Pain

After the usual morning lessons, Nayari returned to his room with Lilith nowhere to be found but instead a note left for him.

"..."I won't be returning until afternoon. -Lilith-" ...Huh. Did she get herself a friend or something?"

While thinking that, he also glad that she was away today because he could speak privately with "her" today.

As he was thinking that, knocking sound was heard on the door.

"Speaks of the devil..." He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of a familiar face.

"...Sorry for intruding at this time..."

"It's fine. There's only the two of us here. The annoying object has gone away for the time being."

"Eh? Ah, you mean Lilith..."

"Did you bring it?"

"Yes, right here, let me take it out..." Maria put her hand into her pocket and took out a paper-wrapped package.

"I put her medicine ingredients and daily activity note in there."

"That's good. Thanks."

He slowly unwrapped the package and looked at the piece of paper inside.

"Unable to walk, constantly puking...slightly blue puke...? Eat really little amount of food...Hmm..."

"Can you tell what kind of illness she's having?"

"...I'm not sure...The blue puke part enabled me to reduce the amount of illness she could be having but...I'll check the ingredients next."

As soon as he identified the ingredients, the package fell off his hand and landed onto the ground.

A shocked expression appeared on his face, and he remained silent.

"...Nayari? Did you realize something?" Seeing his action, she started to feel worried.

"Is it that serious?" She thought.

Then, Nayari suddenly grabbed Maria by her collar, driving her into a wall and lifted her up into the air.

"Ack!!!"

"You! Are you trying to kill your sister or something?!" He yelled.

----

Hildagea planned to talk things out with Nayari once again, so after the morning lessons, she went toward Nayari's room to see Maria entering his room.

"Huh? Maria? What's she doing here?"

Sliding herself along the wall, she slowly approached her childhood friend's room.

When she put her ear onto the door to try and hear what they were doing,

"Ack!!!"

"You! Are you trying to kill your sister or something?!"

She heard Nayari yelling and Maria's groaning sound, despite the door had a soundproof spell applied onto it.

Hearing that, she quickly opened the door to find the sight of Nayari holding Maria in the air.

"Nayari, what are you doing?!"

----

"Eh? Ah...!?!!" Realizing what he had done, he released Maria and slowly walked backward, an emotion of despair appeared on his face.

"Maria, are you okay?" Hildagea quickly ran by Maria's side, helping her get up.

"Ah...I'm fine. What's wrong with him anyway?"

"W-What...have I done...? I almost...did it again...Why..." He slowly slumped down onto the ground, mumbling to himself.

Hildagea went next to Nayari and picked him up.

"Nayari, why did you do that?!"

"Is that you...Hilda? ...Please...I'm sorry...don't leave me alone again...please...I'm...sorry..." Nayari said before he fainted.

Hildagea was shocked by his words, before placing Nayari onto his bed and slowly went outside, her face darkened.

"Maria...please look after Nayari for me." Hildagea said before leaving the room.

"Eh? What? Oi, Hilda-" Maria was cut off mid-sentence by the sound of the door shutting loudly.

"Argh! Seriously, what on earth is happening?!" Maria scratched her head, unknowing what'd just happened.

----

"Hmm...He's fine. Probably fainted due to shock. Can you tell me what'd happened?" A woman in a white coat sat by the unconscious Nayari, spoke to Maria.

"I don't really understand myself, he suddenly got mad at me after I let him see the ingredients, and then he suddenly fainted when Hildagea went in to stop him."

"Hmm? What ingredients? Can I take a look at it?"

"Here. Is it something bad?"

"This is...!" Nighto had the same expression Nayari had.

"H-Hey...You're not going to come at me like he did, right?" Maria stood further away from her after seeing her face.

"Young lady, do you know what ingredients are these?"

"Y-Yes, somewhat. Why?"

"Then, can you tell me what this is?"

The nurse picked up one of the plants in the pouch.

The plant has small blue dots all over its leaves.

"That's Blue Haze Grass, and has the ability to improve one's mana flow if used correctly, enabling the user to cast spells quicker, right?"

"Correct. And this is?" She picked up another one.

This time, the plant had a fiery red pattern all over its leaves, and the stalk had an orange color to it.

"That's Blaze Grass, and has the ability to enlarge one's mana flow, allowing them to cast more deadly or higher grade spells."

"You really do know your stuff. But what would happen if you mix these two together?"

"Huh? Mixing those two? ...It would create a better medicine?"

"This time you're wrong. If you mix these two together...it creates a potion that has the opposite effects instead, blocking one's mana flow and disabling them from using magic for a short time, but if consumed for a long time..."

"!!!! If what you're saying is true then... W-What have I done?! I've been harming my sister while thinking that I'm actually saving her...Why...haven't I notice back then...Nayari was right..." She slumped down onto the ground like Nayari had done.

"Urgh...My head...Hmm?" The person who had been unconscious suddenly spoke up.

The nurse had already quickly left the room.

He looked around before his eyes landed on the blonde girl.

"Ahh!! I'm sorry!" He jumped out of his bed and did a dogeza at Maria's feet.

"Huh?! Nayari?! You awoke?!"

"I'm truly sorry for what I've done! I was taken over by my emotion and..."

"It's fine...You were right, Nayari."

"Eh? About what?"

"Mrs. Nighto had explained to me what properties those plants had, and what they would do if mixed together..."

"..."

"I'm a bad sister, aren't I? Thinking that I'm saving my sister when the fact that I've been slowly bringing her to her death instead..."

"...You feel it too, right?" Nayari said.

"Huh?"

"That feeling of hopelessness when the one you love is in pain, you unable to do anything but watch them slowly dying."

"!!!! Then, you also...?!"

Nayari started to tell his story about his sickly mother and her death, but left out the part about his life in the village.

"...You..."

"I'm getting sentimental again. We'll discuss this another time. For now, replace the Blue Haze Grass with this plant, and see if her condition turns any better." He proceeded to write the name of the plant onto a piece of paper and gave it to Maria.

"Got it. Then I'll be on my way." She walked to the door, glanced at Nayari one last time before leaving.

A while later...

"I'm back..." A familiar pink-haired crossdressing girl entered the room, tiredness showed on her face.

"Welcome back. Where have you been this afternoon?"

"Eh...Just some stuff! I'm all sweaty now, so I'll be taking a bath."

And another day ended like that.