As time passed, Ruslan could feel that Sarka’s condition was becoming increasingly unusual.
Though he seemed to try to maintain a calm expression, his white nape was gradually becoming slick with sweat.
Occasionally, the hand gripping his fountain pen curled inward as if enduring unbearable pain, then bent minutely inward.
Ruslan’s heart began to pound.
Ruslan didn’t know what to do and just observed Sarka’s profile. He couldn’t hear the lesson at all.
Sarka’s left hand sometimes moved as if adjusting his posture and touched his temple, but Ruslan noticed moments when the fingertips curled up as if faintly convulsing. Ruslan could see Sarka’s once elegant shoulders gradually stiffening.
Finally, when Sarka’s stiff shirt collar began to stick to his nape from profuse sweat, Ruslan couldn’t stand it anymore and shot his hand up.
“Professor! Hütivras seems unwell…… I think he should be sent to the infirmary.”
At that voice, Sarka’s body flinched stiffly, then his gaze whipped around to look at Ruslan.
The moment their eyes met, Ruslan froze.
Sarka’s eyes were sharply bristling, full of wariness. As if tensed by an unexpected attack.
“……”
Slowly, Sarka turned his gaze to look around at the eyes in the classroom focused on him.
The moment he saw Sarka’s cheek turn faintly pale, Ruslan felt he’d made a mistake.
Like a beast hiding its wounds and crouching that had been exposed to the sight of predators, Sarka’s eyes had frozen.
The professor turned to Ruslan with a briefly surprised expression, then soon noticed that Sarka’s complexion was pale and soaked with sweat as Ruslan had said. Sarka’s friends were looking at Sarka with round eyes.
Sarka was frozen stiffly like a beast targeted by blades from all directions, his mouth shut and even his breath killed.
The professor soon nodded with a worried look.
“……Yes, it would be good to go to the infirmary, Hütivras. Could the friend sitting next to you take him?”
When one of Sarka’s friends stood up and tried to support Sarka’s arm, Sarka blocked that hand with a light movement.
Sarka whispered that he was fine in a calmly sunken voice, then soon stood from his seat with a smooth movement.
“……Excuse me.”
Sarka, who had bowed politely, turned around.
As Sarka picked up his bag and silently took a step, his gaze brushed against Ruslan sitting diagonally as if touching by chance while passing.
However, the moment their eyes met, Ruslan clearly saw the green eyes bristle terribly fiercely.
Ruslan’s body froze.
The murderous gaze glared at Ruslan for just a brief moment, then quickly swept past.
Sarka strode out of the lecture hall through the back door. Unlike his pale complexion, his steps weren’t disturbed at all. Like an animal desperately tensing its body to hide an injured part.
Sarka’s friends looked back toward the rear of the classroom with somewhat worried looks, but soon turned their gazes away when the professor tidied up the atmosphere.
Ruslan swallowed dryly and thought of Sarka’s gaze he’d just met. Ruslan thought it was the expression of a beast with all its teeth and claws pulled out.
An anxious beast furiously angry at having its wounds exposed, yet knowing it had become so weak it couldn’t even defeat that insignificant beast.
When the next class time came, Sarka appeared again looking perfectly fine.
Sarka’s friends could be seen asking after him with worried expressions. Sarka smiled, saying with a slightly tired expression that he seemed to have a touch of fever. Ruslan saw the stiff collar with no trace of having been wet and knew Sarka had gone back to the dormitory to change his shirt.
Sarka loosened his tie slightly, unusually for him, but didn’t touch his temple again until the end of class.
Dinner time. Baigarten, who had been informed about Sarka’s condition by Ruslan, stiffened his face. The moment Baigarten entered the dining hall, he checked toward Sarka’s table.
Sarka was sitting calmly, listening to his friends’ words with a soft expression. Though his complexion had become slightly paler than before, his posture was still straight. Sarka’s nape, his jacket hung on the chair like someone who gets heated easily, was cool.
Ruslan could see Sarka’s profile bursting into laughter at his friends’ jokes. It was an ordinary, friendly dinner scene as always.
However, Ruslan suddenly realized that Sarka’s plate wasn’t even half empty. When he turned his gaze, Baigarten’s gaze was also lingering on that plate.
“……”
Baigarten frowned slightly.
Ruslan glanced at Sarka throughout dinner time with an anxious expression.
Sarka was only smiling softly and listening to his friends’ jokes, barely moving the hand holding his fork.
Ruslan thought it looked like a beast tensed up trying not to touch food.
“Can’t eat?”
Baigarten, who had gone to visit the room, asked Sarka who was sitting languidly on the sofa.
Sarka glanced at Baigarten, then replied quietly.
“……Are you going to force-feed me?”
Baigarten frowned briefly and examined Sarka’s complexion, but Sarka turned his head again to look down at the book he was reading.
“……I heard you left early during 5th period.”
When Baigarten asked quietly, Sarka exhaled faintly, then turned to Baigarten with an amused expression.
“……Did the one next to me tell you?”
Sarka, who slightly furrowed his brow toward Ruslan, had an expression of being fed up.
At the cold and irritated response as usual, Baigarten looked down at Sarka for a moment.
Though he felt Sarka’s complexion had become paler than in the morning, Sarka’s movements as he sat upright were still not disturbed at all.
Baigarten looked at Sarka as if conflicted for a moment, but soon seemed to decide he shouldn’t provoke him further here.
“……I’ll come again tomorrow morning.”
Sarka didn’t look at the two leaving.
Baigarten pretended to idle in the dormitory lounge while watching toward Sarka’s door until bedtime.
Sitting attached beside Baigarten and surreptitiously doing homework, Ruslan also looked at Sarka’s room.
Until bedtime came and Baigarten sent Ruslan back to the scholarship dormitory, Sarka’s door didn’t open.
***
The next morning, Sarka didn’t come down for breakfast.
Sarka’s friends, accustomed to Sarka who originally didn’t eat breakfast, were indifferently having breakfast.
But Ruslan, who remembered that Sarka had barely eaten dinner yesterday either, couldn’t help but be concerned.
Baigarten also looked displeased.
When Ruslan carefully asked if they shouldn’t pack some food to bring him, Baigarten replied without hesitation.
“He won’t eat what I bring him.”
It was an answer filled with certainty.
Ruslan gave up, recalling Sarka’s attitude of throwing the breakfast he’d brought into the fireplace without a moment’s hesitation.
The two, who hurriedly finished their meal like yesterday, headed to Sarka’s room.
Baigarten, who opened the door, hesitated. The living room was empty.
Baigarten looked at the bedroom door carefully, then lightly approached and knocked.
“……What.”
An irritated voice flowed out.
Baigarten hesitated a bit, then asked trying to seem calm.
“You’re alive, darling?”
There was no answer from inside. Baigarten furrowed his brow slightly, then spoke in a testing tone.
“If it’s hard, you don’t have to go to class. I’ll tell the professors.”
After a moment, rustling sounds came, then the door opened with a burst.
Sarka, looking very irritated, looked at Baigarten with a frowning face.
“……Get out.”
Though Sarka was still in shirt attire without even tying his tie, he was wearing his uniform.
But Ruslan realized Sarka’s complexion was clearly bad.
His face color was pale, and his dry lips were slightly cracked. Perhaps he hadn’t slept properly, as his eye area was darkened.
Baigarten also noticed this and stiffened his face.
“……It seems better to rest.”
However, Sarka irritably closed the door as if he wouldn’t say it twice.
Baigarten looked at the closed door with a face unable to make a decision for a moment, then soon sighed and turned around.
As they left the room, Baigarten said quietly to Ruslan.
“If Sarka seems strange, come tell me.”
Ruslan hurriedly nodded.
Class began.
At Sarka’s complexion appearing in the lecture hall, even his friends began to look quite worried and asked after Sarka.
At his friends’ recommendation that he should go to the infirmary, Sarka smiled faintly saying he’d be fine since he’d stopped by in the morning and taken medicine.
Sarka still sat upright, but Ruslan soon realized Sarka’s movements had minutely slowed. Like someone with slight dizziness.
Occasionally, Sarka frowned as if irritated.
Ruslan watched his condition nervously, but Sarka kept his back straight until class ended.
Lunchtime.
Sarka didn’t touch his plate at all.
When his friends worried, Sarka, who indifferently replied that his stomach was upset, languidly rested his arm on the table with his temple supported.
Except for occasionally playing along with his friends’ conversations, Sarka’s mouth didn’t open.
He didn’t put even a sip of water to his lips.
Baigarten’s expression became serious.
“……Can’t eat?”
Baigarten, who had stopped Sarka leaving the dining hall, asked quietly.
Sarka turned to Baigarten with an expression tinged with faint irritation, then spat out in a sharp voice.
“Let go.”
His voice had sunk languidly, the end faintly cracking. Baigarten made quite a serious expression.
“……It seems better to skip class.”
Sarka looked at Baigarten with an irritated expression, then shook off his arm and turned around. Baigarten looked at Sarka with a slightly anxious look.
Baigarten, who had been conflicted, signaled to Ruslan. Ruslan surreptitiously sat in the back of the lecture hall and watched Sarka throughout class.
After about two hours, Sarka seemed to have reached his limit.
The hand touching his temple gradually trembled, then occasionally dug in and rubbed as if sweeping back his hair, or touched the back of his neck as if it was unbearable to endure.
Ruslan anxiously watched Sarka’s shoulders gradually puff up from suppressed breaths. Sarka’s neck repeatedly stiffened as if trying to hold back groans, then relaxed. When Ruslan realized the focus in Sarka’s green eyes often blurred, he bit his lip.
He desperately wanted to have Sarka leave early like this, but recalling Sarka’s eyes that had frozen the moment attention focused on him, he was reluctant.
He seemed to terribly hate the situation where his weakness was exposed.
Suddenly, Ruslan recalled that Sarka was a boy who just two years ago had been surrounded by human exorcists and nearly killed, barely escaping.
If his mother hadn’t met a brutal death in his place, he too would have lost his life at the hands of humans.
To Sarka who had barely escaped, his real father had said he would kill him if he didn’t abandon the ideology his mother taught.
And now…… Sarka was receiving <corporal punishment> from the father who had said he would kill him.
Surrounded by hundreds of humans, alone, sitting in a completely powerless state—
Corporal punishment where poison that was gradually weakening him was being injected.
“……”
His chest sank heavily.
Sarka’s complexion was now so deathly pale it was almost indistinguishable from paper.
Whether what lingered on that face was pain or fear, Ruslan found it hard to distinguish.
When class ended, finally Sarka also seemed to acknowledge he couldn’t carry out daily life.
Sarka rose from his seat, said a few words to his friends, and approached the professor.
Sarka, having received permission to leave early, expressionlessly picked up his bag and left the lecture hall.
Ruslan now saw that Sarka’s body was soaked with sweat to a degree impossible to hide.
When Baigarten heard Ruslan’s story, he frowned and immediately stood up.
Baigarten, who opened Sarka’s door, immediately crossed the living room and knocked on the bedroom.
Soon a fierce answer came from beyond the door.
“I’m alive, so stop it.”
Ruslan thought that voice bristling with edges in all directions was similar to an injured beast barking louder, full of wariness.
Baigarten hesitated slightly, then tried gently turning the doorknob he was holding just enough not to make a sound. Baigarten, who confirmed the door was locked, made an expression lost in thought for a moment.
Soon making a decision and obediently removing his hand, Baigarten spoke quietly toward the inside.
“……Stay in your room until the weekend. I’ll bring meals up.”
The sound of grinding teeth could be heard, but no answer came.
Baigarten looked at the locked door with a bitter expression, then turned around.
That evening. When Baigarten, who had gone up with Ruslan bringing dinner, knocked on the bedroom door, the inside of the room was quiet.
Baigarten flinched briefly, then carefully called out.
“……Sarka?”
Only after a moment of stillness did a faint voice return, cracked.
“Not eating.”
His voice was clearly hoarse and lowered. Baigarten frowned.
“You haven’t eaten anything all day.”
“……”
When there was no answer, Baigarten’s face became anxious.
Finally with a determined expression, Baigarten took out a key from his pocket, unlocked it, and carefully opened the bedroom door.
The room was dark, and the bed curtains were closed.
“……Get out.”
A murky voice came from beyond the closed curtains.
Baigarten put down the plate on the nightstand and tried to carefully pull back the bed curtains.
“If you open it, I’ll kill you.”
A thorn-like voice shot out quickly.
The voice that shot out as soon as his hand touched was sharply bristling, full of wariness. It even felt somewhat childish in tone.
And at the fact that that voice didn’t feel scary at all, Ruslan’s heart sank.
Sarka was fatally aware to an excessive degree that he had become weak. It was like watching a beast with its limbs bound growling up at a tanner who had come to skin it.
Ruslan realized that even if they pulled back those curtains now, there was nothing Sarka could do.
Because he knew that best, Sarka’s voice was several times more chilling and fierce than usual, but because of the anxiety and urgency buried beneath, it didn’t feel threatening at all.
It was a strange feeling.
Baigarten also seemed to have noticed Sarka’s condition.
After silently hesitating, Baigarten soon made a decision and quietly withdrew, leaving the plate.
“……I’ll come in the morning.”
No answer came from behind the curtains.
Baigarten turned around.
That night, Ruslan lying in the scholarship dormitory couldn’t sleep.
Sarka’s green eyes began spinning round and round in his head.
