By Zephyria 
“Are you scared?”
I pondered what to say to the repeated question before finally speaking.
“You’re the one who did this.”
I calculated the probability of that being the real Aska. But no matter how much I thought about it, it didn’t seem like a fake. One of the biggest reasons was this transparent barrier.
Knowing this situation might arise, Aska hurriedly trapped me here and left. Perhaps he knew he would end up like this, so there wasn’t even time to explain? To get as far away as possible…
“But why are you telling me to break it now?”
“I can’t touch you.”
“You’re the one who put it up. Don’t you remember?”
“No, I can’t touch you.”
Aska’s voice grew increasingly agitated, as if he thought I wasn’t understanding him. But I felt the same way.
Aska was only acting on his emotions right now, making logical conversation impossible.
“Why are you doing this? You said you liked me?”
“That has nothing to do with this.”
“Was everything you said about liking me a lie? Did your feelings change after seeing me like this? Saying you didn’t care what I looked like was a lie after all…”
My heart ached as I hung my head and mumbled to myself.
“Are you scared?”
His voice was increasingly filled with tears.
“Why? Do you think I’m going to kill you or something?”
When Aska raised his head, clear tears were streaming down his face. It wasn’t blood like before, but it was even more shocking.
“Do you think I’m going to hurt you?”
“…”
My mind knew I shouldn’t, but my grip on the sword tightened.
“I hate being a monster too.”
“…”
“I want to be human like you…”
“…”
Tears were bursting through the gaps in his teeth. Aska, crying like a child with tears streaming down his face, didn’t look like a monster at all. He just looked like a lost child, and my heart crumbled.
“Step back.”
Unable to bear it any longer, I muttered under my breath. Aska hiccuped and mumbled.
“Just do it.”
“You’ll get hurt. Step back.”
“I won’t.”
Why is he so stubborn? This confirmed it was Aska.
I sighed and was about to swing my arm when I stopped. Aska was still staring at me with tears in his eyes.
Am I really doing the right thing? Even if that’s really him, there must be a reason why he hastily put up this magic.
But how can I just leave him like that when he’s crying and misunderstanding? He won’t die even if he gets hurt a little… No, Aska would never hurt me.
He was strong when he was young, but it was because he couldn’t control his strength, not because he intentionally tried to hurt me. He never tried to get what he wanted by force.
“Hurry…”
Aska whined softly, urging me on. I stared at Aska and swung my arm. As soon as the blade touched the barrier, it cracked with a snap.
I didn’t take my eyes off Aska as I launched a second attack. Looking at it now, the fact that the whites of his eyes were black wasn’t so bad. I was just surprised because it was the first time I’d seen him like that.
When I swung my arm a second time, it cracked and shattered, almost completely breaking apart.
“It looks like it’ll break if I hit it one more time.”
Aska’s pupils contracted rapidly at my words.
“I know.”
The tears had stopped. His face was almost as expressionless as it had been at first.
“Take a step back. I’m afraid you’ll really get hurt.”
“I don’t care if I get hurt.”
“I care.”
“Hurry, hurry…”
He started tapping his feet, urging me on.
“I said step back.”
“Hurry…”
He didn’t even answer me now. I belatedly realized that the hairs on my body were standing on end at the whispering, repetitive voice.
I was sure I was going to be in danger, but I swung my arm again.
Crash!
I felt a sting on my cheek, probably from the fragments that flew out as the barrier broke. I reflexively closed my eyes at the strong gust of wind and dust. I tried to open them again, but I couldn’t.
My consciousness was cut off in an instant, like a candle being snuffed out.
¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸.•¨•¸
“…”
What am I doing right now?
Am I lying down? Standing? What is it?
It was as if I had lost consciousness for a moment, and the memories of that brief moment had disappeared. I had no sensation in my body, and I couldn’t tell if my eyes were open or closed.
Then I heard a sound in my muffled ears. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was, but as I slowly regained consciousness, I began to feel a stinging pain.
“Haa…”
It didn’t take long for the small pain to grow into an unbearable agony. I opened my closed eyes and saw a bright blue sky in my dizzy vision.
“Haa… Haa, huh…”
“…”
“Hngh…”
At first, I thought it was my own groan. But it wasn’t coming from my mouth. It was Aska’s panting, his face buried in my neck above me.
I blinked a few times, my eyes not focusing properly, and then twitched my shoulder slightly.
“Ugh.”
The moment I moved, I felt a sharp pain in my side. It was a vivid pain, like scraping peeled skin with sandpaper.
“Haa…”
Aska panted like someone who couldn’t breathe, sucking, licking, and biting my neck. Every time something squirmed in my side, it hurt so much that I gasped for breath.
I repeatedly lost and regained consciousness in short intervals of a few seconds. In the meantime, a scene flashed through my mind.
It was when I was about thirteen years old. I was so bored and had nothing to do that I secretly slipped out of the castle and headed to a den of thieves. There, I was stabbed in the abdomen.
I thought they were trying to rescue me because I was a kidnapped child, but they were actually all in cahoots. Anyway, the kid held a dagger firmly in his small hand and stabbed me in the stomach, twisting it this way and that, digging into me.
If it had been torn a little deeper and longer, I might have spilled my guts on the spot.
“…”
Why did this memory suddenly come to mind?
It felt somewhat similar to that time. Aska was panting like a dog, digging his nails into my stomach and stirring them around. Of course, he wasn’t really swirling them around like he was making cream, but it hurt that much.
Did I get hurt somewhere else too? It doesn’t make sense that I’m so out of it just because my stomach was punctured.
To regain my fading consciousness, I tried to ignore the pain as much as possible and separate my body and mind.
Why is Aska breathing so heavily? Is he biting my neck and drinking my blood? Fortunately or unfortunately, I could barely feel anything in the area where his mouth was touching.
When I tried to move, the grip on my side tightened, so I relaxed my body as much as possible and just rolled my eyes. And then I realized that I was still holding the sword in my hand.
Should I swing it once as a threat? No, what if I accidentally hit him? Let’s put that on hold for now.
Gulp.
Then I heard a loud swallowing sound in my ear. That was just the beginning. He was swallowing the liquid urgently, like someone who had found an oasis just before dying of thirst.
A normal person would have died a long time ago. To get that much blood from this position, the carotid artery would have to be severed, but is he out of his mind and doesn’t care if I die or not? Or maybe he’s just quenching his parched throat because I’ll recover anyway.
It would be fortunate if it was the latter, but it would be a problem if it was the former.
After drinking blood for a long time, Aska’s lips fell from my neck. He licked and sucked around it, then slowly raised his head. My body wouldn’t move well, so I just rolled my eyes to check Aska’s face.
Long white hair covered most of his face. But even without looking closely, I could tell that Aska’s face was soaked in blood.
Aska, his face dazed as if he were drunk, didn’t seem to notice my gaze and lifted his chin to look at the sky.
“Haa…”
Then he let out a deep breath, like a sigh, and trembled with elation.
He looked so refreshed, like someone who had finally achieved a long-cherished wish after a long time of effort, that I didn’t feel angry at all.
He said he wouldn’t hurt me or do anything bad to me. He cried and looked so hurt, but now he’s turning me into a rag? The desire to ask him that disappeared.
I was just puzzled.
What did he do without eating so much that he couldn’t even stay sane? Why didn’t he ask me for blood? Why hasn’t the wound on his chest healed yet? I’m the one who suffered a fatal injury from using magic beyond my capacity, so why is he spitting up blood? Could all of this be related to my wounds healing quickly?
What the hell did you do to my body?