"Akina, get up, you're so tired, you should lie down to rest a bit." Kotaro came forward and grabbed Akina's hand as he pointed to his bed for her to lie on.
"No, after I have regained my energy, I must continue your treatment." Akina wiped her tears and said. Kotaro couldn't help but urge her again: "Don't worry about me, I'm getting better, and you don't need to keep using your magic and exhausting yourself for me, you lay on the bed and sleep for a while."
"Hmm…are you sure?" Akina still insisted on treating Kotaro but the latter smiled: "Yeah, if I haven't gotten better after all these days under your care, then I'm no more than a big idiot."
Akina didn't reply, she did as Kotaro said, and fell asleep for a long time, it was obvious that she was really tired, and probably she had never slept for two days.
Kotaro let her continue to sleep, but he sat on the chair and quietly watched the village from the window.
Half an hour later, Ryota came and was greeted by Kotaro, who was glad to see him awake and in good shape.
Ryota glimpsed Akina while she was sleeping and was slightly moved: "Akina has come to her limit, then."
"Yes, sleep will help her calm her mind and body." Kotaro shook his head, turning to another topic: "So what happened?"
The two sat across from each other and Ryota started telling the story: "After you passed out, we surrounded the rest of the knights, fortunately no one rebelled or tried to escape, and then we brought Selania with them too. She's in bad shape and I guess she won't be able to use magic again, she'll be paralyzed for the rest of her life, but she deserved that" Ryota spoke coldly and felt no sympathy for Selania. Kotaro said: "I know that, when I directed my last attack at her I was aiming to destroy her mana seed as well."
On the mage's body the heart was responsible for blood, the lungs for air, and for mana, it was the mana seed. The mana seed is located in the area between the abdomen and chest, and its role was to store magical energy, and maintain mana stablity inside the body, so by destroying the mana seed, the mage will not become a mage again and will become even weaker than an ordinary person.
Ryota continued speaking: "then we told the people of the village everything that was happening, about the blood that had been stolen from them all these years, about the old people who were mercilessly killed, and how they were drugged all this time and being deceived without knowing anything".
"They were in disbelief at first but after we showed the dead old man's body, and showed everyone the pools of blood that had been extracted from them, they didn't dare not believe."
"As for Selania and the Knights, we bound them with the anti-magic chains of Sogikawa that Uncle Cesar gave us an then left them to the villagers to decide their fate for themselves".
"this is better, we have nothing to do with this anymore, if they want to take revenge on them, let them take revenge, and if they want to forgive them, they have the choice as well, their lady got what she deserves and the matter is over." Kotaro nodded, not seeming to harbor any feelings of anger or hatred against Selania and her followers.
"Yeah, then there's one more thing" Ryota was taking something from his bag and offering it to Kotaro: "Take." Ryota opened his fist and revealed a crimson red jade stone the size of a hen's egg.
"what is this" Kotaro's eyebrows furrowed in surprise. He touched and felt the stone, it was smooth as glass and ice-cold shimmering with sunlight that reflected on its surface, and from time to time a bloody light emitted a tyrannical aura that could make a person retreat in fear.
"This is the blood stone that Selania has been making all these years, and there is also another stone but it is smaller in size, it is with Akina." Ryota glanced at Akina's bag that was next to the bed and took out her stone as well and gave it to Kotaro: "We found both of them in a secret room next to the great hall, after questioning one of the knights he told us about the location, but when we asked him about the job of the stone, he told us that neither he nor his mistress knew, and he did not appear to be lying either.
"And I think the smaller stone is still not complete."
Kotaro showed no expression and kept sensing and touching the two stones, after a long thought Kotaro decided, pressing the two stones and "tlakh", both stones were broken and reduced to ashes.
"What did you do? We haven't investigated the nature of this stone yet, it would have benefited us to take action against the Yamikara in the future, why did you destroy it?" Ryota rushed bewildered, and Kotaro's behavior was unexpected for him.
Kotaro's gaze was calm and he said with sad and poignant feelings: "Sorry, Ryota, but I can't let something like this continue to exist. I know you don't want to use it and just want it to stay with us in precaution for something unexpected, but I can't help not destroying this tool, which resulted from the suffering and death of countless innocents. for me, even if I knew that this tool could eliminate the Yamikara, I wouldn't use it."
Kotaro continued: "I didn't tell you this, but before, when I was about to kill that knight, my mother's voice came to me, I don't know yet if it was real or not, but hearing my mother's voice again and after all this time and her words that I used to sleep through it, and at that moment it lighted my way again and allowed me to come to my senses, to myself, and without it I would have been lost in the dark."
"I'm not saying that I will back down from revenge because of this and never will, but now I can see my goal more clearly, I can know my future path and when I will advance and retreat, so I do not want to limit myself with feelings of regret now so as not to be distracted later."
Ryota nodded and was able to understand his friend's feeling, and agreed with everything, he said: "You're right Kotaro, I understand."
He also had a sad expression when he remembered Kotaro's mother. In the past, Mrs. Christina would always invite him home and console him and defend him when his mother beat him. She treated him an Akina as her own children, and her death made them feel sad too.
"Anyway, we should leave soon."
"We'll stay another day, and then we go tomorrow," Kotaro said. After adjusting his condition, he and Ryota started to close their eyes and train within the room, and this meditation was part of the training that mages should do to stabilize their energy and try to make a breakthrough in their level.