Chapter 225

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Chapter 225

Pain must be the pain of the soul breaking free from the body.

The fair and slender fingers slowly slid towards her collarbone, delicately outlining the faded scars, finally resting on her rounded shoulder.

"There’s a little scar." But it’s shallow, doesn’t seem to have hurt the inside flesh.

"Ms. Slote said it’ll be fine. It looked a bit scary when you were first injured here."

"Will it all disappear?"

"Yes," she said with her emerald eyes, the nervousness disappeared and was replaced by pure joy. "The school doctor guarantees it too."

As her arm moved, water droplets slid down her skin. The young little bunny was mostly hidden as she lay by the edge of the bathtub, but it didn’t stop Xerath from seeing a glimpse of how lively her body was.

Xerath forced a smile, and in her mind, she imagined having the strength to lift Sylas out of the water and hold her in her arms. In reality, she gently touched her short hair and quietly said, "Please don’t do such dangerous things anymore. I don’t want you to get hurt."

Sylas asked in response, "Have you never done anything dangerous? That can’t be true. I’ve heard many stories about your younger days from the knights at school, and each one was a near-death experience."

Xerath chuckled briefly and said, "But I am prepared for it. I know what dangers lie ahead, and I can take responsibility for what happens next."

"I can do it too!" the girl objected without accepting defeat.

"No, you can’t."

"Why not?"

Finally, Xerath’s hand rested on her shoulder, and she said gently, "I don’t want you to get hurt for me. I can’t take responsibility for what happens next."

Suddenly, loud noises filled Sylas’s ears. She stared at Xerath, trying to understand the meaning behind this sentence: Was she concerned about me, or did she simply not want to be responsible for taking care of me if I became disabled?

Xerath picked up the towel next to her and spread it open with her hands, covering her own eyes with the fluffy fabric.

"Do you want to get up?"

The towel didn’t completely block her view, so the girl stood up, water breaking through the fabric. She could only see a blurry silhouette through the towel, but it was enough for her to see the beautiful contours she had missed in the past two years.

At this moment, the beautiful creature rushed into her arms, obediently shrinking its shoulders, waiting for her to wrap it in the towel. Xerath tried to define it as some other kind of action, but she couldn’t betray her conscience – this was a rather purposeful embrace. Sylas laughed, emerging from the fluffy towel with water still on her face. She held the towel in her hands and dried her face, then took the towel to wrap around herself.

Xerath took a slightly awkward step back, escaping from Sylas’s increasingly strong influence. She raised her hands and turned Sylas around, rubbing her hair for her.

"Short hair is easier to wash, right?"

"Yes, that’s right. I want to keep short hair for a while, teacher."

Xerath smiled. "Short hair looks good on you."

"You too."

"Is that so? I was thinking if it would be better to keep it long."

"How does short hair affect you? I mean, I think it’s great and there’s no need to change it."

Xerath paused for a moment and said, "I feel like short hair might have a special social meaning. When you’re out, there are always strange people coming up to chat."

If this were Virgil here and now, he would probably mock the old magician’s shallow life experience, but Sylas had no experience with it either (because regardless of length, she always had to deal with a large number of people confessing their love to her). So she tentatively asked, "Strange… in what way?"

Xerath hesitated and said, "…gender."

Sylas chuckled softly and said, "Mostly the same gender?"

Xerath became even more uneasy, and she raised her hand to conjure clouds to blow Sylas’s hair, nodding gently. This way, she could avoid making eye contact.

To her surprise, Sylas immediately burst into understanding laughter. As she comforted Xerath, she continued to laugh, saying, "When I first entered school, almost all the boys wrote love letters to me. But after I beat up Mede, the girls joined in too, and the proportion steadily grew with the number of duel victories. Teacher, males tend to be afraid of having a partner who is better than them. They prefer to have a good-looking but useless partner to show off, which makes them feel good and constantly boosts their self-esteem through comparisons with weaker individuals. Girls are probably the opposite. This is a hypothesis about the strange phenomenon you’re experiencing."

Xerath looked back at her face and asked with a frown, "Who taught you to comfort people like this?"

Sylas smiled and asked, "Don’t you like it? I can change it for you."

Xerath looked at her and felt that this might be a trap. She couldn’t say that she "liked" this kind of comfort, otherwise it would seem like she accepted the reasons of these female admirers, which would be too arrogant.

But it was far from "not liking" it, rather she felt that this conversation didn’t touch the core of the problem.

For this, she could only vaguely answer, "If you like it, you can keep it. I don’t have any particular preference." After speaking, she quickly walked out of the bathroom, thinking to herself, "That’s enough, I don’t need anything else from Sylas."

But Sylas suddenly asked, "Are you leaving?"

Xerath remembered the promise to wait for her to come out of the bathroom and nodded slowly, "Go to bed early."

"Wait!" Sylas hurriedly reached out to grab Xerath’s clothes, the towel almost falling off, but luckily she caught it with one hand and it didn’t fall.

Even so, when Xerath turned her head, she saw a large area of bare skin, so she had to turn her head away and say to Sylas, "What’s wrong?"

"Just wait a moment, would you mind stepping outside for a moment?" Sylas unexpectedly reached out and gently pushed Xerath’s back. Apart from holding hands or occasional hugs, they had never had this sort of "neutral" physical contact before. It wasn’t as intimate as a hug, which made Xerath tempted to refuse, but she still felt as sweet as a dessert.

Hoping it would happen again.

For Sylas, this might be a common gesture between classmates. When Xerath glanced back at her, her expression remained unchanged, like an innocent child wanting to show her a small gift.

After she walked out of the bathroom, the door wasn’t completely closed. Sylas was dressing behind her, making rustling sounds.

The gloomy old magician even felt a bit jealous of her clothes. Not only because they could freely touch a young girl’s body, but more importantly, they would never be plagued by wild thoughts, never losing control because of repeated physical contact.

But she couldn’t help but savor even the momentary touch from Sylas on her back.

The warmth of the hand, felt through the fabric, a familiar touch.

After a short while, Sylas opened the bathroom door and casually put on a shirt and a skirt. The bottom of the shirt was left untucked, with two buttons still unfastened. The lower part of the skirt revealed her two legs, bare feet on slippers, emanating a moist scent after bathing.

She noticed the questioning look in Xerath’s eyes and smiled, tilting her head. "Teacher, allow me to accompany you upstairs."

Xerath looked silently at her, slightly frowned, her gray eyes showed no emotion. This unusual calmness made Sylas feel uneasy. Finally, under her gaze, the little creature asked disappointedly, "Not possible?"

Xerath took a deep breath, leaned forward slightly, and grabbed her hand, turning to walk towards the door.

But once they were outside, Xerath let go of her hand and walked silently a half-step ahead. Sylas felt that this was too distant. Gathering courage, she reached out and hooked her arm with Xerath’s.

The archmage trembled slightly, and Sylas thought she might have angered Xerath. Perhaps her hand would be slapped away in the next moment.

However, the "next moment" didn’t come. Xerath bent her arm to make it less likely for her to slip and silently ascended the steps one by one.

Sylas felt extremely anxious. The archmage’s gaze always made her feel fearful, as if it could see through everything. It was even more painful when she had some thoughts.

But the thoughts that were on the verge of spilling out couldn’t be contained any longer if she didn’t do something.

After Xerath opened the door, she turned her head to look at her again, her gaze seeming to carry a hint of scrutiny. The sharpness of her eyes pierced into Sylas’s heart, making it shine brightly. She couldn’t help but lower her head.

But Xerath didn’t say anything. The silent gaze continued for a while. She used to like it before, but now she felt torment. It was like holding a thorn in her hand, the venom causing hallucinations. The pain didn’t go away, so she had to endure it and hold onto the thorn tightly.

"Sylas."

Her sentence came.

The powerful wizard sighed softly and said in a low voice, "You go back, I’ll watch you go downstairs."

Sylas hesitated and didn’t want to leave. Xerath tried to smile, but she felt like she might have failed. However, Sylas smiled in a relaxed way and said goodnight to her, then turned and went downstairs.

Xerath watched her slowly disappear down the stairs, but halfway, Sylas suddenly turned her head. Her clear eyes carried a hint of innocent joy, catching Xerath off guard. It made her almost unable to resist saying something to make her stay.

But she insisted on urging Sylas to leave and stood upright at the door. She stayed there until Sylas truly disappeared. Then she suddenly closed the door and leaned wearily against it.