“Flann!” 

The impact caused Clarette to shield her eyes, but she tried to open them as soon as she could, in fear that something had happened to her brother. On the contrary, the sight that she opened her eyes to was the opposite of what she was expecting, and she could only stare in astonishment. 

Blaise, who had been pushed back by the impact of the collision instead of crashing into Flann, stared up in front of him. Surrounding the area where Flann stood was a tall barrier of crimson flames, which rapidly flickered in the air as if hungry for something. 

Blaise glanced down at his own hands, which were ragged and burnt. In the moment that he had attacked Flann, those flames had instantly roared out, and seemed to have devoured the mana that he had gathered. A cold sweat ran down his back, and he grinned in a crazed terror. He could sense that the person in front of him was incredibly strong, and although he stood no chance, it made him excited.

Once again pushing off his feet, he quickly shortened the distance between the two of them, and swerved around to approach Flann from the back. He fueled another orb of mana in his palm, planning to release it at Flann and cause another explosion, but before his arm could complete its trajectory, Flann spun around to face him. 

Blaise only caught a glimpse of those blood red eyes before his entire vision was dyed in crimson. 

“Stop! Stop!”

Flann blinked, suddenly brought back to his senses after hearing Clarette’s voice. He planned to move, but before he was aware of it, he was faced with a steel blue sword glowing in front of him, dangerously close to his torso. Flustered and unsure of what to do, he heard an icy voice from behind his ears. 

“Dismiss your flames.”

“...What?”

Flann tried to turn around, but a strong grip at his arm turned him back forward. There, in front of him where he had failed to see, crimson flames were flickering and eating away at Blaise, who had fallen motionless onto the ground. A sense of dread and fear welled up in Flann, and his mind went blank. 

“Hurry and dismiss your flames!”

Flann shut his eyes tight, trying to let go of any feeling of mana that remained in his control. He was afraid to look at what he had done, but when the grip at his side and the feeling of pressure in front of his torso disappeared, he hesitantly reopened his eyes. 

The flames in front of him had vanished entirely, leaving only an injured Blaise behind, groaning in pain. Frozen in place, he watched as Servas rushed over to Blaise to check his condition, and picked him up after ensuring his breathing. 

Making eye contact, Servas narrowed his eyes, a bitterly cold expression on his face. “Your lack of control over your mana could have been fatal. You will be facing repercussions for this.”

Saying no more, he turned his head, and supported Blaise as he exited the building, heading to the school’s infirmary. Even as they slowly made it down the hallway, Flann’s feet remained planted in the ground, and he felt as if he couldn’t move a muscle. He only stared for the longest time at their receding figures, and then at the empty space when they had left.

“...Flann.” 

Clarette approached him quietly, and gently put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright? That was very dangerous.”

At the feeling on his shoulder, Flann began to feel himself again, and his hands started to tremble. Bringing them up to his face, he stared at his own arms in fear, and then covered his face with them, his entire body shaking.

“...I,” he stuttered, his voice uneven, “what did… I do…?”

“I could have…” He struggled to push out the words. “Could have… killed–”

Clarette pulled him into a warm embrace, trying to settle his trembling figure. “It was an accident, Flann. You were trying to protect yourself.”

Her fingers shook, and she held them as still as she could so that Flann would not notice. Tears welled up in her eyes, both an aftershock from fearing that Flann would be hurt, and hatred to herself for being afraid of Flann after seeing what he had done. “Of course you went too far, but he was the one who attacked you first…”

She held him tightly, gripping the back of his clothes. She knew that Flann was more powerful than most, and she knew that he hadn’t learned proper control of his mana yet. She shut her eyes, trying to keep the tears from falling. “It’s not your fault, Flann… Don’t blame yourself…”

Hearing these words, and feeling the comforting warmth around him, Flann dropped his head onto Clarette’s shoulder, his eyes also growing wet. He reached his trembling hands around her, and uncertainly, fearfully, placed them carefully on her back. 

They remained like that for a while, Flann crying out into Clarette’s shoulder in fear and horror of himself, and Clarette trying to console him while holding back her own tears. Those wordless actions, perhaps because of their lack of words, somehow held more meaning than if they had tried to articulate the emotions unraveling in their chests. 

And so they held onto each other, until their eyes grew tired of shedding tears, and Flann’s body finally settled from the shaking that seemed as if it would never stop. 

Then, when the rapid emotions in their hearts slowed and cooled, they gently released each other from their embrace, and continued on their path out of the building, and to the way home. 

“...Will he… be alright?”

Clarette gazed at Flann’s eyes, which were puffy and rimmed with red. 

“I’m sure Servas took him to the infirmary,” she replied. “It might take a while, but since the nurse can perform healing, he should be able to recover.”

“Is that so…” Flann gazed out over the distant horizon, his eyes unfocused. “I hope that is the case.”

He had only just begun to learn magic. When he heard of the potential he had, Flann had been excited, ready to put his all to learn so that he could perhaps be a help to the Ruzenas and others. But now, faced with the reality of what it meant to have a high abundance of mana, he felt a shadow over his heart. 

“The most important thing while using mana is safety.”

Before getting to prove himself, he had already broken the number one rule Valens told him to follow. Flann closed his eyes. 

If that was the case, for what purpose was he given this strength?