Chuunibyou Is Dangerous; Enter the Field with Caution

Watching the House-elf's obvious unwillingness to cooperate, Madam Pomfrey shrugged helplessly and did not pursue the matter further.

After all, House-elves were House-elves. Everyone knew what they were like. Since it did not intend to talk, no amount of questioning would help.

Still, this House-elf was dressed rather well. Judging by the material, those exquisite clothes had to be quite expensive, right? Had Hogwarts' budget become this generous already?

Damn it! Dumbledore would rather spend the budget on custom-made clothes for House-elves than give her a raise? She had not received a raise in nearly ten years! This was not over!

After an unknown amount of time, Bell slowly opened his eyes again. The pain had eased considerably, and his mind no longer felt as though it had crashed.

He took a slow, deep breath and turned to look out the window. It was already night, and judging from the moon's position, it was likely well past midnight.

"Young Master! You are finally awake! You have been unconscious for an entire day!" Lim's suppressed yet excited voice rang out from the darkness, startling Bell.

Bell turned his head and saw Lim slowly approaching, his large eyes full of bloodshot veins.

"Have you been here the whole time, Lim? And what happened to your eyes?" Bell asked in confusion.

"Yes, Young Master. Lim has been waiting for you to wake up. My kind Young Master! The very first thing you did upon waking was to show concern for Lim. Lim is so moved! But Lim does not deserve Young Master's concern. Lim is a bad elf. Lim failed to carry out Young Master's instructions! Please punish Lim severely!"

As he spoke, tears once more spilled from Lim's large eyes.

"No, you did very well, Lim. You should not be punished," Bell comforted him.

Though there had been a few minor flaws, Bell truly felt that Lim had done very well.

"No! No!! No!!! Young Master clearly instructed Lim to stop you immediately, to use all of Lim's strength, but Lim failed to do so. That is why Young Master suffered such serious injuries! Lim is a bad elf, and bad elves should be punished! Lim..."

Bell rubbed his ears, which ached from Lim's shrill voice. Seeing how agitated Lim had become, to the point of speaking incoherently, he helplessly rubbed his brow before saying after some thought,

"Very well. Since you failed to properly complete your task earlier, I have decided on the following punishment: return to Training Camp for one month of advanced training. If you fail to place first in the final assessment, you will no longer be my personal House-elf. I will assign you other work."

"Young Master, Lim should receive a harsher punishment!"

"Are you questioning me?"

"No! Lim would never dare! Young Master, Lim will undergo the training. Lim will definitely place first!"

Faced with Bell's stern gaze, Lim decisively accepted the punishment.

"Mm. Once my injuries have healed, you can go back. Remember to send other House-elves over after you return. I still need help with a few things. Three of them will do."

"Young Master, are you still going to conduct that experiment from before? That is far too dangerous!"

Lim anxiously waved his hands, trying to stop Bell from entertaining such a dangerous idea.

"Don't worry. It will not be like before. Experiencing that once was more than enough. The next experiments will be much safer. All right, you have been tired all day too. Go get some rest. I need some quiet."

"Yes, Young Master. Please call for Lim whenever you need anything."

With a soft pop, Lim vanished from the Hospital Wing. Bell finally had time to assess his own condition.

Bell tried to use Magic Power to scan his entire body, but the moment he mobilized it, a sharp pain spread through him. His injuries appeared to be even more serious than he had imagined. Lim's rambling had made him forget to ask about his precise condition. Still, judging from Lim's reaction, it probably was not anything too serious.

The next morning, a burst of noise woke Bell from his sleep.

With nothing to do the previous night, Bell had simply forced himself back to sleep. Did they not say that sleeping more helped injuries heal? However, he had slept for too long, leaving his head somewhat dizzy. It took him a while to realize that he was in the Hospital Wing.

By then, Madam Pomfrey had already come over to examine him.

"Come to think of it, I still do not know your name. What exactly happened to you? How did your Magic Power go out of control?"

"Hello, Madam Pomfrey. My name is Bell Menethil. As for what happened to me, I am sorry, but I cannot tell you. How is my condition? How long will it take to recover?"

"Hmph!"

Madam Pomfrey snorted unhappily. Still, she had long grown accustomed to such situations. Those mischievous Little Wizards never wanted to reveal what foolish thing they had done, and she had long stopped being curious about it. That did not mean she would not still be annoyed.

"Your condition is terrible! You will not recover for a month! You are forbidden from using magic for the entire month!"

Reality showed that one should never make one's attending healer unhappy. Otherwise, even a minor issue could become something earth-shattering once it passed through their mouth.

Naturally, Bell would not be so easily fooled by Madam Pomfrey. He was not one of those young Little Wizards.

After waking up, he could feel that his condition was already much better than it had been the night before. While it was indeed unsuitable for him to use magic right now, it was nowhere near as exaggerated as Madam Pomfrey claimed.

By Bell's own estimate, about a week of rest should be enough for his injuries to heal completely.

Under Madam Pomfrey's insistent demands, Bell lay in the Hospital Wing for another day. Only before going to bed that night did he return to his dormitory, using the need to prepare for the next day's classes as an excuse. Before he left, Madam Pomfrey repeatedly warned Bell that he absolutely could not cast magic during class and could only listen to theoretical instruction.

After returning to the dormitory, Bell's roommates were all curious about where he had gone the previous night. Bell casually brushed them off with the excuse that he had been unable to answer the Eagle Door Knocker's question and had therefore been forced to find an empty classroom in the castle to sleep in.

Since Bell had no friends at school, no one knew that he had spent a day and a night in the Hospital Wing.

The following week passed uneventfully. To keep his injuries from worsening, Bell even stopped his basic training for the week. He also no longer spent all his time buried in magic books. Instead, he enjoyed a rare week-long holiday, relaxing both body and mind and preparing himself for the coming busyness.

As expected, Bell felt completely recovered on the seventh day. What Bell had not expected was that his body had recovered far faster than anticipated. It was only his mental recovery that had been slow, dragging the process out for a full week. Otherwise, he might have fully recovered by the fourth day.

Bell discovered that after this injury, the degree of fusion between his body and Magic Power had noticeably increased. In addition, ever since turning eleven, the Magic Power within him had been growing rapidly. Together, these two factors brought about a qualitative transformation that even Bell found astonishing.

He did not know what would happen if this continued. But he would not allow his Magic Power to go out of control again just to accelerate his body's transformation further. Too much was as bad as too little. It was better to build a solid foundation step by step.