The Long Lost Friend
As I was dozing off on the tree trunk. The wind brushed against my hair and further dried the remnants of the tears on my cheeks.
A voice called out to me from the side, breaking my focus. It was a voice I had just met, but a name I didn't recognize, yet I still responded.
"Ryu!"
My response was a purely physical reaction. I woke up from the calming illusion I was in and looked in the direction of the voice.
He noticed me standing up on the other side of the tree.
"Oh, there you are."
"So... Is she...?
The moment our eyes met, I eagerly asked about the condition of master Rei, specifically, if he was able to heal her.
"She stabilized."
He wasted no time responding to my eager question, and he could tell that I was worried, so his words were comforting, exactly what I wanted to hear.
I let out a loud sigh of relief, signifying that the large weight on my shoulder has been lifted a little.
"Can I see her?"
Although in my opinion, there was no need to ask that question, it seemed the most polite thing to do, considering that we are intruding on this person's privacy and that he healed my master without any trouble at all.
"Of course, right this way."
He leads me back into the room I left, where I find master Rei still lying on the bed. When I get close, I see that her color has come back and that her breathing is now constant and normal.
The sight of her resting so peacefully moved me so much, all I could do was sit next to her and watch.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't restore her arm..."
"..."
Now this warm person was saying words filled with regret and sadness.
His head hung low, and his eyes closed.
Why would he say that, though? He healed her, and that is more than enough for me. She can live with only one arm, so there was no need to feel sorry for himself. He was not the one who inflicted that wound on her.
"If only her arm were here, I could reattach it."
"No! Please, you have done enough for us..."
"..."
I stood and went close to him. He raised his head after hearing me say those words.
They puzzled him as if they were the wrong words for me to say. To him, it felt like a crime for me to accept such low standards of kindness.
"So please don't apologize. In fact, I should be thanking you right now."
I reach out my hand and look him deep in his eyes.
"Thank you very much... I am eternally grateful to you."
He didn't expect me to thank him so much, so he stood and looked at me with a stunned expression.
He gives me a slight smile and reaches out to shake my outstretched hand.
"...You're welcome to stay here. We'll talk more in the morning."
"Thank you again."
I bowed to him as he exited the room. The door closes behind him, and I get back to sitting close to master Rei.
Now that the massive weight on my shoulders was lifted, I could finally relax, and this made my eyes feel heavy. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep on the chair with my head on the bed where she was sleeping.
Who are you?
In my mind, I was not asleep, or rather, I was dreaming. The events of the day before were plaguing my mind.
The image of the inside man appeared once again in my dreams, but this time he said nothing; he was sitting in a room that stretched as far as the eye could see. It gave this effect because of its extremely white color all around it.
The room had no visible lighting, and yet it was bright.
The man had his eyes closed and sat as if waiting for something to happen, an order or something of that kind that would allow him to act.
I called out to him over and over again, and yet, there was no answer.
Maybe he didn't respond because I didn't use his name to call out to him as he desired. All the time I was calling him with HEY!, YOU!
It must not be what he wanted since I was ignored.
Movement from the bed woke me up.
I opened my eyes slowly, rubbing my face against the bed sheets. When I raised my head, I was hoping to find master awake, but the movement on the bed was just her turning.
She was still sleeping.
I stare at her and then proceed to stand up, heading to the other rooms.
I reach the kitchen, hoping to get a glass of water to shake off the little sleep that is left, and in there I find our savior, strange and busy with the pots.
He noticed me when I walked in through the kitchen door, and I seemed to have disrupted his focus.
"Aah... Good morning..."
He greeted me the moment he saw me come in.
I head for one of the chairs on his rounded kitchen table, and as I sat down, I responded to his greeting.
"Yes. Good morning."
He smiled at me, like a confirmation smile. He then came carrying a glass of water to where I was sitting, almost as if he knew why I was there.
Saying it was a glass would be a stretch. What I received was a cup of unassuming material, the kind of cup you see in the olden age.
In other words, it was a cup made out of clay.
However, the clay cup was tall and fitted in my hand perfectly as if it were made for that purpose only. It didn't have any handle either. All it had were bumps that rounded the cup, which made it easier for a person to hold.
Touching it gave me a sensation I didn't know, but somehow felt like home. In fact, being close to this person was not just comforting because of his personality.
It was like I had known him for a long time. Everything he did and everything he said sounded familiar to me.
I take a sip of the water he gave me.
Yep, I was right. This cup gives me a feeling that I know this, but don't know why. Even holding the cup feels familiar to me.
Although I don't pay much attention to it.
When I look around the room, I see furniture we don't have in the mansion. I doubt they can even be found on the outside.
I wouldn't know because I never left the mansion that much.
What I see are stone stoves, firewood to provide the flames for cooking, and a chimney to carry the smoke.
An underdeveloped kitchen, yet still comfortable.
"Hey... Why are you using firewood to cook? Don't you have flame manacyte powered stoves?"
I was curious because flame manacytes are more efficient at producing and controlling fire, especially when used for cooking.
"Oh that..."
He didn't seem surprised by my question, and so he didn't break focus this time.
"I tried implementing them multiple times, but they would always explode in my face. Hahaha."
He chuckled as if saying things that explode in your face is funny. I just stared at him, baffled by his reaction.
"Just buy one!"
"...I will when I finally go to the outside."
I couldn't help scolding him, and he just laughed it off.
I didn't find anything odd about that statement, but... Outside?
Its meaning could have suggested being imprisoned somehow, but I just passed it off as saying going outside the house to the shop.
It was out of the question that he would be like me, confined in the house and not allowed to leave. So I couldn't fathom that he meant being confined in the bounds of the country, not his home.
Breakfast was finally served. He brought two plates of the same dish to the table and sat with me, explaining what was on the menu.
"We're having bread toast with fruit salad and a flame dragon egg."
I snuffed out the water that was in my mouth and coughed up the one that went in the wrong pipe.
"What?!" I said, slamming the cup on the table.
"Flame dragon egg?"
"Yeah. How can you say that with a straight face?"
"They're pretty delicious and rare... But having guests warrants that we have an extravagant meal."
"..."
Many things were running through my mind at the time. Like, how did he get this? Is it safe to eat? And why the hell does he have to be calm about it, too?
Look at him, eating away like it's no big deal to eat a dragon egg.
"Huh!.. Never mind."
I just gave up on pursuing the matter any further because the road ahead will be exhausting.
Actually, the meal, most specifically the dragon egg, looks pretty tasty when you see it as nothing more than a regular egg.
Since a dragon egg is huge and obviously can't fit into one plate, it was cut in half for the two of us.
Look at it?
The yolk is redder than a tomato, and the whites are just... White. Hmm. I guess an egg is still an egg, regardless of the species it comes from
"Is your female friend up?"
"No... I think she'll be out for a while. I hope that's not a problem?"
"Not at all. You're welcome to stay as long as you want."
We continued to talk as we ate. Something came to mind while we ate.
"Hey... Who are you?"
All this time, from the night before to this morning, we have never been introduced to each other. I don't even know where I am right now, and that is thanks to Mary's teleportation magic.
I would really like to know where I am before thinking of a plan.
"Oh, right, I guess I have changed too. So you wouldn't recognize me like this..."
When he said that, in my mind I was thinking, 'Huh? What does he mean by recognize and change?'
But I remained straight-faced and normal while he continued.
"...It's me, Asahi, Asahi Nendo."
He said that in a way that made it look like I was supposed to know that.
I just put down my eating utensils and looked at him with a serious face.
"Okay, Asahi... One more question." I said, my voice calm and steady. "Who is this Ryu you keep referring to?"
He was about to put the fork in his hand with the bread toast and some of the dragon egg in his mouth when he stopped right at the lips.
He placed them down and gazed back at me. He too was with a serious expression.
"What do you mean?"
He asked. With a tone almost like he was testing the water to see if I knew something.
"Whenever you see me, you call me by that name. Even the first time we met, that was the name you addressed me with... So it got me curious."
"Well, what is your name?"
Again, he asked with the testing-the-waters tone. I answer him as any polite person would do.
"My name is Krai Letos."
"I see..."
Now he sounded like he was disappointed at my answer. I couldn't get a read on his whole story, but something was off about him.
"So you don't remember."
"..."
His statement further drove me deeper into curiosity.
It raised a lot of questions that I didn't know where to start, so I just said back the last word he said in the hopes of him explaining everything he was trying to say, or the meaning behind his words.
"Remember?"
"It will be better to show you."
"..."
He placed his utensils down and raised his hands to the side, just above his shoulders, with his palms facing up at a 45⁰ angle.
He then closed his eyes and proceeded to hymn.
The sound was magnificent and heavenly. It felt like he was calling on an angel to descend onto the world.
It left me in awe.
As I was marveling at the hymn, something even more amazing was about to show up. I could tell this by his incantation.
"Summoning magic. Ancient light spirit, Rita."
From behind Asahi, a bright light shone, causing me to cover my eyes with my left hand while squinting in the process.
After a moment, the bright light dissipated, and in its stead was a humanoid figure.
The figure was that of a full-grown female.
Her hair stretched out to her knees, and her golden eyes were simply too great, not to mention the beautiful white robe with gold strips she wore.
An immense aura surrounded her. It was fine to look at the light, unlike the one that preceded her.
"So that's a spirit?"
When I look at the spirit, she has the same hair and eye color as Asahi, but her presence is great.
She might be a light spirit, a being of hope and health. However, something tells me she's also capable of causing great harm.
"Yes. Isn't she amazing? In fact, it is thanks to Rita that I was able to use holy magic to heal your master. Although for now I'm only able to use up to advanced holy and light magic..."
Is he bragging right now? I asked myself that while taking a sip of the tea he made for breakfast.
"For now, I need to learn more about light magic and about Rita's capabilities, but still, she's the coolest ever."
"Okay! So why did you call her here?"
My question broke him out of his overzealous and dotting moment.
"Uhm! Right... Rita, here is my contract spirit, and she's going to help me answer your question. About the name Ryu."
"..."
His mood and tone instantly changed. He connected his fingers and gave me a smile that just seemed compatible with his face.
It was a smile that a conniving person would give someone before revealing a big secret.
The spirit just closed its eyes in confirmation.
All of it sent shivers down my spine.
