Red Means I love you

A crack from a glass (1)

But, He still had to try to calm down,

He needs to...

.

.

Stop himself from accidentally grinning too wide--

  It was weird, he used to be able to control his expression easily. But his excitement from meeting with his Hyung had made it quite a hard thing to achieve. He had almost got found out by the sword master earlier too.

Hah..

This is bad...

He can't seem to stop smiling– Cough

Ah... of course,

Cale looked at the blood that stained the palm of his hand.

"Young master!" The swordmaster shouted in alarm, the other three who were near him had also started to feel more concern at the sight of the crimson droplets.

Frick...

"Hurry, bring out the potions!"

"Young master, please hang on, we'll call the saint here immediately!"

"Young master, can you hear me? Young master!"

Cale wanted to laugh at the timing of it all, but he swallowed it in. It would be odd if he had suddenly started laughing after all. 

Not just yet.

Just hold it in for a bit longer...

"Calm down," Cale let go of Ron's support and stood up by himself. "I'm fine"

He had to calm down.

He was calm,

He repeat it in his head,

He is... "And you don't need to call the saint, it's useless" Cale huffed,

"But young master, you–" Hannah reacted strongly against his remark, "Blood!"

At that moment, Cale saw Ron's eyes lit up in recognition. Yes, that capable old butler must've already picked up the reason why he said what he said.

The saint isn't capable of purifying the dead mana that was already corroding his heart.

It would be a waste of his healing powers.

  But those who didn't know about his condition were more than ready to fight him and force him to lie down so the saint could heal him, alas, Ron had beaten them to it. "Here you go, young master" He gave Cale the healing potion bottle to his hand, "At least drink this"

The old butler was rather insistent on that part.

The healing potion also can't heal him. But it was enough to alleviate the pain of it a bit.

"Thanks,"

Cale took the bottle and drank it.

It was bitter and rather distasteful, but he was used to it. Though he could never get used to the lingering bitterness that stayed in his throat.

"Young master, you should at least take a rest." A monotone voice sounded, "It must've hurt"

Mary, sweet innocent Mary was worried about him.

  Cale raised the corners of his lips and patted her head. "Don't worry, I'm used to it" Mary was one of the few who had found out about the dead mana that was residing in his chest. But unlike Ron... her discovery of it was intentionally made.

  He slipped his hand down and pulled up the hood of the cloak that had fallen down back to Mary's head, covering her head with it. Leaving only some parts of her face visible under the light from the evening sun.

Her scarred face, lingering with black lines akin to a cracked porcelain; A scar that the holy maiden also had and one he was quite familiar with himself.

.

.

.

"It doesn't hurt at all,"

. . .

The redhead had already turned his attention away after that, not noticing the weird looks he was getting from his allies.

Especially from Hannah who didn't know about anything.

"Shouldn't you at least let my brother heal you..." 

  The swordmaster muttered, not knowing that if the saint had really done that. It will only bring more pain to Cale than it is to heal him1.

(A/N;
1. Reference: The time when Hannah was poisoned by the dead mana and Jack wanted to heal her, but he couldn't because that will only end up purifying = killing her.)