Dodging a Bullet

Vian held Alexander, her phoenix, in her arms as she calmly stroked its feathers.

"You are becoming whiter, Alex."

She noted, as the phoenix that was supposed to be red or orange was becoming more white. Its lovely yellow irises was also turning to more orangish shade.

That was most likely due to Vian's spells.

'Who knew the myth about phoenix absorbing their owner's flame was in fact true, and not a myth?'

Vian was using her white flames repeatedly during battles, in addition to many other occasions. Red flames were rarely something she used. Taking that into consideration, it was only natural for the phoenix to turn into a white shade.

While Vian was taking care of Alexander, she heard a soft knock on their floor. Instead of bothering to stand up and open the door by herself, she pushed her white hair back and called,

"Who is it? You can enter."

Alastor opened the door and slowly entered, not uttering even one single word. The young woman frowned, she turned around and was about to scold whoever entered without announcing themselves.

Once she saw who came, Vian immediately jumped to him, "Alastor! You are okay!"

Stopping right in front of him, leaving only one inch between them, she started to examine his body. From his head to his toes.

Vian had to restrict herself from tearing his clothes off to check if he had any other injuries. Her excitement was immeasurable, but she sniffed something that dropped a bucket of cold water on her.

'This scent…'

Alastor's pleasant, light, spicy scent was tainted. It was tainted by a disgustingly sweet lavender scent, even mixed with it a bit. That scent was not so obvious, but it was indeed there.

That scent was a scent Vian was familiar with.

'Arisa…' she almost growled out loud.

How dare Arisa order her to move away from Alastor for her own 'reputation', yet playing around behind her back?

Before Alastor could answer her earlier question, or give any reactions to her approach, he was attacked with another question.

"Did you meet Arisa lately?"

A question like that made Alastor consider his answer. However, he quickly made up his mind.

"I don't think so," to make it more believable, he added, "Not when I was awake. Though, something is definitely weird about me being okay all of the sudden."

"Ah?"

"Yes," Alastor held her hand and sat with her, allowing Alexander to settle between them.

"I slept and woke up healed, I felt a strange mana surrounding me but it is now slowly fading away. Is that the scent you are smelling?"

"Oh."

Vian scratched her head, not entirely convinced, or more like, not entirely satisfied by that. The answer was fine, but perhaps it was the fact that Arisa dared to get so close to Alastor, and even spent her precious mana to heal him…

Something about that did not settle well with her.

However, she knew that telling Alastor off for it was stupid. Nothing happened aside from Alastor being healed by Arisa while he was asleep. Not only that, but Vian had no reason to officially get angry with him or anything.

"Mm, okay. Thanks for telling me," she mumbled as she hugged her little Alexander and went back to sit on the couch.

Alastor escorted her back to her seat and casually touched Alexander. He hummed, noting how the phoenix did not burn his fingers and was even nuzzling him, surprising Vian.

"Was your familiar always this friendly?"

"Not even close, he rather fights with the Imperial princes and princesses rather than letting them touch him."

Vian giggled as she stroked his feathers again, quite satisfied with the phoenix attitude. In a sense, it was funny that the naughty bird refused her at times, yet immediately accepted Alastor without any need to convince it.

'Again, who cares? That just makes Alastor even more amazing!'

"Now, I think I should tell you what I came here to do?"

"Oh, yes please?"

Patting the young woman who was blushing shyly, Alastor started to tell her a short summary about his current situation.

"Listen, there was an incident before and due to it, I got severely hurt. The damage was already too much to be actually saved-"

"What do you mean by that?"

Being cut off so suddenly, Alastor had to pause as he noticed Vian's face. She looked as if she was more than ready to kill someone, but who? Whatever, Alastor continued to pay her back, perhaps she was going to calm down like that.

"The literal meaning. My body is damaged from the inside and I know it is supposed to be completely broken."

"That, what could not be cured…?"

"More like, cannot be repaired. The foundation of my body, my first Magic Circle, is about to shatter."

Vian stared, wide eyed, not sure what she should say anymore. In her wildest nightmare, she could not imagine such severe damage was done to Alastor before.

What now? Can he survive? There was no way, the Magic Circles breaking was rare, but that's due to people who had it dying eventually.

Especially the ones who refused to acknowledge it, and still used their mana excessively…

"Alastor! Are you okay?!"

She held his arms as the realization dawned on her. As if to confirm her suspicion, Alastor who was seemingly okay, felt some warm liquid coming out of his nose.

Alastor calmly wiped his nose, snorting once he saw the blood. It was bright red, not dead blood that needed to be discarded.

"I am, but also I am not. That is why we are in this situation," he held her hand, "Would you join me in going to find something to repair my body?"

"I, I mean, sure? But, uh, how…?"

The young woman nervously asked, clinging to Alastor and biting her lower lip. If there was no way in saving Alastor from that, she could only turn to some… forced way.

"I have a way. Finding it is dangerous, but I'm sure we can figure it out. Are you with me?"

Heaving a sigh of relief, Alastor dodged a bullet without knowing.