I 13

…but before that, I still need to… do something first. I look around with my blurry eyes as I try to muster the motivation to stand up. It’s unbelievably painful thanks to the wound. Horrifyingly painful. Judging by the place I just got up from, I may have fallen onto a river, which stranded me to this place. I don’t know where it is, my feet keep dragging myself toward anywhere at all, a single direction until something happens. I make my way along the upstream of the river. Then… a porcelain figure appears from afar… a sight that surprises me since I have never seen it before… sight of a naked woman, with the body parts that fully expose her own womanhood from the top to the bottom. She enters the river. She wears a smile with her eyes closed, back resting on a riverbank…….

“Are you awake?”

It’s the same woman, this time fully clothed, hair a blend of shiny black and purple. I find myself gazing at her face endlessly. Maybe it's because I'm still tired?

“Yeah.”

The pronounced voice of mine suggests otherwise. I’m too lucid for the excuse to be believable. But I can’t stop gazing at her pinkish well-shaped lips.

“Is there something on my face?”

I shake my head. I giggle.

“You truly are an interesting one. Please keep resting. There shouldn’t…”

“Lady Caterina, I’m afraid we should… Hah?!” A girl enters this place, which seems to be a tent. I know her, she was the one who shot me down the cliff. “Lady Caterina, that was the suspicious person I encountered previously, please get rid of him!” She then raises her bow again with the arrow pulled with the string.

“Calm down, Eos. He’s not an enemy.”

“But I saw him trying to cross into our kingdom through the hidden path!”

“Is that true?” the woman gently asks.

“Yeah,” I respond.

“That’s very candid,” she giggles, “why were you choosing such a way to come over here?”

“The bridge was destroyed…”

“Oh? So that’s why you chose to find another way to come here. Why is it though?”

“I… honestly, I didn’t really have a good reason. I came to the kingdom of Hope with some other people. For a journey. Although in effect, it’s more like a traveling trip. We were just being obstinate since it wasn’t like we had anything to do.”

“Lady Caterina, why should we accept his excuses…” the girl whose name seems to be Eos still distrusts me.

“If he intended harm, he should have done that right when he saw me, shouldn’t he?”

When I saw her?

Yeah, that moment… of seeing her in the river… wearing nothing.

“Your face seems red now, are you feeling worse?” her voice sounds concerned.

“No, no, I just… Nothing really.” I can’t tell her the actual reason for my sudden change of body heat.

Although, I’m not sure if her reasoning was valid. I mean I almost died, you don’t really call somebody trying to survive a somebody who no doubt has no evil agenda. But then again, I don’t think Caterina… that’s her name right? Sounds so pleasant to pronounce- Anyway I don’t think Caterina believed in what she said. She just wanted to dispel her friend’s suspicion.

“Alright then,” Eos sighs, “if you trust him, then there’s no way I don’t.” She smiles, first time I see this. “It’s almost lunch now. Let’s have a meal together, Lady Caterina.”

Caterina nods. “I think you may want to join us as well, can you stand up.”

As I try to, a painful feeling surges in my stomach. I fall right down.

“Oh my. Seems like you have to stay around here for a while now.” As Caterina says that, I seem to catch a hint of guilt on Eos’s face, who then notices my look and looks away. “Anyway, I think I shall have to take care of him. You don’t mind having lunch alone, right?”

Eos smiles, “I’m fine. Please take care of yourself!” Then she turns to me, mumbles something, “…sorry,” then leaves.

I must have taken a nap. When I wake up, I can feel my head laying on a softness. The sight of her face into my view forces a breath out of me. “Anything wrong?” she asks. “No, I’m just a bit startled.” “Sorry,” she chuckles. My heart is beating so hard right now. She raises my upper body up to rest on her chest… which feels very soft. This makes it harder to breathe, but I dare not say a thing. She places a hand on my forehead, “Doesn’t seem to be hotter though. Weird.” I guess my face must be very red right now.

“Say ‘ah’.” I open my mouth as she says, being fed some sort of porridge.

“How is it?” “Delicious,” I say before I think. She grins and giggles. “This feels like home.” “What about it?” she asks. I proceed to tell about my mom (in the past world) feeding me just like this when I was sick. “I must feel like a paternal figure to you then?” Her innocent remark makes me feel indignant, even though it’s not offensive, nor do I find it offensive to my mom. I don’t know why. But it feels like if I affirm what she said, then it would also mean negating something I do not want to say otherwise at all. I then try to tell her about something like the past world, “Caterina, can I call you by your name?” “Of course, and how do I call you?” “Ryle.” “Ryle it is then.” “Caterina, what if I say I came from another world? A world completely unrelated to this one.” “Hmm… I think that would be interesting.” I proceed to tell whatever I can about the past world, more than her questions invite the answers, like I just want her to know more about me than having any actual good story to tell. Yet she never makes a single expression of boredom. It’s weird that I have always found it hard to tell about my past life to anybody, and yet here I am. I then proceed to tell about my life in this world, until I realized I have been talking about myself way too much. “Sorry for talking about myself only, Caterina.” “It’s okay, I find your life and your world really interesting.” “What about you Caterina, do you have any story about your life?” “Hmm? As a story, I’m not sure if it could be fascinating, even though I appreciate my life a lot.” “Please do, I don’t mind what kind of story you wanna tell at all.” I ask more questions than I seem to understand what she’s telling, which leads to her giggling and pinching my nose, “Are you even listening?” “No- I mean yes.” That doesn’t stop me from asking things she has already answered, and things I do understand well but still want her to repeat again.

“I lead the kingdom. It’s a sad state that it has been going into decline,” she says.

“You are the ruler, of the kingdom of Mist?”

“Yeah. I’m the queen of this kingdom. Does that make you scared?”

“No.”

She giggles.

It’s not like I have ever heard a single bad thing about the ruler of the kingdom of Mist anyway. Maybe my kingdom has some issues with her kingdom, but that’s as far as negative things go.

Night. I should be thinking about how to go back to my inn in the kingdom of Hope now. Perhaps I can ask Caterina if she knows any way I can go back. I would need to ask her some other stuff, though not necessarily related to going back.

Regina and Alina must worry a lot for me now. I wonder what Caterina will say when I talk about them to her.

“Arrrgh!!!” I scratch my hair. I keep thinking about Caterina. She’s the only thing inside my head now.

The birds are chirping. I feel like I can stand up now. It’s still hard. I make my way out of the tent. The first thing I see is Caterina and a canvas right before her, “Good morning. You wake up pretty early.”

“Good morning. You are drawing?”

She nods, her hand moves skillfully with the brush. The painting has a yet-to-be-finished image of several birds perching on several branches of a tree. “I want to retain the delicateness of life, that I happen to catch with my own eyes, whenever I see it. They shall always fleet by anyway, but to retain as much as I can is to cherish life.”

My eyes move to her hand, her lips, her hand, then again back to her lips. “You also like art?” “Yeah-“ I answer without thinking again, “Oh, not really. But… I do like beautiful paintings… as long as they are beautiful.” “Are you saying my painting looks beautiful?” “Of course.” Not as beautiful as you though- My own thoughts startle me.

“Good morning, Lady Caterina,” a merry voice can be heard behind me, “and well… hello… erm…”

“Ryle.”

“Oh, Ryle, good morning,” Eos purses her lips a bit, “can I talk to you for a bit?”

“Well… not that I mind…” Although why can’t we just talk where Caterina is? I guess we shouldn’t bother her though, but…

We enter a tent, guess this is Eos’s. She sits down and begins talking, “So… about yesterday…. Sorry… for what I did to you.”

“It’s okay. Although…”

“What is it?”

“Never mind. Just having some prying questions I don’t think I should really ask though.”

“Huh? It’s okay, it's okay. Go ahead and ask what you want.” She seems to be a very youthful person once you get to know her. Unlike the stern demeanor during combat.

“Why did you find me suspicious though? I guess you are some sort of bodyguard for Caterina?”

“Well… that’s not a wrong way to put it. She would consider me as if I’m her kin though. Then again, she also sees many other people like that as well.”

Somehow what she said makes me feel uncomfortable. Like I’m concerned that Caterina could very well see me in that light as well, which shouldn’t be an issue, and yet here I am…

“Anyway, yeah, my mission is to protect Caterina, as of now at least.”

“That doesn’t seem to be answering my question.”

“Oh, you asked… Well, actually now come to think of it, there wasn’t any specific thing that made you seem suspicious at all. My apologies again. I was just… really insecure, and paranoid, that somebody was coming to get her… I mean Lady Caterina.”

“I heard the kingdom is in the decline.”

“So she did tell you. I guess you can see my state of mind right now. Honestly, I don’t really want her to come here, but I couldn’t bear to see her keep working endlessly. Not just me though, other people too.”

“Seems to be a good place. It’s still in the kingdom of Mist, and almost bordering the kingdom of Hope.”

“Yeah, and we did come there several times together too. But… I can’t help but feel how sinister something is happening there.”

“Something sinister?”

“Yeah, the kingdom of Maskiev… I mean the people from there. You know we have always had some issues with them, right?”

“I’m from that kingdom.”

“You are from that kingdom?!” she exclaims with widened eyes. “No way, you seem very normal, Lady Caterina trusts you even.”

“What do you think people from my kingdom are like?”

“Sneaky, manipulative, aggressive.”

Her words make me feel something… I can’t really deny.

“To be honest, I have never known enough about my own kingdom. Although, speaking about myself, I just happened to be born there, studied there, then went on a journey which ended up with me being here.”

“So… I guess you are just like one of the normal people then.”

It feels like more should be said, but I don’t know what to say now.

“Anyway, please make yourself at home. You don’t find this place inconvenient for you huh?”

“Never crossed my mind, such thoughts. Sorry for bothering though.”

“Don’t mind. Take your time here too.”

I go outside and look around. Where is she though? I notice the black and purple hair from afar, and decide to approach her. Her body leans down as she gazes around the garden, her bottom slightly faces me, her legs porcelain-like.

“Nice to have you here, Ryle. You find the garden beautiful?” she smiles.

“Yeah,” don’t know if I caught the object in her sentence, but it should be right regardless.

She proceeds to tell me the names of the plants, and flowers. This place doesn’t look as ominous as the Eastern region, whose bizarre landscape should stretch into Caterina’s own kingdom as well. Really beautiful, I think as her lips almost touch the light blue flowers as she sniffs it. She tells me a lot about the garden, didn’t know it also has a history, which intrigues me, or it’s her that intrigues me, I don’t know which one but this is fun nevertheless.

It was a decent dinner with the three of us. “See you tomorrow,” Caterina waves at me as she returns to her own tent. “Yeah,” I slowly close my gasping mouth, and return to my own tent.

“So there are these flowers… and there are also those flowers…” I smile to myself, mumbling stuff about flowers I barely understand, definitions tripping over their own feet, flowers mixed-up with flowers (if I know which one is which one at all).

Night. A lot of embarrassing thoughts just naturally surface in my mind without me even realizing it. I imagine Caterina giggling with me as I hold her on my chest. Once I realize what my mind is doing, I tell it to stop and try to fall asleep. But the thoughts about her keep haunting me, to the point my hands no longer obey its master anymore. I definitely shouldn’t be doing this, and besides Caterina and Eos wouldn’t like their stuff getting some mess out there. But oh dear… This is unbearable… I end whatever I just did with a sense of shame and humiliation.

The next day, I try to wash my stuff somewhere separately, “Hmm? Ryle? You know you can just leave those things to us right?“ “Oh ahaha I just… erm… want to have this blanket quickly, after washing it.” “It’s not that dirty, right? I thought you could still keep using it for a while…” “Well, that would leave a smell though…” “Hmm?” “Ah! Nevermind!”

Afternoon. Caterina’s tent flap leaves a slight gap. I peek through it and see her trying to wear a nylon. My eyes follow along her legs as she keeps pulling it up.

“Hey,” startled me is Eos, who gives me a puzzled look, “what are you doing around Lady Caterina’s tent?”

“Just wanted to ask her for some stuff. But she’s… erm.. busy now.”

“You looked dazed. I thought your soul was lost or something,” she chuckles.

I move toward the center of the ground.

“Caterina seems to know a lot about flowers, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah. That’s her hobby,” Eos flails arms mindlessly.

“Say, do you know what flowers Caterina happens to like the most?”

“Hmm? I don’t know, maybe those pink petals or blue stuff something something.”

Her muddled words irritate me, “That’s not even flower names.”

“Ah?! Sorry. Although… How do you suppose that I know about any of this stuff? Why a sudden interest in flowers though?”

“No reason.”

“Come to think of which, this is Lady Caterina’s hobby as well. You have been talking about her a lot recently, haven’t you?”

“…”

“Say… perhaps by any chance,” Eos grins, “you love Lady Caterina, don’t you?”

“What is your business what I think about her?!” I let out an outburst, can’t be sure if my words sounded comprehensible. That shocked Eos for a bit, then she laughed merrily. “Oh wow, so you really did fall for her after all!!!”

I begin to cry, uncontrollably.

“Hold up! Hold up! I’m just kidding,” her voice turns worried.

I wipe my tears, “It’s not really you. It’s just… I have never fallen in love before.”

“Oh wow…” she stretches the last syllable. “I can’t say I know what it feels. Although…”

During dinner, Eos seems to be giving me a lot more chances to talk to Caterina now. I get to sit nearer to Caterina. Don’t know if I talk way too much. Although Eos seems to be content with it, judging by the ear to ear grin.

“So,” Eos asks me the next day, “what are you going to do now?”

“Well… I think I still need to return to my inn first. You know, there are two girls who have come along with me during my journey. Regina and Alina, their names. Anyway, the purpose of the journey is pretty lame, so you may say we had nothing to do and just wanted to waste our time…”

Although, there’s still the aim of finding other reincarnated people which is still valid.

“Anyway, I have to return to tell them that this is the end of our journey. I have something to attend to now…”

Eos grins smugly, “You sure you can strive to become a member of our ‘family’? The language of the kingdom of Mist isn’t easy to learn, just so you know.”

“I did take a course of it in school- come to think of which, you and Caterina have been speaking the same language as I do.”

“Yup. Caterina is… well, knows a lot,” Eos makes a prideful expression. “Besides, your language is still widespread, unlike the language of the kingdom of Mist…”

I can see that. No wonder why Regina acted worrisome when I tried to cross to the kingdom of Mist.

Morning, I go with Eos to find the way back to the kingdom of Hope, “Sorry for making you come with me here.” “It’s okay, you don’t exactly know the way back anyway. Consider it as a way to apologize to you for having… well… almost killed you…” That was horrifying, speaking of which. Regina and Alina must have been really horrified by that too. “What happened after I fell off the cliff?” I ask. “Well, I exchanged some combat with the other two girls too, there was this one girl who was kinda… scary.” Alina perhaps? “The one with a puppet on her hand?” “Erm… nope.” Regina? I guess there’s no need to wonder, she’s a powerful magician after all. “Do tell them I’m not their enemy, I don’t want them to shoot me with their magic.” “Will do, make sure to stand behind me though.”

Seems to be a tricky path. Then we go through a very narrow tunnel. By the end of it, Eos pushes her hand up through the ceiling. Oh, so there’s a hole here. Which leads to a house right in the kingdom of Hope.

“I guess you can find your way back from here.”

“Yeah. Although wanna pass by my inn for a bit?”

“Honestly, I’m thirsty now, so if you don’t mind me coming there for some…”

We reached the familiar hall of the rooms. But to my own surprise, the rooms of Alina and Regina and even Paul have their doors open, all of their rooms are vacant inside, like they have already packed their stuff, and went away. Not just that, even my own room too.

Maybe they have returned to the kingdom? I mean Maskiev. I ask the innkeeper but he doesn’t even remember their faces, let alone knowing where they went at all.

“So… what are you gonna do now?” Eos asks.

“I think I will have to go back to my kingdom now.”

But the passenger ships right now aren’t available. For some reason I can’t know myself.

“Dang it,” my face droops. Eos’s face seems uneasy.

“Don’t want to ask the same question I did previously. But what do you want to do now?”

“I think,” I sigh, “maybe I can write a letter and try to send it home through some service. Although, I’m not sure if my letter could get there, given how the ships can’t even move there. Maybe they will as soon as the ships become available again, which should allow me to go home too. In any case, I shall drop by this city once a week, or maybe twice. You don’t mind me making use of your hidden path right?”

“I don’t mind.”

We make our way to return to the kingdom of Mist.

“Although that was a close call, if the ships were available, I would have to take several days before I can see her again.”

“You miss Caterina more than seeing your own friends?”

Her comment makes my face form a sheepish smile.

“Huh? Did we not cover the hole when we left this house?” Eos asks.

When we reach the place, we see a bunch of armed people stationed around the camp. Eos looks at them with horrified eyes. They then charge toward us. We knock them out.

“Who are you people?” Eos interrogates them.

Caterina can’t be seen anywhere.

“We are troops serving the Princess of the kingdom of Maskiev. We had been going undercover disguised as the people of the city of Hope. We are ordered to capture the Queen of this kingdom once we spot her in sight.”

Eos grits her teeth.

“How did you discover this place?! Nobody should be able to come here unless they know the path!”

“We just received the order and took the path to this place.”

“Where is Lady Caterina?!”

“If you mean the black and purple hair person, then some other troops took her to the kingdom of tranquility.”

“Why?!”

“Please don’t ask us. We just follow orders.”

My face is blank. I try to bring some sense to my own brain to make it return to being functional. Yeah, right now I have to focus on saving Caterina. I follow Eos into her tent.

“Eos, we should follow after-“

Before I finish the sentence, she lands two slaps to my face. I fall down, laying upward. Then a punch, then two, then a lot.

“Did you cause all this?! Huh?! Are you the one who called all these troops and had them capture Lady Caterina?! Did you point out this place to whoever your boss is?!”

I try to speak, but she keeps punching me… then eventually, she stops.

“Sorry,” I try to utter.

Eos starts to cry.

Night. “How do we get rid of them?” I ask, looking at the tied troops. “We can send them to the authorities in the kingdom of Hope. They have violated the rules over there. You weren’t supposed to… do this sort of stuff on their soils. I think this is going to cause a scandal with your kingdom. So well… I guess your ship back to the kingdom of Maskiev is gonna get banned indefinitely.” Eos responds, her eyes look drowsy.

“Not that it matters right now.” I look to the sky where the crescent moon is hanging over.

“Sorry,” she mumbles, meekly.

“You have nothing to apologize, at all,” I sigh, “I do suspect myself as well, that none of this would have happened, if I never came here at all.”

Eos chuckles wryly, “You make it like it’s your fault in the first place. I was the one who sent you off the cliff. Although, perhaps this is like fate or destiny. Meeting you here.”

“I hope Caterina is still okay.”

“Worrying that much wouldn’t help us in any way. Let’s go to sleep now. We can’t find her without energy. Exhaustion is no way to save her,” she says. “You can sleep with me tonight, if you feel that anxious. Not that I mean anything, of course.”

“I know.”

We make our way to the kingdom of tranquility the next morning.

“It shouldn’t be hard to get there… Although, how to make way when you are in that kingdom is another matter.”

“Why is it?” I ask

“It’s an island with barely any inhabitant. It’s called a kingdom, but very few are known about its rulers, who could very well be dead already. Despite that, nobody has ever tried to occupy it, since it’s far from being an appealing place to live in at all. Surrounded by a forest of the worst kinds of trees and thorny plants. Also I heard there is toxic gas at some places as well. That’s why some criminals have made use of it as a nest for their conducts. There are no laws in that kingdom, or island, anyway. Although, whether they themselves can survive on that island itself is another different thing.”

“How do we cross to that island? Do we need a boat?”

“Not really. It’s called an island, but has a straightforward path we can use to get there. Just that it’s really far, so we are gonna have to walk a lot.”

And so we move, I can literally see the sea surrounding the path we are moving on. Moving for a while, we reached a point where the path seems to get cut off. “Just keep moving,” Eos says. Our feet sink down the water a bit. Hours later, we reached the kingdom, or island.

“Now how do we even look for her...? The troops we captured didn’t seem to have a clue when we interrogated them.” Eos sighs.

In the center of a very wide space lies a lone building in the middle. We enter it. Coming to our view is the sight of a bald man in a toga, or something resembling that.

“You have finally come,” he says.

“Excuse me, but, do you…” I breathe, “happen to know of some troops, who may be coming through here with a girl in black and purple hair?”

“You mean Caterina?”

“! You know where she is?!” I ask with a loud voice.

“…before that, well… not that you are much patient for some banter anyway… but, do you want to return to your own past world?”

?!

“Past world? What is this old man talking about?”

“I… this is long to explain…” I tell Eos, “anyway, you seem to know about me.”

He sighs loudly, also it does seem he did try to suppress some of it.

“Seriously, tell me, have you ever thought about going back to your past world?”

Going back to my past world?

“How can I even do that? I mean, I should have died before coming to this world.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yeah, I think I have…”

But wait… come to think of it, I possess zero memory about the last moment of my life at all. This is weird.

“So, to answer your question… I don’t think I really want to right now.”

Certainly, I still have obligations to fulfill in the past world, with my wife. Perhaps I may consider it if I was given a choice.

But I can’t fathom doing that now.

“I have a woman I love in this world… I love Caterina.”

He nods.

“That may not be your final decision anyway. But if you do, please come back here.”

The symbolic circle on the ground seems to flash an illumination in a quick second. Could be my imagination however.

“As for your beloved…” he points toward a tower in the distance.

“Thank you,” I run with Eos toward the tower.

“…even if everything repeats itself again, perhaps fate has determined that tragedy is unavoidable…”

We see several troops around the tower. They notice us and demand our identities. We knock them out and go inside.

Lying in the middle of the tower, is Caterina’s corpse.

Standing next to the corpse, is Regina. She smiles as her eyes look down at the corpse.