Nigel, whose hand was caught, froze on the spot, unable to move a single finger.

The sharp blue eyes that had woken up from sleep softened a little at the familiar presence, but soon contorted with indescribable emotions.

“…It’s Nigel, right?”

The voice trembled with wariness, but the gaze was firmly fixed on Nigel.

Although invisible, the small hand-shaped object caught in Noah’s hand trembled helplessly.

Noah was convinced by the pitiful trembling. That the owner of this hand was Nigel. Also, the reason for the recent significant improvement in his body’s condition, which was too great to be unknown, must be due to Nigel.

…Deng. Deng.

Today, too, the bell that was not on Nigel’s side but on Kirelia’s rang mercilessly from afar, signaling that an hour had passed.

At the same time, as the invisibility wore off, Nigel’s figure slowly appeared, standing against the beautiful moonlight of the full moon.

As if the moonlight was heavy, Nigel’s head drooped limply to the floor, and only his caught hand was trembling.

Perhaps the trembling had transferred from Nigel, as Noah’s hand and body began to shake slowly. And that trembling flowed and flowed until it reached his voice.

“During that time… every day when I woke up, the morning was so ple, asant… so I wondered. Why, was that. Even though nothing was different from usual, why… why was that!”

The painful voice that burst out from deep within his chest sharply pierced Nigel’s heart.

In the end, he was caught.

Just as Oliver had said, he was afraid to face him, so he ran away and greedily desired, in the most hideous way.

Unable to bring himself to meet Noah’s gaze, Nigel soon closed his eyes.

In the darkness of his vision, the panting breaths and sighs resembling sobs clearly pierced Nigel’s ears. As if telling him not to run away and pay for his sins.

Even in this situation, Nigel unconsciously grasped the teleport stone, wanting to avoid it, and he was disgusted with himself, so he pushed his heart away and opened his trembling eyes.

In the room filled with elegant moonlight, there was Noah. Not the strong and vibrant appearance he had hoped for, but Noah Beselion, who looked as if he would collapse at any moment, as if his vitality had been taken away.

Noah held Nigel’s hand tightly and didn’t let go. It was an action that he might have forgotten he was even holding hands, or perhaps he was holding on to prevent Nigel from running away.

“I have… told you countless times. That it’s okay, that I can handle my illness myself.”

Noah clasped Nigel’s hand desperately as if in prayer and bowed his head.

“…Why did you use your ability on me? Why are you wasting that precious ability on me?”

“Waste…?”

At that moment, Nigel slowly raised his head and met Noah’s gaze.

Waste, this short word became the trigger. Nigel’s heart, which had been rotting away as if in a pit of fire, cooled down in an instant, and that was the starting point.

“Did you just say waste? Waste…?”

In the cold eyes, an even colder color of anger rose.

Nigel pushed away Noah’s hand and immediately rummaged through Noah’s desk drawer to find the bottle of medicine containing amolio. Then he roughly threw it at Noah.

The bottle grazed Noah’s cheek, leaving a red horizontal line, and then hit the wall, echoing a burst of sound throughout the room.

“Waste, you say? Then what about you? You, who wasted your life for me?”

Dry footsteps quickly approached Noah.

And from Nigel’s hand, a warm and dazzling light that was so out of place in this situation leaked out and erased the wound on Noah’s cheek as if nothing had happened.

After the wound was healed and the flame was extinguished, a hollow laugh escaped from Nigel’s mouth.

“Noah Beselion, did you really think I wouldn’t know? No, did you think you could hide it? Shall I try saying it one by one?”

Noah’s gaze, trapped in Nigel’s eyes without a moment to escape, trembled helplessly.

“You, you might not remember, but you collapsed on the weekend. Wow~ even when I searched and searched for mana in your body, there was no trace of it at all, and your body was tattered like a rag. If Allen hadn’t called me in time, do you know? You might have died young and been embraced in Kirelia’s warm arms by now.”

Nigel could see that his sharp words were tormenting Noah. Nevertheless, he couldn’t stop the words that burst out.

“You know the reason you collapsed, right? It’s because you took that damn amolio and wasted time in the scorching sun trying to find my useless rocket.”

“That’s not it…!”

Nigel quickly cut off Noah’s excuse and continued.

“Not it? Then shall we go back in time to the spring when you first touched amolio? The day you first took amolio was the day you vowed to keep my secret and refused to accept my help, Beselion. Do you still have any excuses left to make?”

The atmosphere froze in an instant with a cold sneer.

“If you were going to say something like ‘for my sake,’ you’d better get rid of it right away. Because you yourself know best how much that small pill has been devouring your lifespan.”

After a moment, Noah’s calm voice was heard, suppressing his emotions.

“But… I have always told you. That it is none of your concern, so don’t use your ability on me.”

“Yes, I understand too. You didn’t like it when my divine power forcibly crept into your body and became your life, even though you didn’t want it and I just touched you. You must be sensitive to the mana that is forcibly injected because you have mana deficiency. But…!”

Nigel clenched his fist tightly.

“…You clearly said it was a waste. Even though you knew that you were consuming your life because of me, and collapsed while searching for that antique! You told me to just stand by and watch you die without interfering.”

Bam!

As soon as Nigel finished speaking, he threw something at Noah. Recognizing its identity at once, Noah raised both hands and caught it preciously.

What was in Noah’s grasp was none other than the rocket.

“…Know the value of your life. If you didn’t want to receive my mana, you should have confronted me, why did you throw away your life? If you were going to hide it, you should have hidden it till the end, why did you collapse while searching for my rocket? Why!”

This was the truth that had been haunting Nigel like a shadow, no matter how much he tried to run away and avoid it.

The more Nigel struggled to befriend Noah Beselion and find a way to heal him, to prevent any negative impact on Noah, the more Noah was dying.

To obtain an excuse to turn a blind eye to this fact, he proposed a trivial sexual bet using Noah’s feelings, and to obtain that absurd self-justification, he studied day and night.

The path he had run away on, believing it to be the right one, when he looked back, every step he took was so hideous that flowers and grass could not grow.

…He was sick and tired of receiving one-sided protection and unwanted sacrifices from someone. He had lost his entire family in his previous life because of this.

People referred to him, the sole survivor, as a miracle, a great love. However, his life without them was empty. No matter what he filled it with, nothing remained.

So, in the opportunity that came again, he struggled not to create something precious, not to give his heart. However, when he met the people at the orphanage, when he met Allen and Noah, he realized that it was irreversible.

If so, he wanted to protect them at all costs. So that they would not be harmed or hurt because of him. But even that was not allowed.

It was all his fault. The fault of not being able to hide his hunger for affection.

Despite having a face that looked like he was about to cry from the pain, Nigel tried his best to raise the corners of his mouth bitterly.

Seeing that face, Noah finally couldn’t bear it and opened his mouth softly.

“…To call it a mere antique, that’s not it at all. It’s an object that is precious to Nigel.”

Noah took out a handkerchief from the side table and carefully wiped the rocket, then placed it back on Nigel’s palm and made Nigel’s fingers fold to grasp the rocket tightly.

Satisfied with the sight of Nigel holding the rocket again, Noah’s eyes drew a gentle curve.

However, Noah’s action, which seemed to treat his own life as trivial, ignited Nigel’s anger once more.

“Who… asked you to find it? Are you really trying to be a pushover? It’s an object I gave up on. Why didn’t you give up on it?”

“Actually, I don’t know myself. Why I started touching amolio, why I searched for the rocket Nigel threw away and wandered around the academy without knowing my body’s condition.”

This time, Noah’s warm eyes met Nigel’s.

“I… maybe because I’m a pushover as Nigel says, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t give up. The thought of Nigel living comfortably at school without thinking about me. That face that discovers the engraving on the rocket during the outing we went on together on the weekend and smiles brightly.”

“…”

“I just… yes, I was just naturally acting that way. Both with amolio and the rocket. I wanted to see that face that smiles brightly, not the face that always looks like it’s carrying a heavy burden and can’t laugh or cry freely.”

In the dim room lit only by moonlight, the face filled with unwavering affection turned towards Nigel.

And it was crying out with all its heart. Its deep and warm feelings for Nigel.

But.

“I never wanted such feelings… not even once.”

Nigel rejected Noah’s feelings to the end.

Click.

Without giving even a moment to talk.

Left alone under the moonlight, Noah smiled desolately and familiarly tidied up his wounded heart.

It was okay even if he was rejected.

Waiting for Nigel, who couldn’t even remember meeting him as a child, was his best specialty.

But the disappointment inevitably piled up in a corner of his heart.

“Did everyone see their grades?”

“Getting perfect scores in all subjects except basic swordsmanship, Nigel Ars must be crazy, right?”

“The crazy one is Beselion, he’s properly crazy too. I heard it’s really rare for someone to get extra points in Professor Roneh’s class. Plus, he got perfect scores except for magic class.”

“Evans was crazy in a different sense. He barely passed most subjects, but his mana sensitivity was higher than Nigel’s.”

The secret treatment that had been going on for several weeks and the final exam bet where the winner disappeared due to receiving perfect scores together ended up fizzling out, and summer vacation was already approaching.