As the girl who kidnapped Irina was fighting with Astron and keeping her life on the line, naturally, she wasn’t able to keep the restrictions that sealed Irina’s mana.
And because of that, even while Irina was unconscious, her body gradually recovered the mana it lacked. After all, before everything, Irina was a member of the Emberheart Household, and she was a prominent mage.
Her body had the innate abilities that were related to mana. Starting from mana recovery to mana integration, everything was engraved in her genes to some point.
Therefore, she easily recovered from the state of mana exhaustion, and her body returned to its supernatural nature.
And because of her fast recovery speed, Irina was able to wake up from her unconscious state thanks to the loud voices of things exploding and clashing.
After all, even though she was yet to be completely aware, she was in the fighting stage.
“It is such a pity….But don’t worry, you will make a fine meal for dogs.”
Then she heard a chilly, cold voice entering her ears. The voice was familiar, a voice that she had heard a lot of times after entering the academy. The voice that she somehow grew fond of, even if she wanted to refuse.
–SPURT!
“AAAAAAARGHK!”
However, that same voice was accompanied by a voice of something exploding, seemingly a fleshy texture. Though Irina was not a close combatant and she rather burned things, she had witnessed different students fighting with monsters. Thus, her brain naturally registered the voice as flesh exploding.
However, she was still feeling a little stiff. It was like her brain wasn’t completely awake, which was to be expected from her previous state since her body was deprived of mana for a while, and she was about to be subjected to a ritual.
“Hmm….Astron?”
Thus, with effort, Irina tried to rise from her prone position, but her muscles felt heavy and unresponsive. But as she struggled to push herself up, her body betrayed her, and she staggered, her limbs trembling with exhaustion.
THUD!
“Ouch!”
The room spun around her, and she felt herself losing her balance. With a cry of frustration, Irina collapsed back onto the ground, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she fought to overcome the weakness that threatened to consume her.
At that moment, a slightly metallic smell entered her nose. A metallic smell that she had already accustomed to. She had been forced to become accustomed to what would be a correct evaluation.
“Blood?”
Then, her eyes were opened wide from the instant stimuli. Her body and mind, as she had been trained in the Hunter Academy, instantly responded to the situation. The smell of blood, as well as the previous situation she was in, made her alert.
Though it was a bit late for a possibly fatal situation, she couldn’t help it since her mind was still disoriented.
With a surge of adrenaline, Irina forced herself to stand despite the weakness coursing through her body. The metallic scent of blood lingered in the air, heightening her senses and sharpening her focus.
Panic gnawed at her insides as she frantically searched for any sign of Astron.
“Astron!” she called out, her voice trembling with urgency. But to her dismay, there was no response. Dread crept into her heart as she considered the possibility that something had happened to him in the midst of the chaos.
Before she could dwell on her fears, a voice suddenly spoke from the shadows, cutting through the tension like a knife.
“Why are you shouting out of nowhere?” the same familiar voice said, its tone flat but somehow sounding warm now.
Irina’s head snapped in the direction of the voice, her eyes widening in surprise and then returning to their normal state.
As Irina’s gaze darted toward the source of the voice, her eyes caught sight of Astron standing in the shadows; his figure illuminated faintly by the dim light filtering into the room. He leaned casually against the wall, his posture relaxed but his eyes sharp and alert, fixed on her with his characteristic gaze.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still as Irina took in the sight of Astron, his presence both reassuring and disconcerting at the same time. Despite the chaos and danger that had just been surrounding them, he remained calm and composed, exuding an air of quiet confidence that Irina found oddly comforting.
‘So, he finished her already.’
It was evident that, with how leisurely he was acting, the blood didn’t belong to him, and that meant the fight was over.
‘That was expected from him, I guess? But, still this bastard…..He is getting on my nerves with this look.’
Yet she was annoyed. Even if he came to her when she needed him or even if she dealt with whoever this demon contractor was, she was annoyed with him.
The things he said were still lingering in her head after all, and she had no intention of forgetting them.
“It seems thinking about your safety was wrong, my bad,” Irina retorted, her voice tinged with bitterness. “Next time, I won’t care about you.”
After all, Astron’s cavalier attitude and dismissive remarks had left a bitter taste in her mouth, and she was not about to let him off the hook so easily.
Astron’s gaze remained steady as he met Irina’s defiant stare, his expression unreadable as he listened to her biting retort. Despite her attempt to mask her frustration, Astron could sense the underlying tension in her words, the bitterness that lingered beneath the surface.
“Perhaps you should worry less about me and focus on your own safety,” Astron countered, his voice calm but tinged with a hint of mockery. “After all, it was you who got captured by a demon follower and sent a rescue signal, not me.”
His words hung in the air, carrying a weight of truth that Irina couldn’t deny. Astron’s pointed reminder served as a stark reminder of her own vulnerability, a fact that she was reluctant to acknowledge.
Irina fell silent at Astron’s words, her retort dying on her lips as she grappled with the uncomfortable truth they contained.
‘He….He is right…’ Despite her pride and stubbornness, she couldn’t deny the validity of Astron’s words. He was right—she had been reckless, and it had nearly cost her dearly.
‘I shouldn’t have been careless.’ For a moment, Irina wrestled with her pride and her desire to save face, but ultimately, she knew that Astron’s words held merit.
She really knew that she needed to concede defeat, yet she didn’t want to.
‘Even if that is the case, it was because I was angry at this bastard. If not for him, I wouldn’t do such a thing.’
Even though she knew she was being unreasonable, so what? Who was he to tell her that she was in the wrong? After all, wasn’t she, in his eyes, someone who acted rashly without any thought? Why would he care?
“Whose fault do you think that is?” she shot back, her tone laced with a mixture of frustration and resignation.
Without missing a beat, Astron replied, his tone matter-of-fact. “Of course, it’s your own fault,” he stated bluntly, his words carrying a hint of reproach. “You got beaten by a rat demon contractor, and then you were captured.”
“Ha? If not for the fact that I had exhausted my mana to the maximum, that bitch wouldn’t even be able to raise her hand before me. There is no way I would lose.”
“See, you are proving exactly my point. You were careless and got yourself captured by a rat demon contractor. There’s no one else to blame but yourself.”
“Grr…”
In the face of absolute logic, Irina couldn’t help but shrink back. She felt like she had been played by him once again. But this time, there was something different. She would normally swayed by this conversation, and then she would lose herself in it, constantly talking.
Even now, she was just about to do that. Considering that she was ready to retort. But, this time, she didn’t want to be swayed by him.
Since the knot in her heart grew more and more in his presence. Another thought wormed its way into her mind—a memory she had tried to push aside, but one that now resurfaced with startling clarity.
It was the conversation she had overheard between Astron and Seraphine, the words they had exchanged ringing in her ears like an unwelcome echo.
‘He just approached me because I’m the heir of the Emberheart Family, and he is no different than others. It was the stupid me who thought otherwise.’ She thought inwardly, and she couldn’t help but feel resentful. This guy, whom she thought knew about her well, was the same as others.
“Why do you care?” So she couldn’t contain the anger inside her heart.
“What?”
“I said, why do you care?” Irina repeated the question, her voice slightly shaky. “I am reckless, impulsive, and often act without considering the consequences. My arrogance knows no bounds, and I am quick to dismiss others’ opinions if they don’t align with my own. Wasn’t that true?”
She repeated the same things that he had said to Seraphina about her. At this point, she didn’t even want to hide the fact that she was listening to a conversation between him and Seraphina at all.
“Aren’t you just looking after me so that you can just keep an eye on me? Wasn’t that the reason you approached me?”
At this point, her mana was twirling around her, thanks to her emotions. The penthouse that had just witnessed an intense fight between an academy student and a demon follower was now witnessing the emotional turmoil of one of the strongest freshmen.
With her fists clenched at her sides, Irina approached Astron, her gaze fixed on him with a mixture of defiance and vulnerability. She felt exposed and laid bare before him as she confronted him with her deepest fears and insecurities.
“For you, wasn’t I just the heir of Emberhearts, just like for everybody else?” she demanded, her voice trembling with suppressed emotion. “Someone you can use?”
As she appeared right before his face, she looked into his eyes. The same purple eyes that always felt like they contained the skies.
The tranquility of the morning sky, sometimes the fieriness of the dawn, and most of the time, the emptiness of the night sky.
She always thought those eyes resembled the cosmos, yet now, as she looked into those eyes, she was unable to get the reaction she had wanted.
“Isn’t t-that….true?”Her voice shook in his presence, with her fists slightly reaching down to his chest, pounding it lightly. She didn’t know why, yet she couldn’t muster any strength at all.
“So what?”