Date: First Frost of the Season
Location: Academy Recovery Ward, Sword Yard, Library – Candle Wing
---
They said my mana core was damaged.
Torn, splintered — like a cracked lens trying to hold sunlight.
They told me I should've died.
That I was lucky.
That I must not use magic for at least a year.
Lucky.
Strange word.
When I can't even feel the flow anymore.
When the quiet hum of power — once natural — now burns when I reach for it.
But I nodded. I always do.
---
Clerics visit every two days.
The main healer — Master Alric — said I'm healing… slowly. Naturally. But he gave me that look. The one that says, "Don't get your hopes up."
My teammates visit more often than that.
Leander comes with stupid jokes and stolen sweets.
Anna brings magic notes she claims are "just for fun," but they're all my lecture notes rewritten in sparkly ink.
Riya brings flowers. Real ones. Always sunflower-like.
Elric sits and talks about clouds and meals and nothing at all — and somehow, that's everything.
Gideon… stands near the window and just nods. It's enough.
Alice never speaks much, but the last time she visited, she left a new book on my desk — bookmarked with a folded handkerchief. No note. Just a faint scent of mint and ink.
Lily came last.
She waited until the others were gone.
She didn't speak much. Just stood at the door for a while before sitting beside me.
Her voice was softer than I remembered.
> "You're really stupid, you know that?"
I chuckled, even though it hurt.
> "I've been told."
She brought a single page. Not a book. Not notes. Just… something she copied for me.
An advanced theory on magic harmonics and the resonance between spirit crystal mana and damaged cores.
> "Don't think you're getting out of our future duels that easy."
Then she smiled — just once — and left.
---
A week later, I was cleared to walk again.
But not to use magic.
So David reassigned me.
> "No mana. No spells. You'll train in sword forms."
He said it without question. Just command.
And so, I went.
Mireille nearly cried laughing when I first held a practice blade like a wet mop. But after ten minutes, she tilted her head and said:
> "You've got the stance of someone who wants to live. That's a good start."
Sword forms became my new mornings.
Steel over spell.
Step. Breathe. Strike. Recover.
Pain came back — but it wasn't the burning of mana strain. It was honest. Physical. Something I could shape.
---
At night, I returned to the library.
The old comfort. My sanctuary.
And there… I found the letter Yukari left behind.
Inside: a small, brilliant shard — a Spirit Crystal.
And a note written in her careful script:
> "You helped me believe in this place.
So believe in yourself, idiot.
This crystal filters ambient mana. You won't hurt yourself using it.
Use it to study, not to fight. Not yet.
– Y"
I almost cried.
Almost.
But instead, I lit a candle and turned the pages of a forgotten text on mana resonance theory.
---
I'm not who I was before the incident.
I can't use magic.
But… I can still learn. I can still fight.
I still have hands. And a mind. And a reason.
My team laughs more these days.
The pain brought us closer.
I think… even Lily smiles more often now.
And me?
I'm starting to believe.
Not in miracles. Not in sudden healing.
But in the long road.
And the people who walk it with me.
---