"What exactly was the principal planning again...….."
Cory asked Yves, still holding Viedielle tightly. His eyes were hazy, just like the eyes on a porcelain doll.
When Cory asked, Yves murmured the plan quietly so that Cory could hear.
Because of that, I couldn't hear the contents of the plan.
"Isn't that pretty good?"
When Yves asked, smiling, Cory nodded as well.
"Mm. It's grand. It's good."
If I can't atone for my mistakes, then I'm going to ruin it all. Cory quietly muttered to himself as tears still ran down his cheeks. He even had on a small smile. Cory carefully hugged Viedielle as he stood up.
I couldn't help but bite my lips slightly as I watched Cory's back as he trudged back.
I stood there, silent, as I watched Cory's retreating form. The inside of my eye and my chest seemed to twist painfully.
I naturally couldn't help but remember about what I had to do. I had to return back to the present. I just had to. I completely understood what they meant by save [him].
The job I had to do didn't exist in this place. But I'd spent a considerable amount of time in this dream. I wondered how long I had been in here in real life. Had Cory's birthday already passed? I became slightly uneasy.
I stood there, anxiously thinking to myself, when a voice called for me from behind.
It was a familiar voice.
Chapter 15. Cory's Birthday
I was extremely familiar with the voice that was calling my name.
My heart felt like it was seconds away from dropping onto the floor. I wanted to pretend it wasn't happening so I didn't turn around. I knew that it was impossible for me to run away right now but started to walk quickly anyway. I walked, but soon began to run.
My intuitions had been right. I was immediately caught.
"You thought that you would never see me again. You must be so disappointed."
Swanhaden grabbed at the back of my shirt and dragged me roughly.
The person who had called me had been Swanhaden. When I turned around to face him, his jewel-colored eyes were focused on me, looking like he was moments away from eating me whole.
"I researched the magic circle that you'd drawn that time."
And with that, Swanhaden showed me the magic circle on the back of his hand. It was a white magic circle that was drawn in the exact opposite way that mine was. That white magic circle allowed himself to be exempted from the rules of my circle.
"You can't go back anyway, right?"
Swanhaden said, voice devoid of emotion.
He was absolutely correct, so I couldn't say anything in return. I frowned as I bit my lip. Swanhaden glanced down at me before dragging me somewhere by the back of my shrit.
"Let go. I'll walk with my own feet."
I spoke up, not wanting to be dragged all the way. My heart was thumping and my body was shaking in fear, but I said it anyway. I regretted it immediately after I spoke. I was nervous about what would happen to my limbs if I made him angry, but Swanhaden let me go.
He let me go so easily that I was shocked.
"Follow me."
Swanhaden said curtly. He turned around and led the way.
The white magic circle on his hand glowed a soft white. The exposed scars all over his body slowly opened and bled. Swanhaden skimmed his injuries as he walked in front of me before moving faster, uninterested. It looked like he was in some pain–he frowned lightly to himself.
I debated whether or not I should follow Swanhaden's demands for me to follow him. If I ran away right now, it would be moments before I was caught again. If I didn't do what he wanted and went against his will, I didn't know what that psychopath would do. To play devil's advocate though, if I followed him, I didn't know what would happen either.
But Swan's injuries were opening up. They looked like they had healed, but they were suddenly becoming new injuries again. It looked like a familiar sight, but I couldn't remember it. It was just a strange sight to behold.
For now, I put a lot of distance between us as I followed Swanhaden.
He didn't even check to see if I was still following him as he walked. He seemed assured that I was following him.
The location that Swanhaden had led me to was none other than the academy's sick bay.
Swanhaden left the door open as he entered the sick bay and I slowly followed him before hesitating in front of the door.
Maybe it was because of Swanhaden, but the sick bay and the whole area near the nurse's office was silent. The teacher who was always present in the office was gone, and none of the students were using the places near it. All of the dormitory doors were closed near the nurse's office.
It was so empty that it was eerie.
Swanhaden immediately sat on the nearest bed in the sick bay and glared at me as I was still hesitating near the entrance. He nodded his head towards me, telling me to come in.
Swanhaden walked into the nurse's office that was connected to the sick bay and dug out some gauze from the drawers.
Once he returned to the sick bay with the gauze, he wordlessly began to wipe off the blood from his scars.
I was still hesitating and wasn't sure if I should go in or not into the sick bay. I didn't know what he was planning just yet. He didn't look like he had the murderous intent to rip me apart or hack me into pieces, but he still had a bit of madness behind his eyes as he looked at me.
After hesitating and looking around the sick bay, I found myself shocked after discovering something.
Not too far left from Swanhaden was a familiar magic circle floating in the air. A gold circle and a white circle was intertwined as it glowed and went dim, over and over again. I could immediately tell that this circle was the real, uh, the original world's Cory and Swanhaden's magic.
Now that I knew that a clue for me to return to my original world existed in the sick bay, I couldn't help but take a step inside.
I passed by Swanhaden as he wiped his blood and went straight to the magic circle that grew stronger and weaker, intertwined and complicated.
Swanhaden continued to wipe at his blood even as I walked towards the magic circle within the room. I wasn't sure if he was doing this to make me lower my guard or because he wasn't interested, but I was nervous as I observed the circle.
It was a circle that was supposed to return the person to where they belonged, but there was just something missing that didn't allow it to fully activate. It looked like I needed to take some time to figure out what it was missing, but I doubted that it would be easy to do that with Swanhaden quietly observing me from my side.
I checked how he was before rushing to revise the magic circle. It looked like the circle needed a bit of black magic to be complete, and I had a little bit left. My magic was a weird, convoluted mix of normal magic and black magic, but that meant that I still had black magic. Thank goodness.
I immediately tried to return as soon as I finished the circle, but I couldn't help but look back at Swanhaden.
It was the first time I had seen this sight, but it felt incredibly familiar. I had some memories of when I treated him. It felt familiar, almost like a habit. I felt like I was obligated to help with his bandages for some reason.
Of course, his scars weren't even covered by bandages so there weren't any to do that.
For some reason, I could see a small child riddled with scars. His body was covered in bandages, but blood was always seeping through them and I needed to help change them daily. I couldn't remember who it was. Who was it again….. I just remembered that they were incredibly pretty.
"….It's making me worry. Damn."
Before I left, I looked through the drawers in the nurse's office and, like habit, wrapped bandages around Swanhaden's scars. I didn't even realize I was doing this.
Swanhaden just watched what I did before taking the ring from his waist and stabbing my arm with it.
It was so sudden that I found myself taken aback.
But before I even felt the pain of it, my injury was already healed.
"He's so pathetic that it gives me chills, that dumbass."
Swanhaden muttered to himself as he watched my injury heal itself.
"I thought about it long and hard after I failed to catch you."
I came back to my senses and immediately took a step back at his attack. What kind of bold move was that towards that Swanhaden? I just acted out of familiarity with something I had done for some child.
When I walked back, this time Swanhaden came closer.
I could see his jewel-colored eyes that looked as empty as usual, tinged with a bit of madness.
He tilted his head as he opened his mouth.
"Are you my lover?"
His words were so out of left field that I couldn't help but relax. I barely held in my shocked laughter as I looked at Swanhaden.
"Before I discovered that, I wanted to erase you along with those shocking memories of yours."
Swanhaden nodded towards the magic circle as he spoke.
He spoke like he was seconds away from killing me. It didn't seem like he wanted to, though.
Whenever I took a step back, he took a step forward. I didn't know if he had calculated this or if had been a coincidence, but he was slowly herding me towards the circle.
"I'm letting you go because I don't want you to mess up the very interesting show that's coming up soon. I'm only at the academy to watch the climax of that show, you know."
Swanhaden's smile was evil yet completely enchanted. Then he soon looked down at me with a smile full of madness.
My back was right in front of the circle, so I could get away from this place if I took a single step backwards.
Right before I took that final step, Swanhaden grabbed me by my collar and pulled me towards him.
His face grew closer until his lips met mine.
He opened his mouth to bite down at my lips, leaving it bleeding and hurt. Unlike the injury from moments before, this one didn't heal right away.
After his sudden kiss that wasn't really a kiss, he rested his lips on mine and stared at me challengingly. A metallic-smelling fluid dripped down to my chin. The taste of blood dominated my senses.
What he had just done was more biting my lips painfully than a kiss. When I frowned from the pain, he rested his lips on mine once again before pulling apart.
His lips were also stained with my blood. The dark, bold color of blood made his lips even redder. He licked away my blood around his mouth with his tongue.
He smiled cruelly and wiped my mouth with his thumb as he spoke.
"Don't interrupt it, okay, sweetheart?"
And with that, he shoved me towards the magic circle. Before I could even fully begin to feel shocked at him biting my lips, everything around me went dark.
The last thing I could see as my eyes grew dim was Swanhaden. He watched me as he drew a magic circle to make sure I wouldn't be able to come back.
Swanhaden, who was using his almost uncontrollably powerful magic, forced his magic to go through with his will. He ignored the blood flowing from his injuries as he worked. The bandages around him were growing red with blood again, and soon there was so much blood that it was seeping out of the bandages.
And with that, I was able to wake up from the awful, terrible dream.
T/N: SHE'S OUT! also swan, take iron deficiency pills or something instead of literally licking blood….