By Zephyria 
I repeatedly regained consciousness and lost it again.
Each time I came to, I couldn’t bear the pain of my insides being torn apart and my nerves burning, and I fainted. I could hear Aska saying something in my ear, but I couldn’t even grasp the meaning.
Then, as if I had become accustomed to the pain, I somehow managed to hold onto my fading consciousness and endure it. I could see something moving in front of my blurry eyes.
“Hngh, hngh… What to do… What to do…”
The moment I heard Aska sobbing in despair, my blurry vision cleared. After blinking a few times, I began to see what was happening.
“…”
The wall and floor, which had been a mess from the exploded person, were clean, and the man who had been lying dead was gone. I could only see one person, and that person was kneeling on the floor, head raised, arms hanging down.
Blood streamed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The blood wasn’t falling down but rising up, swirling in circles in the air.
“…”
So, the blood was gathering in the air… Spinning around…
“Hngh…”
When I turned my gaze, I saw Aska holding me in one arm and extending the other forward, sobbing. I wanted to ask why he was crying, but I didn’t have the strength to speak. I felt like I would faint from the pain if I lost my focus even for a moment.
I concentrated as much as possible and looked forward again. The man, who had been pouring blood from every hole in his body, seemed to be much smaller than before. His skin was also wrinkled… Like a dried-up, crumbling old tree.
Now, as if there was no more blood to come out, the man, whose blood had been completely drained, became so withered that his form was unrecognizable. And soon, he crumbled like sand, disappearing without a trace.
And at the same time, the blood that had been gathered in a circle in the air vanished as if it were a lie.
“Hngh, heoeong…”
Aska was still crying, but the scenery of the alley was no different from when I had first entered it. There were no corpses, no blood, no exploded flesh. There was no trace of blood splatters.
Then, Aska grabbed my collar with a trembling hand and gently shook me, urging me.
“Don’t die.”
Right now, it was so painful that it would be better to die. Maybe it would be better to just die… I had that thought for a moment, but I decided to try a little harder because it seemed like Asella would have a hard time if I died here.
“First…”
“Kyle!”
Aska called my name as if screaming when I opened my mouth. It seemed that what I had heard earlier wasn’t a hallucination.
“You didn’t forget my name?”
“You crazy bastard! Is that what’s important now? Why the hell are you suddenly spitting up so much blood! You son of a bitch! You crazy bastard! Get up now!”
Aska started cursing at me, who had come back to life, while crying profusely.
“I! I knew it from the moment you ate only that much, you bastard! You spit up blood because you only eat that much! You’re weak! You crazy bastard, you can’t even climb a tree… Hngh! Waaaaah!”
“…”
I closed my eyes tightly because my eardrums felt like they were about to burst, and Aska was horrified and tapped my chest with his small fist.
“Don’t die!”
“I’m not dying… And please don’t shout…”
“Don’t close your eyes!”
I tried to put strength into my eyes at his screaming words, but somehow I only felt pain, so I released the strength again. Aska, who was looking at me frowning and breathing heavily, lowered his head, sobbing.
Warm tears fell on my face. I stared blankly at the approaching face without blinking. Aska’s lips touched my lips, and something flowed inside, just like before.
I was too flustered to realize it earlier, but is he feeding me his saliva now? He’s not only giving me leftovers, but now…
I frowned, suddenly feeling unpleasant, and Aska broke away from my lips and sobbed again.
“Does it still hurt?”
“…”
I was seeing all sorts of things as I lived… But the pain was gradually decreasing, so I couldn’t say anything. It was really absurd.
“Does it still hurt!”
“Don’t shout. My head is ringing.”
“Does it hurt?”
“It’s bearable now.”
I sighed and slowly raised my upper body, and Aska quickly supported me. Tears were still falling, so I reached out and wiped his wet cheeks.
“Why are you crying so much? I didn’t die.”
“No, suddenly your face turned pale and you were bleeding… Do you know how much blood you spilled?”
“Did you eat it all? You should have eaten it, it’s a waste.”
“Hey!”
Aska shouted and hit my back. It was a little stronger than when he hit my chest earlier, but it was still as light as a feather.
Just as I was about to suggest getting out of here, I heard footsteps. Aska quickly put on his hood and put my hood on me too. And a moment later, someone passed by us, looking at us with strange eyes.
“…”
Someone just died here. And one of them exploded all over… As I examined the clean alley with no traces left, I grabbed Aska’s wrist.
“Let’s get out of here first.”
“Are we going home?”
“…No, it would be better to go to a nearby inn.”
If I went in like this, Asella would know that my condition wasn’t normal. It was a priority to go in looking normal, even on the outside, and take Aska to the room first.
I was helped by Aska to enter a nearby inn. I was worried that there wouldn’t be any rooms available because of the festival, but there was only one single room left.
As soon as I entered the room on the second floor and collapsed onto the bed, a musty smell stung my nose. I frowned and held my breath, and Aska took off my robe in a flurry.
“Why do you keep spitting up blood?”
Aska, who had taken off my robe and loosened my collar, asked. That’s what I wanted to ask. I didn’t drink poison, so why is my body like this?
Did I catch a disease? But do symptoms appear so suddenly? I don’t think there are any hereditary diseases in the royal family…
As I pondered, I watched Aska take off his robe. He had already sweated quite a bit because it was hot, and his clothes were very wet because of what had happened earlier.
Aska sat on the bedside and rolled up his sleeves.
“Shouldn’t we go quickly? If you’re sick, we should get medicine…”
As soon as I saw the white skin revealed, I reached out and grabbed Aska.
“What is it?”
I grabbed his slender wrist and looked around, but the brand that had been the mark of the seal had disappeared without a trace.
“Could it be…”
“Huh?”
Was it a rebound? If that was the case, I could understand what was happening in my body.
“Why? What’s on my hand… Oh! Where did it go! That thing!”
Aska seemed to realize it belatedly, and he was startled and shouted as he looked at his clean arm.
“Ha.”
“Did you undo it?”
“Not me, but you… No, how is this possible?”
My vision spun because I had witnessed something unbelievable.
Sealing Magic was a Magic that the target couldn’t do anything about in the first place. No matter how vast the target’s Mana was, no matter how skilled they were, that kind of thing…
“…”
I paused as I recalled something extremely common sense.
Was it really not a Magic that the target could undo on their own? Was it just that no one had ever done it before, so we had believed it to be so?
Does ‘absolute’ exist in Magic?
“Are you okay?”
Having thought that far, I quickly raised my head and looked at Aska and asked. Aska, who had been quietly looking at his clean arm, asked back with a puzzled expression.
“Me? I’m fine. You’re the one who’s not okay.”
“No, you drank my blood several times earlier.”
Both when we kissed and when the blood splattered from the exploded person, it might have gotten into his mouth. But Aska was perfectly fine. The wound on his chin had also disappeared.
The phenomenon of crying in pain when drinking my blood while injured, which had happened in the past, didn’t appear this time. And there was no sign of his mental age becoming younger.
“Are you okay?”
“I told you I’m fine?”
“Then, was the reason you cried in pain whenever you drank my blood when you were injured because of Magic?”
“I don’t know. Is that what’s important now? When are we going home? Your face is completely crazy white and blue right now. Should I show you a mirror?”
Hearing those words, I suddenly started to feel fatigue. There were so many things I wanted to ask… Ha, I don’t know either…
I covered my eyes with my hand and then sighed.
“I’m just going to sleep for a bit, so wake me up in an hour.”
I didn’t hear a reply. When I removed the hand covering my eyes, I saw Aska pouting.
“Why?”
“Aren’t you going to die in your sleep?”
“…”
His protruding lips kept moving, and tears welled up in his eyes again.
“I’m not dying.”
“What if you don’t wake up in an hour?”
“Slap me or something. And if I wake up and you’re not here, I’ll never forgive you, so stay put.”
“I won’t forgive you either if you don’t wake up in an hour.”
Aska glared at me with tearful eyes and repeated exactly what I said. His eyes were already full of water, as if it would drop at any moment if touched.
I stared at it quietly for a while, and then at some point, I lost consciousness.