What the hell happened?"
"The Mazoku… we came across them… in the mountains."
"Mountains? Mazoku?"
They only caught a couple of words from his speech. As Lefille’s face turned grave, Suimei noticed something and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey. Lefille. This man."
"What about him?"
"He was an adventurer from that time."
"That time? Oh…"
She suddenly raised her voice in realization. Lefille must have also realized. Because of the numerous wounds and the excessive bleeding, she didn’t notice at first, but it was the guard who was the loudest at the time when she was kicked out of the caravan group.
Did he run all the way here alone after he was attacked by the Mazoku? Or did he come for help? It could be for either purpose, but regardless, it will terrible leaving him like this.
Suimei gathered mana in his palms and gave instructions to Lefille.
"Lefille. Put him down. I’ll use healing magic."
"Ahh. Understood."
Lefille hesitated for a moment, but understood the gravity of the situation and laid the man down onto the ground as per Suimei’s instructions.
The girl who was walking an earnest path didn’t seem to harbour any resentment.
"Please."
"Yeah."
To those words, Suimei nodded and started casting healing magic on the man. If he wasn’t on the verge of death, his method should be able to heal him. For physical wounds, spirit magic was effective. Negative symptoms from the excessive lost of blood couldn’t be avoided, but that could be cured with restorative magic too.
Under the adventurer was a magic formation of the same color as the magic coming from Suimei’s hand. With a faintly rising emerald color, the adventurer’s wound gradually closed up.
However.
"..."
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 m