Chapter 80 - Why Do You Have…?!

"This is odd. You're the first one here, at our meeting point."

"You make it sound like you expected me to be the last person to show up."

"…"

I glare at the 4'7" woman. "That's the same as saying yes."

"I know. It just wasn't worth my time to say so."

"Agh… I swear…"

I throw my clenched hands over my eyes furiously, and Panko licks my cheek. "Pii!"

"Yeah, yeah, buddy, it's okay. She's our new party member, after all," I say, turning my back to Termi so Panko and I can peer suspiciously at her. I'm only pretending to understand him, but the baby animal gleefully plays along, eyeing the girl with all his might.

Termi huffs, turning her head away and showing she has no intention of playing along. Luckily for me, it's then that Lynsel enters the open Town Square, waving to the two of us. "Happy mornings!"

"Happy morning," I reply, waving a bit, and Termi waves as well. Lynsel looks around, the edge of his mouth curling down slightly. "Eniyala and Yorun still aren't here?"

I shrug. "Eniyala is saying bye to her father and brother, and who knows where Yorun is. I vote we ditch him."

Termi nods firmly. "If he's this late, maybe he is not suited to be in such a party. I have to agree with the child."

Child?!—

Lynsel steps forward, waving his hands back and forth. "Oh no, we can't just leave him behind! And, that would make Eniyala sad."

"Oh, well, spaghetti-ohh," I reply casually, and the two of them give me an odd look.

"Spa get an oh?" Lynsel asks, tilting his head in confusion.

Before I have to awkwardly explain (how would I even explain I'm a Reincarnate to these two??), my buzzing phone saves me the trouble. I pull it out of my pocket to inspect the azure lines running down vertically over the 'screen,' with the name {Eni}.

I hold it up to show them before tapping her name to answer it. "Hey, Party Leader. What's taking so long?"

"He's awake."

Lynsel and Termi watch my phone clatter against the ground, the only indication of the speed I had departed at a slight gust of wind pulling at their hair.

Thirty seconds pass before I arrive at the plain building, slamming open the pair of doors and sprinting through the hallways until I try to skid to a stop.

The side of my foot catches upon the ground, and I flip over into the door, ripping the hinges from the wall as I crash to the floor. Thanks to his hard shell, Panko is unharmed, but stays in his protective ball on my shoulder a few seconds before finally peeking out.

A shocked expression sits on Raeki's, Eniyala's, and Gaslion's faces, and I try to take as much of a casual stance on the fallen door as I can. " 'Sup."

Gaslion's unamused look is overpowered by the pure bright innocence radiating off of Raeki's smile. But, the smile isn't bright enough to mask the nearly-hidden glaze in his right eye.

"What is he doing here?"

"Dad, be nice. He's my friend."

"Yeah, yeah."

I take this time to scramble to my feet and rush over to the closest side of the bed, on his left. "I'm so sorry—"

"I heard you beated the bad guy who hurt me! Was he tough?"

I stare for a second before I force a smile on my face. "Psh. If you didn't have to protect big bad Dad, you coulda taken him."

Gaslion shoots me an evil glare while Raeki laughs.

"We're headed out today, actually. But we will come back to check on you, alright? You better be good and healthy by then, you hear?"

He giggles. "I hear!"

My grin widens. It finally feels like a weight I hadn't known had been there was lifted from my shoulders.

A nurse sitting in the corner stands up, walking over and tugging on my elbow. "Can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Ope, I'm in trouble," I say, making Raeki laugh again. "Be back in a sec."

The nurse and I step out, and she clutches a tablet to her chest. Unlike the healers, who wear clothes only slightly nicer than Priests, she's wearing everyday clothes like I have over my armor currently.

"It's about Raeki Ignios. The head Healer diagnosed his body, and… he's completely blind in his left eye, has little to no motor function in his left arm, and he's paralyzed from the waist down. In short, any adventuring he may plan to do is over."

The weight returns twofold, pulling on me so harshly I'm surprised that my knees don't buckle. "Thank you for letting me know," I say, the dryness of my throat conveying itself through my tone. She nods, reentering the room by herself. My head swims in circles, and I punch the wall with my left hand suddenly, causing Panko to yelp lightly.

'Why didn't you move? It's your fault. Useless.'

Several thoughts bounce around my head at once, all chastising me. 'Useless. Useless. Useless, useless, uselessuselessuse—'

"…Klum?"

My thoughts immediately blink away at Eni's hesitant voice. She's peeking her head out of the door, staring at me. She glances at my fist against the wall. "We all heard a loud bang, and Raeki was worried about you, so I came to check. What'd you do to the wall?"

I follow her gaze to see my fist inside a cratered hole in the cement wall, blood trickling through the cracks from my split knuckles.

"Oh, uh… That must have been here when I arrived."

She narrows her eyes, walking up to me and grabbing my wrist. "Uh-huh. I'm guessing she told you, too?" As she brings my hand closer to her, she holds her palm over my knuckles. "Healing Tsunami."

I watch the upgraded healing Spell wash over the small injuries, easily cleaning and repairing them. "… Yeah. If I had just moved—"

She flicks my newly repaired knuckle before dropping my hand, causing me to wince. It may be healed, but the pain took a bit longer to fade. "You can't blame yourself for not being there. In fact, he wouldn't be alive right now if not for you. How he turned up like this is my f… is no one's fault." Something seems to be troubling her, but I know better than to ask. I may be an idiot, but I'm not plain stupid, after all.

"… Let's tell him bye and go get your boyfriend," I say teasingly, and she lightly punches my arm. "Shut up."

We walk back in with smiles plastered on our faces, sitting to talk with Raeki for a few more minutes before saying our goodbyes to the boy and leaving the building.

Like always, our silence isn't uncomfortable, and we walk for several buildings before I say something. "So…"

She shakes her head. "Not now, Klum."

"Okay."

Just then, Eniyala's eyes land on a boy with dark hair and clothing skulking about a stall. "Yorun!"

She jogs over to him, greeting him, and they engage in small talk — which is mostly her talking, and him nodding or giving short responses.

But I haven't moved from my spot, staring at Yorun in shock. Or rather, his Mana veins, and what I see with them.

[Skill Detect Dark is forcibly being activated]
[Dark Seed detected!
Distance: 6 feet]

Just like his attire, the Mana running through him is thick and dark, running through him like goo. And rather than being directed to his heart area, like Mana veins usually do, they go just beneath it, to a dark seed shape. It was an unsprouted version of what I saw beneath my own heart whenever I looked in the mirror.

I disappear from where I'm standing, grabbing Yorun by the throat and slamming him against a nearby wall. His eyes widen, his hands gripping at my wrist with surprising Strength.

But not enough.

"Why do you have a Dark Seed?" I growl, a stray arc of lightning crawling across my arm.