*****

The moment I recognized that the wolf's eyes—which should naturally be gold—were a blue more beautiful than the sky itself... the moment those eyes pierced me, I felt a kind of numbness throughout my body.

I felt the bzzzt connection.

（What was that just now—?）

Even if I tilted my head, no one was there to tell me the reason.

I looked at the speechless beast in front of me and... my eyes widened.

「Are you hurt?」

Whether from smashing the glass window or not, the beast was bleeding from various parts of its arms and body. Its breathing was ragged, and it looked terribly distressed. Forgetting caution, I rushed toward it.

But the beast naturally let out a threatening, 「Gau!」

I flinched for a moment, but don't think that's enough to stop me.

（Somehow, I have a feeling this beast is safe.）

I didn't know how much I should trust my intuition, but I slowly approached it anyway... and gently reached out my hand.

Just as I thought, although the beast bared its fangs and snarled, it didn't harm me. I proceeded to touch the beast's body.

「Are you a wolf? Or... a monster?」

It looked like a large wolf. But I had never seen or heard of a wolf this big. Furthermore, its entire body was completely black, without a single spot of color. A pitch-black wolf like this was an undiscovered animal.

And above all, the color of its eyes.

Wolves have gold eyes. Monsters have blood-red eyes.

But eyes holding such a beautiful, clear sky... I had never known such a thing.

「You have beautiful eyes.」

I didn't know if it understood my words, but the beast's body trembled slightly, as if in reaction to what I said.

I smiled at it and said, 「It's alright,」 before closing my eyes.

There were countless wounds.

Instead of healing them one by one, it would be better to visualize healing the entire body.

I concentrated my focus.

Immediately after, Light Magic activated from my hand, and I felt the beast hold its breath.

A moment later, I opened my eyes with a large sigh, 「Phew...」 and withdrew my hand from the beast.

I checked several places where the blood had been flowing, confirmed they were all healed, and nodded.

「Yes, that's fine. You're alright now.」

During this time, the beast remained motionless, submitting quietly to the treatment.

Then, it stood up straight. Its face came closer, but I didn't feel any danger, so I stood still and watched.

And then... it licked my cheek with its tongue.

As if to say, 「Thank you.」

「Hehe, I'm glad. Don't jump into windows anymore, okay?」

I had no idea what kind of situation would make it jump into a window, especially not on the first floor. Since I couldn't ask, as the other party was a speechless beast.

I had to convince myself, Well, things happen.

When I gave its soft, fluffy fur a light stroke, it narrowed its eyes contentedly. Then, with a ta sound, it went to the window sill. The beast lightly jumped onto the window frame and looked back at me once.

「Hmm?」

To my tilted head, it said,

「The injury was not from jumping into the window. But... I thank you.」

With that, the beast leaped out of the window.

「Ah, wait a minute!?」

I rushed over in a panic and looked down. The beast landed safely on the ground and quickly ran off into the distance.

After watching it disappear, a long time passed... I finally felt the presence of hospital staff approaching, alerted by the noise, and I hurriedly slipped out of the hospital myself.

On my way home, as I gradually calmed down, I was astonished by the fact I finally realized.

「The beast... spoke...?」

The next day, the hospital was thrown into turmoil by the student's complete recovery.

However, no one in the hospital knew the significance of the broken window glass... and various speculations began to fly around.