The Guardian Knight of Affection-Starved Young Ladies

5 – The Trigger (03)

006.

“Ah…”

A sharp smell stung his nose.

Pain felt near his heart.

Kallen cautiously opened his eyes.

“Oh.”

Barely had he gathered his dazed mind when a strange voice was heard right next to him.

Turning his head to the voice that was neither Sinat’s nor Blamia’s, he saw an old man he had never seen before, looking surprised.

The last thing he clearly remembered was using the second-tier combat attribute magic ‘Explosion’ on himself.

He couldn’t remember much after that.

It was a magic he barely learned under Blamia’s supervision.

Could it be that using such a powerful magic on his body meant he couldn’t survive?

Perhaps this place was similar to the heaven the high-ranking people of the church spoke of during his begging days.

A life prolonged by his master.

He didn’t regret it, but he still hoped Sinat was alive.

“Haha, they said you were out of your mind, and they were right. Hey, you ungrateful wretch. How can you treat the person who saved your life as someone from the other world in an instant?”

“…Yes?”

“Tsk tsk… You’re out of your mind…”

The old man clicked his tongue repeatedly as he stood up.

His head was still fuzzy, so he couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

After the old man left and he was alone in the room, he finally noticed something.

“My room…”

They say you can’t feel anything when you’re dead.

If that were true, then he probably wasn’t dead.

The sharp smell from the bandages wrapped around his body stung his nose,

and he felt something beyond just a throbbing pain in his heart.

And the place he was lying in now was Kallen’s own room.

The familiar room he had been indebted to for a little over two years, given to him by Blamia.

Could it be that the old man had saved him just a moment ago?

He chuckled softly at the silly thought that he owed his life entirely to the old man.

“Kallen!!”

As the door burst open, beautiful indigo hair fluttered.

The fresh scent of a young girl filled the room.

The stench that had been stinging his nose disappeared in an instant.

“Sob… Sob…”

For the first time, her forehead touched his chest, where he had only ever felt the hair on the back of her head.

Two figures followed her in.

One was his familiar master, and the other was the unfamiliar old man he had seen earlier.

“Look at that. He’s grinning like an idiot. I told you he was completely crazy.”

“How am I supposed to believe there’s a madman who would embed a second-tier combat magic into his own body? Even in our time, there was no one like that.”

“Master.”

His master, Blamia, asked Kallen in her characteristic disapproving voice.

“How’s your body?”

“I’m fine.”

“I’m not good with healing magic, so I asked a friend. Even if he’s a strange guy, his skills are solid, so you won’t have any burn scars.”

Blamia pointed to Kallen’s heart as she continued speaking.

“But that can’t be fixed.”

Could it be related to the pain felt in the heart?

It was before Kallen could even ask again.

“What did I teach you? What about spirits?”

“…You said that spirits exist only in form and cannot physically threaten on their own.”

“Yes. There’s only one reason I taught you that. Because it’s the truth. But the wrong answer actually happened.”

When learning magic, there were a few things Blamia used to say habitually.

One of them was that everything is built on the flow.

He said that you have to ride the ever-changing flow well to not fall behind.

Blamia was pointing that out.

“At least for now. Even when I was at my peak, spirits were such beings. To explain what happened to you… Yes, we have to go far back in time.”

Blamia’s gaze was slightly out of focus, as if recalling a certain time.

“The one Sinat contracted with is such a being. A remnant of the past that even I have never seen. Far before the time when practical magic waned and dignified magic grew in size.”

“Contract?”

“Look at Sinat’s wrist.”

Beyond Sinat, who still had his face buried in his chest, Kallen carefully examined the wrist.

It wasn’t as black as before, but close to a dark hue.

A rather complex and dignified pattern was engraved.

“Did Sinat contract with that monster?”

“For now, we have to see it that way. I don’t know either, so I have to find out. More importantly.”

Blamia approached Kallen, carefully detached Sinat, and unwrapped the bandage.

“Do you see?”

The revealed appearance was quite grim.

The area where the heart was located was blackened as if it had rotted,

And a cracked line-like pattern spread all over the body.

That dizzying sight was enough, but it didn’t end there.

Blamia immediately stimulated Kallen’s mana.

Kallen has no mana.

As the moment of that time came to mind, it was only natural that Kallen’s dark world was drawn.

“…”

“…”

Silence descended simultaneously.

The old man, who had been clicking his tongue, became serious and observed Kallen’s mental state.

Kallen’s world was dark.

It was far from beautiful and enchanting.

That alone was dangerous enough, but now, how should I put it?

It was terrible.

“The mental state is the world of the magician and the vessel that holds the heart. Do you remember?”

“…Yes.”

“Speak with your own mouth. How does it look?”

Was it better when it was simply dark?

Now, it was as if cracks had formed in the glass, with lines drawn all over, and the mental state was engulfed in flames.

It was hell.

“The flames must be the result of the explosion magic you used, and the lines must have formed when Sinat’s spirit pierced your heart. The spirit pierced not your heart, but your mental state.”

Kallen felt something strange and looked at Blamia’s face.

The face that had been merely displeased a moment ago was now filled with anger.

“How should I take this? I know it started with Sinat’s good intentions. But I almost lost my granddaughter, who is everything to me, and the boy I raised as my disciple, in an instant.”

“…”

“Why did you do such a reckless thing! You used second-level magic on your own body, and your mental state was damaged by a monster you didn’t even know!”

At that moment, he felt nothing.

On the contrary, his dazed mind was becoming clear.

Why did he do such a reckless thing?

The answer to Blamia’s question seemed predetermined.

“Blood.”

“Blood?”

“Sinat was bleeding, Master.”

Kallen’s memory after using magic on himself was blurry.

But one thing he was sure of.

Neither Blamia nor even Sinat himself would know what had happened until then.

“You said you heard the reason for attempting second-level magic. Sinat attempted contract magic, and time passed.”

Sinat was the one who was trapped in the spirit realm.

At that time, he couldn’t know what he looked like.

“Sweat poured from my body like rain, and blood flowed from my nose and mouth. You said spirits are sacred beings. An ominous aura I’ve never seen before was surging around.”

Kallen is calm beyond his years.

It was thanks to this that he reached Sinat to save him and is now calmly conveying the facts to Blamia.

“I thought at that moment. If I go on like this, I’ll die. Then I remembered that, unlike others, I have no mana and my mental state is peculiar. So I thought the only way to break Sinat’s magic was to bet on that.”

“You…”

“I haven’t learned from my master how to stimulate mana or how to bring out my mental state. So I used magic on my body.”

“Didn’t you think you would die, of course!”

“Of course I did. The image of a dug-up ground kept flashing in my mind.”

Blamia’s expression now felt nothing.

Neither his characteristic displeased expression nor the angry expression from a moment ago, nothing at all.

He just asked again.

“I know you regard me as more than a benefactor. But humans, as a species, always prioritize their own lives. No matter how much Sinat is my granddaughter, your life was at stake, so why…”

“I don’t know.”

Kallen’s emotions were also unreadable from his expression.

From the beginning, he had a blunt and calm personality, so it was natural to think so.

But compared to Blamia’s expression, he could find a softer side than he thought.

“Master. No, after you left, I had this conversation with the young lady.”

Kallen turned his head to look at Sinat, who was still crying.

“Why do I have to leave? I just thought I would continue your persuasion, but then I thought, I don’t know why I have to leave either.”

“…”

“So I said. I don’t know. I don’t know why I have to leave either. But if I had to say, it just happened that way. Just as you picked me up for no reason, now it’s time to leave.”

Blamia brought Kallen.

In fact, Blamia had the intention of making a friend for Sinat.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have thought of bringing a street beggar as an attendant.

He is a great wizard.

There was no reason for a great wizard, famous in the world, to bring a beggar who had not received professional training as an attendant.

But he had never told Kallen this.

Whether he had such an intention or not.

To Kallen, Blamia was a benefactor who provided food and shelter for no reason.

“It wasn’t that I had any particular reason to save the young lady. Just as you took me in for no reason, I just thought it was natural to save her.”

“Huh… Huh huh…”

“That naturalness might include gratitude towards you, and to the young lady…”

“Don’t call her young lady.”

The voice that interrupted was Sinat’s.

Sinat wriggled again and moved towards Kallen’s chest.

A cold forehead touched the blackened heart.

“…There might also be gratitude towards Sinat. But now that I think about it… maybe I just didn’t want to see Sinat in pain.”

Kallen’s awkward words were no different from when he was first brought in.

Blamia stood there, unable to speak for a while.

Why wouldn’t he?

Sinat was his whole world.

Instead of thanking Kallen for saving such a granddaughter, he was giving him a hard time.

He had to admit it now.

That he was afraid of seeing his past mistakes reflected in Kallen, and was trying to push him away.

At the same time, he had to admit that Kallen, this little kid, had taken up a bigger place in his heart than he thought.

Even though his granddaughter was everything, it didn’t mean that the loneliness completely disappeared.

Blamia had no choice but to acknowledge that Kallen was filling that place, albeit clumsily.

*