Chapter XXXV (35)- Victory

Harvey sat beside his bed when Kizu woke up. Kizu groaned at the sight of the medicine wing. It was the last place he wanted to be back at. The air smelled so sterile and stagnant. He immediately felt homesick for the variety of scents back in the basin. Every inch of the jungle smelled unique and told a story. Even his room, filled with Basil’s pungent perfumes and Mort’s musk, was a far better option than the medicine wing’s blatant lack of scent.

“You’re awake,” Harvey said, stating the obvious.

“Yes,” Kizu croaked. His throat felt so raw and parched. It took him a second to process why. Then he remembered the quantity of fire breathing potions he had swallowed.

“I’m sorry Kizu,” Harvey said miserably. “You’re only here because of me. I should be the one bandaged up and bedridden.”

Bandaged up? Kizu looked down at himself. Sure enough, white cloth was tightly wound all around his body. He lifted an arm. It felt sore but responsive. He wiggled his bandaged fingers. They seemed fine. Then he tried to do the same with his toes. He only felt the left five.

He painfully sat up and pulled back his covers and examined his body. Where the bandages weren’t wrapped, his skin had already transformed into deep shades of purple and black. The longest stretch of skin without a bruise was barely more than a dozen centimeters.

But what he was looking for was his leg. It was still attached, thankfully, part of him had been worried. But he felt nothing from it. And he feared what it might look like under those bandages.

“I think they had to do some complex spells to numb your leg,” Harvey said quietly. “They were worried the pain alone might kill you.”

“You can die from pain?” Kizu asked, more to himself. He wondered how that worked. Could a person simply decide to die? Maybe it was some sort of innate spell driven into the minds of every individual for when pushed too far. A backup escape for when things were too hard. Would that be considered a type of soul magic?

Harvey was talking. Kizu had to ground his mind and focus to make out the words. He kept wanting to let his thoughts drift off, away from reality.

“Nobody expected you to win. And granted, it was only a technicality but-”

“Wait,” Kizu said, confused. “I won?”

“Yeah, your opponent’s knuckles were bleeding when he stepped away from you. Arclight declared you as the victor.”

“I won,” Kizu mumbled. He certainly did not feel like a winner.

“Everyone’s talking about you. You went up over a hundred ranks in a single combat tournament. Your ranking increased to 674. Apparently, your opponent wasn’t massively popular either. You might even get some fangirls from this.”

“Fangirls.” That was the absolute last thing Kizu wanted.

“Yeah! All the best competitors for the combat tests have some.”

“You came out of it far better than I did. Hopefully they all flock to you.” Kizu knew they were the wrong words the second they were out of his mouth. His mind had been wandering and hadn’t been thinking about what he was saying.

“I…don’t think I earned many fans,” Harvey said with a fake smile. “In fact, Professor Arclight explained to me that I should avoid going out alone for the next few weeks. I only barely managed to not get disqualified from all future matches.”

“Ah yeah…well if you want to go do something, just let me know and I’ll join. Maybe the girls will be distracted by you and let me escape.”

Harvey’s fake smile slipped into a frown. “Why Kizu? You just experienced the most brutal loss the academy has seen in over three years.”

“Oh, I think you mean ‘how,’ not ‘why.’” Kizu said, trying to be upbeat. “I’ll do my best to get out of here as soon as I can. Don’t worry. Then we can hit up some parties down in the town. I bet Basil can get us into some crazy ones.” Kizu added the last part, despite not actually wanting to go to one in the slightest. He figured Harvey would though.

Harvey opened his mouth to say more but then closed it and looked away. They passed the next hour or so talking about anything but the combat test.

When Emilia arrived, Harvey excused himself. Kizu couldn’t help but note the absence of even a wink, let alone a lighthearted comment. Before he walked out, Kizu considered telling him to find someone to walk back to his dorm with but decided not to. Arclight had definitely given him strict instructions to follow on how to keep himself safe from the student body.

“How do you feel?” Emilia asked as she took Harvey’s seat.

“Oh, I’m fine,” Kizu lied. He tried to sit up straighter. His body protested the efforts.

“I saw your fight.”

He winced. And not from his injuries.

“I was actually set up to fight today too. But I withdrew my name yesterday when I heard what Lucas planned to do.”

“You were smarter than me,” Kizu said. He tried to laugh but his raw throat transformed it into a coughing fit instead.

“Hardly,” she said once his coughing ended. “Everyone knows Harvey now. His name is common knowledge right now. And with that, everyone knows he’s my cousin. Not only am I related to the student who manipulated others into throwing themselves at his defense. I also didn’t even have the loyalty or bravery to stand beside him like you did. Instead, I pulled my name out.”

“I wouldn’t call it bravery,” Kizu said. “Stupidity might be more accurate.”

“Whatever you want to call it, you faced down one of the most dangerous students. And more than that, you hurt him. Hurt him badly. You have the academy’s attention now. And in the best way possible.”

Kizu glanced around the room, a terrible thought occurring to him. Several of the beds had closed curtains.

“Um, where exactly did my opponent go after the test?”

“Not here, if that’s what you’re worried about. He refused any care offered beyond a simple skin balm.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Kizu tried not to let his relief show too obviously.

“Ulric’s always been like that,” she said flippantly. “He hates letting anyone help him. Wants to do everything himself.”

Ulric. Kizu hadn’t even known his opponent's name. He tried to think back. Maybe they had said it at the beginning of the match, but he’d been so focused on his strategy that he hadn’t heard it. Somehow, he doubted Ulric didn’t know his name. And Kizu also doubted that Ulric would forget the burns Kizu had given him.

Harvey had angered the entire academy with his performance but earned praise from his opponent. Meanwhile Kizu felt he managed to win praise from the academy while deeply angering his opponent. He wondered who was handed the worse trade.

“Do you know Ulric well?” he asked Emilia.

She prickled at the question. “Not anymore. We used to be friends.”

Kizu sighed. “No chance of talking him into not wanting to swap my insides with my outsides?”

“Don’t bother. He’ll spend the next few weeks sulking about his new punishment and loss but won’t ever do anything about it. Trust me. He’s not worth the time it takes to think about him.”

That did not sound like the same experience Kizu had just had. Ulric likely treated his old friends a bit differently. Or maybe that treatment was reserved for pretty girls. Kizu decided to change the subject.

“Any parties tonight?” Kizu asked. He inwardly cursed himself for the clunky question. It was on his mind though from his conversation with Harvey.

“Not really. There was supposed to be one over on the hillside this evening. But the host suffered a few injuries courtesy of my cousin. I think she’s actually in this room still.”

Kizu looked around at all the closed curtains. Now that he paid attention, there were quite a few more in use than the last time he was stuck in the medicine wing.

“I’ll let you know the next time one comes up though. I bet you’ll be a hit after this fight.”

As much as Kizu didn’t want to go to another party, his heart leapt at the idea of Emilia inviting him to one.

They continued chatting for a little while until Emilia had to excuse herself. She still had readings that needed to be finished before tomorrow.

Emilia’s perfume lingered after she left, gifting the dead room a ribbon of life.

The curtains of the bed opposite swung open, revealing Ione. She lay on top of her blankets with her bandaged leg suspended.

“You look horrible,” she said.

“Thanks.”

“I was wondering when you’d stop by to visit. Glad my investigation partner finally deemed me worthy of his time.”

“I’m still not here because I want to be,” Kizu pointed out.

“Eh, I’ll take what I can get.” She shrugged and leaned back on her bed. “Imagine living in a magic castle nestled at the foot of a volcano on a tropical island with some of the most powerful mages in the world acting as professors. Then, mutilate and change that image into the most boring and mundane location humanly possible. That’s this room. An impossibility achieved. What an incredible feat.”

“Which is exactly why I didn’t want to visit you.”

“You owe me.”

She was right, Kizu had to admit. And if he hadn’t gotten wrapped up in the fight earlier, he probably would have visited. He opened his mouth to apologize.

“After all, you and your gabbing with the Tainted girl woke me up. The first boy was quiet and sulky, easy to sleep through. But then that girl came. Your voice became so much louder and more obnoxious.”

That…was not what Kizu thought he owed her for.

“Well, she’s gone now. You can sleep in peace. I promise not to talk.”

“Now it eludes me!” She threw her head back on a pillow in exasperation. “Because sleep is as fickle as a drunk lover.”

“Lots of experience there?” Kizu teased.

“Better drunk than non-existent,” she jabbed back.

“Hey, I lived in a matriarchal civilization in the jungle. Men barely even exist out there. I have plenty of experience.” He left out the part where the crone’s friends were all roughly at least a hundred years old. And she never let him meet any of their apprentices, telling him it would be better not to make attachments when they might not be around in another week or two. Kizu heard implications that witches occasionally ate their younger apprentices if they upset them.

“Good. You can tell me about it as payment for waking me up. Nobody likes to talk about the witch covens in the Basin.”

“Probably because they don’t know anything about them,” Kizu said. “At least, if Krimpit’s lessons are anything to base common knowledge off of.”

“Yes, yes. I am aware of your dislike of our history professor. I want to hear about the crazy women living in the jungle. Continue.”

“They largely keep to themselves. You could probably walk for a day’s radius in any given direction from the crone’s house and not find another witch. They usually only convene in groups on specific events. Like a blood moon or when a new initiate enters a coven.”

“What happens at an initiate’s ceremony?”

Kizu shrugged. “I don’t know the details. I never received an invitation. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not exactly witch material.”

“But you were still a witch’s apprentice.”

Kizu thought about that for a minute. He supposed she was right. The crone had never named him as one, but she treated him the same as an apprentice while living in the basin.

“Not in the same way,” he finally said. “Most other witches I met disdained me and questioned the crone’s decision to teach me.” More than once he had overheard witches attempt to barter with the crone for a chance to eat him. He decided to keep that to himself.

“What about their apprentices?”

“What about them?”

“You implied you knew some more…intimately?”

“Oh yeah, plenty,” Kizu lied. “They’d always come over doing, um, errands.”

“Like what?”

“Oh you know, fetch this, report about that. Really mundane stuff. And they were always really closed lipped.”

“Too bad. Do you think you’ll go back?”

Go back to the Hon Basin. Kizu had never really considered it before. He missed the jungle a lot, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be the same without the crone. But maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. There were men that lived in the basin as well as the witch covens. The crone had a necromancer acquaintance for example. He and his young daughter had always been relatively friendly.

“Maybe,” he finally said. “It depends on a lot of other things.”

“Like what?”

“My sister for one. Once I find her, it might actually be a really good place to move with her. Honestly, I could see Anna joining a witch coven.”

“Do you think I could?”

“Come with us to the Hon Basin?” Kizu asked, confused. “I suppose. I don’t see why you would want to though.”

“No, not that. Join a witch coven. What do they require? Surely not all of them were apprentices to witches before joining.”

“I’m not sure. I think most of them were apprentices at some point. But the crone never said anything about her ever being anyone’s apprentice. I imagine if you make enough of a name for yourself, you might be able to. But aren’t you ranked dead last in brewing?”

She waved a hand dismissively. “I just wanted to know if it was possible. Not in my current life’s trajectory, but still got to consider options, right?”

“Kaga Kizu?” One of the rejuvenation and restoration assistants approached him. She was a Tainted student with light red, almost pink scaling across her brow. Kizu recognized her as the assistant who had helped him find his sister’s book. Surprisingly, she didn’t come off with the same hostility he remembered. Instead, she appeared nervous and jittery, looking anywhere but at his eyes.

“Yes?”

“I have some…bad news for you.”

“Did something happen to Harvey?” Kizu asked immediately. He knew he should have told him to find someone to walk to his dorm with.

“Who?” She blinked and met his eyes briefly before she tore them away, staring at the wall behind him. “No. This is about your leg.”

“My leg?”

“I hate this,” she muttered, looking down at the floor. “The damage Ulric did to it was extensive. He didn’t just break it; he almost tore it off. I have no idea how he managed to break it so severely without tearing the skin. Even Kateshi wasn’t able to fully fix it. It won’t be the same when you leave. It might never be the same.”

“Can I walk?” Kizu asked. What she was telling him didn’t seem real. He had trouble grasping it.

“Yes. It might be painful at first, but walking should be manageable in time. But you might not be able to run ever again. But…if you do, it probably won’t ever be the same. I’m sorry.”

He looked to Ione, hoping maybe this was a prank she arranged earlier. She wouldn’t meet his eyes either.

He was crippled.