"Time!?" Neraxis asked in a hurry as he jumped over the fence of an alleyway, the academy right in front of him.
[9:59 You have around 30 seconds left.]
He let out an exasperated breath. The fatigue from earlier had accumulated quite a lot, and the academy was a tad bit farther than he had initially thought.
But finally, he was here. All he had to do was go to the auditorium.
However, he noticed the gates were closed, and unlike last time, there was no guard present.
Neraxis had no time to worry about that as he ran up to the gate and summoned his sword, slashing the metal clean through to open a path.
He was a bit too exhausted to jump over; in the end, it was the same result anyway.
[Won't you have to pay for that?]
Probably not? He snickered to himself and arrived in front of the entrance before quickly heading in.
Navigating the halls, he finally made it to the auditorium. All he had to do was go inside.
Taking a deep breath, he reached for the door, but suddenly, he felt someone touch his shoulder, and upon turning around, his eyes widened.
"Celina? What are you doing here?" he asked, stupefied.
She looked him up and down before a small frown formed on her face as she spoke, "...Are you planning to go in there like that?"
As he was about to reply, Evangeline's voice suddenly rang out, [10:00 AM, it started.]
Shit... He gulped while glancing back at Celina, who was standing across from him, dressed in the neat, pure black academy uniform.
She noticed his stare, and with a sigh, said, "Instead of ogling me, why don't you answer my question?" Before he could answer, she added, "I dislike people who ignore me. Are you ignoring me?"
Her tone was growing more and more suffocating. It felt as though he was right in front of the Scrapfang Mini-Boss again.
"No, sorry... I was in a bit of a situation a moment ago. Didn't really have much time to change," Neraxis replied as kindly as he could. She seemed like a nice girl—aside from the time she stabbed him in the back.
"Gosh, you really are careless. Uncle told me you'd be late, so come with me for now," Celina said as she turned around, walking away from the noisy auditorium.
Neraxis followed suit, taking another good look at himself. He really looked terrible.
The two of them headed toward a flight of stairs and went up to the topmost floor—the 5th.
From what he could recall, that was where the headmaster's office was, and since she was his granddaughter, that was most likely where they were heading.
However, as the two walked and passed the headmaster's office, he grew a bit concerned and couldn't help but voice out, "Celina... Where exactly are we going?"
She turned back around and glanced at him before pointing at his left arm, which had a shattered bone sticking out of it.
"We need to fix that arm of yours, so we are going toward the healer," she answered and continued walking forward.
[She's a nice girl.] Evangeline remarked with a soft laugh.
Apparently. Neraxis shrugged, but a small smile couldn't help but form on his face as he once again followed after her.
There were a couple of infirmaries in the academy; the one on the topmost floor was made for immediate emergencies.
That meant if he wasn't with Celina, he would have had to bear through the pain of the mediocre healers on the lower floors.
They quickly arrived in front of the infirmary, and Celina stepped forward, opening the door without even knocking and walking inside.
Neraxis peeked through the open door and saw a man wearing a white lab coat, seemingly sleeping in the chair.
All of a sudden, Celina arrived before him and pulled out a pair of daggers before slashing them at the legs of the chair.
The man fell down with a groan but immediately shot up with an annoyed expression. However, upon seeing who was standing in front of him, he calmed down and flashed a warm smile.
"Young miss, to what do I owe this visit?" he asked, to which Celina pointed behind her, straight at Neraxis, who was covered from head to toe in red.
"Sal, fix him," she ordered and walked out of the room, flashing a small, unreadable glance at Neraxis before going down to the other end of the hallway.
The healer, Sal, stared straight at him, his eyes widening more and more by the moment as he spoke, "Student, don't move."
As his words fell, he began walking over to him before stretching out his palm and lightly touching Neraxis's forehead.
Caluses? he wondered with an amused look. All of a sudden, he began levitating off the ground, feeling completely weightless.
All of a sudden, Sal carefully grabbed him and brought him over to a nearby infirmary bed, placing him down gently.
However, as he did so, Neraxis slightly flinched; he was placed on his back, after all.
Sal immediately noticed the change and, with a sour expression, lifted him up again, but this time, suspending him in midair.
"I'm honestly quite surprised. How are you still awake after acquiring such injuries? Most would either be passed out, or even dead already," Sal remarked, spinning him in a way so his back was visible.
"Scrapfang?" he asked, to which Neraxis merely nodded.
What a blabbermouth. Just heal me already... he sighed inwardly and waited for him to finish inspecting his body.
After a few minutes of being rotated around constantly, Sal finally spoke up, "Unless Willi—the headmaster—comes here personally, healing you would take quite some time. However, I still have to perform treatment on you."
"All the bones in your left arm are fractured. Your back isn't looking any better either. Some nerve endings are severed, some of which would make any normal awakened paralyzed... You really are made of something else, aren't you?" he said in an amused tone, rotating Neraxis in a way where he would be sitting.
Neraxis shrugged before trying to move. However, he found it difficult to do so, as if his body was not listening to him anymore.
"And there goes all the adrenaline. Relax, I will get started on your treatment in a moment." Sal whistled and walked to a corner of the room, seeming a little bit out of place.
However, in just a few moments, he came back with a towel, one that could absorb any and all liquids up to a certain point, one of the many innovations the world had gone through.
"What's that for? I'm pretty sure I bled enough already," Neraxis sarcastically remarked. However, Sal's response made a frown appear on his face.
"So you speak," he chuckled before explaining, "Your wounds are infected. Once I start healing you, all those impurities will head right out of the wounds, which in turn might hurt... a lot."
"And how long is this so-called treatment going to take?" Neraxis questioned.
"Around 10 minutes. I would put you on an anesthetic drug, but that would not really lessen your pain. Sorry."
This is not going to be fun... he thought and took one more glance around the room.
As he did so, he spotted a familiar face in the doorframe. It was Celina. She was peeking out with only a single eye visible.
However, upon realizing that he noticed her, she quickly hid.
A smile appeared on his face as he returned his gaze toward Sal, who finally began preparing everything. A row of towels was right below Neraxis.
"Kid... if you endure without screaming, I'll buy you a drink once you graduate," Sal said out of nowhere with a chuckle before adding, his tone serious, "I will start in 10 seconds, and trust me, I am not exaggerating about the pain."
Neraxis nodded and began counting down inwardly. However, as the count reached 6 seconds, a searing pain shot through his body, growing more intense by the moment.
"I lied."