Chapter 3: A Special Treatment
With the nun who had suffered a spiritual obstacle reaction because of him in tow, Shirou returned home for the time being.
After placing her on his bed, Shirou attempted to use magical energy to restore her damaged body. Humans were too fragile; if he were to use Divine Power recklessly, he might end up destroying her directly. The reason he could use it on Princess Alice before was that she was the world's strongest witch and could withstand the burden of Divine Power.
After Shirou utilized healing magecraft, the girl's suffering gradually subsided; at the very least, a spiritual obstacle reaction would not occur for the time being.
"That should do it..."
Murmuring this, Shirou ceased his spellcasting, walked to the window, and gazed out at the city. It rarely snowed in Fuyuki City. This gloomy weather felt more like it was going to rain.
Sure enough, just as Shirou expected, the city's first rain of the winter began to fall. it was a continuous drizzle mixed with a light breeze, making very little sound as it tapped against the glass.
The city outside the window sank into a haze. The rain was swept up by the wind, hitting the glass in wave after wave, stirring up ripples. Under the refraction of those ripples, the city's silhouette became distorted; the extensions of houses and streets curved and deformed, no longer possessing their usual regularity. In the puddles accumulated on the ground, the dark firmament was reflected.
"Ugh... mm..."
A soft groan suddenly came from behind him. Hearing the sound, Shirou immediately turned around.
Caren Ortensia, dressed in her nun's habit, had trembling eyelashes as she gradually opened her amber-like eyes. Caren stared blankly at the greyish-white ceiling for a moment. She felt as though she had had a dream—a dream where she suddenly suffered a spiritual obstacle while leaving the church to throw away trash, and then, as her consciousness blurred, she was carried away by some man.
'Wait... I was carried away...?'
A bad thought suddenly flashed through Caren's mind. She hurriedly sat up and checked the clothes she was currently wearing. That nun's habit, woven of black and white, was still on her body, though it was somewhat wrinkled at the moment.
"Phew..." Her clothes were still properly on her; it seemed she hadn't been subjected to any strange treatment. Having realized this, Caren breathed a slight sigh of relief.
"You're awake." A man's voice suddenly reached Caren's ears.
Hearing this voice, Caren's body instantly tensed up, and she hurriedly looked to the side. It was a tall youth. He wore a somewhat loose black casual jacket and trousers of the same color. His aura carried an invisible pressure—a feeling Caren had only seen in figures who had held high positions for many years.
His face was very handsome, and his eyes were a very rare pale gold. The slight curl of his lips carried a gentle smile, and his somewhat messy red hair half-veiled his eyes.
"Who exactly are you...?"
Caren looked at him with some confusion. Because she perceived that her body had not been treated cruelly, she did not feel much fear, believing that this person likely wouldn't do anything too evil to her.
"My name is Orihara Shirou. I'm a magus of sorts. I saw you suddenly faint earlier, so I gave you some treatment."
Hearing this man's answer, Caren's eyes widened slightly. Then, she pushed up her sleeve and extended her fair arm to inspect it.
"The wounds... they're gone...!"
Clearly, she knew how troublesome her "Masochistic Spiritual Medium Constitution" was. If she had remained collapsed there, she didn't know what kind of situation she would have fallen into.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Orihara!" Caren hurriedly got off the bed, folded her hands together, and bowed respectfully to Shirou.
Even though the man's youthful face looked only a few years older than her own, the aura he invisibly projected gave Caren the strange sensation of facing an elder, so she instinctively addressed him that way.
"There's no need for that. After all, it's partly because of me that you fell into that state," Shirou said with a smile as he helped her up.
"Eh!?
What you meant just now was... I entered that state of spiritual obstacle because of you!?" Caren felt her brain becoming chaotic again, and her breathing involuntarily quickened.
Suddenly, she felt that this man before her, who wore a gentle smile, seemed perhaps not as safe as she had imagined.
"Then that is to say... Mr. Orihara, are you perhaps a demon?"
"That's not it... it's likely due to other reasons..." Shirou considered his words slightly, resting his chin on his hand. If a demon saw him, it might be the one terrified into a spiritual obstacle reaction.
"This..."
Although her body was currently free of spiritual obstacles, Caren still vividly remembered the pain when the obstacle had appeared. After coming to the church here, she had once encountered a "demon"—it was a woman possessed by a "demon." Encountering such a situation for the first time, Caren had no idea what to do and was nearly injured.
Fortunately, her grandfather, Risei Kotomine, stepped in at that time to purge the "demon" from the woman's body, so Caren hadn't suffered much harm—only slight wounds appeared on her body due to the spiritual obstacle. But since then, she also understood what kind of pain this curse-like constitution would bring her after an unlucky encounter with a "demon."
Glancing at the clean white sheets behind her, Caren spoke with some hesitation.
"I wonder if I am permitted to leave now? Mr. Orihara..."
'I hope this man doesn't have a hobby for imprisonment...' Caren prayed silently in her heart.
"Of course, you can leave at any time. However, I think you could wait a little longer, because it's raining outside right now."
Hearing this, Caren also turned her gaze out the window, looking at the city amidst the wind and rain.
"Is that so..."
Biting her lip slightly, Caren nodded.
"Then I shall trouble you for a little while longer."
"Certainly," Shirou nodded with a smile, turning back to continue watching the street, waiting for the arrival of those two people.
Caren sat somewhat stiffly by the bedside, cautiously observing her surroundings. Suddenly, she remembered something.
"By the way, Mr. Orihara, regarding what you said earlier about treating my body?"
"Yes." The man continued to look out the window without turning back; it seemed there were things more worthy of his attention than a silver-haired beautiful girl.
"That is to say... before long, I will return to the way I was, right..."
A flash of disappointment crossed Caren's eyes. Once the duration of this secret technique passed, her "curse" would make its comeback. Even if she didn't have to enter that dark world of magecraft in the future, her life would still be full of misfortune.
But there was nothing to be done about it. Having been born with this constitution, this was likely her fate.
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