Ch11 - Guilt

'An unfamiliar ceiling, what a cliche troupe.'

I had passed out a little bit after my battle with Cecilia and now I was here staring at the ceiling. 

"Ugh..."

'I don't even remember anything that happened at the end.'

I tried to sit up while holding my head trying to rack my brain around what had happened. 

"Slow your roll there."

A seemingly young handsome man with deep brown hair and glisteningly gold eyes waved me down back into the hospital bed. 

Alexander Henford, the doctor of the academy that's been around for at least two hundred years. 

"What happened?"

"Well, you burned down the stadium."

"Impossible, I don't have fire magic."

"Fire magic isn't the only thing that can burn things, you know?"

He sat down on a nearby chair by the bed. 

"You're Aura began skyrocketing past levels that clearly don't match your age or rank."

"How?"

"Well, if I knew that I wouldn't be here talking to you."

And then I remembered, [Warning: Unique Skill; Spirit is reacting heavily]

'Ah, my unique skill.'

I came to a sudden realization as I opened up my status screen. 

[Unique Skill: [Spirit] - Your mana and aura take form gaining your characteristics and is able to act independently as your servant.]

'Damn, I forgot I even had that. I guess I do have a cheat skill.'

Unique Skills don't follow the characteristics of normal skill progression. The power of one is decided by the name. The shorter the name is, the stronger the unique skill is. 

An example is Cecilia's [Go].

'A one-word unique skill, now I actually feel like a main character.'

"Hello?"

The doctor waved his hand over my eyes as I had been lost in thought. 

"Ah, it's a passive skill. I didn't do it on purpose."

"Well of course you didn't. If you had you've been faced with expulsion."

"Huh?"

"The headmaster clearly saw that you also had no idea what was happening even through those flames."

He looked at me deeply and I met his gaze. 

"Your skill is dangerous but it's an incredible asset. You just can't handle that amount of Aura for now."

Out of the corner of my eye, my eyes lingered upon a certain section on the status screen.

[gaining your characteristics]

"Doctor..."

"Huh?"

"Can I experiment here for a moment?"

"Sure."

"Uh I wasn't actually expecting you to agree."

"Anything you do I can handle."

His confirmation was all I needed, and I closed my eyes deep into thought.

I thought of all the shitty moments in my life, all my regrets, all my desperate pleas.

Of course, it was hard to get into the mood in front of somebody.

I reinforced myself with Aura and the moment I released it,

it began dripping down my body as if it were water and just a singular small teardrop rolled down my face.

'It's really now just a distant memory.'

"Huh, how interesting."

'I forgot he was here.'

"I'm guessing it reacts with your emotions, but what made you that angry back then?"

"Myself."

"Ah I see, I was going to tell you another piece of news, but I think it's better I leave you alone for a moment."

And he did exactly as he said and walked out of the room leaving me alone with my thoughts. 

I looked out the window, it seemed to be just reaching morning. 

'I guess I spent the night here then.'

I laid back down and just thought about random things, but I couldn't get a certain image out of my head. 

The image I saw of Cecilia defeated, I know I did it. 

'It's my fault. I didn't mean to go that far... if only I had practiced more with Aura instead of my art.'

And for the next couple moments, I did just that. I messed around with Aura hoping to get a better control of it, but I made little to no progress. 

Aura is when mana is used inside of the body instead of outside and I had no clue how to do anything but enhance myself.

'My sword art was practically useless the entire time. I couldn't even get close to her.'

I just laid there blankly staring at the ceiling. 

'I need to go see her.'

That was the decision I came to, and I weakly picked myself up from the hospital bed.

The medical room was described well in the novel. A decently sized room with two doors that led to nursing areas for patients.

I slowly but steadily walked towards the door placing my hand on the doorknob. 

I opened the door slightly to see if Doctor Alexander was still there, but he wasn't.

I leaned against the wall, trying to make my way to the other room. 

I finally got there and opened the door expecting to see Cecilia barely hanging onto life, but instead she was calmly sitting up.

She looked towards whomever walked in and we made eye contact. 

"What? Were you expecting me to be on death's door?"

"Yes."

I hadn't expected her at all to be in this good of condition. 

"Well, I'm still a princess so of course only the best healing resources and potions were used on me."

"Ah, I guess."

I grabbed a chair that was on the wall and brought it up to the side of the bed and sat down. 

"So why are you still here?"

She questioned as I sat down. 

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I'm sorry."

I repeated in case she didn't hear. 

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Because I was the reason you got hurt."

"Excuse me? I don't know where you get all this audacity from, but I hurt myself."

"Those flames came from my skill."

"And that skill comes from your emotions, right?"

I simply nodded not knowing what to say.

'How did she even know that?'

"If I recall correctly, you told me that I pissed you off."

"Ah, sorry about that too."

"Stop apologizing, you're gonna give me a headache."

She held her head and I could sense her irritation. 

"I looked online. Instead of "Failure of Karum" you're now the "Terror of Class S."

"The what?"

"I mean you did burn the imperial princess to the ground."

"Ah, sorry I didn't realize my skill would do that."

"You already apologized, dimwit."

'The emperor said that about my father too; I wonder if it runs in the family.'

"Hey, isn't that a little rude?"

"Burning someone to the point of needing high healing potions is also kinda rude, no?"

"Sorry…"

"Shut up."

She seemed to have lost interest in teasing me any further about the match.

And then we just sat there, no words spoken at all.

Cecilia simply stared blankly out the window and I just looked around randomly.

It was very awkward for me and I had no clue if Cecilia thought the same.

"I leave for one moment and this is what I come back to?"

Neither of us had noticed Doctor Alexander was standing at the door

"Sen, I hope I'm not interrupting something, but you have to go back to the other room."

I simply nodded and he helped me back into my hospital bed.