Arika, You’re a Lovable Person, Indeed

It’s been a while since I had any dreamless sleep. Every dream I saw all had some kind of meaning after I came to this world, that it made me feel much refreshed once I have a proper rest in a dreamless sleep. One that made me feel really fresh, that I couldn’t help but wake up during the time of a morning mist.

I looked around me as I rubbed my sleepy eyes. Both Rui and Kay are still purring in their sleep, as they let themselves become the pillows of the two elf girls I knew as Rana and Dellney– who are still deep in their own sleep. It seemed like Dellney was sleep-talking on her sleep, but I couldn’t really make anything out of the sleep talk as it was an accent I never heard before even in this world.

That leaves only one of them. Rama did say he was going to guard around the premise just in case any forest animals would attack them— though he also said that since they’re with a Cheshire, there’s less chances of it happening. It made me wonder if he actually gets any sleep, as I yawned and raised myself up to find him around despite shivering in the morning weather.

He shouldn’t be far, because he left Rui— maybe in favor of letting him become the girls’ sleeping pillow. I pulled out my magic staff from the ground— it already lost its light once I went asleep, which made me thankful for magic technology’s energy efficiency as I was afraid it'd drain my mana while I was sleeping.

Yet, I didn’t expect myself to get lost as soon as I left our little campground. The panic kicked out any of my drowsiness immediately, as I looked around left and right. Yet, there’s only similar rows of trees everywhere that I couldn’t stay calm at all. Out of my panic, I screamed on top of my lungs, wishing that Rama or at least the sleeping Rana and Dellney with the Cheshires would notice.

“Anyone, heeeelppp!”

“This is why you shouldn’t be too far from everyone, especially during the foggy times.”

I shrieked once again, though this time it wasn’t because of panic, but because of surprise as I fell to the ground in shock upon hearing Rama’s voice calling out to me. He was that close to approach me that fast?!

“Rama?! Since when you’re there?!”

“While I was looking around, I saw you running to this direction in panic, so I chased you along silently from your back since I knew well around this place. Sorry, I should've called out earlier since you didn’t notice me at all.”

Rama scratches the back of his head as he says so, while I sighed out loud in relief. At least, it did alert him somehow. It does make me feel a little embarrassed that he saw me panicking, though. So I tried to throw the conversation to something else.

“Um. This place…. Forest of Wizen, right?”

“Yeah. Surely it is called that now.”

“I heard from Dellney that it used to be you and Rana’s home fifty years ago…?”

Rama sighed as he turned his back on me, once again scratching his back that probably didn’t itch at all this time, and I wondered if I offended him. I would say my apology immediately if Rama didn’t speak out first.

“The Kingdom of Wizen.”

“Huh?”

“That’s what this forest was called before.”

Rama turned to me again as he calmly caressed one of the tree’s trunks, as there’s something reflected in his gaze that I couldn’t quite decipher. It was as if he’s looking to the distant past, and I couldn’t quite tell if it’s his or just this place’s history with him. I gulped, as I took all my courage to ask him— after all, now that we all are in this together, I want to know more about him and Rana’s past to know those two better.

“What… happened to it? I heard about civil wars from Rana but I don’t know the details—- Only if you don’t mind? I— if you don’t want to tell, that’s fine too—”

“No, I’ll tell. It’s not like it’s a secret, and you deserved to know” said Rama, crossing his arms as he looked up to the sky with a sad expression on his face that could clearly be seen despite the morning mist covering my vision. “Yeah, there was a civil war. I don’t know the details since I was very young at that time to remember much, but I knew that....My parents were at fault, to some extent.”

“... What did your parents do, exactly…?”

“Some kind of research on Blessed Ones that fascinated them so much.”

Rama took a deep breath. He stared at me as he said so, probably looking at my human ears– I could just feel so. I wondered if he felt a sense of irony being the one that met me first in this world, ever since we first met. But most importantly—

“Wait. How come that mere research had triggered a civil war?“

A war, even if it’s a civil one amongst the people of the kingdom, isn’t that easy to trigger with just a mere research from just a pair of parents, even. That was what I knew from my knowledge of the world around me— whether it’s this world or my previous one. Except if said research was disturbing a group of people in power, or is ethically incorrect— and I have not known much about this world that I couldn’t comment on those. Or— don’t tell me it’s both of them at the same time….

“I heard they were…. Obsessed, to an unhealthy amount.” Rama shifted his gaze to the trees. That explanation might’ve put a slight light to the picture of the situation in my head. “They lived for too long, and they saw a lot of Blessed Ones come and go to help them ease such boredom. And one day, they never came by again. Slowly, so are humans who are still the similar kinds with them, who went extinct from the pandemic.”

“Uh huh. I already heard about the pandemic extinction from Elder…”

“I recall Elder did say that he was my parents’ work friend, right? Well, that’s not the whole deal with them.” Rama closed his eyes, as if trying to see a vision of memories beyond. “He was forced to be their lead scientist on the project, as he had a close outlook at Blessed Ones that used to spawn a lot in Magifa, his territory. He raised us now as a form of redemption for himself, I guess.”

“... What exactly did they do in that research? Don't tell me…. Was it something not ethical?” I spouted out my guess, and Rama nodded, much to my own fear. I gulped, preparing to hear the worst. But instead, Rama walked on to a sunlight spot, as he stretched himself there as if everything was normal. In some ways, it might’ve been for him.

“This used to be a place where I used to hang out alone when escaping from the castle.”

“The… castle? Wait, I don’t get it at all, explain?”

Thus, Rama continued on the story of his past without missing a beat.

“The people of the kingdom had been waiting for a newborn successor they were told they’re not having. They were tired of the previous king and queen’s tyranny in the name of research of creating new Blessed Ones— or even creating new forms of ‘humans’, as they said themselves.” Rama took some breath as he explained, as puffs of white fogs came out from his mouth with the air of morning. “Yet, because I, the little, young prince escaped day by day with marks on his skin, one day their vile research was put into light. People had enough, thus a civil war broke out, even killing the king and queen in the process of bringing justice. According to our local justice, the whole kingdom— their territory must have been turned into an empty forest as a redemption of their sins and their riches taken for the kingdom dwellers as they moved out.”

“Don’t tell me— Your parents– who’s also the king and queen— were trying to impose those vile researches on their own children?! On you and Rana?!”

“It wasn’t only us twins. I think I did have some older siblings who suffered a similar fate, but they weren’t as lucky to survive the experiments, even when it failed all the time. We were apparently treated as just mere slaves— which concepts are already banned in this world since even before Extinction by the way— by our own parents and we weren’t even allowed to call them ‘papa’ and ‘mama’ and just ‘Master’. And I think I was too young to remember much of it, or it could’ve been trauma that locked my memories of it…”

“That’s…. I’m sorry…”

I saw Rama’s bitter smile as he nodded before he turned away from me. It was an expression I had never seen out before from all the time I knew him in this version of the universe. It both made me feel both concern and fast heartbeats I knew I felt before this. I clutched my fist in front of my chest, unable to decipher Rama’s expression once he turned back to me.

“It’s fine. It has already gone by resulting in this Forest of Wizen, and soon in a hundred years or so people, including me, will forget as we live on. That’s how elves like us— like me, Rama von Wizen, live our boring lives all the time. This kind of stuff that happened out of boredom happens more often than you expected, too, so I forgive them.”

“It’s not fine at all!”

I declared as I took Rama’s hands, surprising Rama as he widened his eyes. I don’t know whether it’s the morals I had from my previous world or was it something else, but at that moment I wanted all the courage to catch his trembling, shaky hands. In fact, I realized that my eyes are already filled with tears that could’ve just run through my cheeks at any time, if I wasn’t careful enough to hold it in.

“Arika?” Are you crying for me? For us? I felt like I could hear Rama say those words, but I couldn’t confirm if it was just my own thoughts or not. Instead, I spoke my mind.

“I lived a boring life in my past’s short lifespan myself, but ‘boredom’ won’t make any of those actions of your parents excusable!” I spoke out before my heart and mind could catch up thinking of anything. I think my tears had already been pouring down as the last pieces of resistance had been lifted up. “I’m glad you’re alive and well now with Rana, and that you moved on, but at the same time I… I will never forgive them that easily! Even if you had already forgiven them, I wouldn’t for you and Rana’s sake!”

Rama was fazed at those words. I can’t tell what kind of expression he has at the moment as my vision went blurry from all the tears.

“Damn it…. You’re really a lovable person, Arika. I wonder if the humans that I have learned from books are all just like that.”

Even among those blurry tears, I could even tell that Rama was blushing as his face grew really red. Was that even appropriate for the situation?!

“Huh?! What does that even mean?! I’m being serious here!” I pouted. “Seriously, we should at least build some kind of memorial or grave for the older siblings of yours wasted in such evil and inhumane experiments so that history wouldn’t repeat itself–”

Rama walked over closer to me as he pulled me on a tender, gentle hug without any warning. It immediately stopped my mouth from running with more words, as any desire to declare my anger and frustration at Rama and Rana’s vile parents was immediately changed to desire to ease my beating heart.

“It’s all good. I’m already thankful for you being here and becoming frustrated for our sake, Arika.”