Guiding the Male Lead out of His Trauma - Chapter 23.2
What should I do to avoid ending up like that?
To keep from dying here, I kept firing off question after question in my mind. What should I do?
‘Get a hold of yourself! I need to bring him back to normal!’
Getting closer, I understood why Acteon was like this.
Transcendents absorb and shape raw mana from nature at will, but no one can maintain that state twenty-four hours a day.
Partly because of physical fatigue, but also because the process of using mana that hasn’t been filtered has a huge impact on the human mind.
This is why Acteon couldn’t get his head straight.
In order to protect his mind, which had reached its limit from channeling mana, he’d closed himself off, blocking out all external stimuli.
So what I had to do was—
‘…Stabilize his heart and circuits that draw in mana, so he can control the flow of mana again.’
Guiding, of course.
Remembering why I’d come here, I took off my gloves.
It sounds simple enough in words, but actually stabilizing him was probably too much to hope for.
At the very least, though, if I could keep him from absorbing any more external mana, he might come back to his senses.
The problem was whether he’d let me touch him that easily.
“……”
Through his disheveled bangs, glassy silver-grey irises came into view.
I’d never noticed it before, but now I saw that his eyes resembled those of a gloomy beast.
One hostile to humans.
Ironically, as I faced that color, so very much like his mana, I dropped my gloves to the floor.
As expected, it didn’t look like he’d let me approach willingly. A flash of blue, the same color as his piercing gaze, flickered.
The crystallized mana looked like shards of broken glass, jagged and uneven, as if it might slash me to pieces at any moment.
Sure enough, the moment I took my first step forward, a sharp force grazed my ear.
“I’m going to regret this…”
My earlobe felt wet, but I didn’t bother checking.
I didn’t need to look to know it was torn, bleeding freely.
Instead of worrying about little things like that, what mattered was how to get close to him.
‘Should I just make a run for it?’
No, that’s reckless.
It would only make him more wary, and if I slipped up, I could lose a limb in an instant.
And I would just die, just like that.
‘Then I’ll have to approach as slowly as possible.’
It would be good if his attention were distracted somehow, but such an opportunity probably wouldn’t come easily.
Approach carefully.
…If something goes wrong, that’s when I’ll just throw myself at him, all or nothing.
I swallowed dryly, my mouth and throat sticking together as if they’d been scraped raw from lack of moisture.
I took another step forward, not breaking eye contact with him.
Crack.
Just two steps, and it was already this difficult.
I tried to approach again—
“…Ha.”
—but stopped in place before I could even move.
A crystallized mass of mana had formed right in front of me, aimed at my neck.
…Not easy. Damn it, if I get out of this alive, just wait and see.
Frozen on the spot, I only moved my eyes to glance away from the crystal.
Both hands went up on their own.
He probably wouldn’t even understand I was surrendering, but it was worth trying.
“…Acteon. If you can hear me, give me any kind of reaction.”
Even when I tried to negotiate, he remained unmoved.
At least, he wasn’t attacking me right away, maybe similar to how he’d blasted away that senior earlier.
This was his last remaining shred of rationality, telling me not to come any closer.
Flicker.
Flicker.
The magic stone lights outside continued to blink intermittently.
With each pulse of light, the inside brightened and darkened over and over.
…I really have no idea what to do.
After this much standoff, I felt like I’d rather just faint. If I died, at least it wouldn’t hurt.
A bitter smile crept up.
But then, suddenly, I snapped back to myself.
‘…It’s slowed down.’
The intervals between the blinking magic stones were getting longer.
It looked as if they might go out completely at any moment.
And just as that thought passed—
Pop.
The lanterns went out.
No more light returned.
At that instant, without anyone moving first—
Crack! Craack!
There was a shattering sound, like thin glass splintering.
It would have been creepy in an ordinary situation, but right now, it was especially chilling.
Of course it was.
This was a kind of warning. I might actually die here.
‘No, not just a warning. At this rate, I’m definitely doomed.’
Still, I didn’t stop my feet from running toward him.
The death of an extra like me, the ambiguous, insignificant end of a mere B-Class, would just pass by as an unfortunate event at the beginning of the original story anyway.
Even so, I reached out my hand.
At the same time, the control stone on my wrist shattered without mercy as it detected the mana of a Transcendent.
As I grabbed him, a piercing mana stabbed through my shoulder.
Urgency far outweighed the pain.
“Acteon!”
He probably couldn’t even hear me properly, but grabbing the collar at his violently throbbing pulse, I poured my words out.
“You… If you really end up killing me, I won’t let it go. If I die, Hyacine will be left all alone. He’ll resent you for it, and you’ll end up even more broken, living with that hatred.”
So even now, realize that I’m right here in front of you.
Guide’s mana that could only penetrate the flesh of a Transcendent.
Gritting my teeth, I touched the wildly chaotic flow of his mana. This was only the beginning, but it was already tangled and unstable.
At the same time, I saw his expression twist in pain.
He was clearly trying to shake me off.
But I couldn’t back down just because of that.
Clenching both hands on his collar, I forced myself to start guiding.
All five senses cut off, a new sense awakening… I could see mana everywhere around me, more clearly than ever.
Even the mana inside Acteon that he couldn’t control.
Mana so terrifying it seemed it might tear me apart at any moment refused to calm.
If anything, it surged more violently, baring its fangs at me like a tidal wave about to crash down.
It felt like holding a ticking time bomb against my body.
The moment I let go, it would swallow up the entire school.
With the mana refusing to stabilize, I was left with only one option.
I grabbed his familiar face with all my strength and said,
For something I might regret deeply later—
“If you try to blame me for your first kiss or whatever later, I won’t let it go.”
And then, leaning into him, our lips roughly met.
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