"Is it possible for it to be regrown through your abilities?"
Masaru slipped a piece of paper to Eleanor as his brow wrinkled at the muffled groans of the boy on the table.
The girl, whose training had been interrupted by Rudiger, placed her hands along his shoulders, feeling for any point to begin healing.
"Even without the vortex overhead, I doubt it will be possible to reattach easily, even if you still have the mangled limb…"
Having practiced her own speaking skills with the man the previous night, she was already beginning to communicate far more fluently, with her eardrums healing to a certain degree as well.
Glancing over at the bucket containing the hand that had been perfectly severed and was now frozen in ice, she shuddered.
"However…"
Speaking up again, the priestess released her grip on the boy and stared her mentor straight in the eyes.
"There is one other solution to this issue that I'm unsure if you're aware of."
Originally hesitating at the thought of revealing Aaron's unique ability that stemmed from his Ghostship, she swallowed hard while not allowing her expression to waver.
The black-haired man frowned and cleared his throat, mouthing a question clear enough that she could read his lips.
"Would it be related to his Ghostship, perhaps?"
Guessing what the girl was being secretive about, he watched as her expression contorted into uneasiness.
"Y-yes… However, it's a little more complex than that…"
The temperature in the room began to drop steadily as she continued to speak, the words flowing like a river.
The first encounter she had with Aaron Grimstall, alongside his unique ability to consume cores, presented itself at once.
Masaru couldn't help but gaze towards the ground afterwards, thinking carefully about what he had heard for the first time.
"That is quite similar to that of an emblem…"
Noticing the girl tilt her head in confusion as to what he said, he could only sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Grimstall isn't one to explain anything, is he…?"
The man's eyes darted around the exposed skin of the boy's form, looking for any trace of the symbolic patterns that would appear when one gained the ability of a terror.
Lacking any himself and with his sword boasting an Insignia—an emblem of the divine level—he was unable to understand why one would keep such a thing hidden, especially from one's own mentor.
"You won't find anything."
Eleanor interrupted the man's thoughts, causing him to glance over in mild confusion and mouth another question to her.
"And how would you know that?"
There was once again a pause that filled the cabin chamber, a slight red poking through on Eleanor's cheeks.
"I-I just do! N-now I'll return to my training if you don't mind me!"
Not wishing to respond further, she made for the door while also forgetting to retrieve her Aether; the awkward situation was something that was too embarrassing to continue.
Masaru, on the other hand, stared blankly out the window that lay behind the slumbering boy, not even caring about his escaping student while he mumbled under his breath.
"If a core will heal him, then a core he shall have."
…
"Let's try this again…"
Returning to her place in the snow, Eleanor sat down slowly while tightening her hood against her skin.
She had only started her daily training for about an hour by the time that Rudiger had come to fetch her, and it hadn't been as productive as she wished.
Not only had her hearing still not returned in full, but again she had been swept up in pointless what-ifs and ended up in a heap of despair.
I can't let this keep happening; otherwise, I won't be able to move forward.
Closing her eyes and taking a deep, cold breath, she focused on her thoughts carefully.
I've been too passive… Giving this storm any more power than it already has was a mistake. What I need to do is fight against it, to show it that I'm the one in charge of my emotions, not it.
Slipping into a state of focused meditation, she did not allow her mind to guide her into a lulled state; instead, placing her entire being into one idea.
Think logically. What am I afraid of?
Compiling a small list of the things that did her the most harm, she began at once, dissecting the reality and possibility of them individually.
First, the future.
As she had been faithfully reminded of during her first session in the tundra, the future she had seen aboard Aaron's Ghostship depicted the worst scenario she had ever heard.
Originally, she assumed it was her standing over the corpse of her fallen friend after he met his fated foe; however, as she looked back on it without a clouded-over lens, she saw holes in her theory.
"Don't leave me here… Not after—"
Those were the last words she had heard in that prophecy, and to add to her previous point, she had assumed they were begging the boy not to leave her in death, not after all they've been through.
Yet, it didn't quite make sense, knowing what she currently knew.
Nothing in those words proved he had died… Nor did I even know if it was about him…
While not considering herself an expert in human psychology, she could clearly see that Aaron was one of the most empathetic people she had met.
The efforts he had shown to a thief who had stolen his money, a girl who had memories of his life when he had none of his own, a nobleman who had looked down on him for simply being average, and all the others he had helped all corroborated the idea that he was a deeply caring person.
Therefore, would it not make sense for him to look at her in the same way?
Someone as kind as that wouldn't allow himself to perish right before her eyes, not after everything they'd been through.
Of course, that would only be true if it were his own choice to meet his demise, such as succumbing to the life-draining egg that he carried with him.
But even so, if he were slain by an enemy, would she truly give up so easily and sob over his corpse?
I couldn't even cope with the idea that I'd have defeated that enemy, and after it was all over, I was now crying over him. If it was strong enough to fell him, then I would stand no chance.
Feeling a slight tinge of hope burst to life in her heart from even the smallest of details that she pulled from that glance into the future, she smiled.
If despair can be conquered by hope, then I'll just need to place my hopes in a place where they cannot be shattered.
Clicking her tongue once, she felt the storm around her intensifying, trying to drown out her short moment of joy and once again drown her in that devastating feeling of grief.
This time, unlike when she was so brutally forced into submission by the vortex, she fought against it.
Grinding her teeth together and forcing her mind away from those intrusive thoughts that would ruin her hope, she kept going, looking for anything to continue her thinking.
Such a thing came in the form of her friends from the Great Beyond and the letter that she had sent.
Looking back on her thoughts from the previous day, she nearly laughed aloud.
I believed that they would hate me for missing a chance on Strava to find Esmerelda…? How foolish could I have been?
Lady Ariel was the Angel of Grace, and Lady Prudentia was the Angel of Justice.
They would never turn on her for failing to investigate a place that dangerous, not in a thousand years.
If what lay behind that fallen tree in the basement of the Grimstall house struck fear into even the Aether that was once wielded by a man that even the Angelic Order feared, then it was no such place for a false Angel who hadn't cast a single miracle at that time.
It would've been suicide, and certainly the overseers of death itself would understand that. No, they wouldn't just understand; they'd agree with me.
Anchoring her mind onto this reasonable train of thought that she had previously denied, she found herself far more grounded than she originally believed.
That minuscule hope that she had previously fostered through basic wording had now blossomed into something even larger, something stable.
And no matter how hard the freezing wind battered her or the sounds of the world were drowned out by her poor hearing, she would stand firm.
Optimism was never my strong suit, but now… Maybe it's the key to surviving this devilish continent.
Opening one eye and glancing down at her timer, she realized with a shock that only a few minutes had passed.
Staying in control of herself had prevented time from slipping away, and as such, she remained vigilant and locked in.
Unfortunately, this does mean I have another four and a half hours out in the…
Her thought was abruptly cut off as she felt a sudden prod on her shoulder.
Hmm? Is it perhaps Rudiger again?
Slowly turning around with a weak smile on her face, where she had expected to see the horrifying-looking spider octopus hybrid, she instead saw a humanoid figure swinging an axe straight at her skull.
Huh?