a bit. Let’s just get the test results today and leave. I’m sure the staff would be more comfortable without me here.”

“Right now, your recovery is the top priority.”

“But…”

“Didn’t you hear what the kids said?”

“Ah…”

With Blanc’s words, Arin also reacted.

The strength in her grip…

No, um… could you please stop expressing your dissatisfaction with physical force?

Even if I am a monster… when you squeeze that hard with magic-infused hands…!

“Ah, I understand! L-let’s do it your way for now… Oww…”

“Hm? Bine, are you hurting somewhere?”

“No… it’s nothing…”

“Good. Just rest for now. The staff will be here soon.”

“Ah, in that case, could I perhaps get that… video for a moment?”

“Hm? Video?”

“The footage of our battle. You said everything was recorded. The footage of my match with Arin and your footage too.”

“Hmm, with your body in this condition, analyzing that would only make things worse. No.”

Suddenly forbidden? What’s that about?

No, there’s no way just watching a video would cause any problems.

“But why would watching a video…”

“You’ll use your head to analyze it, spend energy on it. Studying already takes so much energy, and someone like you who analyzes everything in detail would use even more. Don’t you think?”

“W-well, that’s…”

“So don’t think about that. Just rest.”

“But… who’s going to cure my boredom? At least when I was sleeping, I could dream, but now…”

“That, I can’t help you with. Ah, no, wait. You can play with Arin and Ellis, right?”

“Huh?”

“You must have a lot to talk about with Arin. Or would you prefer I call the Association Director?”

“Ah, no…”

The Association Director seemed a bit hurt by my expressionless rejection and said to me:

“Why, Bine? Don’t you like me?”

“N-no, that’s not… I, um…”

“Hey, Bine said she doesn’t like you! Do you think our Bine would like an old man like you?”

“Elli!”

“Bine, it’s true! He’s just a loser who can’t even play games properly and only looks scary on the outside. I’m better than the Association Director, right?”

It seems that Elli and the Association Director are…

Yes, destined rivals.

Well, in games rather than combat.

Though it seems a bit of a lie that Elli won everything.

It’s more likely that the Association Director went easy on her.

Letting her win to make her feel good.

Considering she wasn’t in such bad shape when they rescued her.

That’s probably the correct assumption.

With nothing else to do, maybe I’ll hear about what happened then.

“So, Association Director. How did you extract information from our Elli?”

“I just poked at her gently, and she spilled everything. She’s smart, but bad at games. It was kind of cute.”

“What? Cute? Director, you just… you…! And you have a child…!”

“What are you saying? Seriously, you’re making people misunderstand.”

“No, c-cute… What the! You crazy pervert!”

“Haha… Bine, when Ellis talks like that, it’s because she’s flustered. You know that, right?”

“I think anyone would know that without me telling them… but hearing it from the person who caused the flustering feels… different.”

“Well, when extracting information, if I set her up like this and poke gently, it comes out well. She’s smart, but once she gets flustered, she freezes up like this.”

“Y-you shameless…! How could you…! As the Association Director…!”

Yes, it’s clearly an overflow in her head from processing information, which is why she’s…

“Ugh… urgh…!”

“But to get this flustered just from being called cute…”

“Well, she was in the Association’s villain isolation facility for a long time. I built quite an image there.”

“Ah…”

“Everyone has different methods for obtaining information.”

“Wow… you’re definitely the type I wouldn’t want to meet.”

“As long as you don’t do anything bad in the future, you’ll be fine. And I didn’t use force when I was with Ellis, did I?”

“Ugh, but there’s still something unsettling about it…”

While I was watching the Association Director and the overloaded Ellis who was pounding him with her small fists, the staff entered.

With lots of equipment.

“Ah, Director!”

“Ah, you’re here. I’ll be going then.”

“Where are you…?”

“The staff would be uncomfortable with the Association Director here. Besides, I have many matters to handle. Budget issues and such.”

Right, the Association Director was always a busy person.

There must have been many sacrifices made to come see someone like me.

But mentioning the budget afterward…

It seems… yes.

That’s the real reason.

The staff surrounded me, setting up numerous pieces of equipment.

They connected devices all over my body, turned on power, and fiddled with various controls.

There’s so much I don’t understand even looking at it.

Back then, the Doctor used to connect just one device to figure things out.

Well, the understanding of monsters here is different from Eden’s.

So the equipment is also…

“Umm… this is uncomfortable. How much longer will this take?”

“It won’t take long, so please bear with it a little more.”

Hmm… they told me to stay still, so I’m staying still, but…

This is taking too long…

“Umm… excuse me…”

“We’re almost done.”

“I see…”

I received a somewhat cold response.

I must have gotten weaker lately.

To think my heart would ache from such a cold response.

Bearing this strange emotion, I endured the time of suffering until the results came out.

“Hmm, first, the vital signs excluding magical power are normal. The negative indicators that Blanc was worried about aren’t showing up. As for the magical aspect, it shows similar readings to past measurement data… but that past data is from the time of Ragnarok. It’s not comparable to the measurements taken during the recent match. This anomaly is why we took additional detailed measurements, which took some time, but there are no abnormalities in the magical core or other aspects typically seen in monsters. It seems this is the normal level… What would you like to do, Blanc?”

All the information I wanted to know has come out.

This means I can go home, right?

That would be fine with me.

But Blanc seems to have a different opinion.

“Let’s have him rest a bit more and leave in three days.”

“Ah, no, Blanc…!”

“Bine, you need to rest. Don’t you? You’ve been living too hard. It’s good to take some time to rest.”

“No, I’m fine…”

“Think about the environment you were in. Living in that slum, your body had just started to recover when you pushed it with excessive training and broke it. Right?”

“No… the recovery was complete…”

“Even if you’ve physically recovered, mentally, you need rest. Isn’t this nice? A room with hardly anyone around. Right?”

“Ugh… that’s…”

“Yes, not resting and doing that… Haah. Really…”

“I understand… Sigh.”

I just buried my head under the blanket and surrendered.

One more thing I’ve learned about Blanc while staying here:

She’s incredibly stubborn about strange things.

I only thought she was a justice enthusiast, but…

Ah…

Well, with nothing to do in that small room, I’ll just have to pass the time…

Arin and Ellis are staying in this room today.

“Arin, don’t you have school tomorrow…”

“Magic girls can skip school for volunteer work. And taking care of you counts as volunteer work, right? So it’s fine.”

Ah, that’s right.

Arin is stubborn too.

Why are all the magic girls around me so stubborn?

“Elli…?”

“I have no intention of leaving your side.”

Ah, even Elli.

Haha…

“Blanc, you’re leaving, right?”

“Yes, I need to prepare a room for Ellis at home. I think we can clear out the storage room next to yours.”

“Won’t there still be rooms left? There are several rooms I haven’t even touched yet.”

“Well, the dormitory was designed with various scenarios in mind.”

“Various scenarios… Sigh. Never mind. I’m sure there’s some absurd reason. So only Arin and Elli will be here?”

“No, Seohyun will be here too. As for sleeping arrangements… I asked the Association Director to handle that.”

“S-sister! I can sleep next to Bine sister…”

“Blanc! Me too! Next to Bine…!”

“Bine, what do you want to do?”

Blanc and the two eager people.

Hmm.

“The bed is big enough anyway. I don’t mind. Actually, this bed is large enough for the three of us… but what about the redhead?”

“Seohyun said she’ll sleep on the sofa. She says it’s more comfortable for her.”

“That’s strange. Usually, a bed would be more comfortable.”

“I don’t know either. Seohyun said she wanted to stay, so that’s that. I’ll come early tomorrow morning. Rest well.”

“Yes.”

The outside contrasts with this bright room.

The stars in the sky aren’t visible, but the night’s lighthouses rise from the ground.

Those painful fireflies brilliantly embroidering this night, and I who once ran wild through it.

Now just confined to this room, yearning for the outside.

No, I don’t yearn for it.

I have precious people by my side.

I don’t envy that free time when I ran wild through such nights.

Well, it’s a change, I suppose.

Being cared for like this.

It feels nice.