14.Resolution

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Iris/Yanagi

“……Ugh…”
My blurred consciousness slowly cleared up.
Another unknown ceiling. At least the bed I was lying on was clean and
soft, as if it had been washed and dried in the sunlight. Feeling relieved
that I was no longer in that place, I tried to sit up.
“…Ack, it hurts…!”
Pain started seeping out from the parts I tried to move, and I plopped
down to bed again, having lost all strength in my body.
I hadn’t felt any better compared to that time. My mind was still hazy,
my magical power didn’t seem to halfway return, and my entire body
was in a tingling, scorching pain.
Worst of all, I kept feeling that something’s missing from my body.
“…Onii-chan? You’re finally awake.”
Somebody opened the door. It was Ayame… no, Saul, who entered,
holding a tub of water.
“…Why are you looking at me like that? Are you still hurt?”
I shook my head at his caring words. The thought of seeing him again
filled my chest, and the overflowing drops gently wet my cheeks before
I knew it.
The bandages that seemed to have been wrapped all over my body and
the gauze under them were removed.
With a soft, wrung-out piece of cloth, my body was gently wiped so as
not to hurt the wounds.
My feverish mind wandered to the thought that if one were to look at
the current situation from the outside, it would be a moderately
immoral scene of a handsome older brother stripping his adolescentaged
younger sister naked and wiping her all over.
“Sorry about that… I really wanted to use ointment to treat your
wounds, but it might leave scars…”
He was waiting for me to wake up and use my recovery magic.
To my surprise, three days had already passed while I slept.
Since some parts of my body were infected, I first cleansed my entire
body with “Purification” before using recovery magic, just to be safe. In
a flash, all the wounds on my body disappeared without a trace, and my
original flawless white porcelain skin returned.
But the next symptom soon showed itself. I felt my body temperature
suddenly rising and had to wobble back onto bed.
I thought vaguely that I should be careful about using this treatment on
sick people in the future, since it consumed a lot of energy to heal
injuries and might possibly activate pathogens.
“…Here’s your medicine. Drink it up.”
A small pill, apparently anticipated and prepared in advance, was
placed in my mouth. Then I was fed water by the spoonful to slowly
swallow the solid pill. The slightly tepid water felt good on my parched
throat.
Once I was comfortable, I felt a little better because I no longer had
pain all over my body, but the fever still hadn’t subsided, and the cool
comfort of a hand on my face quickly lulled me into a trance.
The next time I woke up, my mind was rather clear. On either side of
the bed were Saul and Reiji, unarmed and dressed in street clothes,
each holding one of my hands and peering at me with concern.
“Thank goodness, you’re awake…”
“Do you feel unwell anywhere, Onii-chan?”
My fever seemed to have faded, and although there was still some
lingering exhaustion, I didn’t think any particular problem remained.
“…I made it back…”
How many times I’d thought that I’m done for, I didn’t know.
I was scared that I, who’s now a girl in flesh and blood, was going to
become a plaything for those men I didn’t know until the day I broke
down… but in the end, I was still able to make it back to the two of
them.
Tears of relief and joy again wet my cheeks, and soon I couldn’t stop
sobbing.
“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have left you alone…!”
“This time, we’ll never leave your side again.”
Saul, whose physique had completely exchanged with mine, held me
gently, and Reiji gently rubbed my back as I continued to sob.
It was painful.
It was scary.
But above all else, I was concerned about them.
The world had changed, my body had changed. And I didn’t even know
if they were coming here.
With no way to contact them, it was impossible to shake off this doubt,
and I worried that I might never see them again.
But now, my anxiety was melting away like snow in spring. I could no
longer control my emotions by my own will, and for a while, I cried like
a child in their arms.
“…I’m alright now. Sorry you two, I shouldn’t be crying like this.”
When I calmed down, I felt embarrassed for crying so much earlier.
“Um…”
“It may be too soon since you just woke up but… there’s someone else
who really wants to meet you.”
The two of them turned serious at once. Someone wanted to see me. I
could only picture a single person in my mind with that description. My
body trembled and my hands started shaking.
“If you don’t feel like seeing him, just tell me, okay?”
“In case you’re wondering, it was because of that person calling for our
help that we were able to save you… Take it into consideration.”
To be honest, I was afraid. I hesitated for a not-too-short period of
time, fearing that I might hurl a few heartless words at him the moment
I see his face.
…But when I heard Reiji’s words, I made my decision.
The sight of a figure entering the room narrowed my field of vision.
The sounds coming in from my ears seemed so far away.
My heart was pounding like a fast bell, and my entire body was shaking
uncontrollably, despite my efforts to calm myself down.
My breathing became erratic, and I felt suffocated.
As soon as someone who wasn’t those two came into view, I wanted to
run away, but my strength from the waist down was drained, even
though I no longer had any wounds there.
It’s the same as the old days… rejecting everyone but my grandparents,
Reiji and Ayame… no, probably even worse this time.
Because there wasn’t only one robber with a knife. A gang of bandits,
all of them grinning and looking down on me with eyes full of lust… I
still trembled with fear when I recalled about what happened. The
sound of my teeth clattering was loud in my ears.
“…Are you sure you can do this?”
But I had to try. If I faltered here, I’m sure those two would simply send
him away and I would never have the chance to talk to him again.
“I’m fine… Please, let me talk…”
I shook my head at Reiji’s words of concern for me.
He’s right. Even now, I couldn’t help but be scared.
But… now matter how scary it was, running away wouldn’t save
anyone.
Scared as I was, I had to take the first step if I wanted to be saved.
Besides, unlike that time, those two were by my side. I could do it.
I gently lowered my feet to the floor.
Being bedridden for three days had considerably impaired my physical
strength. My slightly weakened legs couldn’t support the weight of my
body…
“Miss?!”
In a panic, that person… Scott-san, tried to help me get up in a panic.
But as soon as his arm touched me, a feeling of fear ran up and down
my spine, and a sound like a failed scream escaped from the back of my
throat.
“Ah, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you…”
I quickly grabbed his hand as he tried to back away. The trembling
increased even more, and the blood drained from my face. No, I could
not fall over just yet.
My tongue was parched and I failed several times to speak, but the
touch of two hands on my shoulders encouraged me to put my strength
into my throat.
“It…hurt.”
“…Eh?”
“That time… I was really hurt.”
The scars might be gone, but the pain was still lodged deep inside. Just
by putting it into words, the horror of that time could be easily
replayed.
“I-I’m sorry, it was all my fault! Please punish me however you want,
even killing me’s fine!”
“If you say so… then your punishment is entirely up to me… and you
don’t get to complain… am I correct?”
“Yes! Punish me as you wish!”
Okay, I got his word.
“Well then… aaah.”
I opened my mouth.
The mouth of this body was small and did not open that wide, but this
was as good as it got.
“…? Miss, what are you… Ack!”
I bit at the thumb of Scott-san, who had a question mark on his head, as
hard as I could, with all my strength.
After a good 10 seconds or so. I removed the teeth that were biting.
The jaws of this body were not strong enough, and in fact, I hurt myself
a bit doing that. It didn’t go so far as to bite through the flesh, just a line
of neatly aligned teeth marks.
“Ouch! What was that just now, miss?!”
“Are you hurt?”
“No, this is nothing compared to your pain.”
“…Are you hurt?”
“No, this is nothing compared to the sins I committed.”
“……Are you hurt?”
I looked at him and asked three times, each time intensifying my stare
harder than the last.
“Uh… yeah, it really hurts.”
“Then it’s all water under the bridge now, okay?”
Finally, I got the answer I wanted.
I was done with it because he must have gone through the same thing
as me, judging from his look.
I smiled and laughed the best I could under the circumstances, then
chanted a simple spell. The restorative light that danced around Scottsan’s
body erased not only the dental marks, but also the wounds of his
entire body.
To be honest, Scott-san at the time was just a stranger with whom I
exchanged a few words… But he still went out of his way to call for help
despite his own injuries.
I rubbed his still clenched hands. They were rough and rugged, the
hands of someone who lived in this world, different from my current
hands, which looked as if they had never held anything heavy.
He wasn’t an NPC, he was just an ordinary person, not as good as I
thought he was, but not as bad as he thought he was.
So my point was not to sound bitter to him.
“Thanks to you… I was able to meet those two again… you have my
gratitude…”
My voice was fading out. The strength in my throat I desperately
gathered was being chipped away. The fear of touching others had not
disappeared. I felt like collapsing any minute… Still, I had to muster up
the strength to tell this much.
“Miss… I…”
Large drops were dripping from his eye. With the last of my energy, I
managed to maintain my smile at him. This was surely the best way to
thank him for his concern for my wellbeing and his devotion to me.
“… Seeing you safe and sound… I’m so glad…!”
Ah, was he concerned about me that much?
His tears, shed for me, brought warmth to my chest, and I felt that my
heart’s wounds were being healed, if only slightly…
He continued sobbing until I reached my limits and was put back on the
bed by the two panicked people behind me… That was the first thing I
heard after I woke up.