Ruslan’s small body rushed forward fiercely as if bouncing up on a spring, attacking and covering Sarka’s body that was being half-lifted by the men’s hands.
At the excessively reckless momentum, Sarka not only escaped from the men’s hands but swayed backward like a sheaf of rice. There was a bang! sound of Sarka’s back of the head hitting the floor.
Ruslan was horrified and hurriedly shoved his palm under Sarka’s back of the head, then picked up and gathered Sarka’s shoulders as if picking up a dropped puppy and hugged him tightly to his chest.
Ruslan, who preciously hugged Sarka’s still-limp head and shoulders like cherished food he’d been saving, looked up at the men with a serious expression as if he would absolutely not let him be taken.
The men inadvertently stopped their movements and looked down at the two, frozen for a moment unable to grasp the situation.
Without giving the men time to collect themselves, Ruslan made an absurd expression and shouted at the top of his lungs in extremely excited Frükan dialect.
“Why are you pointing guns at innocent students!! Who brings firearms to a sacred school!! Does the Headmaster know about this?! I’m… I’m going to report you!!! Who are you peopleeee!!!”
At his yelling momentum, bewilderment rose on the men’s faces. Ruslan lay flat on top of Sarka like a four-legged beast, with one arm tightly hugging Sarka’s neck around, raising only his head like a startled chicken and squawking.
“I think you’re greatly misunderstanding something!! My friend is very sick!! He was in so much pain that I brought him out to take him to the infirmary! Is that a crime?! Huh?! Is it a crimeeee!!!”
At the continued protests in completely mangled Frükan dialect, the men made dumbfounded expressions and blinked.
Among the men frozen unable to grasp the situation, Ruslan also desperately hugged only Sarka’s neck and blinked his eyes wide. To anyone watching, it was the appearance of a scholarship student who had been going to the infirmary with his friend when suddenly guns were pointed at him and he got scared.
The moment the men couldn’t find anything to say and were opening their mouths, a bewildered voice burst out panting, cutting through that air.
“……Ruslan?”
Ruslan, who had whipped his head around, discovered Baigarten and the Headmaster who had come running with ghastly pale faces.
As soon as his eyes met with the pale-faced Baigarten, Ruslan began wailing as if he’d been waiting for it.
“Sunbae-niiim~!! Headmaster-nim!! Please save us! I was coming down to go to the infirmary with my friend! When people with guns!! They said they were going to shoot us and!! Hueoeoeoong~!!!”
At the sight of Ruslan beginning to lament with a face that looked like he’d die of injustice, the Headmaster looked around bewildered.
The Headmaster, confirming the Angel’s Fangs fragrance clearly filling the air, made a slightly perplexed expression.
The moment the Headmaster received a report that Sarka, who had been mad with pain, was leaving his room half-carried by some human with the Controller released, the Headmaster would have tensed up to his toes anticipating a terrible situation. Because he would know that Sarka was a dangerous ability user who could dominate all the humans in this school to make them commit suicide, or make them attack each other causing a massacre if he set his mind to it.
Just as Sarka had set his mind to do so moments ago.
The Headmaster, who had come running pale and with all his might, seemed to be confused by the situation unfolding differently than expected.
When the Headmaster looked around at the men with a questioning gaze, the men also made bewildered expressions and stared blankly down at Ruslan.
Only Baigarten had an expression of his mouth completely blocked because too many words came to mind at once.
The Headmaster frowned and asked as if he didn’t understand.
“……The Controller?”
“What?!”
When Ruslan asked back with a dumbfounded face as if he had no idea what he was talking about, Baigarten seemed to have gradually grasped the situation.
Baigarten’s lips twitched several times before he asked in a hoarse voice.
“……The device… on Sarka’s arm, did you… touch it, Rus…lan?”
The voice he had pressed down trying desperately to feign composure trembled faintly.
Ruslan’s dark blue eyes and Baigarten’s teal eyes met.
Ruslan was silent for one breath, then began rambling with the most stupid-looking expression he could muster.
“Wha, wha, what are you talking about… you mean that weird-looking thing attached to Sarka’s arm?!”
“……Yes.”
Baigarten answered grinding his teeth. Ruslan began rambling incoherently in continued mangled Frükan dialect.
“That’s, Sunbae-nim! I didn’t mean to! Sarka hasn’t been coming to class for a week! I was so worried so I went to visit his room!! I know the Headmaster told me not to! But I was so worried!! Uh, I, I’m sturdy so I don’t catch things like infectious diseases easily…!! So, so…!! I’m sorry but I went to see Sarka!! And he was in really bad condition!!!”
“……So?”
Baigarten asked grinding his teeth. Ruslan continued shamelessly sputtering and rambling.
“I thought I should take him to the infirmary so I tried to carry him out, but Sarka kept being stubborn saying he wouldn’t go! His eyes were unfocused and his face was all black, so I thought he wasn’t in his right mind and tried to forcibly drag him, and while pulling his arm I accidentally touched something and it… uh… I don’t know how it happened either. Is… is that important? Sarka kept saying I shouldn’t take that thing off anyway…. Uh, I… from what I saw, as soon as that thing came off he got better so… I think the hospital gave him the wrong medicine or something….”
On the Headmaster’s face, a strange expression began to appear mixing faint irritation and relief.
The men’s expressions also became somewhat ambiguous. One man had even lowered his rifle diagonally and was scratching the back of his neck with a tired expression. The tension was clearly dissipating.
Only Baigarten was still grinding his teeth looking down at Ruslan with a pale face, but Ruslan pretended not to notice and kept on talking.
“A, a, anyway, he kept talking nonsense and his complexion was bad, so I dragged him out trying to take him to the infirmary first…. But suddenly… on the first floor… those people… they said they were going to e, e, execute uuuus….”
When Ruslan extended his finger accusingly pointing at the bell tower keeper, the bell tower keeper made a disgruntled expression and looked back at the Headmaster.
The Headmaster frowned and looked down at Sarka held in Ruslan’s arms.
Baigarten’s rigidly hardened gaze also slowly descended, looking down at the back of Sarka’s head awkwardly held with his upper body forcibly pulled up in Ruslan’s arms.
Only then did the tense Ruslan also surreptitiously lower his gaze, loosening his suffocatingly tight hold on Sarka slightly and stealing a glance at his face.
Their eyes met. Ruslan almost got angry for a moment.
Sarka was, well…
He had an expression of not understanding this desperate situation at all.
Sarka was looking up at Ruslan blankly with an almost dumbfounded face, his lips even slightly parted.
There wasn’t a trace of tension on that face. Sarka was looking at Ruslan with a truly completely perplexed expression, blinking slowly.
It wasn’t a look of finding this ridiculous parade of lies absurd or resentful, or even grateful. It was really… an expression of truly not knowing what Ruslan was doing right now, not knowing at all how to react.
If not for this situation, he might have thought it was funny. Actually, it looked quite stupi… d, and anyway, it was an expression he’d never once imagined Sarka would make.
Sarka looked up at Ruslan with an innocently pure expression like a baby deer thrown into a chicken coop. His hazy eyes were even slightly awkwardly frozen, completely unable to understand the situation unfolding. Ruslan’s temper flared.
……If you had any awareness, try matching the rhythm a bit!! I’m doing this bullshit to save your life right now!!
Frükan curses rose to the tip of his throat, but having quickly grasped that Sarka was of no help to the situation at all, Ruslan decided to bury Sarka’s face back in his bosom and continue shamelessly.
“A, a, anyway! We really didn’t do anything wrong at all! I think you’re misunderstanding something! More importantly, he really really looks like he’s in a lot of pain, so if it’s okay, can we take him to the infirmary first and then talk?!”
“……”
Baigarten’s eyes narrowed. He looked down at Sarka for a moment with an expression where cold sweat hadn’t dried yet, clenching his fists tightly. A terrifyingly intense conflict crossed over Baigarten’s solemn and serious face, but he soon seemed to have reached some conclusion.
Baigarten, who slowly looked back at the Headmaster with an expression of having firmly resolved something, began matching the rhythm with an overflowing trustworthy voice.
“……He’s a scholarship student who’s close with Hütivras. The one I mentioned before, who I briefly recommended as a roommate for Sarka’s social adaptation and daily control training… he’s also a junior I know well.
……It really seems to have been an accident. For now… how about we move locations. Other students might wake up too.”
The Headmaster nodded and quickly gave instructions. Soon the men approached and helped up Sarka who had been limp in Ruslan’s arms.
As soon as the man’s hand touched him, Sarka reflexively stiffened his body. A man who had slipped his hand under Sarka’s knees as he couldn’t stand alone in his weakened state carefully lifted Sarka up. Though it was quite an awkward sight due to his tall build, that sturdy soldier’s arms managed to lift up Sarka who had continued to grow thin and light.
Awkwardly held, Sarka froze holding his breath, then turned his head as if doing so unconsciously and looked down at Ruslan.
Ruslan momentarily worried if there was any way to somehow secretly reassure Sarka that it was okay now.
Because Sarka’s truly bewildered gaze felt like it was unconsciously asking for help, not knowing what to do at all.
Sarka was looking down at Ruslan tightly curled up and frightened, as if instinctively doing so like a puppy who had never been held by human hands being suddenly lifted up.
It was an expression of having no idea at all where he would be moved to or what would happen to him.
Ruslan ground his teeth, but right now Ruslan couldn’t act like he knew something. Ruslan stood up with a disgruntled expression, turning away from Sarka for now. Baigarten approached, gripped Ruslan’s shoulder, and spoke calmly to the Headmaster.
“……For now it seems we need to… process this friend’s memory, so I’ll take him up to Hütivras’s room.”
Ruslan felt that unlike Baigarten’s composed-sounding voice, his hand was ice cold and trembling.
He was the only man properly understanding this situation right now, excluding Ruslan.
Since even Sarka himself had no grasp at all of what was going on.
For now, there was no choice but to trust and rely on Baigarten. Ruslan asked back earnestly while making the most perplexed, slightly scared, and quite deflated expression possible.
“What? Memory? ……What are you talking about? We’re not going to the infirmary?”
The men glanced down at Ruslan for a moment but climbed the stairs without much concern. Perhaps because they thought his memory would be erased anyway, they had become completely indifferent to Ruslan.
Ruslan made an expression of being intimidated and reading the room at that silence, while being dragged along by Baigarten in a motion of climbing the stairs again.
When the men passed by and only the two were momentarily left on the landing, Baigarten gripped Ruslan’s shoulder painfully tight. Ruslan could feel the cold sweat soaking damply into his palm enough to be felt even through the shirt. Though he must have an enormous amount he wanted to say, Baigarten magnificently endured it.
Baigarten looked down at Ruslan and briefly signaled with his eyes. It was a look saying from now on he would handle it himself as much as possible so Ruslan should keep his mouth shut. Ruslan sent back a look saying he understood perfectly. For coordination to work, it had to be at least this much.
