At that point, Suimei stopped.
Halfway through treatment, Suimei silently looked at the adventurer and put down the hand supplying the treatment.
"Huh…?"
To that, Lefille was visibly bewildered. As far as she could tell, he had abandoned the treatment halfway through. To Suimei who had lowered his hand, Lefille raised her voice in urgency.
"Suimei-kun! What happened? Why did you stop?!?"
"...It’s impossible. The Astral Body has been irreversibly exhausted. No matter how much we heal this man, it’s useless."
Can’t be done. Can’t be cured. Impossible to heal. However, to Lefille who had just seen the wounds close, this explanation probably wouldn’t make any sense.
Having seen the physical wounds heal, it was natural for Lefille to doubt this explanation.
"D-Didn’t you see that? Weren’t his wounds just healed? That doesn’t seem meaningless. So why?..."
"The wounds did close. However…"
"Then…"
He should be able to be healed, is what she wanted him to say. But Suimei, with a bitter face while grinding his teeth, interrupted those words with a shake of his head.
Lefille who saw that had a face filled with questions.
"Why…?"
Lefille’s disappointment was painful. A sense of helplessness was probably tumbling around in her heart. Even if the other person was someone she’d hated before, the bitterness Lefille felt wouldn’t stop.
Lefille, however, was suspicious that Suimei had stopped for another reason.
"Suimei-kun. It can’t be that you stopped treatment because this man was the one who kicked me out of the group? Don’t look down on me. I don’t care what happened back then. So hurry up and continue the treatment!"
"..."
"Suimei-kun!"
"It’s no good. It’s true that it’s as Lefille saw, I can heal the wounds. However, it’s also as I said. The astral body, in other words, the soul and its vessel, the psyche shell, has been worn away. No matter how much he is treated, he won’t survive for long."
"What… it can’t be…"
Watching the man whose life would disappear like fly, Lefille had no words. To her, Suimei regretfully added on.
"No matter how much he is treated, nothing can be done about another person’s soul."
"...Is it really impossible?"
"Under the proper conditions, there might be a one in ten thousand chance that it can be done. However, we have no time for that. Even if we were to prepare for it right now, his body wouldn’t be able to last."
"...Tch"
After hearing Suimei’s diagnosis, Lefille bit her lips, her neck and shoulders slouched. No matter who it was, it was disheartening to see someone who was about to die. If the Mazoku was the cause of this, the feeling would be more intense and suffocating for the girl who swore to fight the Mazoku.
… The two of them fell into sadness. The man then turned towards Lefille.
“T-The others… Are under attack, by the Mazoku.”
“There are survivors!?”
“Don’t… Know. But, maybe…”
“There might be someone who is still alive!?”
But there wasn’t any response to the girl’s query.
To get as much air into his lungs as possible, the adventurer dressed man gasped his lips desperately, and couldn’t even make a sound. Seeing him like this, Lefille seemed to have thought of something and asked quietly:
“... Are the others on the mountain?”
Was there any meaning to this question? The girl sounded too calm, it might even cause others to misunderstand that she was being cold. In reply to this question that might give others the chill, the man nodded slowly.
The next instant, the man stopped breathing.
“— Tch.”
“......”
Lefille made an inhuman noise when the man died, while Suimei lowered his face.
… And finally, the kneeling Lefille stood and turned her back towards Suimei. The direction she was facing—
“... Hey, Lefille?”
Suimei asked, but Lefille kept her back towards him for some reason, and uttered words of apology.
“I am sorry, Suimei-kun.”
“Sorry about what, what are you going to do? Why are you facing that way?”
“Do you even need to ask…”
Isn’t that obvious— No, it was indeed something anyone could work out. Because right now, she was facing in a direction of a road they had never taken before.
In the end, Lefille seemed to have made up her mind. She turned towards Suimei, and stated her resolve with determination.
“Suimei-kun, I will be rescuing the people from the caravan.”
“Rescue them? Are you serious?”
“Yes, I have no plans on making jokes.”
“You are going even though you don’t even know where exactly the caravan is!?”
“They are probably along the mountain path. Even if they deviate from the route, it wouldn’t be for too far.”
“But there was no way of telling if they are still alive!”
“That’s right. But someone might still be alive. That’s why—”
That’s why she was going, in order help them, and performed a rescue that could only be said to be reckless. However, she mustn’t, she absolutely mustn’t go there, because—