Sereya Bladecrest

“Eek!”

My hands quickly cupped my mouth after letting out that pathetic yelp. Thankfully, she didn’t say anything or throw a nasty look to further multiply my embarrassment. The unnamed blue-haired lady continued to wrap my little toe with a bandage.

Honestly, I couldn’t help but feel amazed. Even though she was missing her left hand, she used her mouth and her right hand to wrap my toe up perfectly. At first, I was worried that she was straining her neck, but I realised it would probably be rude of me to say anything.

“There, done.”

As she declared that the operation was complete, I let out a sigh of relief. My tiny injured extremity looked about twice as thick as what it usually was, thanks to the new wrappings surrounding it.

“Honestly, that was very mean of you,” she said as she got up from the foot of the bed, “Cutting yourself just to get me to turn around is not fair.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” I countered, “You’re the one who dangerously left the knife sticking on the floor.”

“Oh, so it was an accident?”

Come on, who cuts their little toe just to grab attention? You could at least think that I would leave a cool scar on my chest, or something. Thankfully, I was able to keep these thoughts to myself and not make her think I’m some attention-seeking kid.

“Well,” she didn’t wait for my reply. Taking a seat next to me on the bed, she continued, “if that’s the case, you could’ve easily used healing magic. Jeez, I don’t even know why I came back anymore.”

“Healing magic?”

If I could use healing magic, I would go to the city and build a fortune as a doctor! Why would I stay in the village and clean up horse dung?

Unless—

“Yea, healing magic. Who would have thought that the brave Hero Evansmith, slayer of the Demon Lord and victor of countless battles, would cry and wail like an infant when a lady rubs ointment on a bleeding pinky toe?”

I wanted so desperately to say something back, but I realised that I shouldn’t. My toe was already hurt enough. I shouldn’t let my pride get any further injuries, too.

I could feel my face getting hotter from the embarrassment. She was clearly still vindictive and upset over what happened earlier, so if I didn’t want to die of shame, I had to change the topic somehow.

“You said that I can use healing magic. That I killed the Demon Lord. I don’t remember any of this. I really don’t.”

As I said this, her brows began to lower. Her nostrils flared up. I couldn’t afford for her to run away again—I definitely wouldn’t be able to chase her with this stupid injury.

“Wait, you called me Hans? Hannahs—”

“Hanasuke Ryojima.”

I had no idea how she pronounced such a foreign-sounding name so smoothly.

“Yeah, that. If I am known as the ‘Hero’ who killed the Demon Lord Evansmith Mattheld, why would you call me Hannahsuck Roger...ma?”

I was tempted to say, “A~ha!” for pointing out that contradiction, but I probably butchered the name horribly, so I refrained from doing that.

She stared at me blankly for a moment, until it seemed like a light of inspiration flashed across her mind.

“Don’t tell me, you conveniently have amnesia?”

Well, I wish it was that convenient.

“I don’t think so. I can still remember my name, and I remember what happened yesterday. Mum got Eveline to push me out of bed. Then I went to take care of all of the animals. After lunch, I helped the other villagers move the grain to a different storehouse cause’ the previous one had a rooftop leak, then I—”

“Stop. Where did all this happen?”

“Uhh, Breven Village, where I stay?”

“Hmm,” her gaze shot up to a corner of the ceiling, lost in thought, “so you really don’t recall fighting the Demon Lord and his army?”

“Fight? The closest thing to a weapon that I ever used is an axe to ch—”

“AH!” I screamed and fell backwards. The tip of the kitchen knife which injured me earlier was suddenly in front of my eyeball, almost touching it.

“Strange, I swear I projected my bloodlust,” the woman stared at the knife in her hand in disbelief, “Even if you didn’t want to defend yourself, you would’ve definitely noticed it.”

“ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!”

My heart completely sank. I thought I would have gone blind for a moment. Even though I screamed at her, she still looked completely puzzled.

If anything, I was the one who should be confused! When did she even grab the knife?! She was helping me with my toe just a moment ago!

“So, you really weren’t lying when you said you don’t know how to fight. You really don’t remember me?”

She genuinely looked depressed, but…

“Please, put the knife down first!”

I didn’t know whether she was sad or if she wanted to kill me.

“Oh! Sorry,” she placed the kitchen knife at the corner of the bed, its blade pointing away from us.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to explain myself.

“Look, I know this may offend you, but I really, genuinely, 100% don’t know you. I don’t know what our relationship is, I don’t know what happened between us, but, I don’t want you to leave me. I really don’t know what’s going on right now, and I need all the help I can get.”

Once more, she stared at me. However, this time, tears started to flow as she continued to meet my gaze. It took her several seconds to realise the overflowing of tears in her eyes. She quickly turned her head away and wiped away the tears with her remaining hand.

“S-Sorry,” she said as she sniffled. Unlike the whole episode earlier, I could tell that she was crying tears of happiness this time. This lady really fancied me, huh.

“Well,” she exclaimed as she breathed out a sigh of relief, “it’s a good thing I didn’t cut your pinky toe off, then.”

“Please stop,” I begged, “I know if you really wanted to, you could’ve done it in a flash.”

“Oh, stop being such a drama king. You’ll still have four more toes. It’s not like you lost your arm or something!”

Was that an attempt at a joke? I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel sorry.

“Anyways, since you mysteriously forgot most of the things that happened in the past, then we’ll have to go to the city and contact Ordis then.”

Wait, a name that sounded familiar for once...wait a sec…no way, don’t tell me it’s—

“Ordis as in the Legendary Sage Ordis!?!”

“Yup, why do you sound so surprised? The two of you—oh wait, you don’t remember. Nevermind then.”

“So, the Legendary Sage will find out what’s wrong with me? Are we leaving now?”

“Hold your horses, Evan. If he knew you would get this excited from seeing him, he’s gonna blackmail you into doing something stupid.”

She was right. I forced myself to calm down. Sure, meeting the world’s greatest mage is a once in a lifetime experience, but I had to remember that I was something of a Hero, myself.

As I sat back down on the bed, I asked:

“You mentioned that the Legendary Sage is in the city. Which city is it? Where are we at right now, exactly?”

“Hmm our house doesn’t actually have the name of a proper location attached to it, but we’re pretty close to Allantheim, the capital. That’s also where Ordis is staying right now.”

Wow, they moved the capital to Allantheim? I guessed a lot of things happened these years.

“What happened to Zethos? How come it’s no longer the capital city anymore?” upon asking that, I see her stifling her laughter.

“Evan, Zethos is still being rebuilt. You destroyed it, silly!”

“WHAT?!”

Okay, I had to be careful with the questions I ask from that point onwards. I was not sure if my heart could take such an absurd thing that was probably true, given my current situation.

“Even if you did forget most of the past, I guess seeing this side of you is a treat for me, after all.”

“You—”

My brain told me it was a good time to pause. I should carefully choose my words. This woman clearly had feelings for me. While she’s definitely pretty and I really didn’t mind courting her, I needed mum to say 'yes' first. No no no, even before that, I needed to know what kind of person she was!

“Umm, I’m Evansmith Mattheld or Evan for short, but you probably already knew that. May I have the pleasure of knowing your name?”

She had a silly look on her face. All of a sudden, she burst out laughing. Damn it, was this not how nobles ask for a lady’s name?

“Gosh,” she steadied herself after her fit of laughter, “that sounded so different from the first time we met. Maybe if I introduced myself the same way we first met, you might remember something!”

She got up from the bed, her eyes gleaming in anticipation.

“Uh, sure?”

The moment I said that, the kitchen knife found its way back in front of my face. How did she do that?! Never mind that, she actually looked like she was gonna actually kill me!

“Sereya Bladecrest.”

Time felt like it stopped for me. Just like how the tone of her voice dropped, so too did my heart. She may be missing an arm, but just from how she moved, I could tell that she was unfathomably powerful.

“Pfft—”

Did she just 'pfft' at me?

“Ahahhahahahha!” She broke down laughing. The air of a peerless swordswoman was shattered, replaced with that of a dorky girl.

“Sorry! Sorry! I couldn’t help myself! You’re so fun to tease when you’re like this! Haha!”

I was having second thoughts of asking Sereya for help. She already tried to kill me! TWICE!