'He seems to be in pain.'
Carefully, Aria put him down, putting a hand on Lapsa's forehead and gently tilting his head back to free his airway.
She supported his body with the other hand, as she tried to force mana through his body to look for any injuries or curses.
"Huh?"
However, immediately, her mana was rejected, as if mana was some kind of harmful substance that must be disposed of.
"That's weird..did he get cursed..?"
Even though she didn't know if a curse for mana incompatibility existed, that was the only thing that came into her mind as she watched the unconscious Lapsa twitching.
As she had already healed the wound of the arrows, there should've been no reason for him to be in pain.
Unless...
While she realized that she couldn't use mana when treating him, that didn't mean, that she couldn't try to at least find the source of his pain.
'His heart is beating rapidly.' she put her ear on his chest, trying to see if anything was wrong with the way his heartbeat.
In fact, she was right.
His heart beat at a speed, far faster than a normal heart should beat.
Judging by that, she guessed that he was severely under stress.
As he had no external injuries, the only thing he could've had was an internal injury.
'Probably a curse or poison, then.'
Usually, poison or curses were removed by injecting mana into one's body and thus searching for the source, but-
"Hmph!"
Aria tried it once again, but his body seemed to deny any sort of mana.
- It didn't work again.
"What's wrong with him?"
She muttered as she tried to search his body for any signs of anomalies.
However, she couldn't find anything.
Lapsa seemed to be perfectly fine.
Furrowing her eyebrows, Aria crossed her arms thoughtfully as her eyes trailed around Lapsa's body.
'Assuming that it is poison, the poison would've started at the point where the arrow had hit him..however.."
Gently stroking her lips, she tilted her head in thoughtfulness.
'If that was the case, then the poison should actually be removed with the healing of the wound. Is it a curse then? But I already searched all over his body..there wasn't any trace of a curse — wait.'
Aria's eyes widened in disbelief, gaining an insight into where the curse could be located.
Her blue eyes moved from his thigh, where the wound was previously located, to his face.
Lapsa wore a mask, so Aria didn't want to invade his privacy, thus not taking it off.
However, if it was for his health, she thought that invading his privacy was worth it,
Raising an arm, she slowly leaned over to his face, grabbing the mask.
"Alright, I got it," she whispered to no one but herself when she grabbed the mask.
"..It's okay.."
Aria froze up, as she suddenly heard Lapsa muttering something. The timing was so convenient that for a split second; she thought he was directly talking to her, getting mad over her taking off his mask.
Fortunately, he didn't, and thus Aria dwelled in that position for a while, watching him to see if he would react in any other way.
Even though he made some sounds, he didn't react. The only thing he did was grunt and groan in pain, not giving any attention to what was happening to his body.
"I'll help you."
While Aria knew that he couldn't hear her, she still tried to reassure him, cracking a weak smile toward him.
Since Aria was a kid, she always had the desire to help everyone she could. It was something that materialized out of her own experience.
As she was saved by the church of lux, she also wanted to fulfill that role and reach her hand out to help others in need.
That was the reason why she hated seeing people in pain.
"Don't mind me.." Aria muttered, removing the mask from Lapsa's face.
With a heavy heart, she put the mask to the side, feeling guilty for her actions.
She then turned around to look for any signs of a curse on Lapsa's face, but froze up, as she got a clear view of his face.
"...are you a deity?"
A beauty that couldn't be described in mere words hid behind the fox mask, now shining brightly in the room.
For a split second, Aria didn't trust her eyes, rubbing them to see if she wasn't hallucinating.
And really.
She wasn't.
If it wasn't for her already meeting him in the mercenary guild, she would've thought that he was a deity in disguise, testing her as the saint.
Aria shook her head, focusing again.
'Now wasn't the time for this.'
Aria scanned over Lapsa's face, quickly finding the source of his problem.
It was something located in his brain.
Quickly, she prepared some holy magic to specifically target his brain, erasing the curse.
"Haah..."
In a matter of seconds, his expression changed a magnitude of times, almost like she only accelerated the effects of the curse instead of erasing it.
As it seemed to be a curse that affected his mental state, she feared that it didn't do anything else, but accelerate the process of him waking up.
In his mind, he probably experienced the same thing he would've experienced, regardless.
She watched helplessly as Lapsa began to grimace, twitching around in progress, as he kept groaning in pain.
"...I'm sorry.." He muttered, gritting his teeth.
Not being able to help in any way, Aria just watched, as he still kept getting affected by the curse, even though she had already eased the curse.
Her heart grew heavier with every second, unable to continue watching helplessly, as a person in front of her suffered in pain.
Gritting her teeth, she picked up his body, embracing him in a tight hug in a futile attempt at easing his pain.
"I'm sorry that I can't be of any use," Aria whispered, her voice trembling in an apologetic tone. "I will at least try to be here for you."
For a while, they both sat in silence, just feeling the warmth of each other's bodies.
Aria tightened the hug, as she felt that Lapsa started trembling, even more, trying to calm him down.
Suddenly Lapsa stopped trembling, his breath calming down as if that all never happened in the first place.
"..Thauma?" Lapsa tore his eyes open, hectically looking around to make sure of his location.
He released a heavy sigh when he realized that he was back in reality again.
Without giving it any further thought, he started to feel a comforting warmth embracing his body.
While it wasn't familiar, it was calming.
Feeling the warmth around his body, he subconsciously closed his eyes, resting his head on Aria's shoulder as he responded with a tight hug of his own.
However, he suddenly froze up, realizing that something was wrong.
Slowly, he turned his head to Aria, who buried her own face into his shoulder, only revealing her red ears through her hair.
"...Why are you hugging me, Aria?"