Chapter 41: Fake Snow White (1)

Agony struck Yukomis’s right hand.

Even in a semi-conscious state, she remembered that this was a very familiar way of waking her up.

Once again. It was her right hand.

This time, it was a slightly different pain from before.

If the previous one was a penetrating wound, this time it felt as if a tremendous current was flowing through that wound into her body.

The only ones who knew this method were…

Her sister and the Wyvern Knights…

“Yukomis!”

“Ah…ugh…”

She heard a faint groan coming from her own mouth.

Her heart stopped and started beating again, and the whole world seemed to turn white inside her closed eyelids before darkening again, repeating this several times.

She felt her back, waist, and upper body lift and then hit the floor again.

“Yukomis! Wake up! I need you!”

Once again. Shock.

“Keuheok!”

Yukomis’s mind was forcibly dragged back to reality.

Trembling at her mouth and upper body, the first thing she saw when she opened her eyelids was,

Silissa’s urgent face, filling her entire field of vision.

“Ah… Silissa…”

“Sorry for waking you up like this. But there was no time!”

“It’s…

okay…”

She tried to say something, but only a metallic sound came from her parched mouth.

As if she knew that would happen, Silissa took out a small bottle from her bosom and poured liquid into Yukomis’s mouth.

It was a familiar taste.

Water mixed with a high concentration of stimulants and painkillers.

When she turned her head, she saw the tip of Silissa’s spear stuck in her right hand.

‘I’ve been through this a lot lately…’

Yukomis thought indifferently.

She must have channeled magic there.

When she turned her head to the other side, she saw Manya and Vena, both terrified.

Tears were streaming down their eyes as they anxiously embraced each other.

“You… saw my signal.”

“Yes. It was excellent. That pillar of fire was very visible to me, wandering in the forest.”

Anyway, it was true that Silissa was competent.

If she had been just a silly and foolish elf like the behavior she usually showed,

Yukomis would never have risked everything and crawled here relying on her.

“And I met your escort knight. I’ll explain all that later. First. Yukomis. Can you use magic?”

Silissa said, carefully pulling out the spearhead stuck in Yukomis’s hand.

“Ugh… I… I don’t know.”

Yukomis said honestly.

Even as she said that, Silissa was diligently giving her hand first aid.

“Bandages and powder.”

When Silissa said that, Vena cautiously approached and handed over the items Silissa had mentioned.

While waking Yukomis, Silissa felt that their help was needed and had released the magic.

Anyway, it seemed that they both cherished this girl as well,

So it was right to cooperate for the time being.

“Yukomis. Listen carefully. The gir… The girl you brought is in critical condition.”

“…What? Signa?”

As soon as she heard those words, Yukomis suddenly raised her upper body.

Then, she immediately twisted her whole body due to the pain that struck her entire body.

“How on earth…”

“She came to save you.”

“That idiot! Fool! Recklessly! Doing things that I didn’t even ask her to do…!”

Yukomis frowned because of all sorts of emotions such as gratitude, pride, deja vu, and anger at doing useless things.

“Calm down. First, it’s a magical symptom that I can’t solve either. I desperately need your help.”

“What kind of… Ugh. What kind of symptoms are they?”

“Let me examine you.”

Silissa carefully supported Yukomis and made her lean against the wall.

And she picked up Signa and put her down in front of her.

Countless bruises, a body temperature like a lump of fire, and a loss of consciousness.

At first glance, she was in a critical condition where she was going back and forth between life and death.

Yukomis felt dizzy.

“…Ah.”

Just as she was about to hurriedly reach out to Signa, Silissa stopped Yukomis for a moment.

“Yukomis. Before you see this, promise me that you will never. Absolutely never lose your mind.”

“What?”

As if this state was nothing compared to what she was about to see.

“It may be difficult to accept. It will be an unbelievable state. But keep in mind. No one but you can fix this.”

“…Okay.”

Yukomis nodded in a daze.

She was an annoying elf, but she was definitely not the kind of person who would make silly jokes even at times like this.

“Remember. It’s something only you can solve.”

“I understand.”

When she answered, Silissa loosened Signa’s front that she had closed again.

“…Ugh!”

Despite the answer she had given just now, Yukomis staggered greatly as soon as she saw it.

Her already pale complexion turned blue,

And her mind, which had not been awake for long, tried to escape this reality and flee into a distant unconsciousness.

‘Th, th, that can’t be.’

She could tell as soon as she saw it. The exact same symptoms that had occurred when her sister died were recurring in Signa.

On top of that, even the location was coincidentally her chest.

Just as Yukomis was about to scream, Silissa hugged her tightly.

“Yukomis. It’s okay.”

“Wh, wh, why…”

“Calm down. It’s still okay. It can still be reversed.”

“I didn’t, I didn’t do it…”

“Absolutely, absolutely, I’m… I will never…”

“I know. I remember. I know you’re not the kind of person who would break a promise.”

As soon as she glimpsed Signa’s symptoms, her shallow shell, which had been trying to look cold and strong, shattered into pieces,

And forcibly revealed the tender and vulnerable humanity that resided within it.

The day her sister met her end was being replayed before her eyes.

Silissa knew very well that this was the most terrible nightmare Yukomis could imagine.

Yukomis trembled greatly, terrified in Silissa’s arms.

“You didn’t do it. I know too. I know you didn’t do it.”

“Bu, but this. This is… me…”

Her own magic, not anyone else’s.

“Something is just wrong.”

Silissa patted Yukomis’s back gently.

“Yukomis. Listen. This is different from that time. She wasn’t attacked by the Demon King, and there wasn’t a penetrating wound. Just… the magic is just malfunctioning.”

“And if anyone can fix this, it’s only you.”

Silissa remembered how her lord, Thermis, used to comfort her younger sister.

And she tried her best to follow suit, hoping it would have a similar effect.

A gentle voice, a sincere hug, and words that kept repeating that everything was okay and that you could do it.

Silissa couldn’t help but think that this was a slightly cowardly method to use at times like this.

Fortunately, the warm body temperature transmitted through her arms calmed Yukomis down a little.

“You’ll be able to do it this time.”

Yukomis, who had been tightly closing her eyes, finally opened her eyes slowly and began to examine Signa’s condition.

“…It’s my magic…”

“Yes.”

“It’s my magic and…”

It was an incomprehensible matter.

As the magicians who had examined her earlier had noticed, it was as if an endless magic spring was inside Signa, and it was gushing out from inside Signa’s body.

“But… I clearly didn’t do anything…”

On the contrary, she couldn’t even cast a one-time healing spell for fear of side effects.

She hadn’t used forced healing magic even once since her sister died.

Moreover, that magic was not a miraculous magic that created such a tremendous amount of magic from nothing.

“She became like this trying to save me…”

A deep sense of guilt weighed her down.

But on the other hand, a feeling that was the complete opposite of guilt also crept in there.

It wasn’t appropriate for this situation.

Yukomis tried hard to deny it, but…

“What… what happened while I was unconscious?”

“Vena used binding magic. If she wasn’t lying, her condition started to become strange rapidly after she was hit by that…”

Silissa explained.

“She used binding magic?”

Saying that, Yukomis glared at Vena.

It was truly a fleeting moment from being anxious and terrified to having such a poisonous expression.

Even though her body was not in good condition, her eyes contained almost murderous intent.

“Hi, hik…!”

It was an expression filled with intense emotions that she hadn’t faced even when fighting against Yukomis.

Yukomis was much more angry that Vena had recklessly touched Signa than she had made her body this way.

“What on earth did you do… Cough! Cough!”

She coughed heavily as she tried to raise her voice.

“Calm down. What’s wrong with the binding magic?”

“She’s now… Cough! In a state of extreme sensitivity to magic, regardless of its type…! The magic of a third party may have side effect because of that damn, Cough! incomplete magic that you cast!”

Silissa continued to pat Yukomis on the back.

“…Manya’s magic?”

Vena blankly turned to look at Manya.

“What are you talking about again? What magic are you talking about?”

Manya did not answer and just turned her gaze away.

“Manya!”

Yukomis called Manya’s name this time.

“Ah, ugh!”

“Come here!”

Manya couldn’t even answer properly to the force that sounded like she was being called by the god of death.

Her eyes were still filled with tears.

“Touch it. Do you feel it? Do you feel your magic colliding with my magic and causing a rejection reaction?”

“U, uhh… Heuk!”

“Do you know what you did? It’s all because my magic and your magic are fighting each other inside her body. In this situation, if a third magic intervenes, a random effect will be manifested.”

“…Heuk!”

“You’re trying to use unnecessarily precise magic that doesn’t match your spellcasting level… Cough!… So these side effects…!”

Yukomis only said that much.

It was because she had reminded herself that half of the cause was her own magic.

Even if she didn’t intend it.

Even if the cause was unknown.

“…You don’t know, but even the very light healing magic I used for the examination before made her three years younger. Judging from this state, the binding magic is… perhaps…”

Perhaps…

“Cardiac arrest. Or… the tissue has necrosed…”

Vena swallowed hard.

“I, I didn’t know…”

“Shut up.”

Yukomis immediately cut off her timid excuse.

“There’s something I don’t understand. The last time she was injured, and assuming that this magic was already in her body at that time…”

As Parren had said, it was ‘too fast to be considered natural healing’,

We have to assume that there were already signs at that time.

“Manya’s magic interfered with this forced healing, but it slowly and steadily exerted its efficacy.”

“She’s been injured before?”

It was Silissa’s question.

“Yeah. To this extent. There’s another reason to cause such a terrible malfunction…”

Yukomis, who had said that far, stopped talking.

She too had just found the same magic that Silissa had felt inside Signa’s body.

“The holy sword…?”

Manya and Vena would never know,

But the magic of the holy sword was very familiar to Silissa and Yukomis.

“Why is the holy sword’s magic inside her body…?”

“Yeah. They said she drew the holy sword.”

“Drew the holy sword???”

Only then did Yukomis notice the holy sword that Silissa was wearing around her waist.

“You didn’t see it wrong?”

“I, I didn’t see it wrong.”

Manya answered.

As if the current state was not enough, her sister’s traces were constantly being added to Signa.

Yukomis bit her lip tightly.

“…Then that could be a possibility too. It’s already an unstable state with two, and if binding magic intervenes, it becomes three. If even the holy sword is added, there are four types…”

After failing to heal a fatal wound that would lead to death if left untreated,

The forced healing magic kept retrying several times… and finally started to go wild like crazy.

“What should I do?”

“Hand over the holy sword.”

As Silissa handed the holy sword to Yukomis, she glared at it.

“I know you’re awake.”

No answer was heard.

“I also know that you haven’t said anything to anyone but my sister. But you can hear me, right? You know what this situation is too, right?”

Yukomis knew that the holy sword could feel the surrounding situation in a limited way when it was drawn.

It was something her sister had told her directly.

The people around her were just watching the strange sight of Yukomis yelling at the sword.

“I won’t ask you why. Whether you thought she was my sister, or you thought it was okay even if she wasn’t my sister, or if you thought she was qualified…”

“Tell me too. I need your voice. Or even your power…”

There was no response from the holy sword, but Yukomis did not give up and continued to appeal.

“If your belief is to serve only one master… I respect that. But the master you chose is dying right now. Do you know?”

“Don’t you know? Your magic is killing her!”

“If she dies because of you, I’ll chop up such a stupid holy sword into pieces!”

“…I don’t need a holy sword that kills its master twice!”

As she made the extreme declaration, there was finally a response from the handle of the holy sword.

As if agitated, light flickered irregularly from inside the scabbard.

“…!”

Not missing that signal, Yukomis drew the sword.

Even if it wasn’t as brilliant as the radiance she had seen in Signa’s hand a while ago, it was enough to illuminate this narrow passage.

She staggered her upper body as if she felt dizzy, holding the hilt of the sword.

“Ah…”

“Yukomis. Are you okay?”

“I’m. Okay.”

“Can you hear the voice? Of the holy sword.”

“……Yes. But since I’m not a suitable owner… The burden is said to be enormous.”

“Then it won’t work!”

Yukomis just held out her palm towards Silissa.

She seemed to be already talking to the sword.

She held the sword for a moment and held her breath, then nodded a little while later.

The people around her couldn’t know what she had heard.

“Silissa. I’m going to operate from now on. Prepare.”

Yukomis opened her mouth again.

“Prepare? What kind of preparation?”

“The spear you’re holding… No, that won’t work.”

Yukomis, making a bitter expression, turned to look at Vena and Manya.

“Where is my dagger now?”

The all-metal dagger that the Knights used to pull her out of a coma.

The dagger that her sister always told her was ‘like a defibrillator’.

“Dagger? There was no dagger like that on your body… oh.”

Vena answered.

‘…Did I drop it while being bound? It can’t be helped.’

Yukomis, hesitating, raised the holy sword with a faint light.

Vena and Manya, who did not know what she was trying to do, were puzzled,

But Silissa knew Yukomis’s way, or rather, the Wyvern Knights’ way very well.

She couldn’t bear to watch it and turned her head away.

“Wait, what are you trying to do…!”

Before the two magicians, who had almost become extras, could stop her, Yukomis, with all her strength, thrust the tip of the holy sword into Signa’s right hand.

“Heuht…!”

Signa’s small palm, already injured, was crushed messily by the unnecessarily dull blade.

But Yukomis forcibly put force into it and twisted the sword tip.

Until that palm was completely pierced and the holy sword was stuck on the floor.

“Ah… Uueugh…”

Yukomis’s teeth were clenched tightly, and her entire body was trembling.

It could be because her shoulder, which she was forcibly overworking, was still screaming in burning pain.

If that wasn’t it, it might have been because she was doing the hardest thing to do in this world right now.

Yukomis’s tears fell next to Signa, who was faintly groaning.

“The holy sword… will find and absorb its own magic on its own. Hold her well.”

Yukomis just wiped away the tears that flowed and pretended that nothing had happened.

“……Okay. What about you?”

“I… I have to bring back my magic.”

Because it was her own, not anyone else’s.

If magic was refusing to leave Signa’s body, the most sure way was for the owner to take it back.

“Yukomis…”

Silissa said seriously.

“Are you going to be okay? I saw it too, but it was really an enormous amount. If you put such a strain on your body in your current state…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Yukomis was firm.

“……Okay. I’ll lend you my spear if you need it.”

Silissa reluctantly handed her spear to Yukomis.

And she glanced at Signa’s left hand, which was still empty.

It would be as bad as being hung on a rack, but Silissa was prepared for it.

“Since it has a blade, it will be easier than the holy sword.”

It was a difficult thing to say, but Yukomis shook her head.

“I don’t need it.”

“You don’t need it?”

“It’s not something I’m originally familiar with, and it’s made by elves, so it’s too inefficient for a human like me.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take it directly.”

“Directly means…”

“Silissa.”

Yukomis suddenly changed the subject.

“Hold that holy sword tightly. Don’t let it fall on the floor.”

“U, uh. I understand.”

“And… Every, everyone turn away for a moment.”

Turn away?

It was a strange request, but everyone had no choice but to do as she said because of her forcefulness.

After confirming that everyone had turned their gaze away, Yukomis slowly lowered her head next to Signa, who was groaning.

She gently lifted her long hair that was falling over Signa with one hand.

‘It’s like a lump of fire. And her boiling chest too…’

There was no time.

‘This is all necessary. There’s just no other way, so I have to do it…’

All of it was true.

But even knowing that fact, she was deliberately repeating it to herself, and even giving unnecessary orders to turn away their gazes.

She knew very well that these actions would only dilute that legitimate reason.

Sharing magic, the most basic and, at the same time, the safest method.

Yukomis was trying to use that.

‘It’s just a mouth-to-mouth contact…’

Using a person’s body, not metal.

It would have been quite an inefficient method originally, but Yukomis had a magic circulation speed and capacity that was different from ordinary users.

And that was the case even now, even after she had lost most of her spellcasting ability.

Yukomis’s body itself was a very excellent magic conductor.

“Ha, I’ll do it.”

Holding Signa’s left hand tightly, Yukomis lightly placed her lips on Signa’s mouth.

“Euup… Heuup…”

There was a light, unconscious resistance beyond her lips, but she pressed down on it and suppressed it.

‘…I’m sorry.’

Beyond Signa’s throat, magic began to flow little by little into its original owner’s body.

The flow, which was weak at first, soon became a huge one, chasing its tail.

Yukomis closed her eyes tightly at the feeling of fulfillment as magic filled her body and mind at the same time.

That abstract sense of elevation that was felt when appropriate magic filled her body.

But now, more than that, something warm and an unknown energy seemed to be seeping in at the same time.

‘…Is this her first kiss.’

She hadn’t had a chance to do this to anyone yet.

As expected, in the Wyvern Knights, the basic was to violently stab and kill them with sharp weapons…

‘It was because of me.’

That was the only method she had used.

Because she could heal everyone. Because as long as Yukomis was fine, she could heal any external wound without a trace. Because it was the most sure method.

Her mind was gradually becoming blurry.

It didn’t take long for the sense of elevation that was felt at first to turn into a terrible headache that felt like her head was going to shatter into pieces.

Excessive magic was seeping into her unhealthy body.

‘Come to think of it, this must be your first time too…’

Yukomis thought it was funny.

This is just an emergency measure. And she’s worried about someone’s first kiss, someone who wasn’t even a girl until recently.

No, more than that…

‘Even if it was my sister… it would be her first time.’

I’m frustrated. Why is it so similar. Why is it so similar, and why are you even doing the same things.

Coming to save her like this until your own body breaks.

Why do you only do such things.

‘If you do this… I can’t help but be mistaken. Even knowing it, even knowing it, I can’t help but see you as the same.’

Her breath was gradually rising, and her consciousness was gradually blurring.

Yukomis didn’t stop.

‘It’s impossible for me to see it differently.’

Full, too full, my whole body was screaming that no more could come in, but still, she didn’t stop.

She couldn’t lose her in the same way this time either.

‘It hurts.’

The terrible pain that she had already experienced to the point of being exhausted even if she only thought about it.

If there was one thing that she could never get used to until the very end, it was the pain.

But that was now painful and so good at the same time.

There was some kind of nostalgia as if she had met again with someone she could never reach and someone who had gone forever.

That certain presence was beyond her lips, beyond this shallow skin.

That diluted and anesthetized Yukomis’s pain.

She had already taken everything from Signa beyond what this body and mind could handle,

But she could still do more.

Until the magic spring, which seemed infinite, was exhausted, Yukomis greedily took in and brought it in again.

Beyond her mind, which was becoming hazy again,

Yukomis reaffirmed a fact that she may have known for a long time.

It was an emotion that she could never stop until the moment she died, or even after she died.

It was an emotion that she had buried deep in her heart because of that abyss and only tried to pretend that it wasn’t.

‘I love you.’

My sister, Thermis.

And,

‘I love you…’

Signa.

Maybe both.