By Zephyria 
Actually, my memories after that were fragmented. Aska laid me on the bed as I staggered around, spitting blood and cursing a few more times, and he nursed me all night.
Whenever I woke up in pain and groaned, Aska would grab my cheeks and force me to make eye contact. When our eyes met, my mind would become strangely hazy.
It was painful and I coughed up blood, but it wasn’t unbearable compared to before. Thanks to Aska’s efforts all night, I was completely fine by morning, blinking my clear eyes and asking,
“Last time, you made such a fuss about me not dying.”
As I muttered to myself, a tired-looking Aska collapsed onto the pillow and said,
“Because I thought you were really going to die then.”
Of course, this time it wasn’t as serious, but his reaction was completely different. If he had cried and carried on like before, I might have recovered even faster.
Feeling strangely disappointed, I sighed weakly, and Aska asked in a sleepy voice,
“If you don’t listen to me again next time, I won’t heal you.”
“Then I might die from the pain.”
“If you had listened to me in the first place, you wouldn’t have been in pain.”
“……”
Why does this sound so familiar? Feeling a sense of unease, I frowned and turned my head, and saw Aska turning towards me, closing his eyes.
“You did it yesterday too, why do you keep repeating what I said?”
“Anyway, if you don’t listen to me again, from now on I’ll only heal you little by little, slowly, just enough so you don’t die, so keep that in mind.”
“How absurd.”
It was an excessively arrogant thing to say, but I had nothing more to say, so I just closed my eyes. After a while of silence, I began to hear Aska’s breathing, which I hadn’t been aware of.
The steady sound made me sleepy too. Come to think of it, it’s my birthday today and we were supposed to go out and have fun, but is that even possible…? I have to show him the Greenhouse too.
“Should I just say my birthday is tomorrow?”
Since it’s not a fixed date anyway, I muttered, and Aska said firmly,
“No.”
“Why?”
“Today is exactly one month.”
“Of what?”
“Anyway, let’s go in an hour. We’ll eat breakfast out.”
Even in this situation, he was talking about food. I didn’t have much of an appetite and still felt a chill inside, so I didn’t want to eat anything.
“I’m too tired to move.”
“Well, who told you to use magic? It’s your own fault.”
“……”
“You little liar.”
I was so dumbfounded by his added remark that I asked,
“Why am I a liar again?”
“You lied, saying you were too tired to move when you’re not.”
Aska’s words were true, so I was speechless. But I don’t know how he can be so sure. Is he perhaps not only healing me, but also able to understand my physical condition?
What kind of race is he, anyway? Just considering the abilities I’ve seen so far, there are more than one or two. And there seems to be no limit to their use.
“Sometimes when our eyes meet, I get dazed, is that also one of your abilities?”
“You get dazed?”
At my question, Aska opened his eyes and asked back.
“Don’t you?”
“I don’t know, I never tried to use something like that… But whenever you were in too much pain, I secretly thought, just fall asleep, just fall asleep. And then you would fall asleep.”
“……”
Is it possible to do that just by thinking? Of course, it could be a coincidence, but the problem is that this has happened more than once or twice. If this is true…
“……”
Isn’t that too much of a cheat?
Why is there no record of a race that uses such powerful abilities? What circumstances led to their disappearance, or are they a newly emerged species…?
Among the monsters that existed in ancient times, there were some species with abilities comparable to gods. Prime examples include dragons and nature spirits, but their appearances were significantly different from humans.
I had read records that the Iji are like existing disasters and do not interfere in worldly affairs.
“Can you perhaps transform or something?”
I asked, recalling how his nails had grown longer, but Aska didn’t answer. When I turned my gaze, he was already fast asleep, making soft noises.
I turned towards Aska and quietly looked at him.
His long, white eyelashes, soft-looking skin, every strand of hair and eyebrow, there was nothing that wasn’t beautiful.
“……”
Could he perhaps be a spirit? I think I heard that spirits are made of water or fire, or appear transparent like ghosts. What if he used some ability to transform into a human?
“What are you looking at?”
Aska frowned deeply and opened his eyes, as if he had sensed my gaze. He looked strange when his eyes were closed, but even more so when he opened them.
His eyes, which sometimes looked faintly blue when they caught the light under the midday sun, were now a clear violet. In very dark places or when he drank blood, they would turn dark crimson.
I was admiring him as if he were something unknown, when suddenly Aska’s face came closer. I didn’t feel any particular pain, but he seemed to sense something again, and the healing process continued for a while.
Aska and I didn’t close our eyes, and we maintained eye contact at a close distance for a long time. Looking at Aska, who belatedly moved away, I suddenly became curious and asked,
“The Wizard couldn’t detect anything wrong with my body, why is that?”
“Wizard?”
“When I try to move Mana, I cough up blood. If I have a serious Internal injury or there’s a problem with using magic, there’s no way the Wizard wouldn’t know.”
At my words, Aska tilted his head.
“Is that thing wriggling inside you what you call Mana?”
“I guess so? You need it to use magic.”
Aska stared at my chest and lower abdomen for a long time, as if looking inside, and then reached out his hand. His small, warm hand came inside my clothes and touched my bare skin.
“I don’t know why the Wizard doesn’t know, but anyway, don’t use that magic for now.”
“Is it perhaps something I can’t use for the rest of my life?”
That would be a problem. But fortunately, Aska took his hand off my lower abdomen and said,
“That’s not it, wouldn’t it be okay if we just reattach what’s broken?”
“What’s broken?”
“I don’t know. But something is broken.”
The most important subject was omitted, so I had no idea what he was talking about. I blankly looked at Aska and asked,
“Can you see it?”
“I can’t see it, but anyway, that’s how it is. So listen to me. You were almost completely healed yesterday, but you acted like an idiot and broke it again.”
Aska suddenly started to get angry. Feeling somehow wronged, I raised my upper body and said,
“You were the one who told me to reapply the Sealing Magic.”
“I clearly said not to do it again later. How would I have known that using something like that would make it happen again? I just learned about magic now.”
That was also true, so I had nothing to say. Still, I satisfied my curiosity about what would happen if I used magic in that situation, so I had no regrets.
“If we’re going out, let’s get up.”
Since we were going out anyway, it was better to go quickly. As I pulled back the blanket, Aska jumped up.
“What should we eat?”
“Anything but chicken.”
“Then let’s eat beef.”
“……”
Chicken or beef, isn’t it all the same? I wasn’t really in the mood, but since I was just going to eat a little, I just nodded.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
We went outside and ordered a lot for breakfast: steak, sausage, boiled potatoes, seafood stew, grilled corn and green beans, and even fruit pie, and ate it all without leaving anything behind. Aska kept nagging me throughout the meal.
“Why aren’t you eating?”
“I don’t like it.”
“Why?”
“It’s greasy.”
“Then try this.”
“I don’t like that either.”
“This one?”
“It’s tough.”
“This is annoying, really. Why are you so picky?”
At first, I was just dumbfounded, but as he kept doing it, I became interested. I was curious to see how long he would keep nagging.
“Do you want to eat that?”
After finishing the meal, as he was carefully putting the hood on me outside, Aska pointed somewhere. When I turned my head, I saw a display case selling snacks.
Even if I said no, he would eat it anyway since he had seen it, so I took Aska’s hand and went over there.
In the display case, lollipops were neatly arranged by color.
“Let’s go inside.”
Aska led me into the store as if he were possessed. It was like a paradise for children, with various kinds of candies, cookies, and jellies visible everywhere.
“Buy me that for my birthday present.”
Aska pointed to a round candy. Unlike the ones displayed outside, it was transparent and had a smooth surface.
“Not too many, just pick one.”
“Why?”
“I’ll buy you more later.”
He would definitely eat everything he bought today, no matter how much. He’s not a human, so it might not matter how much he eats, but for some reason, I felt like I shouldn’t feed him too much snacks, since it wasn’t a meal.
“Then just buy me this one.”
I was a little taken aback because I didn’t expect him to actually buy just one. I was sure that if I told him to buy just one, he would refuse and pick two or three.
“Pick one more.”
“Really?”
As soon as I changed my mind, Aska’s voice rose. I couldn’t see his expression because he was wearing a hood, but his cheeks must have been flushed.
At my words, Aska chose a smooth, marble-like blue candy and a red candy. As soon as we paid and came outside, he opened the lid and put a small red candy in his mouth.
“What do you want to eat?”
I was about to say no, but I was curious, so I chose the same one. Then Aska took out a candy and put it in my mouth. I rolled the hard candy around in my mouth a few times and then broke it with my teeth, and Aska asked,
“The apple flavor is good, right?”
“It’s good.”
Nodding, I took the glass jar containing the candies and held it up to the sunlight. Perhaps because it was transparent, it looked like a jewel at first glance.
I was going to give you a jewel as a present, but I bought you candy instead.
“Happy birthday. I’ll buy you candy next year too.”
I handed back what I was holding and said the words that had been lingering in my mouth. I didn’t hear any particular answer. I couldn’t see his expression either, so I felt the urge to take off his hood, but I barely managed to resist.