Chapter 97: Overheat (2)

I felt like my whole body was on fire. It was as if molten metal, not blood, was coursing through my veins. The excruciating pain dragged my consciousness back. Groaning, I opened my eyes and saw an unfamiliar ceiling and the pale, anxious faces of Berald and Yurina in Yuren’s disguise. They immediately checked on me.

“Brother! Are you awake?”

“Dale! Are you okay?”

I clenched my teeth against the burning agony and forced my mouth to move. “Where… am I?”

“The academy infirmary! You collapsed, so we brought you here right away!”

I asked, “How long was I out?”

“About two hours.”

Two hours was not a long time, all things considered. I tried to sit up, but a searing pain coming from my soul stigmata slammed me back down. It was as if I had fallen into boiling lava. “Guh!”

Yurina became concerned. “D-Dale! Are you okay?”

Not even as an empty reassurance could I tell her that I was fine.

“I’ll call a healer right now!”

I reached out and grabbed her hand just before she pressed the call button, shaking my head. “No.”

I didn’t know exactly why my body was like this, but one thing I did know, this wasn’t something a healer could fix. So, I said, “I’ll be fine after a bit of rest.”

Yurina’s eyes glistened as though she were on the verge of tears. “Dale…”

“Can I have some water?” I asked.

“O-of course!”

I took the glass of water from her and chugged it down. The cold liquid helped clear my head a little. “Phew!”

“Feeling better?”

“Better than before.”

I still felt like my body was burning in a furnace, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as when I had first regained consciousness. Now, I wondered what the hell had happened. The last thing I remembered was talking with Yurina before my mind suddenly went blank.

Was Berald right? Have I been overtraining lately? I thought.

No, that couldn’t be it. At most, I had trained like that for only a few days. In my past life, I had pushed my body far harder for over a month at a time. Moreover, if this were truly a case of overexertion, my body wouldn’t be radiating this kind of searing heat.

Then why had this happened? Frowning, I slowly closed my eyes. I steadied my breathing and turned my awareness inward. As my consciousness sank deeper, to the inner realm, my mindscape unfolded before me. Flames blazed violently, as though ready to consume the entire world. As always, within this realm, the Primordial Flame raged uncontrollably.

No, scratch that. “As always” didn’t quite apply this time. The Primordial Flame was more intense than usual. It was burning far more violently than I had ever seen before, as though it were struggling to survive.

I shifted my gaze, frowning. Something was pushing its way through the fire, as if trying to devour it. When I tried to look closer at the thing engulfing the flame, a blinding headache hit me, and my vision flickered.

What in the world? Is that… the other power inside me?

I furrowed my brows as I recalled Professor Baldwin’s words. While I still didn’t know what that “thing” was, I was starting to piece together why my body was reacting this way: The Primordial Flame was in turmoil, and my energy network was overheating because of that.

I had never experienced anything like this while using the Primordial Flame before. Only one possibility came to mind. Something completely unprecedented had just happened.

Is the Ashen Flame the reason behind this? Is this what Professor Baldwin meant when she said something about my powers being out of balance?

The professor’s warning echoed in my head. I had been continuously using this unstable power, so if that was the cause of this overheating, then everything made sense. This meant that if I used the Ashen Flame for too long, I could lose consciousness out of the blue. Moreover, it would not entail just blacking out; my entire energy flow would overheat, rendering my body immobile for a while.

I let out a long sigh at this unexpected flaw. “Haa!”

Looking at me, Berald crossed his arms and said with a stern expression, “I was wondering why you were holed up in the training ground day and night the past few days. Didn’t I just tell you that overtraining would only harm your body, Brother?”

“Ugh!”

Technically, the issue wasn’t the overtraining itself; rather, it was the fundamental flaw in the Ashen Flame. Still, it was true that overusing the Ashen Flame had landed me in this state.

“Dale, does anything hurt specifically?” Yurina asked.

“I’m okay now.”

My head still burned like I had a fever, but it was nothing compared to the agony I felt when I first woke up.

Yurina lifted my bangs and pressed her forehead to mine. “Hold still for a second.”

We were so close our noses almost touched. The soft breath slipping past her lips tickled my cheek.

Come on, don’t do this while looking like that. Please.

If she kept this up, I could fall for her blond pretty boy persona. It made me protest inwardly: No! Not the boy-love corruption ending! Anything but that!

Yurina frowned as she watched me writhe and clutch my head. “Dale? You really are still sick. Your fever’s still high too.”

She grabbed my shoulders and forced me to lie down on the bed. “Don’t even think about doing anything today. Just lie there quietly.”

“Ugh, fine.” I couldn’t do anything even if I wanted to, with my body in this state.

Then Berald said, “Hmm, Brother, your clothes are completely soaked in sweat.”

“Oh, you’re right.”

My training suit was completely drenched. No wonder I had been feeling damp all over.

He continued, “First, let’s get you changed! I’ll help you!”

I tried to shove him away in a panic. “What? Hey, hey! W-wait! Stop, you bastard!”

However, I had no strength left in my body. Berald grabbed my clothes and began stripping them off all the way down. “Heh heh. We’re all guys anyway. What’s the big deal?”

Yurina’s eyes bulged as she recoiled in shock. “Whoa!

”

Berald said, “Yuren, could you pass me the hospital gown over there?”

Yurina mumbled, “It. It’s really big…”

“Yuren?”

“H-huh? What?”

“The hospital gown. The gown.”

Yurina hurried off to fetch it. “R-right!”

While I struggled, Berald pinned me down with brute force and signaled to Yurina. “I’ll hold him down. You help dress him.”

“M-me?”

“Ugh! Stop! I’ll dress myself, just please!”

“Hahaha. Patients should behave and lie still.”

“Gah!”

Why the hell is this bastard so strong?

Blushing furiously, Yurina said, “T-then, I’ll help you put it on, okay?”

As she helped me into the hospital gown, I clenched my teeth and shut my eyes tightly. Damn it. I will never forget this humiliation, Berald!

Glancing around the room, Berald said, “Well, now that you’re dressed, next…”

I shot him a sharp glare. “What now?”

“Brother, aren’t you a little hungry?”

“Hmm, now that you mention it, yeah.”

I hadn’t been eating properly during training, and I was definitely feeling it.

“Heh. I can’t just sit by while my brother starves! I’ll personally cook something for you!”

“Can’t you just bring the patient food from the infirmary?”

“Come on now! Have you never heard the rumors that the infirmary food at our academy is worse than dog food? I can’t let you eat that!”

“I’ve had it before… It wasn’t that bad.”

With a smug grin, Berald thumped his chest confidently. “None of that now. Just stay put. I’ll make you a special family recipe passed down through generations of the Ryu family! Just wait a little bit!”

Off he went, stomping as he left the infirmary. Thirty minutes passed. I was lying in bed, being fed peeled fruit by Yurina, when something acrid drifted into my nose. Wondering what it was, I scrunched up my nose, but the stench grew stronger.

Berald burst into the room wearing a pink apron while holding a pot the size of a washbasin. “Ahahaha! Brother! Your meal is ready!”

I didn’t know where he had found that apron, but it was physically painful to look at. Choosing to ignore it, I asked, “What is that?”

“The health-boosting stew I mentioned!” Grinning proudly, Berald set the massive pot on the table next to the bed. “Behold!”

He lifted the lid, and inside it was a bubbling red liquid, thick like molten lava dredged up from the pits of hell.

This color did not look okay. I asked, “Hold on. What on earth did you put in that?”

Berald puffed out his chest, looking extremely pleased with himself. “Ho ho. Brace yourself. It’s a kimchi stew made with spicy chili peppers, ginseng, ginger, jujubes, cinnamon, onions, garlic, and a mountain of chili oil. It’s an exclusive Ryu family remedy!”

He was seriously trying to feed this to someone burning up with fever. I yelled, “You goddamn lunatic.”

“Ahahaha! Sometimes you handle fire with another fire! Ever heard of fighting poison with poison?”

“I think you mean fight fire with fire, not poison with poison.”

Fine. Even if, for argument’s sake, I pretend that this kimchi stew is okay. But how on earth am I supposed to eat something that looks like a witch’s cauldron, stuffed to the brim with ingredients like it’s trying to choke the pot? Also, wait, there’s not a single piece of meat in this stew?

Had Berald abandoned his patriotic duty as a citizen of the Republic? According to some obscure national culinary law, serving kimchi stew without even a sliver of meat was a crime punishable by death.

Berald said, “Come on, come on! Just try a bite!”

“I’m not eating that!”

I was already overheating from head to toe, and now he wanted to shove down my throat a demonic concoction that would make even hell weep?

Berald nodded, arms folded like some smug sage. “No helping it then.”

For a second, I thought maybe, just maybe, he was human after all. But then he said, “Yuren!”

“H-huh?”

“Hold him down so he can’t move!”

Yurina glanced at me, hesitating. “But… he really doesn’t want to eat it.”

“This is all for his speedy recovery! Do you want Brother Dale to be stuck in the infirmary forever?”

“Well…”

“If you help, I’ll send you that photo we took during our supplementary class last year.”

“What? R-really? Which photo?”

“Hehe. The one where he was dozing off during the lesson.”

Yurina snorted so excitedly that I could tell how much she wanted that photo. She grabbed me and pinned me down like a lunatic. “Sorry, Dale.”

“W-wait! No! Don’t!”

“Just relax, Brother.”

Berald scooped a steaming spoonful of meatless kimchi stew and shoved it straight into my mouth.

The kimchi stew made me spot nonsense. “Yuckkk! O-our base… it’s… in the northern mountain range.”

Berald roared with laughter as I thrashed and choked on the infernal stew. “Bwahaha! All good medicine is bitter, my friend!”

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