CW/TW: Brief blood, depictions of injuries (TL;DR below)
He ended up finding the black magic circle on the back of my hand and slammed his blade into my hand. I wanted to avoid it, but Swanhaden was faster. I was still on my stomach on the floor so I couldn't even see him–avoiding him was impossible. Blood spurted from my hand as the blade buried itself in my hand.
"Agh... Eugh….."
It hurt. It hurt so much. I couldn't think of this place as a dream any longer. This had to be some sort of alternate reality. Tears welled in my eyes from the pain.
Magic circles never received any damage from physical attacks. Even if this was another world, there was no way that Swanhaden, someone who used white magic, wouldn't know about this. He had to be doing this on purpose.
I tried my best to fight back, but Swanhaden held my hair in one hand and pressed my head down. Then, he added some kind of spell on the ring and slammed the blade down on my hand again.
When he slammed down the blade again, the black magic circle on my hand broke completely. The circle shone brightly one last time before disappearing.
"What are you?"
Swanhaden finally looked at me directly, as if he could finally see me. He rolled me away from him with his foot as he made me look forward. I could see Swanhaden looking like a devil with his narrowed eyes. His long, white hair hung around his face as he inched closer to me.
"From what I understand, black magicians don't exist. And the origin of black magic, the black dragon, has been dead for thousands of years."
His voice, which had been slightly muffled, grew clearer.
"…..eugh …..Let me go."
I barely got my voice to work. It was a stupid thing to say. There was no way that this kind of villainous Swanhaden would let me go when I asked him to, but I just wanted to say something, anything, at the moment. My head kept ringing.
Swanhaden yanked my hair and pulled my face near his own. I could see his face from nearby.
Swan peered at my face with an amused expression, as if I was nothing more than a toy.
"Maybe you are a black magician."
He tilted his head slightly and twisted my head sideways to get a closer look.
"And maybe you're not."
Swanhaden continued to stare interestedly at me before smiling.
"Do you know who I am? You don't even know me but you're scared stiff, huh?"
I resisted the urge to scoff at Swanhaden's words. Well, if someone just attacked you from behind from nowhere, stabbed your hand, then glared at you with eyes that were full of insanity, it wouldn't be weird for someone to pee in their pants where they stood, okay?
When I didn't react at all, he shrugged his shoulder. He wasn't truly interested if I knew who he was or not.
"If I twist around a black magician, they'd probably squeal in pain too, right?"
The only thing of interest to him was others' pain.
Swanhaden brought the blade that was wet with both his and my blood towards my neck. The blade pressed onto my neck as it created a scratch.
"I don't know what you were doing here but, you know. You should play with me."
Swanhaden raised the ring near my neck up, and my chin raised up with it. I had been avoiding his gaze full of insanity, but was forced to look him in the eyes again.
I didn't want to shake, but my entire body shook. My body was already weak, so my body shook harder.
"You poor thing. Don't worry, I won't kill you."
The corner of Swanhaden's lips turned downwards.
"You guys can kill yourselves to stop the pain whenever you want, right? How boring."
His quiet whispers made chills run down my spine.
"You're interesting, so I'll keep you alive a bit longer. You're a black magician, so you're probably going to last longer than the others, right? It looks like you won't be going mad anytime soon."
He smiled brightly.
"You're a magician, so should I make your magic flow backwards? There'd be blood pouring down from every hole in your face."
He muttered to himself. He seemed to enjoy that particular idea and looked like he chose that particular method.
He was still clutching the ring in his hand as the blade bit into his flesh, but his injuries kept healing themselves. I tried to avoid his gaze by looking somewhere else, and coincidentally saw his hands.
I found another strange fact about this world. Other than the fact that he didn't hide his scars.
Real Swanhaden, not the dream one, had callouses in his hands from holding the blade for a long time. But this world's Swanhaden had soft hands, as if he had never held a blade in his life.
Had this Swan ever held a blade in his hands before? In the novel, they only ever mentioned him being a white magician.
I was at awe at my own ability to find out things like this in such a harrowing situation.
I was thinking about something else when the pain in the back of my hand and my back disappeared. My neck, my cheeks, and all of the other places that had been injured by Swanhaden suddenly began to disappear. When I turned my head to look, the silvery white ring I was wearing on my thumb was glowing. It was a gift that real Swanhaden had given me after I had almost gotten hurt because of Hylli that one time.
My body suddenly healed itself almost to perfection. Wow, Swan. Seriously. It was a case of 'Give the disease and offer the medicine.'
"….you have my magic stone?"
Swanhaden looked surprised when he saw that all of my injuries had healed. His face soon contorted in murderous anger as he began questioning me.
As if he wanted to check something, he yanked my head with his hand and used a familiar feeling magic on me. I didn't know exactly what he was doing, but it felt like he was digging through my memories. White magic had the ability to do mind-related treatments, so I'd heard that they could also do things related to memories.
My magic hadn't completely recovered just yet, so I couldn't face Swanhaden yet. I tried to shove Swanhaden away as he dug through my head, but he wouldn't let go.
"I don't know you. But why do you know me."
A few moments later, Swanhaden stopped using white magic on me and held me by the collar of my shirt.
"And why am I such a dumbass in your memories."
Swanhaden glared at me as if he wanted to kill me.
As I expected, he had dug through my memories because he had been suspicious of who I was. Now I could definitively say that real Swan, unlike you, was kind. It felt weird for me to think of Swanhaden as 'kind', but he was leagues better than the Swan in front of me.
He looked moments away from twisting my neck and killing me. I stayed still, nervous.
"And why did I block parts of your memory?"
I frowned when Swanhaden suddenly said something strange.
Who blocked my memories? Swanhaden did? Real Swanhaden did?
My eyes grew wide when he said something that I didn't expect at all.
"I wasn't thinking of killing you, but I think it'd be better for you to disappear right now. I can't stand to look at you."
Swanhaden looked at me with murder in his eyes as he tried to slash my throat with the ring in his hand.
He was extremely shaken after reading my memories. I took that opportunity and ran with it.
First, I had to restore the black magic circle that he destroyed to its original state. I had begun feeling like this place was real immediately after it broke.
First, I used a strength buff spell to shove him away when he was still out of it. This Swan really looked like he had never used a sword before. Real Swanhaden wouldn't have flinched.
I decided to take a small gamble. I began drawing the black magic circle that I remembered in the air. Swanhaden cursed quietly as he glared at me.
"Please, please, please."
I wasn't a black magician but I was attempting to use black magic anyway. I drew out the circle without even knowing its function or what it actually was and poured my magic into it. My magic, which was already near empty, completely bottomed out.
Orange and black magic mixed together and was absorbed into the circle that I had just drawn. The circle shined with the color of my magic, and I hurriedly transferred the circle onto the back of my hand.
I disappeared moments before Swan tried to grab at me. I had added an extra option that made it impossible for others to touch me when I drew out the circle earlier, so Swanhaden couldn't touch me.
I had no time to celebrate that I had succeeded in using black magic. First, I rushed to where Cory was. Cory was the most familiar and most like the Cory I knew in real life, so I decided to head towards him.
I began to feel a bit desperate after seeing Swanhaden.
I didn't want to be here anymore. I wanted to wake up.
When I headed into Cory's room, I found him gone. I looked for him as hard as I could and soon found him.
He was with his younger sister, Viedielle. Viedielle was standing in front of Cory and telling him something.
"Cory oppa. You have time n-next Tuesday, right?"
Viedielle stumbled on her words, embarrassed. She was facing Cory but was looking away from him.
When Viedielle walked over to him and began speaking, Cory's eyes grew slightly wide.
"Huh, Um, yeah. I'm always free."
Cory smiled awkwardly and responded.
Viedielle looked relieved at Cory's words before shifting her expression to look as prim as ever.
Cory was lost in thought for a moment before speaking.
"But why? Is there something going on next Tuesday?"
Viedielle looked taken aback at his question. She hurriedly shook her hands as she furiously denied it.
"Uhhh, noooo? There isn't? We're not doing anything but I just decided to ask anyway! Is someone doing something? Who's doing what? Both mother and father are busy that day so we're not going to do anything!"
"Is that so?"
"That's what I'm saying!"
She yelled at Cory angrily for no particular reason. Her face was burning red. She looked like a tomato.
Viedielle bit her lips as she fiddled with her uniform skirt and tried to say something to Cory. But she clamped her mouth shut and immediately turned around as she ran away. As she grew further away from Cory, she yelled, "Anyway, if you have plans on that day then cancel them!"
Cory just stared at Viedielle as she suddenly began running away from him. He looked dazed before scratching the back of his head.
"…..what was that?"
Cory stood there for a while, dazed.
"There's no way."
He shook his head a few times before frowning and thinking to himself.
"That's my birthday. Are they really going to do something then?"
Cory's face soon bloomed into a smile as he quietly muttered to himself. The dim yet harsh air around him dissipated as he smiled.
I just stared at him and thought about real life Cory. It was just a moment, but I could feel Cory's gentle aura from this Cory as well.
I couldn't help but smile when I saw him smile too.
TL;DR: Swan notices the black magic and attacks Shushu and stabs her hand. He uses a spell to tamper with the circle, which removes the spell that makes her invisible.
He's a version of Swan that never learned swordsmanship so he's a lot easier to push away, which she does, but not before he looks through her memories and learns that she 1) knows him and 2) has had her memories tampered by himself.
He's disgusted by how stupid Swan is in her mind and tries to kill herself, but not before she shoves him away, redraws the magic circle, and becomes invisible again. She runs off to Cory who is outside and meeting with Viedielle, his younger sister. She tells him to not make plans for his birthday, and he's excited.