Heavy thuds rumbled across the forest floor. Several adult n dressed in poor village clothes carefully carried a young man whose clothing stood out from the rest. It was Max, but he looked to be in even worse shape than before. His skin was deathly pale, and little to no warmth remained in his body.
"Seems like a bandit attack..." One of the n holding Max by the legs grumbled. He wore an annoyed expression, glancing again and again at the man in front. "Chief, do we really need to bring a half-corpse into our village? We can barely feed ourselves. If he becos our responsibility—"
"Shut it." A fairly large man barked in a voice as deep as the bottom of the sea. "Since when did we leave people in need to die? Our pride has not yet been fully extinguished." His tone was firm, making several others flinch, for they had been thinking the sa thing as the questioner.
Max, on the other hand, could barely hear the conversation. He could feel that he was being carried sowhere, but his vision remained dark. No matter how hard he tried, he could not wake up, trapped in a state between life and death. Despite the overwhelming weakness threatening to pull him under, he refused to submit to the darkness, clinging to every strand of consciousness he could muster.
He didn’t know how much ti had passed. At this point, it all felt like an illusion. The next mont he opened his eyes, his whole body ached with pain that threatened to knock him out again.
"Ah!" A lodic voice welcod him. "You’re awake! I’m so glad~~" The voice was as gentle as a light breeze. It brushed against Max’s heart, jolting him fully awake. What he saw before his eyes made him gasp.
A girl around his age sat on an old wooden chair, her smile as wide and beautiful as the moon.
Her pale face made her features stand out. Hair as white as snow frad her youthful face. It made her look like a princess from a fairy tale, though a poor one, dressed in simple clothes. Her gray eyes held a faint tinge of blue, making Max feel as if she could see straight into his soul.
"Are you... an angel?" Max blurted out without thinking, stunned by her beauty. He truly believed for a mont that he had died and ascended to heaven, though the pain running through his body made him question that.
"Pfft~" The girl laughed so gently and warmly that it tugged at his heart. "An angel? Is that the best pickup line you could think of?" She brushed a tear from the corner of her eye.
"Sorry, I didn’t an—" Max tried to explain, but she cut him off.
"It’s okay, it’s okay. Ahhh, you’re funny. I like that." Her smile widened even more. "Say, what’s your na? And what were you doing by the road with such a nasty wound?" Her pale fingers touched his chest, brushing gently against the animal-skin wrappings covering his injury.
That action alone nearly made Max’s heart jump out of his chest. In his entire life, no woman had ever been this close to him, let alone touched his chest. Red flushed across his cheeks. But soon he turned his face away, his expression falling into nonchalant sadness.
"Please don’t touch ." He believed she wanted to bully him. After all, he never trusted won, especially now, after his own mother tried to kill him.
The girl quickly pulled her hand back, her smile fading into sadness and guilt. "Sorry, I didn’t an to touch you. It just happened..."
Seeing such a sad expression, Max felt a strange guilt tighten in his chest. "It’s o-okay..."
For a mont, neither of them spoke. It gave him ti to think about what was happening. Only now did he fully understand that he was alive and begin to grasp where he was.
He looked around in panic, making the girl narrow her eyes as she carefully observed him. The room was old and shabby, little more than a wooden cabin with several holes in the walls.
What he saw and felt was impossible to deny.
But why was he here?
He couldn’t understand it. All he rembered was being in his apartnt, and then... the mory ca back blurry, as if hidden behind a thick layer of fog.
"Can I use your phone?" he asked suddenly, deciding to swallow his pride and call his father, who had abandoned him years ago, for help. First to get him to a hospital, and then to the police.
"Ph-one?" The girl tilted her head in confusion. "What is that?"
The strange reaction made Max question himself.
"You know, a phone. The thing you use to call people. It’s this small." He showed the size with his fingers.
But the girl only looked even more confused.
"Am I still dreaming?" he muttered to himself. Now he truly didn’t understand what was going on. He couldn’t explain how he had ended up here either.
"Sorry, I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but you also didn’t answer my question." Her face shifted from gentle to serious, her gaze now digging into his soul. A strange chill ran through his body, as if he were facing a wolf in the forest all alone. "Who are you? And what happened to you that left you wounded in this area?"
She didn’t sound sweet anymore.
Max gulped and decided it was best to be honest. "My na is Max. I co from—"
A sharp pain shot through his temples, making him clutch his head with both hands. It was so unbearable that it nearly knocked him out cold.
"I co from..." he tried again, but the pain tore through his mind once more, as if sothing was stopping him from speaking about his origins. "The west. I co from the west."
He lied.
As if his suspicion had been confird, the pain slowly faded. He found himself staring at the young woman’s worried face up close, their noses almost touching.
Noticing his condition, the girl felt a small pang of guilt. "I’m sorry for pushing you..." she said gently. The coldness radiating from her faded as if it had never existed, leaving only that soft and careful voice behind.
She pulled away and sat back down.
"I’m Rosalia, daughter of Chief Henry of Stonehollow Village. It’s a pleasure to et you, Max." She smiled so gently that the pain from before began to lt away. "And also, I’m your healer until your wounds are patched up. You can thank later for saving your life~" she giggled softly, her grey eyes carrying a strange comfort he could not explain.
In the next mont, Max’s eyes widened as a green light wrapped around her gentle hand like a glove. When she pressed it against his chest, warmth spread through his body.
He sat there, stunned, as his wounds slowly healed beneath the animal-skin wrappings.
The truth finally settled in after battling against his common sense.
I’m not in my world anymore...
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