Chapter 58:
Saga of the Three Warriors
Coughing, I woke up. I felt groggy and more than a little dizzy. My body and eyelids were heavy. I coughed again and groaned.
“Saga?” a hesitant voice came from nearby. “Are… are you alright?”
Forcing my eyes open, I could see Mana’s worried expression peeking at me.
At the same time all sensations seemed to revive within me. There was dull pain all over my body and my head, a wetness that clung to my body, as well as the sensation of hard, cold ground beneath me.
“I… where are we?”
There was the sound of rushing water—or rather, there was a gushing river right next to us. I was currently lying on the riverbank.
“That’s a good question,” mumbled Mana, laughing awkwardly.
Recalling the moments before I lost consciousness, the conclusion was rather obvious.
I told Saga to get us out of the situation, but what most likely happened was that the teleportation had gone awry and sent us somewhere at random. Apparently, to this river.
…Well, at the very least we managed to escape from Three and his goons.
“I was so scared you drowned,” continued Mana, interlocking shaking fingers. “I barely got us out of the water…”
“…Water? And you got us out?” I mumbled in surprise. “Thank you.”
Based on the sun outside, it couldn’t have been too long since I lost consciousness. I sneezed.
“Um,” said Mana. “Let’s look for a place where we can dry off, for now.” She also looked a bit wet, but I was really drenched.
We made our way to a sunny but not too exposed spot. I kept glancing at the skies and straining my ears for any jetpack sounds, but we probably were far away from Three by now.
I then proceeded to strip off and wring my clothes, an act which made Mana look away from me in embarrassment. She mumbled something and went to look for material to burn so we could form a fire.
By evening we more or less understood our current position.
I’d told Mana to try and teleport us as close to the goal as possible; while I was still wary that she probably wasn’t in her prime yet, it had simply been that difficult of a situation. It was better than letting Three capture us, at any rate.
And, well, things went wrong. According to Mana she got nicked by a mogage knife thrown by one of the Twos, but it was possible our destination got skewed anyway.
“…Well, we did get closer than I thought,” she mumbled. “To look on the bright side.”
It might have been better had this got us closer to Harko Forest, but at least we cut some of the time needed to reach Riche.
“We can’t let them catch us again,” I mumbled, hugging my knees in front of the flames.
My entire body still felt cold. No doubt this was partly due to the feeling of despair and lethargy.
I simply couldn’t see any way to defeat Three.
He got us cornered way too easily, and I couldn’t help but feel that our escape just bought us a little more time.
“Saga.” Suddenly Mana looked at me, her eyes looking fierce. Compared to how weak and flushed she looked before, this was surprising. “Do you hate me?”
I furrowed my brows in confusion. Where did this question come from, and why?
“No,” I said plainly.
“Do you like me, then?”
This did not solve my confusion. I didn’t even know how to answer. If I had to define my feelings for Mana…
No, I really had no idea what to say.
Mana seemed to pick up on my hesitation. “You’ve risked yourself again and again for my sake… and I don’t understand why,” she said. “I’m thankful, of course! But considering everything, there has to be some reason, right? Alright, let me be direct—who are you?”
That question was very nearly amusing.
It was one I found myself asking quite often as well. Much, much before this entire adventure started, but during it as well.
“Hah, that’s a nice question,” I said.
My feelings were contradictory. I wanted her to keep asking—while I wanted to spare her the details at the same time. As if we didn’t have enough troubles already.
If I was allowed to be selfish, I did want to confide in someone.
Two weeks or however long ago it was, I told the two boys that there was a lot they didn’t know about me, right on the very first day of our journey.
As expected, they never asked for a clarification. Even as various things about me came into light, they never went and asked me such a direct question.
C was probably just thinking of himself, while Kai was probably just being considerate.
None of them sought to really understand me.
“A question that I want answered,” Mana said.
“Are you sure?”
“I am.”
“Nothing good will come out of it,” I said.
“Oh, because we’re currently walking through sunshine and rainbows right now, are we?”
If I was a normal person, I would have smiled at this overt sarcastic remark. Unfortunately, I wasn’t, so I remained with my “resting bitch face”, as it had been described to me once.
“Hah. It’s better if you don’t know.” Will you give up on me?
“Why?”
I said nothing.
Mana frowned and got her face really close to mine, as if she was trying to divine something from my empty expression. I actually flinched a little.
“I will guess, then, and you can confirm,” she said, leaning slightly back. “Saga. You’re someone like me, aren’t you?”
“I am not a witch.”
Mana gave a soft groan. “You know that’s not what I meant. Please, Saga. I get this feeling you’re trying to turn me off this on purpose… but I don’t want to.” She averted her gaze. “Since there’s a real chance we’re going to fight to the death together… I want to understand you.”
Those words actually gave me the chills. I imagined my own death many times, but never in my wildest dreams would it be with someone else by my side.
“Fine,” I said, feeling relieved.
I briefly considered how to even start explaining.
“…Hah, I don’t suppose you’d be familiar with the term ‘designer baby’?”
“…Huh?”
“What about ‘homunculus’, then?”
I thought the fantasy-like term might fit it better—but apparently not, for she still looked confused.
“Alright. Then I’ll try to explain it in even simpler terms,” I said, looking straight into the fire. “I was born as part of an attempt to create the perfect girl.”
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