A Price for Everything (5)

"I really apologize about what had happened to your partner, I have heard what happened," One of the fraction leaders came up to us.

"Thank you for your concern. I am fortunate that my partner has returned relatively unharmed," Luke carried the conversation.

The gossip increased as everyone gasped at my new appearance from Luke's comment. To them, I appeared no different than the fairy who had slammed me into a wall on Monday. The fairy who sadly wasn't here in this world anymore.

I stayed silent like I was a bystander, letting Luke do all the socializing. As time flew by, I just wanted to get more rest. Unlike the others who got to rest at their mansions after retiring from the events, I never got the chance. I started to feel hungry as well like the time that had passed in this dimension was starting to catch up on me.

I regretted not eating some of the snacks on the table, too focused on the price I would have to pay for the spell. I interrupted Luke as he talked to another guest, "can we go home now?"

'I'm hungry and tired,' I shot him a glance.

'I'll ask Claire if she can push the mealtime a bit earlier,' Luke answered with a fast look before going back to his conversation.

"Please excuse us," Luke soon ended the conversation.

"Claire…" I walked towards her once I saw her near me, leaving Luke alone.

"Do you still need us?" I brought out my pitiful eyes.

Something crashed against the wall, destroying all the windows in the process. Instead of answering my question, Claire turned to what could be causing all the commotion. She froze when a giant monster, resembling Flower had appeared, infiltrating the tough barrier.

It peeked inside with its eye, taking up the space of an entire window. The entire mansion trembled as it started to move. This was when I recalled the overseer's words, 'they will come after you with more vigor.'

"Everyone to the teleportation gate," Claire yelled.

Yulian started leading everyone to the room with the teleportation gates. My eyes widened as there were a total of five teleportation gates, fully charged. One by one, everyone left, leaving us the hosts alone, the last to escape. By the time it was our turn, I looked at the teleportation gates that ran out of power.

"I thought the first district had recently done an extermination?" I clenched my fists.

"They were only able to push them into a corner," Claire appeared equally frustrated.

Claire had already equipped herself with some swords to get ready to fight. She ran out the door, trying to buy us some time. The three of us now had to come up with a plan, knowing Claire wouldn't be able to fight against the monster alone.

"One of us has to charge the teleportation gate. When it charges, we can all escape together. We can't defeat this monster, it's almost a s-class monster," Yulian went over the details.

"Rika can charge the teleportation gate," Luke immediately assigned me to a role.

I nodded my head as I began to charge the teleportation gate. As usual, Luke was trying to keep me safe by letting others take the dangerous ones. I wondered why it felt easier to push my mana into the gate without me concentrating a lot like usual.

In less than a split of a second, the entire gate had been charged, enough to take us anywhere, including other districts. Both Luke and Yulian, who haven't left yet appeared stunned as my hair glowed, its ends drifting in the air before stopping my spell. It seemed like there were other things that the overseer had not told me about.

"We can escape right now, I'll go get Claire," Yulian ran.

"I'm sure I'm not a fairy," I felt confused, wondering about the side effects.

"Claire's not breathing!" Yulian carried her in his arms.

Claire's bloodied body appeared even worse than mine when I was filled with many injuries a few days ago. Her head seemed like it was smashed multiple times, flesh opened and messed up like it was clay. Her eyes were peacefully closed, giving up on life.

"We should go to the hospital," Luke immediately pressed the settings.

We all stepped into the gate to arrive at the hospital. While Yulian carried Claire, Luke walked towards a machine, pressing all the reasons for our visit. Not even seconds passed before we were led to a private room with the doctor waiting behind the door.

The hospital appeared purely futuristic with no fantasy component added to it. Robots and machines replaced all its staff in the clean facility. Yulian laid Claire on the bed as the doctor used his tools to take a closer look.

"She's still alive, we'll just need to put her under the intensive care room," he announced.

"In fact, she is not the one to worry about. The young girl behind you is in much more trouble," he pointed to me.

"She barely has any mana left. She'll die sooner than the other girl."

This wasn't a problem. Although my mana was on the extremely low end since I used more than I thought I would, it recovered at a fast pace. I was in plenty more danger all those other times. This doctor really had to stop talking or Luke may actually take him seriously soon.