The Extra Works Hard

It was then that his nose began bleeding. Nathan roughly wiped his nose as usual, but his nose didn’t stop bleeding. It looked like someone turned the faucet on and forgot to turn it off. The dripping blood spilled like running water. Nathan was taken aback by the unusual situation. As he became distracted, the magic circle drawn in the air broke and faded away.

Nathan didn’t even notice that the wand in his hand was falling to the floor. Even as he hurriedly covered his nose with his hand, the blood overflowed and fell between his fingers. Nathan’s mouth, clothes, and hands were covered in blood—not to mention the state of his nose and the taste of blood in his mouth. He couldn’t hold his breath. When he coughed, blood spurt out at the same time.

“Ugh.”

The continuous flow of blood stifled his breath. It was hard to breathe. Nathan gasped. He opened his mouth to breathe, but his mouth was full of blood.

His vision flickered in and out of focus rapidly. The whole world was dyed white. Obviously, he had his eyes open, but he couldn’t see anything. It was just all white. His ears kept ringing. The ‘beep’ sound was creepy. He had a cold sweat. The voices of people and the sound of footsteps running towards him could be heard in the distance. His stomach was feeling nauseous. He had a stomachache. His hands trembled. No, his whole body was shaking.

That was all Nathan remembered.

* * *

“You idiot! When I told you to try, I didn’t mean to overwork yourself!”

Professor Michael threw away his usual polite way of speaking and got angry. Nathan glanced at him. Nathan was very upset. He was scolded for trying because he was told to try. Where he lived, no one said anything about this much, so he was puzzled.

‘

If it was Korea, no one would have cared about a nosebleed…

’

He didn’t know why the professor was angry. Honestly, he didn’t know why he was even being scolded, but Nathan was wary of Professor Michael’s mood. After that, the speech continued, but not many words remained in Nathan’s mind.

Professor Michael frowned as if Nathan’s thoughts were reflected in his expression. With a sigh, he decided to take special measures.

“It doesn’t seem like you want to reflect on yourself. If that’s the case, for the time being, you will be banned from classrooms, libraries, and gymnasiums.”

“Pardon?!”

Nathan jumped up in surprise and collapsed onto the bed with a groaning sound.

“You need some rest. Do you know how messed up your body is? You definitely must be feeling it.”

Nathan woke up three days after he spilled blood and passed out in the class. It was said that his diagnosis was lack of nutrition, combined with lack of sleep, and overworking himself resulting in body aches. Even now, he was still throbbing all over his body as if he had been beaten. His stomach also hurt and it felt like his heart was clumped together.

“Bu-but still! Then, I will be even further behind!”

How could he catch up! He tried so hard and managed to catch up, so now he said not to take classes! There was nothing crueler than that. Nathan’s face was distorted by the injustice.

“Don’t worry too much, I’ll give you the supplementary classes as much as I can. If you want, I’ll adjust the class of another professor as well. With the midterm exams coming up, it’s only you who’s overdoing it.”

“But—!”

“There are no ‘

buts

’. Think about your body. I hope you’ve learned something from this incident. Of course, trying is important, but you don’t seem to see your own efforts. You worked very hard, tried, and got results. Professor Pan even praised you. Your efforts are commendable, but what should be scolded has to be scolded—that way, you won’t repeat the same mistakes.”

“……”

The blanket held in his hand wrinkled. Professor Michael’s firm voice could not get any sadder. Nathan didn’t want to be praised, but he hoped that because he worked harder than anyone else, his efforts could be recognized.

“There is no point in running without knowing the limits of your body. This is a mistake that young students often make. Look at your physical condition right now. Look at how dangerous it is to use your mana with an overworked body.”

Then what was Nathan supposed to do? Has anyone ever scolded him like this? As if young in body and in spirit, Nathan’s mind was just saddened and wronged in this situation.

Deureureuk—

Then a woman with short, soft, light brown hair and round orange eyes entered the infirmary. She was a pretty familiar face to Nathan.

“…Nurse Matilda has come?”

“Oh my, Professor Michael. Were you picking on my patient while I was away?”

“……”

She smiled softly, but it was full of warning. So Professor Michael licked his lips, sighed, and turned around.

“I still have something to say… but I’ll stop for the sake of your body, Nathan. I’ll talk to you later. Never, ever push yourself too hard. Take a rest.”

“Go home safely.”

“See you later.”

There was silence for a moment as Professor Michael left the infirmary. Nathan was still unhappy and his body ached. Nurse Matilda, who approached his bedside, asked.

“How is your body?”

“…it hurts a little.”

“Oh, would you like me to give you some more painkillers?”

“Um, I don’t think it’s that bad.”

He didn’t seem to think it was enough to take medicine. It was still tolerable. So Nathan gently shook his head. Matilda stared at Nathan for a moment. For a man who had slept for three days, Nathan’s face was still haggard—his eyebags were dark and his lips were dry. Unbeknownst to Nathan, he had a nosebleed while sleeping, staining his pillows and bed sheets with the dark red drops.

“Doesn’t it feel like your heart area is clumped together?”

“Pardon? Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Mana circulates through the heart with the air. It basically wraps around the heart, but it runs through the blood. It’s not good for your heart if you overdo it. It’s even more so when you’re already in poor health. You don’t want to shorten your life, do you?”

Nurse Matilda then grabbed Nathan’s hand. A bright light emanated from her fingertips. Her gripping hand was warm.

“…divine power doesn’t work well, either.”

“Oh, you said that before.”

It happened when Nathan suffered from gastritis because of Remburton. She tried to heal him with her divine powers, but it didn’t work well, and eventually prescribed him medication.

“I looked it up and found that it is not common, but it does happen occasionally. Those whose bodies do not take in divine powers… Of course, there are people who don’t accept divine power very well, but usually not to this extent, so the treatment method and the question of why you’re like this have yet to be resolved… But you’re not particularly weird, so don’t worry too much. Even though I have divine powers, I learned herbal medicine too, so I’ll be able to help you.”

Here, healing was the realm of the divine.

Because God was real, the divine power was strong and God’s power was clearly proven to be real. The priests of the temple were all people with divine power. Divine power was slightly different from magic. It was the divine power to purify negativity. Therefore, it was no exaggeration to say that it specialized in curing disease and healing wounds. Of course, though divine healing was available, much of the public could not partake in it. Due to the fact that it cost a lot of money, there was a strong public opinion that divine healing was reserved for those of noble blood. Therefore, nobles and people in authority were the only ones treated by priests with divine powers.

Matilda was a high-ranking priest sent to the academy as a member of the temple. Thanks to this, commoners entering the academy could easily receive treatment with divine power.

Aurora Academy was a place where nobles and commoners were mixed. Although the number of nobles was much greater, the number of commoners was not small. This was because only students with excellent skills could enter the academy based on their ability. In fact, Nathan’s position was a bit subtle in that sense.

Students usually entered the academy starting from elementary school. In other words, it was said that students were enrolled at the age of 8 to10. So ‘Nathan’ might have been better than his peers when he was young, but it seemed that his talent didn’t keep up with age. He had talent as a child but was caught up to by the children around him, and eventually fell behind.

The reason why Nathan insisted on the ill-fitting Swordsmanship Department was because the Norbert Barony consisted of swordsmen. That’s why he didn’t even think about other departments. His parents also graduated from the Swordsmanship Department, so he thought he would just follow them and do the same. Thus, he chose swordsmanship even though his body was not fit for it.

He could tell from the conversation he had with Nurse Matilda during their first meeting that ‘Nathan’ had been going to and from the infirmary as if it were his own home since he was a child because of the unsuitable department. It was a very embarrassing situation to meet Matilda, who knew Nathan, in her infirmary.

If you love the translations you can support me on my KoFi: https://ko-fi.com/nerolotus