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“Zion!!”

This is the first time since the rehabilitation that I’m witnessing Zion’s trauma seizure.

Does seeing a companion get hurt bring back bad memories?

“Zion, you have to stop! If you keep using your body like that…!”

– Splat

Can’t he hear my voice?

Zion vanished and then reappeared, hacking at a wolf in the bushes again.

He’s too fast. Even if I want to grab Zion, I can’t catch him at all.

After slicing the wolf, Zion looked around again, sensed something, then vanished, only to reappear with another wolf in his sights.

“Zion! I’m okay, so just calm down!”

“No, back then… I said I was okay back then too!!!”

The wolves, having witnessed their comrades being sliced up in an instant, lost their will to fight and could only cower in place.

But Zion kept detecting the hidden wolves one by one and cutting them down.

I couldn’t tell how many wolves were left.

But since it looked like there were still quite a few, at this rate, it was only a matter of time before Zion’s body broke down from the recoil of his powers.

He just finished rehabilitation and is pushing himself too hard!

‘I need to stop Zion. But how?’

Zion is moving too quickly now for me to predict his movements.

He only shows up briefly in front of me when he’s attacking a wolf.

Yet somehow, I think I might be able to stop Zion—could that just be my delusion?

‘That time for sure…’

When was it? Was it in a dream? Or some other time?

Just like that time, if I gather my strength in my hand,

– Splat

Once I confirmed Zion was about to show up, I stretched out my hand and said, “Isolation.”

If I cast the incantation…

“?!”

Zion froze in surprise.

He must’ve detected something surrounding him.

What enveloped Zion was a wall of transparent space.

As Zion raised his sword and looked around in confusion, I slowly approached him.

“What is this? What the heck…?”

“Zion. Calm down. I’m here.”

“Mr. Hop?”

Zion finally looked my way.

But he still held his sword tightly with trembling hands, turning his head around to check his surroundings.

“It’s dangerous, Teacher. This time, I’m definitely going to protect you. I won’t let you die! I’ll smash this magic right now…!”

“That spell was cast by me.”

“…What?”

“So I’ll release it. Once I get close enough to you, I’ll let it go, so don’t go anywhere, just stay still there, okay?”

“……”

Zion had a vacant look on his face as if he couldn’t quite grasp the situation.

I slowly closed in until I was close enough to face him and said, “Connection.”

I reattached the severed space.

Only towards me, preventing Zion from going anywhere else.

Then, I took Zion’s bewildered hand, pushed his sword aside, and pulled him into an embrace.

“What a sight this is. You’re the one who looks worse off than me.”

Zion’s body was nearly drenched in the blood he had spilled, feeling warm and wet from holding him.

While I was also hurt and getting angry about it, my wounds weren’t nearly as severe as those Zion suffered.

Zion had jumped around at near supersonic speeds without receiving healing right away, leaving his body covered in open wounds.

“Mr. Hop, what happened…”

“Are you back to your senses?”

Zion managed to regain some focus.

I thought he might try to embrace me, but his response was the opposite.

Strength drained from his body, and the sound of his sword clattering to the ground echoed.

“I’m in pain, Teacher. It hurts so much right now…!”

Now that his heightened state of anxiety had settled, Zion finally felt his injuries.

While the pain stemmed from his wounds, it was also said that after forcibly using his powers, he would be bedridden for days.

Zion’s body was pretty much healed but wasn’t entirely fine, so it seemed he still couldn’t handle moving it with his abilities.

“You’re okay. Hanamana will be here soon, so don’t worry. She’ll fix you up in no time.”

“What about you, Teacher? Are you hurt? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine now. So just relax and take it easy.”

Even though Zion was still looking anxious, visibly frightened, upon hearing that I was alright, he finally seemed to relax, letting out a deep sigh and closing his eyes.

“Thank goodness. Really, thank you, Mr. Hop…”

Shortly after, Hanamana arrived.

She was shocked to see Zion in my arms, her face turning pale.

“Z-Zion! Are you alright? I’ll heal you right away!”

Holding her staff tightly with both hands, Hanamana took a deep breath.

When she healed me before, it had felt more like she just reached out and infused magic without an incantation, but now Hanamana was casting high-level healing magic. Zion’s condition must have been dire.

“……”

Then Zion, upon realizing that healing magic was being cast, closed his eyes and let go of his consciousness.

Given the sudden relief from terror, fatigue washed over him, and considering the significant blood loss, it wasn’t surprising.

Fortunately, with a healer like Hanamana, Zion’s wounds were quickly beginning to close up.

“Whoa… I think the situation is calming down now.”

With Zion unconscious, I checked his vital signs. His heart rate and breathing were stable, though his body temperature seemed a bit low. Could it be from blood loss?

From my childhood research on healing magic, I concluded that the amount of blood restored through healing magic tends to correlate closely with the surface area of the body part being healed.

If a significant amount of blood was lost, it meant waiting for blood to be produced from the bone marrow for complete healing.

“Vital signs normal… Rest easy, Zion.”

I carried the unconscious Zion over to the sleeping bag, wrapped him in it, and placed him inside the tent.

I wouldn’t know how his body fared from blood loss or recoil until he woke up.

“Is Zion okay?”

When I stepped out of the tent, Hanamana was waiting outside.

“For now, yes. I guess we’ll know more once he wakes up.”

“That’s a relief. But Senpai, about that magic you used earlier…”

Once Hanamana checked on Zion’s condition, she immediately shifted the subject to inquire about the magic.

“That was space magic, right? Hop-senpai, are you a ‘Spacer’?”

Spacer. A term used to refer to those with an aptitude for space magic. Literally, it means “one who handles space.”

“I guess so.”

“I guess so? So you never realized until now?”

“Yeah. If I had known, I would have mentioned it.”

“Even so, you used space magic pretty well just now.”

“That’s because it felt like I could do it… somehow.”

“Moreover, you clearly said your position was ‘Last-Line Support Mage.’ You really didn’t know?”

“That too felt oddly possible… Is the position related to it?”

Hanamana was increasingly sounding like she was interrogating me.

What is this? Did I do something wrong?

“The role that can be protected more than a healer is almost exclusively that of a Spacer. Having a Spacer in the party means having a last resort to escape via space movement. It’s absolutely essential they don’t get neutralized. Though Spacers are quite specialized in defense, so getting through is almost impossible.”

The fact that I’d casually mentioned being a Last-Line Support Mage turned out to truly be my role. I had genuinely been unaware all along.

If that’s the case, did a talent I never knew awaken during this crisis?

“Anyway, I genuinely didn’t know. I was surprised to discover I had an aptitude for space magic too.”

“Ugh, how am I supposed to believe that…”

Rubbing her head while shaking it, Hanamana turned and sat down in front of the campfire.

I followed suit and sat across from her at the fire.

“Aptitude for space magic is a talent that appears once every hundred years. While Hanamana has aptitude in all forms of magic, that’s, of course, excluding time and space magic. Those two are exempt from that. But for you to be a space magic aptitude holder, did you hide your abilities because you kept being a medic instead of an adventurer? That would make sense, but…”

It seemed Hanamana was unwilling to believe that I was oblivious to this aptitude.

Given my claim, if I had actually proclaimed myself as a Last-Line Support Mage and was now saying I had this special aptitude without ever realizing it, I wouldn’t believe me either.

So instead…

“Hanamana.”

“Yes?”

“You said spacers are hard to breach because they specialize in defense, right?”

“Exactly. Spatial severance is nearly absolute defense. It blocks the flow of mana, meaning curses won’t work, and if the opponent isn’t a fellow space magic aptitude holder, they can’t even touch a Spacer.”

That one Hanamana even called “absolute defense.”

Zion would go on a rampage again if I got hurt like before.

The memories of losing his companions would resurface.

Even after completing rehabilitation and his body becoming healthy, the trauma still lingered.

That was something that couldn’t heal naturally.

“Hanamana. I need that absolute defense. I vaguely remember some aspects of space magic, but it wouldn’t be enough on its own. I can’t afford to get hurt for Zion’s sake. So…”

Zion, now healthy after completing his rehabilitation, was still not in a good place mentally after everything.

When I’m away from him, he quickly shows signs of separation anxiety, and if I even get hurt while he’s near, he goes berserk.

In that case, it’s clear…

“I was hoping to learn space magic somehow. Is there any way?”

I need to stand by Zion while ensuring I don’t get hurt at all.

Having a talent as a space magic aptitude holder felt like a gift given to me by the Creator.

While it felt unsettling that everything was aligning too perfectly, I would be at a loss if I didn’t use it.

“Hmm…”

After hearing my request, Hanamana began to seriously contemplate.

Hanamana also said she didn’t possess aptitude for space magic. Could it be that she would outright refuse because there’s no way?

“Space magic aptitude comes once every hundred years. Humans have several hundred times more people than elves, so they usually manifest it among humans, but there are still living space magic aptitude holders among the elves. Besides, elves are a long-lived race.”

Are there really space magic aptitude holders among the elves? Then could it be…

“Space magic lies within the realm of talent. If you simply know how to handle space, you can use the magic without needing to learn it separately. So I’ll introduce you to someone who can teach you how to handle space.”

As expected, that’s how it was. But that method had a slight hitch.

“How long will it take to learn?”

As a rehabilitation expert, I couldn’t invest too much time in learning magic.

Yet the method entailed meeting an elf directly, making it impossible to find spare time to learn amidst everything else.

“I don’t know, but… the time you can spend in the elf village is strictly three days. We hope it wraps up in that time.”

“Three days?”

“Yes. According to regulations, a human can only stay in an elf village for three days. I’ve always wanted to take Zion to our village, so this worked out perfectly. Whenever I can arrange for a day off, the three of us will go together. You should let me know beforehand about your days off.”

“……”

Going to the elf village with Zion for three days?

In that case, it wouldn’t significantly interfere with my duties as a rehabilitation expert, but there was a risk of learning absolutely nothing.

Later, once I received an invitation from Hanamana to the elf village, I had no choice but to learn how to handle space within those three days.

 

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