Chapter 274

Chapter 274

Although Atoga’s groans grew louder, the number of students paying attention had decreased significantly compared to the beginning.

The students of Acherandir had already grown accustomed to such situations.

The kind-hearted Rafia was still worried, though.

“Oh dear, he must be losing consciousness because he lost so much blood.”

The young girl Rafia felt uneasy seeing the usually handsome Professor Atoga suffer like that!

……Though it might just be that she was more worried because Atoga was handsome.

Hearing those words, Hektor tilted his head and spoke.

“If you lose consciousness from excessive bleeding, shouldn’t you feel less pain?”

At eloquence, Demona flared up in anger.

“Hey! You want your arm cut off? No matter how much blood you lose, it’s going to hurt like crazy!”

“N-No! This is what Professor Kaina…”

“And earlier you said it wouldn’t even matter if Professor Atoga’s arm didn’t attach. Even for a fanatic, your words are too harsh!”

“I think Demona is right this time, Hektor.”

“No matter how much you cherish Roan, you shouldn’t do that.”

Perhaps because of his prior record(?), the friends took Demona’s side for now, not knowing whose words were actually correct.

Hektor had tears welling up in his eyes, feeling that he had lost the public sentiment to Demona.

“Really, Professor Kaina said so…”

“““…….”””

However, Hektor’s tearful expression backfired instead.

The friends subtly averted their eyes as if they had seen something they shouldn’t have.

“I get it, fanatic…”

“H-Hektor, now that I listen to your words, they seem to make sense.”

A wound to the heart that was worse than not receiving recognition in the first place!

‘It might be better to just have my arm cut off instead…’

Hektor finished his pop quiz with a gloomy expression.

─ Yes~ Student Pabilto gets a perfect score.

“……Thank you, Assistant.”

─ G-Gasp! You didn’t stab your face as well, right?

“……?”

─ S-Sorry……. My mistake.

It was a face of Hektor that surprised even the assistant, who had seen all kinds of sights in the healing class.

Meanwhile, Atoga began to tremble all over.

‘No, seriously, why does it hurt this much? It shouldn’t be like this!’

If it were ordinary pain, he wouldn’t even say this.

Putting aside being the professor of penance, even from an ordinary perspective, this was definitely strange.

However, he couldn’t call Roan and interrupt him.

“When performing surgery using healing holy magic, one must pay attention to five major things. First, is it a situation where surgery is necessary? Second…”

Roan had been performing the treatment while muttering something diligently since a while ago.

Because it was exactly the content of the book that Atoga had given him during the first class.

If he was memorizing the passages like that, he definitely had grasped the concept of healing holy magic.

‘Above all, one knows their own body best.’

Crucially, Atoga’s arm was being steadily and very surely restored!

Looking only at the sequence of anesthesia, hemostasis, blood vessels, and bone, it was flawless.

While Atoga was caught in a dilemma, Roan called him and spoke.

“Professor, I will connect the muscles now.”

“Ah, now… Yes, please do so.”

Atoga barely held back the words ‘I will do it myself now’ from escaping his mouth.

Although connecting muscles was possible with Flesh Explosion as well, Roan decided to try a slightly more difficult magic.

‘Since I’ve learned it, I might as well use it all while I can. Bloody Meat Morsel of the Abyss.’

The Bloody Meat Morsel of the Abyss was, as could be guessed from its name, a blood magic utilizing the Abyss.

Unlike Flesh Explosion, which merely exploded the volume of flesh, this spell was a proper black magic used to reinforce familiars.

Wiggle—

“?”

Atoga tilted his head at the unusual wriggling sensation slowly felt in his arm.

What kind of holy magic did he use this time?

Before he could even harbor that question.

Squelch— Rip— Squish—!

An eerie sound, sounding more like muscles being crumpled rather than connected, echoed forcefully.

But that didn’t matter much.

“!!!!!!!”

When a pain that felt like dying right away assailed him, what did the sound matter anyway!

“Groan, ugh—”

Unable to hold back, a groan automatically escaped Atoga’s mouth.

‘What on earth is this! My pain tolerance doesn’t work at all?’

As a specialist in pain, Atoga could naturally distinguish between pain with tolerance applied and pain without.

If it had been a dull pain that the tolerance effect worked on before.

Squish— Squelch—!

This time, let alone tolerance, it was raw pain itself that even the anesthesia Roan used couldn’t block!

Looking at Atoga, who couldn’t easily pull himself together, Roan nodded as if it was exactly as expected.

‘As expected, they said Abyssal blood magic has many pain tolerance-ignoring effects. It seems nothing can be done about that.’

Wooong… Thump…

The two authorities, hearing that thought, were left speechless.

‘He used it knowing that…?’

And in Atoga’s eyes, as he subtly glanced back at the severed area from the truly unbelievable pain…

Shhh— Slid—

He saw Roan’s dark-attributed holy power—more precisely, dark mana—subtly wrapping around the wound there.

“Dark attribute… Ah…”

Only then did Atoga realize a bit of what had happened.

‘There was clearly a record stating that dark-attributed healing is painful regardless of tolerance… But does this mean Student Darc is already capable of healing with the dark attribute…?’

Within his gradually fading consciousness, memories of what he had studied in the very distant past suddenly came to Atoga.

……He did not realize that it was actually closer to a panorama of his life seen right before death.

In any case, the effect of the Bloody Meat Morsel of the Abyss was outstanding.

Slide—

Atoga’s arm, which had clearly been severed cleanly, moved properly.

─ L-Look at that!

─ Darc even attached the severed arm!

Naturally, the students who had been watching the scene went wild.

To attach a severed arm while they were still treating the wounds on their thighs—how incredible!

Even while distorting his face from the terrible pain, Atoga…

Clap— Clap— Clap…

Struggled to clap one by one.

“It is truly… excellent, Darc…”

“Professor…”

Roan, who had not expected Atoga to go that far, responded with wide eyes.

‘Doesn’t it hurt that much? There’s no way.’

No matter how amazing an Acherandir professor was, to endure pain tolerance penetration like this.

As expected, escaping from Acherandir before graduation seemed very difficult.

However.

Thud—

Having burned his final spark with three claps, Atoga finally lost consciousness and slumped down.

─ P-Professor!

─ Kyaaa!

“The professor pass…!”

……Naturally, the last one was Demona’s words.

Receiving overwhelmingly brutal glares from all around, Demona covered her mouth with her fist by instinct.

Roughly, her eyes seemed to protest, ‘I didn’t even say anything yet.’

However, seeing Atoga completely limp, it was reasonable to suspect whether he had actually stopped breathing.

The fact that the assistant, who ran over in a single breath, checked his pulse first was proof of that.

─ H-He is alive! He just fainted!

─ Wa, waaaah!!!

The students jumped to their feet unconsciously and let out cheers.

It was the moment it was confirmed that Roan had indeed succeeded in perfectly attaching the severed arm!

However.

Bang—!

─ ???!?!?

Upon hearing the assistant’s words, Roan struck the floor with his fist, looking resentful.

Startled, the people opened their eyes wide.

They couldn’t guess the reason for his sudden outburst at such a joyful moment.

With a deeply sorrowful and pained face, Roan said:

“It’s because I, I am lacking that this happened. If only my skills were sufficient, the professor wouldn’t have fainted from excessive bleeding like this…!”

‘How regretful, how regretful!’

He was indeed truly regretful.

……Though he wasn’t quite sure what he was regretful about.

A ringing silence fell—!

The lecture hall, having heard Roan’s words, was swept into silence, the previous cheers vanishing without a trace.

Then, as if a cracked dam had collapsed all at once.

“Roan, you incredibly kind-hearted baaaastard!”

“Uwaaaah! Roaaaan, what on earth are you…!!!”

─ Darc, you annoying but cool guy!

─ Sorry for saying your impression is dirtier than a black mage’s, you amazing guyyy!

‘……They said something like that? I need to remember their face.’

The students began to go wild, swept into a crucible of emotion and tears.

Regardless of their factions, the students hugged whoever was near them and started weeping!

The assistant also wept tears as he comforted Roan.

─ Student Darc, no, Student Roan! It is truly magnificent! I will make sure to pass this on to the professor!!!

‘……Well, I’m glad it went over well.’

Roan nodded, maintaining his sorrowful face while sighing in relief inwardly.

It was much better to wrap it up like this rather than letting it be known that the great Atoga fainted from being unable to bear the pain.

“But did the professor really faint from excessive bleeding? He looked like he was in immense pain…”

“Shut up, Demona! Saint’s Whip! Saint’s Whip!”

“Ack! Sion, I’m sorry! I was wrong!!”

“Without even knowing with what heart Roan treated him…! Saint’s Whip! Saint’s Whip!”

Demona’s minor suspicion, fortunately thanks to Sion, was able to end without reaching anyone’s ears.

* * *

Fortunately, Atoga woke up quickly.

“Hmm… Did I faint?”

Looking somewhat haggard, Atoga looked around and spoke.

The assistant and Roan, who had been waiting nearby, stepped forward.

─ Professor, are you conscious? You lost awareness for a moment.

“It seems you fainted because the bleeding was too severe.”

Atoga, who was nodding at the assistant’s words, tilted his head at Roan’s.

“From excessive bleeding? Me?”

Of course, if bleeding is severe, a fainting state naturally occurs, and if appropriate measures are not taken, it leads to death.

But Atoga naturally knew very well the amount of blood loss he could handle.

Though to others the podium might have looked like a sea of blood, to Atoga it was manageable.

‘I definitely shouldn’t have fainted from just this level.’

Furthermore, Atoga felt like he somehow knew the biggest reason why he had lost consciousness.

“Hmm, Student Darc. The reason I fainted is…”

─ More importantly, Professor.

While Atoga was pondering how to politely put ‘You shouldn’t heal anyone in the future’ to Roan in a professor-like manner, the assistant whispered to him.

It seemed he was conveying the touching lament Roan had expressed after he fainted.

“Hmm… Pardon?”

Atoga opened his eyes wide upon hearing all of the assistant’s words.

Reflected in his handsome golden eyes was Roan, wearing a regretful expression.

Perhaps suddenly remembering, Roan picked up a cup prepared on the teacher’s desk and walked over to a student in the front row.

“Could you give me some water? I think I need to give the professor some water.”

─ H-Hiiik! M-Me?

“Then who else is here?”

The student trembled all over just from Roan speaking to them.

In fact, Roan had also gotten blood splattered all over his face while attaching Atoga’s arm, so his impression was almost at a level transcending humanity.

Like a ferocious fiend that had just emerged from hell!

However, the student, who was just untying their canteen, tilted their head upon seeing the canteen hanging from Roan’s waist as well.

─ Uh… but you have a canteen too, don’t you?

Glareee—!!