Lucian and Ebony's gazes met for a second as she swallowed nervously, after thinking it over for a moment, both nodded their heads, both thinking the same thing.
"(I'd rather die than kiss you)"
The girl moved closer to the elf again and this time, using all her willpower, she tried to heal him so he could kill all their enemies, but nothing changed.
The elf began to break into a cold sweat as he searched for a way out of the situation, his sword lay on the ground next to the dagger, but his body could no longer endure any more effort.
That was when Ebony noticed an insect crawling near her feet, it was small and had a broken leg, a cockroach that refused to die.
"(Gross, I didn't know these insects existed around here… But I guess I can't complain, in the end I'm just like you…)"
Unable to use her magic, she slowly resigned herself to kissing the elf, but it would be her first kiss, so she tried to reject the idea as much as she could.
The elf suddenly collapsed onto the rubble, clutching his shoulder in pain while breathing heavily.
"I'm sorry, my dear, I think this is as far as we go, you're already exhausted from saving our enemy"
"Exhausted… Yeah, exactly, I'm very exhausted, I don't think I can use any more magic…" Ebony said as she knelt down with a tired sigh.
"Uh-huh, exhausted…" The masked man crossed his arms as he watched the lovers. "Fine, stop the drama, just kiss him and that'll be enough for me"
"Umm… Well, you see, we're not that kind of couple that goes around kissing in public like vulgar teenagers, a kiss is something private… It's because of my religion" the girl replied.
"I knew it… Liars!" The mage clapped his hands together and his lackeys leaped forward with force to reach the top of the rubble, the sound of their bones breaking upon landing echoed clearly.
"Stop! Please, allow us to preserve our decency and try the healing one more time… Please…" Lucian looked at the mage in pain.
"Go ahead and try, but it better work, or I'll make your corpses kiss each other"
The elf took Ebony's hand and looked at her seriously, she didn't understand at first, but soon nodded her head.
Sitting on the ground, the elf closed his eyes, the girl raised her hands as if begging the heavens and spoke a single word out loud with all her faith.
"Heal… Please"
{{Life Magic: Healing}}
A green circle appeared beneath their feet and its faint glow lasted only a few seconds, when the spell ended, Lucian placed a hand on his knee and stood up as if nothing had happened.
"Thank you for your patience, my dear… Ebony… You're a bit slow with these things"
Hearing the elf's words, the masked man clenched his bloodied fists from his wounds and could only sigh in disappointment.
"Can you let us go now?" Ebony replied while still kneeling on the ground, sweat covering her forehead.
At that moment, the mage pulled out a small journal and a pencil from his leather belt, he began writing the lovers' names, the time and the date, it was the record of the vows under his care.
"Due to the legal loophole in our fifth rule, I will let you go, however, I will take this record to our elders to decide what to do with both of you, don't think you're free yet, the Monitoring period of your vow still remains"
"Monitoring?" Ebony said as she tried to recall something like that from the game, normally the cult was only an intermediary for vows that came and went like the wind.
"I will place one of my students in charge of you, he is young and inexperienced, but he will serve as an arbiter to follow you for a full year, once that time is over, I will return and depending on his judgment, I will either kill you or let you live"
"Do whatever you want, idiot, but you won't find any lies in our lovely marriage" the girl replied while swallowing hard and clenching her fist.
The masked man looked at her with doubt and anger, then he reached for his mask and removed it with difficulty, strands of coagulated blood stretched and snapped between the mask and his human skin.
The face behind the mask was young and free of any visible scars, but the moment the mask fully came off, the young man collapsed to the ground.
"(Disgusting, what the hell is that? I thought it was just a mask)" Ebony thought while holding back her gag reflex from the stench of rot.
The mask suddenly flew violently onto the face of the least injured cultist, the man's neck began to twist as the mask settled into place like a parasite.
"Do not attempt to harm my student, I have a pact with him, so if you kill him, I will know immediately and I will hunt you across the entire continent"
"And if he dies by accident, or if someone other than us kills him?"
"I will hunt you anyway"
"What the hell, we're not babysitters, idiot"
Ignoring the girl's complaints, the masked man pulled his hood back on and left the area along with all the cultists, he glanced back at the girl and raised a finger, reminding her of the time she had left.
"Miss, are they gone?" Lucian asked as he looked toward the horizon.
"Yes, they're gone"
Hearing that, the half-elf collapsed exhausted among the rubble, his breathing was ragged and his body completely drained.
The blonde looked at the scene with sadness and shame for failing to heal him, at that moment she released her clenched fist, letting go of the cockroach she had been hiding, which crawled away with its body intact.
"It was a great idea… Husband… ha ha ha, I can't believe it worked…"
"Ha… You did a good job… Although we're still not completely safe" Lucian pointed at the unconscious young man with a hole in each palm.
"What are we going to do when he wakes up?"
"I have no idea, but you'd better heal his wounds or he might bleed to death, I don't know how your magic works, but you need to figure it out fast"
"Mmm… Don't worry, we don't need my magic to save him…"
Ebony stood up and tore strips of fabric from her clothes, she approached the unconscious boy and spoke a single word.
"Heal"
{{Life Magic: Purification}}
The pieces of cloth glowed softly, losing all traces of dirt and turning pure white, Ebony had improvised sterilized bandages using magic.
"(I never thought I'd do this again… I guess this is what they mean when they say the world goes full circle)"
As she pressed the cloth into the wound to stop the bleeding, she remembered her classes at medical school and the lessons she had learned from her mother, those years weighed painfully on her as she felt distant from the reality before her.
After finishing bandaging the boy, she looked at the elf, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion, so she went to treat him as well using improvised gauze and bandages.
Now she was alone with her thoughts, alone with her memories, memories that drew tears from her eyes as she said goodbye to her past beneath the setting sun.
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Name: Ebony Stark
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