An empty hour or so passed. Several more children joined us, and I was surprised to see anyone who took longer than I did. None of them looked injured, so it was probably the traps in the forest that held them up. As we waited for the instructor, a few kids looked at the other side of the mountain, their attention captured by something. As far as I knew, there was nothing but a cliff there.
I heard the quiet sound of footsteps and looked over for myself. A huge shadow jumped up from the cliff and over our heads. It twisted in midair and landed silently among us.
“Is this everyone?” Konji made no bravado of his spectacular performance but simply stood there looking over us with that club in his hand. “Three. Fewer than I thought.”
No doubt he was referring to the number of missing children. We had never lost so many to one training session before. It showed how dangerous this task was. The pay-off was that we had dramatically improved our ability to conceal our presence and perceive traps by walking through a forest teeming with beasts and snares with no guarantee that we would make it out alive. As much as it pained me to admit it, the training was far from a waste of time.
Once he counted us, Konji tossed his club aside. “That concludes today’s training. Go back and get something to eat. First come, first served.”
With that, he threw himself off the cliff and vanished. The kids exchanged several glances before they started climbing down the mountain themselves.
Then there was me, at a loss. It should have been obvious, but since we had come all the way up, we would have to go all the way down again too.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Finally...”
By the time I made it home, the sun had set, and the moon was starting its ascent. The weather was fine, but because my foot was anything but, the journey took even more out of me than the training itself. Focusing my essence around it disguised my injury and actually allowed me to walk.
I ignored my body, despite it begging me for food, and went to the medical office instead. I hadn’t been here since my time in the reflection room pushed me close to starvation.
“Here, what’s the matter?” a middle-aged man asked as I entered. Manborn.
“I hurt my foot.”
Last time I was here, a woman had seen to me. There were probably a number of adults who took turns staffing this office. The man wore the same black robe as the instructors.
“Would you be so kind as to show me?”
“Sure.”
Trying not to let his patronizing tone get to me, I showed him my ankle. It was horribly swollen and worse than when I last checked, probably because I forced myself to walk on it. On top of that, it was purple, suggesting internal bleeding.
“Oh yes, I see.” The man nodded to himself, put his forefinger and thumb together like he was going to pinch me, then pointed them toward my ankle. There was a needle between them.
I noticed him imbuing the needle with essence, but before I could react, he had stabbed it into the swelling. Strangely, though, it didn’t hurt. It must have been like acupuncture from my previous life.
“Yes, yes. Yes, I see...” The man continued sticking needles into me.
I could only stare blankly at my ankle, which was starting to look more like a cactus with each passing moment.
The man hummed with satisfaction. “That should do it.”
He took the sole of my foot in his hand and started rotating it in firm circles. I groaned as electrifying pain zapped through me. After smirking at my attempts to bear the pain, he set about removing all the needles.
“I bet it doesn’t hurt anymore, does it?” he asked.
I paused. “It doesn’t, no.”
Strictly speaking, it still hurt a bit, but it was more like a receding muscular pain, which wasn’t something I would take any notice of. It also felt like the swelling was going down.
“We can repair almost any injury you can think of, so never worry your little head. Just be careful you don’t lose anything, because we won’t be able to bring it back.”
In other words, if I had missing body parts, I was out of luck. I remembered the one-armed boy who had shown us around. I wondered if they would be able to at least reattach the limbs if they had them on hand.
As I tested out my stiff, less-swollen ankle, I thought of Hieda. I could have died because of her meddling today. I was sure she wouldn’t stop there either. And I didn’t know if I could survive another round.
I decided to go with my only option: getting rid of her.
✦ ✦ ✦
The next morning was the first time there was no punishment for the dragon girl. She wasn’t making any attempt to get along with the other kids, as usual. The children she once had quarrels with were now pressing themselves against the walls when they met her in the hallway, content just to let her pass. No one scorned her anymore. Fighting skills were prized in this environment, and now the kids who had never been involved with her were envious of her.
Those who were hostile to her avoided her at all costs. Those who hadn’t hated her so much kept their distance, but I occasionally spotted them regarding her with interest.
While she filled the room with her cloying essence, I was there chewing on some random grass I’d picked up in the forest. Sister had used medicine before to forcibly draw information from me. I was lucky that she didn’t get anything critical. If she had, I might well have been killed.
I decided to come up with a plan in case the same thing happened again. I picked a variety of different plants in the forest and ate them one by one. I took note of what they did to me physically, and those with a similar effect to Sister’s drugs, I ate more often to get my body used to them. Right now, I was chewing on a leaf with a sedative effect. I wasn’t sure if my efforts would actually prove effective, but I had to try, even if the chances were slim. The same held true for what I was planning to do next.
I swallowed the poison leaf, which I had yet to even chew into mush, stood up from my bed, and went to the door.