A Few Words

I let myself fall to the ground, breathing hard.

…This should probably be far enough. I could no longer hear any pursuers, either, so I just let myself lay right there in the tall grass.

“Saga? Haa, are you, haaa, alright?” said Mana’s voice right next to me. She, too, was out of breath, though mostly for other reasons.

“Hah, I’ll live.” I thought for a moment. “It’d be helpful if you have any healing spells, though,” I added.

Even now I was bleeding from a wound created by a moment of inattention. I wrapped it in a torn piece of cloth so that it wouldn’t leave any tracks, though.

Mana looked down. “I do know some minor utility spells… but I’m not as good at them as Three, I’m afraid to say,” she said languidly. “Not to mention I can hardly cast even a cantrip right now…”

I couldn’t fault her for that. It was clear at a glance she was still greatly weakened. It was a great wonder she even managed to get this far with me.

But I wasn’t going to leave her behind even if she was a dead weight.

Giving a big, old sigh, the girl ended up collapsing on the grass right next to me.

Already the sky was starting to turn orange. We spent nearly half a day running away.

—Getting down the roof wasn’t even the hardest part.

Once they brought in archers and magicians, I had to take a leap of faith and ended up landing on top of them. From there it became a mad rush through the city, fighting guards and ducking into alleys and houses, fumbling my way through it all.

Just when I was about to lose hope and we got cornered, Mana gathered enough power for another teleportation that brought us right outside the city gates.

Even there we had to make a break for it but somehow managed to get away far enough into some nearby woods, where we could finally hide and rest.

The girl looked as pale and weak as a ghost, but she herself had assured me she’d be fine due to a particular reason.

I might as well do this now, since we were finally alone.

“…Are you really immortal?” I asked on a whim, turning my head to the side.

Mana had her eyes closed so for a moment she looked like she was asleep, but she soon replied in a weak voice. “Uh, sort of. It doesn’t mean I can’t die and I do technically age, just very slowly.” Her face distorted momentarily. “They made me drink it. Three’s potion.”

Three’s potion… what on earth had C done here before? If what he said was true, this was his second time in this world, and he’d apparently used his first time around to conquer it and remold it to his liking.

Well, the details didn’t really matter. If he really was such an alleged genius, it probably wasn’t that farfetched. The most important thing was knowing he wasn’t unkillable, even if I already figured that out from the Emperor.

“In that sense… I might be immortal as well,” I muttered.

I didn’t really intend to say that out loud, but Mana still heard me. She opened her eyes wide and looked at me.

“Really? Did you find the potion?”

“Hah, no,” I said. I was born this way… or rather, created this way.

I had been told that most likely my physical appearance and biological functions weren’t going to change very much past my teens, though I wasn’t certain if this meant I was going to live any longer than a normal person.

Mana looked at me with arched brows, but asked for no elaboration so I gave none.

A few minutes passed before she spoke again. “Saga, thank you.”

“Hmm?”

“For saving me, obviously. Sorry, I forgot to show my gratitude with how hectic everything was. How rude of me.” She wore a smile that was weak but pleased. “I really can’t thank you enough for getting me out of that place. But I can’t help but wonder… why?”

That single word probably bundled many different questions within it. She was probably referring to something much more fundamental than just wondering about my reason for getting her out of there.

Because of that, I wasn’t sure what to say.

The reason I was a woman of few words wasn’t because my thoughts were shallow, because I was completely uninterested in people or because I liked keeping secrets.

It was because whenever I spoke too much, I would often stumble over my own words.

People already viewed me as cold, and I was so awkward with words that they’d often think I was just stuck up as well.

Therefore, I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t want to say anything.

I wasn’t even able to make C feel like I viewed him as a friend—though since it turned out the guy was an unbelievable jerk and an evil bastard, maybe that wasn’t my fault.

Anyway, I remained silent.

Mana frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“Hah?” I spat. Another apology? “For what?”

She actually flinched a little, making me feel bad. I really wasn’t meant for any kind of heart-to-heart conversation.

“I’m nothing but a burden,” she said, averting her gaze. “In fact, I’m the reason all of this happened to you, and yet you’re fighting to help me escape. It would’ve been much easier for you to just abandon me or surrender to Three. So why…?”

Once more, I gave her no answer at all. I simply didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t make things awkward.

How could I even begin to tell her that she reminded me of myself so much it hurt?

Another awkward silence passed between us, but Mana seemed to be a talkative sort of person, because she soon struck up conversation with me yet again.

“What are we going to do?”

That was probably something I should answer. Not like I had a concrete answer to that or anything.

“Hide somewhere and think of a plan,” I said.

“A plan, huh.”

“To beat Three.”

Mana grew thoughtful and remained silent for a while. “Do we have to? Can’t we just escape?”

I frowned. “Doesn’t he control the entire world or something?”

“…Yes. This world,” she said pointedly.

It wasn’t hard to see what she was getting at. “Can you send me back, then?” I asked.

“I’m… not sure, but it should be possible.”

“Actually, Three mentioned something about that. Will I really go back if I die?”

“To be honest, I’m not so sure myself. That’s what the lore says, anyway,” Mana said glumly.

Well, I wasn’t going to commit suicide just to escape like a coward. Besides, that would mean leaving Mana behind on her own.

Especially as I saw her grimacing at the moment.

“When do you think you’ll recover enough to be able to do that?” I asked next.

Three himself admitted he couldn’t copy any of Mana’s spells. This meant that she should be able to take us to a place even beyond the boy’s reach.

“I’m not sure about my own situation right now,” she admitted. “And besides, it’s not that simple.”

Not like I was getting my hopes up, but I imagined there was some catch. There always was.

“I can’t reach into other worlds from just anywhere. It has to be a boundary between the worlds. The Crossroads of Avallux.”

Ah. Right, we already heard that keyword before. Everything led us to the beginning.

Apparently, I was going to have to leave this world from exactly where I first entered it.