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Latia, barely raising her upper body, asked,
"Ugh, my head... Davian, where are we?"
"The Academy. It seems we're back where we got caught in the magic circle."
"That damn god or hermit old man, what did he do to us?"
"It can't be bad. Wake the kids up. Let's get out of here quickly. It's been a few days."
"Oh, right. How many days has it been? Three? Four?"
Davian and Latia woke up their two friends and left the underground cave.
As they emerged, the stone door closed on its own, returning to its original wall form.
"Huh?"
"What's wrong, Latia?"
"The four stones with different mana flows. The ones that pulled you and me."
"What about them?"
"They're gone. Now the mana flow is all the same."
"Really?"
Davian approached the wall again, raised both hands, and sensed the mana.
"It's true."
"Was it not supposed to open anytime? Or did we open it once, so it won't open anymore?"
"Who knows. Let's go back for now. Get on my back, Latia."
"Huh?"
"Let's go."
"Kyaa!"
The four friends, having left the forest, no longer bothered to hide in the shadows as they had when they set out on their adventure.
Before they knew it, they had reached the area dense with Academy buildings.
Nubes asked Liber,
"Hey, what if we get caught by the guards like this? Can't we just go without hiding?"
"They probably know we're gone anyway. It's been a few days already. Isn't it better to be discovered sooner rather than later? They're probably looking for us anyway."
"I guess so..."
Just then.
"Who's there!"
With the clang of metal, the Academy guards appeared.
Liber raised one hand high and pointed it towards the sound.
"Students who deserted without permission! You were looking for us, right?"
Latia sighed deeply.
"...We got caught anyway, why even raise your hand."
Two guards in iron armor approached Davian's group.
"What are you doing here at this hour?"
"It's a long story. Just take us away."
"Take you away? It's good to have personal training late, but go back to your dorms."
The reaction was strange.
Latia asked,
"Weren't you looking for us? For a few days?"
"Strange fellows. Go back to your dorms before we really take you away."
There was no way this would be the reaction if four Academy students had disappeared and reappeared after several days.
Davian asked,
"Guard, what day is it today?"
"It's past midnight, so it's Friday now. Go back to your dorms."
"..."
After a moment of thought, Davian said to his friends.
"Let's go back for now. To the dorms. They're telling us to go quickly."
"Huh? Okay."
"But what's with Friday? What's that guard saying? We left on Thursday night. There's no way it's been over a week already? It should only be about four days, at most?"
Dormitory front gate.
The building on the right is the male dormitory, the building on the left is the female dormitory.
"Latia."
"Huh?"
"Sorry, but can you go get Bellum and Luna? I need to hear what's been going on while we were gone."
"Okay. I'm curious too. What's going on."
A moment later, Latia came out to the dormitory courtyard with Bellum and Luna.
Bellum, yawning widely in her pajamas, asked,
"What is it? You guys said you were going to look for stones tonight. Didn't you go? Did you already go and come back?"
Davian and Latia looked at each other.
'It seems that time there... didn't pass.'
"Latia. It seems like we came back right away?"
"Ugh... my head hurts. It feels like I'm bewitched. I definitely sat by the pond and listened to boring lectures for over three days. And even getting to the pond took at least half a day."
"Does time flow differently there? It definitely wasn't a dream or illusion."
Liber, who was thinking hard about something, slapped his palm with his fist, making a loud sound.
Everyone's eyes turned to him.
"Ah! I don't know! Let's sleep and think about it tomorrow."
The next day came.
No matter how much they asked around, looked at the calendar, and checked, the result was the same.
The time in the meadow and lake was not reflected in this reality.
It was around 11 PM when Davian's group gathered in the gymnasium storage room.
They returned a little after 1 AM.
It was a strange thing, but since they didn't receive any disciplinary action for desertion, they decided to think of it as a good thing.
Healing magic class time.
Class time had passed, but the professor hadn't come in.
A moment later.
The school nurse, Medium, opened the classroom door and entered.
"Hello. My name is Medium Frill. I'm the school nurse. Most of the swordsmanship students probably know me, but magic students might be seeing me for the first time. Right?"
The students still stared at Medium with puzzled expressions.
"Professor Raul, who was in charge of your class, was urgently dispatched to the capital at the request of the royal family. The capital has been noisy lately, so that must be why. So..."
Medium looked around at the students and fixed her gaze on Davian.
Medium gave him a wink.
"I'll be temporarily taking over the first semester healing magic class. Until Professor Raul returns. Please take care of me, everyone."
The faces of some of the male students lit up.
They seemed to like the idea of taking classes from the young, pretty, and cheerful Medium who had just entered, rather than the stoic Professor Raul.
"Well, things were decided too suddenly, so I don't know the progress? How far have you learned?"
A student who always had sparkling eyes during this particular class time raised her hand high and answered.
"We've covered the advantages and disadvantages of potions and healing magic!"
"Oh, really? You've learned a lot. Your name is Luna Fueri, right? Cute student."
"Ah, yes, yes!"
"You're so interested in healing magic?"
"Ah... yes. That, that's right!"
Luna's face quickly turned red at Medium's attention.
The confident hand-raising spirit was long gone.
"That's admirable. Besides Luna, are there any other students who plan to focus on studying healing magic?"
Three or four students raised their hands.
"Good. Anyway, in the first year, you have to take all sorts of basic classes. So, everyone, open your textbooks now. Ah! I need to tell you this first."
When Rimerium gestured, an assistant brought a bag containing empty potion bottles and various potion ingredients.
Medium picked up one of the potion bottles from the bag.
"Our midterm practical exam will be making a healing potion. It would be too difficult for you to use healing magic for the practical exam yet. I'll distribute the basic ingredients, and you can freely find additional ingredients within the area you're allowed to enter. Only inside the Academy. It's forbidden to bring other ingredients from outside."
Medium put the empty potion bottle back into the bag.
The assistant closed the bag and headed to one side of the classroom.
There, the same bags were prepared according to the number of magic students.
"There's no separate practical exam. If you make a healing potion and submit it within the period, that will be in place of the practical exam. Simple, right?"
Medium opened the textbook on the desk.
"Okay, let's start class. If you've learned about the advantages and disadvantages of potions and healing magic, now it's time to learn about the healing process of healing magic, right?"
"Yes!"
The male students, who were usually quiet during Professor Raul's class, began to answer loudly even to Medium's light questions.
"Hehehe. It's good that everyone answers so well. Okay, then watch this carefully."
Medium rolled up her left sleeve.
A white, slender arm was revealed.
Then, she took out a dagger from her pocket and stabbed it directly into her arm.
"Heop."
"Kyaa!"
Students who were surprised here and there made various noises and looked at Medium.
Blood dripped from the arm where she pulled out the dagger.
"Okay, look carefully. If you use healing magic on this kind of stab wound..."
"Wow. I was really surprised."
"Me too. Professor Medium seems pretty passionate, right? I didn't think she'd show us healing magic by stabbing a dagger into her own arm."
"She's so different from Professor Raul, who only taught with textbooks."
After class, students left the classroom, saying a word or two each.
Davian was also about to leave the classroom when he heard Medium's voice from behind.
"Davian, can you stay behind and help me organize the teaching materials?"
"Ah, yes. Teacher."
Davian gestured for Luna and Latia to go first.
"Go to the cafeteria first. I'll follow you."
"Okay, Davian."
When he returned to the classroom, the assistants were already busy organizing the teaching materials and wiping the blood-soaked floor.
"Why did you call me, Teacher?"
Medium looked at Davian and narrowed her eyes.
'Sly fox.'
"I called you to help me organize the teaching materials, right?"
"It seems like that's almost done already, though."
'Anyway, she's not an easy opponent.'
"Hehehe. You don't know how to just gloss over things, Davian. Won't you come to the nurse's office with me and have dinner? I bought your lunch box too."
"I like the food in the student cafeteria."
"I have something to say. And something to give you."
"...Yes, Teacher."
On the way to the nurse's office.
Even though she had asked him to come along, Medium's mind became very complicated.
'How do I get him to eat it? Will that quick-witted, old man-like guy eat it willingly? What if he knows it's medicine?'
In the nurse's office, the medicine that was manufactured based on a thesis from the Magic Tower Library was already prepared.
A thesis with the long title of 'Method of Manufacturing and Clinical Trial Report on Human Constitution Change Drugs Based on Troll Regeneration Cell Research.'
It was also the thesis that Medium was most interested in and researched when she was in a professional magical medical institution.
The research was a complete failure at the time.
The regeneration cell research was successful, but human constitutions did not change easily as the magicians intended.
'But maybe... if it's Davian.'
But what if there was someone who was born with a constitution that heals wounds on its own in the first place?
Then that medicine from that time might be effective.
'I definitely want to try feeding it to him and recording the results... What do I say and feed it to him? Should I tell him honestly? Or should I just say it's a nutritional supplement?'
Medium wouldn't have worried so much if it were another student.
But Davian, whom she had met so far, was not a student who would easily fall for persuasion.
'I need to find a way. I must feed it to him no matter what. This could be a groundbreaking event in the healing magic world! I will feed it to him with a sense of duty! Medium! You can do it!'
Medium, who had entered the nurse's office, ordered an assistant to hand over the warm lunch box that had been prepared in advance.
"Here, let's eat. Davian. I prepared the best for you."
The large lunch box was full of warm turkey dishes and fresh vegetables.
On one side, meatballs made of minced beef were well-baked.
"It looks like an expensive lunch box at first glance?"
"Yeah. I told you I prepared the best."
"Do you have something you want to ask me to do?"
'Ah, how do I cook this sly fox?'
"Ah, no. Hehehe. Let's eat first. Aren't you hungry?"
The meal ended without her even knowing where the food was going, as she was turning her head and watching Davian's expressions.
"Now, please say what you want to say."
"Hoo, okay. Even if it's other kids, since it's you, Davian. I'll just be direct. Listen carefully."
"Yes."
"...I have some herbal medicine that my hometown sent me left, would you like to eat it too?"
"That doesn't sound direct at all."
"You're a student I especially care about, hehehe."
Medium quickly went to the desk and brought back a wooden crate a little larger than the lunch box she had eaten a little while ago.
When she opened the crate, there were 10 potions of mysterious colors inside.
It was packaged so sincerely and luxuriously that you could put plain water in it and sell it for a pretty high price.
"This is herbal medicine?"
"That... that's... Ahaha."
"What kind of strange thing are you trying to feed me? Are you trying to experiment on me now? I'm not eating it. This kind of thing."
"Ah, no. Davian. Absolutely not. Why would I experiment on you? Ahaha."
That's when it happened.
A notification sound that only Davian could hear.
Ding.
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[Recovery Skill Buff Potion]
―Rarity: ★★★
―Increases the level of recovery and regeneration skills.
―Raises the level of one recovery or regeneration skill each time it is taken.
―Can be taken up to 2 times per year
―Can evolve one recovery or regeneration skill to 'Advanced Skill' upon taking 10 doses cumulatively.
=====
The look in Davian's eyes changed as he looked at the potion.
"I'll eat well. Teacher."
"Yeah, okay. ......Huh? What did you say?"
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