I Received The Holy Sword By Dawn Delivery - Chapter 38

Her ears were on the verge of hurting from his booming voice, which echoed loudly in his extreme embarrassment, but Rukna was no longer intimidated by loud voices like before.

This must be because she knew Bolton a little better now.

“Does my face look that pretty to your eyes?”

Rukna chuckled while touching her own face.

Judging by how he insisted on introducing Giselle and kept repeating the same words like that, it seems this face doesn’t look bad to others’ eyes either.

“Y-Yes. It’s pretty! Pretty! Happy now?”

Bolton now boldly admitted it without trying to back out.

‘If I had an elder brother, would he act like Bolton?’

Not knowing that a real elder brother would never say such ticklish things to his younger sister, Rukna briefly recalled her past life.

Kim Ha Young also had an elder brother. An elder brother who died in a car accident.

Ha Young, who lost her memories instead of her life in that accident, couldn’t remember even her family’s faces until the end.

Whenever she recalled that fact, she felt like something wandering the world without being able to take root anywhere.

She had thought about dying to follow her family dozens of times, but she tried to somehow continue living because it was a life paid for at an outrageously expensive price.

‘In the end, I died pathetically from overwork and came to this world.’

And she was adapting too well.

To the extent that she no longer cared about who the protagonist of the story was or what the original work was.

That’s how accustomed she had become to Rukna’s life.

‘Rather, Kim Ha Young’s life feels like a dream. Do I like this place that much?’

Rukna let out a small laugh.

As Bolton was staring intently at Rukna’s smile with a subtle expression.

“The conversation between you two men seems a bit strange. What were you doing outside?”

A familiar voice interjected between the two.

Matian approached with a gentle smile, alternately gazing at Rukna and Bolton with eyes devoid of laughter.

He seemed to have already returned.

‘The smell of blood.’

Rukna held her breath for a moment.

Seeing her small chest swell, he belatedly sheathed his sword that was dripping with blood.

Bolton scratched his head vigorously while examining Matian.

“You’re usually so neat, what was so urgent that you came back covered in blood?”

The blood splattered on Matian was probably that of Fritz, the traitorous alchemist.

Though he was an annoying senior, Bolton briefly mourned the senior who had become a traitor, as they had shared many memories as fellow human alchemists.

Of course, attempting to poison the master was a sin that would incur the wrath of heaven and earth.

‘Ugh, a man doesn’t shed tears for a traitor.’

Bolton strained his eyes to prevent tears from flowing as he pointed at Matian’s blood-stained clothes.

“Looks like you handled the job properly.”

“I dealt with one guy, but a woman escaped. That Fritz fellow tried to create something, saying he’d complete the final alchemy, but his body burst like a balloon due to the side effects of black magic.”

Matian, who habitually wore a smile on his lips, explained the cruel situation very plainly before closing his mouth.

Rukna’s expression, who was listening, was not good.

What went wrong?

Matian checked his own face reflected in the glass window of the building right next to him. And only then did he understand the situation.

‘I came back covered in blood all over and told the story of a corpse bursting while smiling.’

Matian rubbed his forehead in embarrassment.

The blood on his gloves left a faint mark on his forehead, adding to the cruel atmosphere, but there was no time to pay attention to that.

At that moment, Bolton asked.

“What do you mean by side effects of black magic?”

“It seems he was trying to synthesize the golden elixir by mixing forbidden magic and alchemy. Something went wrong, and the golden liquid turned into black smoke and entered Fritz’s body, bursting it like a balloon. His soul might have been annihilated too.”

“His end must have been… terrible.”

Bolton stretched his lips long.

Matian checked Bolton’s face once more.

Only then did he realize that Bolton had taken off his eye patch and was wearing a glass eye.

Matian opened and closed his mouth, then closed it again. Saying ‘You lost a senior but gained a new glass eye’ wouldn’t be something Bolton would appreciate much.

So he returned to the main topic.

“Earlier, you two seemed to be having a very interesting conversation. What were you talking about?”

“What interesting conversation could I have with this blockhead? It was nothing.”

Bolton said so while making an expression that anyone could see was not nothing.

“Really? I thought you had confessed to Rukna or something, judging by your expression.”

Confession? Rukna, who was listening to the conversation, opened her eyes wide.

‘Who to whom? Bolton to me?’

Does this honor student realize what he just said? To think he had such an open-minded way of thinking to consider that a man confessed to another man.

It wasn’t just Rukna who was surprised.

Bolton convulsed as if a button had been pressed.

“W-What are you saying men would do to each other!”

“……”

“I’m not into that kind of thing!”

“……”

As Matian silently stared, Bolton, nervously fiddling with his eyebrows, partially admitted in a very small voice.

“It’s just that the blockhead’s face looks like a girl’s. I just said handsome guys are handsome and pretty guys are… p-pretty, there was no other meaning.”

“Is that so?”

Matian’s eyes, which had been looking straight at Bolton, turned to Rukna’s face.

The deep blue eyes scrutinized every part of Rukna’s face.

It felt strangely ticklish wherever his gaze touched, so Rukna lowered her head awkwardly to avoid that gaze.

“You’re right. It’s not wrong.”

“…?”

“He is pretty indeed.”

The slightly cracked voice uttered an unexpected answer.

It was a voice that seemed to have given up on something, or perhaps suppressed something.

‘What did I just hear?’

Surprised, Rukna lifted her head abruptly. Has he gone mad because the mission was tougher than expected?

Usually, men didn’t compliment each other’s appearance like this.

Moreover, it was very embarrassing to be complimented on appearance by such a handsome man.

Bolton was equally surprised.

“Are you crazy! The great Matian complimenting someone else’s looks?”

Bolton made a fuss, saying it was material for next week’s school newspaper headline.

Then he left to find Chad, saying he should know about this news too.

“I just said that’s how it looks, I don’t know if that’s something to be surprised about.”

Matian said with an indifferent expression and then grabbed Rukna’s wrist. Unlike his expression, that gesture was quite urgent.

“Matian?”

His hand was extremely hot. It seems like he might have a fever, did he overexert himself while fighting the red eagle?

Worried that he might collapse like last time, Rukna looked up at Matian.

“I feel like I can live now.”

Matian’s expression, holding Rukna’s wrist, gradually became peaceful.

Rukna quietly looked down at her captured wrist.

His grip wasn’t strong, but there was a strange aspect that couldn’t be shaken off.

“I was having a hard time earlier due to exposure to dark magic. But the energy flowing from you makes me comfortable.”

“W-What about my energy.”

Could he have noticed the holy power of the sacred sword? Rukna’s eyes anxiously wandered in the air.

“This can’t be felt with ordinary holy power, your potential sacred power seems to be enormous.”

Unlike before, Rukna emitted strong holy power, perhaps her ability had awakened due to this mobilization order.

Matian stared at the white wrist as if to pierce through to Rukna’s inner self.

“Oh, that’s what you meant.”

“Make sure to visit the temple later. You have a talent for that side.”

And Matian released Rukna’s wrist, mobilizing all his patience.

Before touching, he didn’t know, but once touched, he was reluctant to let go.

“We’ve resolved all the problems we can, so now we should prepare to return.”

“Already?”

“If we linger here, we’ll miss one more day of classes than planned.”

Matian was an even more thorough model student than expected.

It’s truly surprising that someone who seems like he would always be first in class without studying at all diligently attends every class.

So Rukna headed towards the central tower where the students were gathered, together with Matian.

As they walked side by side, their hands occasionally brushed against each other, and each time, Rukna was startled and pulled her hand away.

Strangely, the places where they touched tingled.

The Great Sage Kuran, who had been lying in a sickbed, thanked Rukna while being supported by the alchemists.

“Thank you for saving my life. I won’t forget this kindness, so if you need any elixir, just say the word anytime. The Isle of Wisdom will support you to the best of our ability.”

Kuran handed over a thin booklet.

It was a kind of catalog listing various types of elixirs.

‘What is this.’

From elixirs with wrinkle improvement, whitening, and blemish removal functions to hangover relief, weight loss, concentration enhancement, and others with functions she had seen at least once in her past life, the list was full of familiar items.

There was even the muscle-building elixir developed by Bolton.

The prices of the elixirs were truly astronomical. Recovery potions were sold at a level that could be considered talent donation.

‘No wonder they’re so obsessed with experiments. This seems like the sales level of a major pharmaceutical company?’

The sad fact was that hair growth tonic was listed in the ‘In Development’ column.

Even with the golden elixir developed, it seems that not even the merfolk of the world could find a solution for hair loss.

And so, Rukna walked towards the dock, having gained an incredible support group.