Zavier felt that he needed to express his gratitude towards Valerie since they might not get a chance to do so later, given the current situation. Another reason that he had stayed with her was that he knew she was actually very weak and would need his protection should the masked mage decide to attack her despite the front that she was putting.
"Thanks for doing this. I know that you don't feel too good."
Valerie hadn't expected him to express it to her like that. She had thought that Zavier would not have liked her much considering the way that she had always treated her.
"It's my responsibility, after all I was the one who chose this mission and brought you all along with me."
Zavier lowered his head and did not respond for a while. He was thinking of some way to tell her that all of this might have been his fault considering the fact that he had several unknown enemies who might have been aiming for him through this trick.
No matter how much he pondered on the subject, he couldn't find a way to tell her that because that would require an explanation as to who his enemies were and how he came to know about them. Therefore, he could only make a show of his resolve and gratitude for the care and protection that she had shown towards him and the other girls.
He held onto her hand in order to convey his feelings to her in the most solemn manner that he could have mustered.
"You have already done your best. You have protected us so far and we have seen it with our own eyes the effort you have put in and the blood you have shed. Now that you are injured, you need to rest and let me protect you from now on, all right? I will make sure that we can go home and back to our daily lives together. I promise you that."
If Valerie had been only surprised when Zavier had held her hand, then his words had touched the innermost part of her heart.
If Valerie had not been in front of Zavier and there had been no outside threat, her tears might have leaked out because of how emotional she was feeling but she couldn't let loose yet, as the situation demanded her to give her absolute best performance.
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"Those should have been my words. I feel like you took the words right out of my mouth and reuttered them back to me."
She let out a low giggle to hide the blush that was slowly creeping up on her face.
Zavier unconsciously tightened the grip on her hand thinking that she hadn't taken his words seriously.
"I meant what I said. I will not let you stay behind even if you want to. If it came to it, I really would do what I said earlier. You should have no doubt about that. I have the means to escape anything, even someone at your level might not be able to kill me off. So, don't push yourself too much. All right?"
Even if she had a heart of stone, it would have melted when she heard him say that. In order to hide her embarrassment, Valerie prodded her hand out of his grip. She had done it naturally so Zavier would not feel rejected. She couldn't have just told him that her heart had skipped a beat right there and she was afraid that she wouldn't be able to control herself if he kept on holding her hand.
Before she had the chance of seeing his expression, the sound of fighting in the distance distracted her and she came back to reality where she was still his teacher who was responsible for his life and the life of the other two students that were there with them.
Dust was rising in the air following the explosive sounds that could be heard in the distance. Not only them, but Dahila too stepped out of the tent awakened by all the noise. Alissa on the other hand didn't look like she was disturbed at all. She was sleeping soundly through all the explosive noise without a care In the world. Nobody wanted to wake her up. It was better that she stayed that way until they could get a handle on things and figure out whether there was an ally among the fighting parties or not.
"You two, stay put right here. I am going to check the situation."
Zavier protested loudly as soon as he heard her but Valerie gave him such a frightening look that he shut himself up with a lot of difficulty.
Valerie on the other hand was not quite sure that Zavier would listen to her so she had planned on leaving a fail-safe behind in the event that Zavier decided to ignore her instructions and follow after her.
Valerie raised her hands and chanted a spell in a low voice. Zavier could swear that he had seen the flow of magical energy that Valerie was emitting and it was so dense that Zavier was amazed. No wonder she was known as an absolute peak genius.
Valerie brought her hands together in front of her with both her palms joined together. Slowly she began to pull apart her hands and a small spherical ball shape began to take form in between. As she moved her hands further apart, the sphere grew larger until it was enough to cover several metres around her. With the push of her arms outward, the sphere expanded and covered the whole camp site.
"You will be safe inside this barrier. Wait for me here until I come back. Let me warn you once again; no matter what happens you are not supposed to come out of this. But if you do, you better be prepared for the consequences after we go back home."
Valerie looked like a demon by the end of the sentence and Zavier knew better than to oppose her by that point.
He knew that even if he did, Valerie would put him down before he even had the chance, so he acted like the obedient student and stayed put as Valerie left to investigate the fighting noise.
She had only left when it became unbearable for Zavier. It was like there was an itch in every part of his body. He knew that if Valerie had known that he was unable to die, maybe she would have let him go instead. But since he had hidden his secret, Valerie had gone in alone in her condition and Zavier felt extremely guilty and afraid that something might happen to her.
Zavier was contemplating whether to let her in on his secret by that point just to avoid a situation like this again.
But he knew that it wasn't feasible at all. He couldn't trust anyone in this world until he had determined who his enemies were. For example, Marquess Val was someone he couldn't trust but he was also Valerie's brother. Telling her was tantamount to giving information to the opponents. Since his secret was both his hidden strength and his weakness. Once the opponents knew his secret, it would only be a matter of time before he was murdered.
Therefore, the only thing he could do at the moment was to keep his head down and pace around in worry and anticipation of what was to come next. Valerie hadn't been gone very long but the worry mixed with guilt was eating away at him like cancer which was the reason that he couldn't stay still at all and was pacing around like a worried wife waiting for her husband in the courtyard.
Even Dahila looked worried from her dark expression but she wasn't as expressive about it as Zavier was. He was unable to sit down and wait calmly like she could.
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