I’m Not Doing This With A Friend

✿

Everyone's eyes turned to Kun. He protested as if he was wrongly accused.

"Please don't look at me like that. I didn't mean to swear but really… No, it was a ¹dog-bird."

(N: ¹개새-개=dog, 새=bird; another meaning that Kun said a swear 개새끼=son of a b*tch/bastard.)

Fjord patted Kun on the back, looking at his comrade.

"He must have wanted to swear at Carson so bad that he lied…"

I also tried to comfort Kun and said something plausible.

"Yeah. Don't tell a ridiculous lie and rather just swear. Sometimes, you need to know how to express yourself, so you'd feel refreshed."

Kun sighed until they went down, perhaps he thought it was too much to make more excuses.

"Believe it or not, I'm only telling the truth."

"Yeah, bitch."

Kun glared at me with resentment.

‘Oh, scary!'

I pretended not to know and fixed my gaze on the few remaining shoes.

When there was only one shoe left out of the six. Kun asked as if curious.

"Come to think of it, why did you come here? If you needed to fill the club performance, you could have filled it with something else."

I don't say it out loud, but in short, the question was, why did I come to such a dangerously place?

It was obvious that Fjord, which was a swordsman, and Carson, a wizard, did not mention it.

"Did Carson force you to come along?"

"Do you think Carson would force something on me? Rather, they insisted on not letting me join."

"…You have an unexpectedly childish side."

‘You mean, that's immature…?'

Following Carson and Fjord's prejudice, Kun was obsessed that I would not be able to catch any monster, so I put my tongue out as revenge.

"Do you ignore non-combat affiliated departments just because you're from a combat department?"

The Department of Herbal Medicine was also very poisonous. I opened the poison needle case that I had taken out earlier.

Click~

The lid opened. Hundreds of needles were tightly packed inside the case. I pulled out a thin needle and smiled softly.

"Who wants to experience the thrill?"

The poison applied to this needle spreads into the body in an instant, first paralyzing the whole body, and at the earliest, killing the target within 30 minutes.

In fact, there were many poisons that could kill faster if only I intended to kill the target.

However, the true merit of this poison was that it paralyzes the entire body in an instant.

Unfortunately, there were no applicants. They seemed to notice that the needle had been poisoned.

‘Whoa, he's quick. He spoke in an awkward tone.'

"It's scary."

"Leen, let’s put it back for now. What if you get poked by mistake?"

Carson has been restless since the moment I touched the needle with my bare hands.

Thank you for your concern, but I was resistant to this poison.

It was a necessity, not an option, to develop the resistance of the poison that I frequently used.

Of course, even a small amount mixed with blood could be fatal, so I had to take an antidote if I happened to accidentally been poked by it.

But before being paralyzed, the time to take the antidote was enough to earn enough resistance.

Besides, I carried three antidotes with me in case of an emergency.

Glancing at Carson who was worried about it, it was cute. At that time, a playfulness suddenly rose in my mind.

"There would be no poison as thrilling as this. It's a pity that everyone refused. Then, shall I stab myself with it?"

I fixed the needle as if I would poke myself at any moment.

"Leen!"

Kun and Carson called my name at the same time. But Fjord, who noticed that my intention, just laughed.

"Leen. Haven't you fooled me once or twice? You've already been caught. Stop joking around."

"…Was that a joke?"

At Fjord's words, Khun, realizing that I was joking, swept his chest.

He made it even more interesting to see how confident I was that I would just pretend to poke myself.

"I'm serious."

I smiled and fixed my gaze on the two of them. To those who were still convinced that it was only a joke, I put the needle into my wrist as it was.

Their changing expressions were vivid.

…Yeah.

But something was strange. I'm sure I poke the needle in my wrist, but I didn't feel any pain.

Even if the paralyzing progressed quickly and I didn't feel any pain, a slight pain had to be conveyed at least when the needle was inserted.

I confirmed the location where the needle was inserted with a stiffened movement.

Someone's hand was on my wrist, which shouldn't have been there.

The needle that should have been stuck in my arm was on the palm of another person's hand.

The owner of the hand was identified along the palm and it's connected arm.

The owner of the hand that intervened the needle with my wrist smiled faintly as if it was fortunate.

Was it because you're tongue was stiff and you could no longer speak? He has spoken in a clumsy shape of his mouth.

‘You almost got in trouble, Leen!'

Did they say that if you are too surprised, your hair turns white?

I just stared blankly at Carson, who fell into my arms.

When I barely moved my hand to put on his stiff back, I could barely think.

"Carson!!!"

The price of the prank was greater.

After the accident returned, the only thought I had was that I should find the cure.

I flipped the bag upside down and took out all the contents.

Was it because of the tense situation? Finding the antidote in the mess was easy. I picked up the antidote and immediately poured it into Carson's mouth.

However, for some reason, my anxiety didn't go away even after feeding him the antidote.

I was afraid to take my eyes off Carson. My eyes were fixed on him as I asked Fjord for help.

"Fjord, find more antidote and bring it to me!"

As if he remembered which potion I had given Carson, he quickly found two antidotes among the mess of various objects.

Even knowing that one antidote was enough, I spilled the other two antidotes into Carson's mouth.

It was when all the antidotes I have was fed to Carson.

In that moment, I remembered what I had forgotten and became distracted.

The antidote that was given to Carson was not a complete one, but a diluted antidote.

Once again, I am resistant to this poison. But not a completely tolerance. I was still developing a tolerance for this poison.

Because of this, a diluted antidote was created. Detoxifying only enough to not die so as to develop a tolerance.

…That too, by my standards of tolerance to poison.

✿

I didn't know how time passed. I wasn't even sure if he was breathing right now.

Time passed so slowly that one second felt like one minute. On the contrary, my mind cleared quickly.

In a short span of time, countless thoughts poured down like rain.

The place where we stood was the monster habitat, and the academy was quite a distance away.

The dormitory had ingredients to make a complete antidote.

However, the preparation of antidote took time, and there was no guarantee that Carson's condition would not deteriorate until then.

In order to buy time, Carson had to be healed by a priest.

"Kun! Can you use the power of spirits to transfer Caon to the academy?"

"Only two people, including me."

It meant that only the patient, which was Carson, could be taken. But it was fine.

I could walk, so I could also run down. Even if he coulfn't decipher it completely with his power, it would still buy him enough time.

"We'll chase after you, so take Carson to the priest! Hurry up!"

Kun summoned the spirit of the wind.

The two quickly moved into the air with the power of the spirit. I ran down the mountain without even having time to think anything else.

Fjord, dumbfounded came hurriedly following after me from behind.

Perhaps the holy power alone could cure the poison. But I had to think of the worst possibility.

Since I used a poison that could paralyze even large monsters at once, the probability of Carson not being healed by holy power was more likely.

With that thought, I put more strength on my fast-moving feet.

I fell and rolled over several times because I was in too much hurry. Blood was dripping down my knees, but I felt no pain.

I couldn't even remember how I killed the monster I encountered along the way.

After coming down from the mountain, I opened the door of the dormitory.

Jane must have been surprised by my sudden appearance, but she quickly recognized the dire situation and calmly helped me make the antidote.

I had a few seconds to think about something else as I mixed each measurements while making the antidote.

Funny enough, I came into the room wearing dirty shoes after rolled around in the forest and thought that the room would have been dirty.

However, I belatedly realized that the prerequisites themselves were wrong.

Because I was already barefoot. I had no idea when and wherey shoes came off.

Having made the antidote, I ran out in that state and found the place where Carson was.

Fortunately, as the priest was playing his role well, Carson was breathing without any signs of worsening.

After giving the antidote directly to Carson, I breathed.

Tears flowed out of relief.

✿

Flash~

When Carson opened his eyes from the bed, he stood up casually and sat.

"I'm alive."

After spacing out for a while, he stretched out and warmed up. Seeing that his movements weren't uncomfortable, his body seemed to on it's normal condition.

"But just in case."

As Carson mumbled something softly, two magic circles were created under his feet.

The window was closed, and his pink hair flew like the wind from somewhere.

An antidote that cures poison.

And recovery magic to heal wounds. It was a restoration, which could be said to be the upper stage of Hill.

In addition, he put various magic on his body and confirmed that there was no abnormality, and laid back in bed again.

"I want to see Leen."

It was a habitual Leen song.

"…At that time, Leen certainly didn’t touch the needle, right?"

The expression on Leen's face when he was stab by the poison needle was still clear in his eyes.

Fortunately, he had blocked it, and it was almost a disaster. It wasn't painful, but it felt like his body stiffened in an instant.

It was never a pleasant feeling.

In fact, I expected Leen to be somewhat resistant to the poison. But…

‘I didn’t want to see the poison needle go through Leen’s body even though I knew it.’

If there's even a 1% chance that it would be dangerous, it's better off that I'd be the one harmed.

I'm happy to accept anything Leen pranks on me, but I don't know what to do with this kind of thing.

How much my heart sank when she tried to put poison needle on her arm, saying it wasn't a joke.

I was so startled that I couldn't even use my magic which was like breathing. I was glad that my body reacted.

‘But… What happened when I collapsed?'