Amid the rubble, the blonde stood there, thinking about what she had done wrong or right, but in the end she only managed to say one thing.
"This wasn't part of the plan," said the blonde girl.
"You damn bitch, how dare you…" the masked mage muttered, still stunned as he touched his intact chest. Even his skin was free of the tattoo, and even his mask looked brand new.
Lucian took advantage of the moment and threw himself forward with the last of his strength, managing to subdue the masked man and pin him against a massive rock using the contract dagger and his sword.
A scream of pain came from behind the mask as the cultists began to rise one by one. They were injured, their clothes burning, looking like undead with no will of their own.
"You damn old man, let me go! I'm going to kill both of you!" the masked mage snapped.
Ebony watched as the wounded followers slowly approached, leaving trails of blood across the ground.
"Miss, hurry and heal me, I can't keep this up much longer with these injuries," Lucian said urgently, concern in his voice.
"Y-yes!... Got it!" The blue-eyed girl placed her hands on the wounded elf's shoulder, but the more she focused, the less she felt her magic.
"You're an idiot for healing me, girl. You should have died instantly under my lord's incredible power, but now I'll capture you and experiment on your bodies. I won't let you rest in peace!" the mage shouted as he struggled against his makeshift restraints.
"Oh come on, old man, just shut up already. I saved your life, at least show some gratitude by keeping quiet," Ebony replied, annoyed as she tried to concentrate.
"You didn't save my life, you ruined my noble sacrifice. Even killing me with a sandal would've been less humiliating than living thanks to your whore magic!" the masked man shouted as his blood ran down the rock he was pinned to.
The elf suddenly started laughing, interrupting the moment as he held his wounded shoulder.
"Hey, pointy ears, shut up. At least I managed to save us," Ebony snapped, thinking he was mocking her.
"Yeah, yeah, but this… ha ha ha… ahh, in all my decades in the human world, I've never seen anything like this," Lucian replied, wiping a tear from his eye from laughing so hard.
"Shut up! You've only delayed the inevitable, you filthy thieves!" the masked man shouted angrily.
Seeing this, Lucian used the last of his magic to create roots that burst from the ground, wrapping around the rock and the masked man's body, binding him tighter.
"It's not that big a deal, I just used healing magic by accident, I'm still new to—" the girl said, before being interrupted by the elf coughing.
"If it's true you just obtained your Healer trait, then you still don't understand its rules, do you, lazybones?" Lucian said seriously, signaling her to stop talking. If things were already bad because of the dagger, revealing her identity as a reincarnated would make it much worse.
"Y-yes, that's true… sorry…" the blonde replied timidly.
"I'll explain. Healers have rules and conditions. The rules are restrictions that let them access new spells, like not harming animals, and then they can summon spirits, for example," the elf explained while glancing at the masked man.
"But every spell also comes with one or more conditions to use it, and all healing spells share one condition: they can only heal people they care about," Lucian added, trying to hold back his laughter.
"Care about, huh… and what the hell does that even mean?" Ebony shot back.
"It means you can only heal someone you want to heal, or at least someone you don't hate. And a Healer's peak is when they love someone—they can even save the person they love from death. Get it?" the green-haired elf said with a mocking smile, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, fascinating…" the blonde looked bored and uninterested until Lucian tilted his head toward the mage.
The masked man's ears had turned red, and he looked away. Ebony immediately blushed and shouted angrily.
"Of course not! No, no, no, hell no!... I-I'm not… I mean… I don't like ugly guys like him!"
"Screw you! It's not like you're anything special either!" the mage snapped.
"Die, you psycho. Besides, I don't even know you, why would I like you?"
"You know, I can leave you two alone if you want, ha ha ha," Lucian said, laughing.
"GO TO HELL!" they both shouted at the same time.
The elf kept laughing while the mage and the girl avoided each other's gaze out of embarrassment, but that didn't change the situation, and Ebony knew it.
"(Damn pointy-eared bastard… but if that's true, this is bad… I healed that bastard when I wanted to kill him, and now I can't use my magic on Lucian even though he's my ally… something's wrong with this stupid trait.)"
She thought, starting to sweat from the useless effort, while the cultists were already getting closer.
"(Think, think… there's no way we can win… if only I hadn't healed him…)"
Ebony looked at the black dagger embedded in the mage's palm, remembering the rules of the game—rules that maybe hadn't changed over time, or at least that's what she desperately hoped.
"I invoke the fifth!" the blonde shouted, raising one hand.
"What the hell?" the masked man said as the cultists suddenly stopped, their blood dripping onto the rocks just meters away from reaching the girl and the elf.
"What are you talking about? Hurry up and heal me!" Lucian said urgently, watching the nearly-dead puppets trembling as if ready to resume their march.
"Relax… darling… don't worry, you don't need to kill them anymore," Ebony replied with a confident, cynical tone, swallowing hard. This was an all-or-nothing gamble.
"Darling?" The elf raised an eyebrow, staring at her seriously.
"Yeah, relax. We don't have to pretend anymore. These gentlemen won't hurt us," the small-chested blonde said as she approached the masked man and pointed at him.
"Listen, bargain-bin mage, no matter what, I saved your life, and according to your cult's fifth rule, anyone who saves a member's life is owed a gift. And I demand that dagger in your hand as my reward for saving you," Ebony said with a cynical smile.
"Nice try, bitch, but that only works if your intention with the dagger is trustworthy. So what's your intention, thief?" the masked man replied confidently, sensing his revenge was seconds away.
At that moment, the followers began moving again, stepping closer toward the girl and the elf.
"Well, I… I, Ebony of the house of, uh… Strange… declare that I want the dagger to marry Lucian of the Emerald Glove"
"Emerald Grove…" the elf corrected, offended, staring at her in disbelief.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I claim my reward, and I want that dagger. Besides, look at its color," Ebony pointed at the black crystal dagger.
When the mage saw it, all the cultists snapped out of their trance, collapsing while screaming in pain.
The masked man's mind couldn't process what he was seeing. A vow dagger, reserved for contracts between nobles and kings, had turned black—an impossible sign to fake, proving it had already been used and now held the blood of those two scoundrels.
"It's black… how the hell is it black?!" the masked man shouted.
"We already used it. Even if you kill us, the dagger is useless now because it holds our contract, our promise… sorry for stealing it, but it was the only way to get married without breaking the laws against mixed blood," Ebony said.
The masked man didn't know how to respond. He tried to think, searching for lies in her expression, but she looked certain—unlike the elf, whose mouth was wide open in shock.
"Heh… fine. If what you're saying is true, bitch, then how did you heal me after I threatened your precious elf's life?"
"I'm the best Healer on the continent. Even if you try to kill me, I can still heal you, so don't get stupid ideas. I'm already married," Ebony said, looking away.
"In that case, you won't mind proving it, right?" the masked man said.
"N-no… I mean yes… well, a little?" the blonde replied nervously.
At that moment, the mage released a violent surge of magic, so dense it shattered the rock, and the roots binding him withered instantly.
"Let me put it this way, you lying bitch. Right now, either heal your lover or kiss him. Prove your love, or I'll kill you both immediately," the masked man said as he stood up in front of her, fully intent on killing her at the first sign of a lie.