-677- Tampered with her body?

The academy's infirmary was located in the medical department building, a short distance away from the central lecture hall.

Usually, at this late hour, the medical department building should have been dark, but during the Night Party, it remained well-lit and open to provide medical services to students who might get injured or experience health issues during the competition.

At this moment, the medical department building was brightly illuminated.

Frey, her skin oozing blood all over, was lying on a stretcher, carried into the infirmary by students from the medical department.

Following behind Frey was Rabbi.

This canine-like automaton seemed to have lowered its activation level when its master fell into a coma. Consequently, it had also lost consciousness and was brought here with Frey.

Normally, automata were managed and repaired by the technical or engineering departments rather than the infirmary, but due to Rabbi's unique circumstances, and to ensure the continuous flow of magic between the two, it was brought along.

And so, Frey and Rabbi were brought into the infirmary together.

After some time, Rozen arrived as well.

Perhaps because he was considered a person close to Frey, the infirmary staff informed him, "The patient doesn't have any major issues, just some blood loss and signs of minor blood vessel damage. Apart from that, there are only external injuries. Rest assured, with a blood transfusion, she should recover."

The doctor conveyed this information to Rozen and then returned to attending to Frey.

Rozen remained silent, his gaze fixed on the night sky outside the window, his expression somewhat gloomy.

Yaya, unusually, didn't throw a tantrum but quietly accompanied Rozen as he stood by the window.

Not long after, they received a few more visitors.

"Rozen-sama!"

Hinowa shouted as she rushed over.

"Young Miss, don't run so fast!"

"Why are you in such a hurry when it's not Rozen who's injured? What's the big deal?"

Subaru and Mutsura followed behind Hinowa, looking out of breath, clearly having run quite a distance.

The princess of the Domon family ran up to Rozen, panting as though on the verge of tears.

"Rozen-sama, I'm so sorry! I should've stayed by your side!"

She tearfully expressed her regret.

Because of the various people in attendance at the Night Party's opening ceremony, Hinowa wasn't allowed to sit in the regular audience seating due to safety concerns. She was placed in the VIP section to watch the matches. That's why she was feeling so agitated – she sensed something was wrong with Rozen, despite it not being about his safety.

Rozen could only force a smile.

"Alright, Hinowa, calm down for now."

Rozen comforted Hinowa and said, "Just as Mutsura mentioned, I'm not the one who's hurt, and I'm not participating in the Night Party. Don't make it seem like something happened to me."

His words led to a fourth arrival.

"If it's not you who's in trouble, then why do you look like you're about to die?"

With a somewhat unpleasant atmosphere, Charl slowly walked over from the other end of the corridor, appearing in front of Rozen.

On top of her head, the small steel-colored dragon nodded in acknowledgment to Rozen, a sort of greeting.

"Why are you here too?" Rozen was quite surprised.

"Why? You can come here but I can't?" Charl crossed her arms and said, "Although I'm not related to Frey, seeing what happened to her earlier, as a competitor in the Night Party, I couldn't just ignore it."

In essence, she was expressing concern as a fellow Night Party competitor. She was cautious after seeing Frey suddenly release a power that could pose a threat to herself. But, of course, this was just Charl's way of not being entirely forthright.

Actually, the true reason was this:

"Chal just thinks that the last time, due to her selfishness, she had turned a blind eye to Frey's situation. She couldn't just sit idly by this time, so she came to take a look."

Sigmund revealed what was really on his master's mind.

"T-T-T-T-T-That's not it at all! Shut up, Sigmund! Do you want me to change your breakfast tomorrow to breadcrumbs!?"

Charl's haughty attitude suddenly crumbled, and her face turned red as she waved her small fist at Sigmund. Sigmund, in turn, flew down from her head and landed on Yaya's shoulder.

"Stop bickering," Rozen said with a wry smile. "This place is part of the medical school's campus. Frey is currently undergoing treatment, so let's try not to be too noisy."

Upon hearing Rozen's words, everyone gradually calmed down and stopped making loud commotion.

All of them turned their attention to Rozen, their expressions becoming somewhat hesitant.

Especially Hinowa, who was deeply concerned, asked cautiously, "Rozen-sama, your face doesn't look too good. Are you really okay?"

Rozen shook his head and sighed, "I'm fine. It's just that I feel uncomfortable in my heart because of Frey's situation."

Hearing this, everyone understood.

What had happened to Frey was indeed quite bizarre, and if they were to describe their feelings, they all felt somewhat uncomfortable, right?

However, they couldn't fully comprehend what Rozen meant by feeling uncomfortable. It wasn't only because of Frey's strange situation, but also because it touched on some of Rozen's unpleasant past experiences.

Unaware of this, they began to discuss.

"What exactly happened to Frey?" Charl inquired, "Why did she suddenly transform like that?"

This was a question that everyone wanted an answer to.

Recalling the painful scene of Frey kneeling on the ground, her skin cracking, and fresh blood continuously oozing from her, the people present felt a shiver down their spines.

"Converting blood into magic should be a specialty of the Akabane family, right?" Subaru looked at Rozen and said, "Could it be that the girl named Frey also possesses something similar to the Akabane family's 'Crimson Wing Blood'?"

Regarding this question, everyone in the room, except Charl and Sigmund, who were unaware of the existence of the Akabane family, silently nodded in agreement.

However...

"It's not like that," Rozen calmly responded.

"Fresh blood is originally a highly pure magical material because the source of magic is life force, and fresh blood contains the richest life force within the human body. Even without 'Crimson Wing Blood' or the secret technique 'Crimson Wing Formation,' one can still convert fresh blood into magic. It's just that the efficiency is not very high, and it's quite dangerous."

That was the situation with Frey.

"Someone had tampered with her body," Rozen added in a cold tone.