Hylli didn't seem to be surprised as his opponent switched to Swan. No, it seemed like he didn't care who his opponent. It looked like he was just focused on the fact that he was battling with someone else. Hylli was just reacting and using his blade on instinct. He wasn't even defending himself at this point.
Even from what I could see, Hylli's current form was full of mistakes. But the reason he wasn't focusing on defense at all was because of how brutal his attacks were.
I had never seen Swan fight with such seriousness before. I knew that he was amazingly skilled, but seeing him was on another level. I had always believed that white magic was his main weapon and his blade was his secondary weapon, but it was the opposite. It almost felt like white magic was just a basic skill that he had, based on his skill.
Honestly, his swordsmanship as a whole wasn't as up there as Hylli's, but his fighting senses were on another level. I had never seen such wit and adaptivity with a blade. He wasn't just using his sword when he fought–everything around him was a weapon. He was showing that the blade wasn't just for stabbing and striking. I wanted to ask Swan for a duel later. He was amazing.
It looked like they were going head to head, but Hylli's stamina was slowly waning.
Hylli's fearsome attacks didn't work on Swanhaden, who also had the ability to heal. Swanhaden, similarly to Hylli, didn't defend himself and just continued attacking. Moreover, Hylli's attacks didn't seem to work on Swan.
Hylli eventually ended up using all of his strength and fell to the floor.
Swan, who grabbed Hylli by his collar, slammed his fist in Hylli's face. Hylli still seemed dazed and out of it. He just stared to the side. When he didn't seem to react, Swanhaden stood up and began to kick him.
Swan, who looked annoyed as he looked down at Hylli, took out his water bottle. He took a swig of it before pouring the rest of the water on his face.
Hylli frowned at the water and tried to block it with his face.
"Wake up, you son of a bitch."
And just like that, Swan dropped his empty water bottle on his face. Hylli looked at the water bottle that had hit his face and held his nose.
"Stop acting so pathetic. It makes me pissed off."
Swan kicked Hylli once again, and threw every single cussword in the planet at him, saying, "If you pull this kind of shit and get into this kind of situation again, I'm going to beat your ass, royal prince or not. I'm gonna end this empire."
Hylli seemed to have returned to his senses after the beatdown that Swan provided. He touched the places that Swan had hit and frowned after a moment.
"....Shushu!"
Hylli sat up from his place on the floor and seemed to look for someone, then looked at my face before looking down in shame. Then, he buried his face in his hands as he moaned pitifully.
Swanhaden turned his head to look at me as he picked up his wooden sword. He stared at my eyes, then stood there like he forgot something. He quietly walked over to Hylli and, after healing him, pretended to wipe the water he had thrown on Hylli's face with his bandages.
"Got it? Don't do that again, friend! Even if you sell your brain to the nearest stall, violence is bad!"
Swan, who suddenly became kind, kicked Hylli one more time before coming to stand in front of me.
Swanhaden checked over my body to see if I had gotten hurt before healing me. My magic, which had hit rock bottom, came back and I felt healthier than before.
Swan made a face like he had a lot of things he wanted to tell me, then he held my left ring finger in his hand.
"Safety first."
And like that, Swanhaden looked down and made me a magic stone ring on the spot on my ring finger. Swan put some of his healing magic in it.
I was surprised at the sudden gift, but I thanked him first and shifted the ring from my left ring finger to my right thumb.
Swan stared at the switched position then clicked his tongue with a quiet, Che.
Swanhaden began making excuses in a whisper quiet voice, saying, "I poured water on Hylli because he said he was hot."
When class was over, most of the swordsmanship students headed to the cafeteria. I wanted to drag Hylli over to the cafeteria, but he refused to even look at me as he said no, so I went to eat alone.
I made two sandwiches in the cafeteria and headed back to the training hall.
All of the students were already back at their dorms or playing outside, but Hylli was still there in the training hall, still on the floor. I had a feeling that Hylli was still going to be there, so I went back.
When I arrived at the training hall, I could see Hylli, who covered his eyes with his hands as he was sobbing sorrowfully. He flinched when I went near him.
"I think I moved a bit too much earlier. I lost all of the weight I gained. I don't think I'll be rolling around anytime soon."
I quietly approached the crying Hylli and covered his face with the orange blanket that Cory gave me. Hylli was lying on the floor, so I laid down right next to him. He didn't say a word. He just stared at the setting sun above him.
I thought about what I could do for him, who was quietly suffering without saying a single word. I just breathed in, staring at the orange sky with my arms and legs stretched. I just continued to wait without a word.
When his crying began to slow, I warmed up the cool water next to him and handed it to him.
Hylli came over to me the next day to apologize. He apologized with such a guilty expression on his face as he sighed that I told him to just buy me some ice cream instead.
Hylli bought a mountain of ice cream and handed it to me. I was a bit overwhelmed at the sheer amount, but I accepted it because he gave it to me.
And like that, I held on to my mountain of ice cream as I put one in my mouth. Hylli walked next to me, frown still etched deep onto his face.
"I was out of my mind back then. Again, I just want to say I'm sorry. Your magic was running low, but because I was crazy I just..."
"I knew that I would lose against you if the matches got a bit longer. I made sure to use most of my magic to make that transportation spell that would send me to the nurse's office."
"...to have made you make that choice in the first place, I....mmph."
"Shut up. I told you that I'm okay with it."
I shoved one of the ice creams in my arms into Hylli's mouth.
Hylli and I continued to walk, both of us wordlessly eating our ice cream. It wasn't the flavor that I was used to from my past life, but it was still delicious. There wasn't much conversation flowing between us. We just patiently ate our ice cream.
When I glanced at Hylli from the side, he seemed to be doing better than yesterday.
I didn't try to rush in to help Hylli. But after seeing how miserable he looked yesterday, I couldn't help but want to just cause a scene right then and there. But I didn't have enough information to try anything for Hylli.
There weren't a lot of magical items used for security in the royal palace, so I didn't have a lot of information to gain in the first place. I had been surprised last time when I snuck into the palace with Cory to see how few magical items there were in the palace.
If I tried to act without information with the sole intent to help Hylli without forethought, I could end up hurting his feelings or making the situation worse.
But I didn't want to just ask him straight when he was so miserable about it. I could tell that Hylli's situation wasn't something light.
During my last life, when I had to deal with my parents' passing, I hated the "What's going on?" and "Tell me what's happening." questions the most. I was barely holding on and processing my emotions. I didn't want to respond to people who were just asking out of curiosity, and it was exhausting to try and reminisce on memories that traumatized me.
After much debate and prior planning, I thought of asking him to duel with me again. It seemed like Hylli was dealing with stress through his blade, but I was the only other person who dueled with him all the time and was used to it. If I had on a bunch of magical items that boosted my strength, I would probably be able to be a worthy opponent.
'But he would never try to duel with me. Damn it.'
I didn't really know what to do. If Hylli made some kind of mistake or something that I could dig into, it would be so much easier.
As I continued walking with Hylli, Swan suddenly decided to join us. When I handed Swanhaden one of my ice creams, he didn't eat it right away. Instead, he just held it with both hands as if it was a treasured item. Swan didn't walk right next to me, either. He put some distance between the two of us.
The three of us wordlessly walked and then headed to the training hall for our afternoon classes. There wasn't much talking amongst us, but it wasn't that awkward, either. Swanhaden stared at the ice cream he held with both hands with literal sparkles in his eyes, Hylli was slumped forward, and I watched Hylli. All three of us were silent for different reasons.
Swan ended up just holding onto the ice cream until it completely melted in his hands. With a miserable expression on his face, he stared at it, then grabbed the hem of my shirt.
"Gimme another one….."
After taking my introduction to magic class, I headed out to the hallway to walk around a bit. I walked without a destination for a while before I passed by the blue house, where Swanhaden was.
I walked around a bit more and found Hylli in the blue class. My feet were unconsciously walking towards them. I wondered why Hylli had gone there before walking to the front of the classroom.
"Swan! Swanhaden!"
Hylli was looking for Swanhaden. He soon discovered Swan sleeping on the desk in the corner of the classroom and cautiously woke him up. It looked like Swanhaden wasn't deep asleep–when Hylli shook him awake, he just woke up without a fuss. Swan pulled his sheep sleeping mask onto his forehead and stared at Hylli. Swanhaden's bangs were pointing upwards because of his sleeping mask.
"I have a request."
Swan looked at Hylli as he yawned widely. Swan rested his chin on his hand as he stared up at Hylli.
"I know that even the Blanche duke couldn't fix it, but…."
"….."
"Can't you just take a look at it?"