It’s harder to forgive than to apologize. (1)

-notification.

– We are very sorry that the Fantasy Dome produced by the Imperial Tower could not withstand the overload caused by the ‘Fantasy Species Defense Battle’ held on the second night of this 2-night, 3-day survival ranking match and could not proceed to the third day. We would like to offer our sincere apologies to all of you who participated in the ranking match.

However, the comprehensive combat power measurement of the players who will participate in the ranked match preliminaries through the said survival is done by the Imperial Tower’s Magic Tower Lord.

The successful candidates have been objectively measured by the wizard Clark Theodore and the swordsman, the bodyguard of His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire.

We will be announcing again the names of those who have advanced to the preliminary round of the ranking match via broadcast and text message, so please check and we hope you will not suffer any disadvantages.

Also, if you feel that you cannot comply with these results, please contact the Imperial Tower and we will respond as best as we can.

– Description: The ranking battle will start from the round of 64, and since the number of players is not enough, the Imperial Tower Lord, the Black Tower Lord of the Kingdom, and the winning candidates selected by the influential figures of each country will be placed in the seeds. The seed selection broadcast will be broadcast tomorrow afternoon, so please watch a lot… …

*

“… It’s the first time I’ve seen this ceiling.”

“Yes? That can’t be. You came here three months ago too… Oh. You weren’t hospitalized then, right? “

I was just making a joke by myself, and when I heard a man’s voice taking it seriously, I turned my head and flinched without realizing it.

A slightly familiar face was smiling shyly and using light attribute magic on me.

This is the healing magician I saw at church the day my arm was healed.

Long time no see?

“How long has it been?”

“Has it been about half a day since you moved here? Haha. You must be sleeping really soundly. It must have been a tough ranking match, right?”

“Well… It was a pretty tough survival game.”

The faithful church’s healing magician who heals me.

He, whose name I didn’t even know, kindly offered words of comfort to me for my hard work and performed a magic trick on me. After that, he carefully checked my physical condition and told me with a bright face that there were no problems and that I could be discharged as soon as I was ready.

“It almost sounds like you’re telling me to hurry up and leave because I’m busy.”

“Hey, that’s not what I meant. Rather, the people waiting for you must have been quite worried. Oh, but were you a disciple of the Black Tower Lord of the Kingdom of Frisia? You came and made such a fuss about how you would take care of the treatment yourself… If Clark hadn’t come, you would have been in danger of having the patient stolen? “

“Oh, sorry.”

“Haha. No problem.”

What on earth have you done, Master?

If this sincere and gentle person is causing trouble, then he must have really caused quite a stir. No matter how worried I was as his disciple, shouldn’t I have done that?

Well, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to be worried, so I decided to leave this matter in my mind and got up.

Well, the magic circuit and fatigue are all gone. At this level, you can fight right away.

“Oh, but did I get moved?”

“Huh? No. Some players were transferred. Most of them suffered only from severe dehydration, and only a few were transferred due to exhaustion of magic and stamina like you, brother… “

“Was there a female black magician among them with black hair like mine?”

When I cut off his explanation and asked him directly about the situation before I fainted, he immediately nodded his head in agreement with his eyes wide open.

As expected, Nora was brought here too.

“Excuse me, where is that patient now… “

“I am receiving treatment from a high-ranking priest in the intensive care unit. Since he was transferred before my brother, I think he must have regained consciousness by now…? Oh, brother. Where are you going?!”

I got up from my seat while listening to his story, put on a pair of patient slippers that I had never seen before and headed straight for the door. Then I looked back at him and answered with a slightly bitter smile.

“She’s my sister-in-law. I’m worried, so I need to go see her quickly.”

I don’t want to ignore the guy who helped me pass this ranking match without a hitch and worked the hardest to achieve my goal.

I decided to face those feelings seriously and started to move, chasing the tangled thread.

*

-dripping.

… …

In front of the patient recovery room.

The name on the nameplate is only one person, Nora, a name I know well.

Maybe because I was admitted as a patient, the high priests of the church did not stop me from seeing my sister-in-law, and I naturally knocked on the door of the intensive care unit where she was and waited for her answer.

“Nora, here I am.”

“… … “

I feel presence, but there is no answer.

Could it be that he has not fully recovered and has fallen asleep again?

Because of my easy calculations, she ended up bearing all the burden.

Nora said that she had something to say to me after the slime subjugation was over, so I felt obligated to listen.

But since there is a chance that she may not have fully recovered yet and may not be up yet, I decided to take a step back for now…

“Stay up, come in.”

“… Yeah.”

The moment her plain, slightly tired voice struck my ears, erasing my thoughts of finding another reason to run away, I told my self-hypnosis to stop looking for any more reasons to run away.

Anyway, everything was twisted and twisted, and she saw through the third-rate play I was leading.

Now, no matter what accusations she made toward me, or even if she tried to apologize for her actions and blame me for them, I had to accept it all and move on.

-Knock knock.

“Nora, are you feeling better…?”

The moment I slowly opened the door to the recovery room, steeling my resolve, the sight before my eyes was a picture so far removed from reality.

Her black hair, which was usually messy and untidy, was shining beautifully like oiled silk, and her dark blue eyes, which had only recently looked at me with a look of contempt, were now curved gently as if she was happy, like a painting.

However, there was a reality that erased all those sights. That was…

“If I scream now, what will happen?”

“… Sorry?”

“Phew!”

Her half-naked appearance was clearly intentional.

Nora, revealing black underwear that matched her hair and soft, white skin, laughed as she tossed her hair back as if nothing had happened.

Before she was picked up by me and my teacher, she had no sense of hygiene because she lived in a garbage dump. There were days when I dragged her around to wash her, so I had many opportunities to see her body as a child. However, once her feminine parts started to stand out, that stopped happening.

But that girl grew up so plump and slim that it made the man mad… No, this isn’t the time to suddenly give up everything and reminisce about the past?!

“… Is that, is what you wanted to say to me social murder?”

“Wow~ Pervert?”

“… … “

Even as she spoke, she had no intention of covering herself and only gestured towards me to close the door.

“Um… No, can’t we talk with all our clothes on?”

“If you go out, I’ll really scream.”

“… … “

Why on earth do we have to endure such a selfish threat?

I let out a deep sigh, closed the door, and went into the recovery room. As if she had been waiting for that, Nora confidently walked in front of me and locked the door.

Nora, oppa, are you a little confused about the situation right now?

“Why are you so flustered? It’s not like this is your first time seeing my body.”

“I don’t remember seeing you since I was 11, and there’s never been a lucky skebe event between you and me, right?”

“Hey, there’s not much difference between then and now, right?”

What the heck?

If you say that you made me mad at you for not washing back then, the difference now is that you have a body that makes men mad with a woman’s body.

Oh, that’s the same thing that makes you angry?

“… Okay, put on some clothes.”

“It’s annoying. They said there’s another test coming up soon, so I’m just going to wait like this.”

“I have a cold.”

“What’s wrong? I can catch a cold.”

Because he is so confident, even the feeling of embarrassment subsides calmly.

Oh well. It doesn’t seem like they’re going to socially annihilate me with something like this, and the atmosphere is a little different from what I expected, but it doesn’t feel hostile to me at all. I think the conversation will probably go as I expected.

-Flutter!

“?”

But that’s that and this is this.

I don’t know why you brought me here like this, but there’s no reason for a girl to be wearing only underwear.

I took off the hospital gown I was wearing and placed it over her, and Nora looked at me in surprise, but smiled calmly and gently and moved her lips.

Well, but this is a boyfriend shirt look, so this is also a bit difficult to do in that direction.

“Rudis… really hasn’t changed at all.”

“You’ve changed a lot.”

“Yeah, it did change… “

I also calm my heart as I look at her gaze, which seems to be looking at me from the past rather than the present.

Surely, she has a lot to say to me. And, I have a lot to say to her in return.

And, I think that’s something I absolutely have to talk about first.

“Nora, I… “

-Slurp.

I spoke softly, hoping she wouldn’t feel responsible for what had happened, but Nora seemed not to care about my words and began to express them through her actions before I could.

Literally, so fast that I couldn’t even react.

“Please let me apologize for all the days I’ve been ungrateful and behaving like an animal, not knowing that you protected me and not knowing gratitude. Brother-in-law. I. I knew everything. Really…! I’m really a ungrateful bitch, not worth forgiving! But please, accept my apology, which is nothing but selfishness… !!”

Nora’s voice, which had been as natural as if she had planned it from the beginning, as she knelt down and pressed her forehead to the ground, had a moist tone that I had never heard before.