With a fist in the air Lena stands only to then fall forward.
'my whole body feels like hell' she thinks not knowing which point hurts the most.
Pator who was amazed is now also taken back to reality as he again starts to cough blood, His left hand that was still holding the staff finally let go, his eye's slowly close.
'huh, is this it? I haven't even done it for that long, what 4 months? no probably less... at least I got to live a part of my dream.' he thinks to himself as he keeps blinking with a woozy head.
He closes his eyes with the thought of it being his end but is then interrupted.
"Kid get a hold of yourself." Lena says as she stands next to him.
She quickly falls down to her knees for her legs would hurt too much to bend, and then start wrapping some of her own sleeves around his arm skillfully.
"This won't do anything you know." Pator says to Lena who is to busy applying first-aid.
"I just need you to stay with me till we reach town." Lena says not stopping.
"I've read books about medical stuff before.... I don't think I will make it out of this Lena. This is the end." Pator says.
"No you will make it I can assure that." Lena says.
"Hahaha... *cough cough*"
Lena finishes as fast as she could and then gets Pator on her back to start moving.
"What are you doing..." Pator asks.
"what would you rather a princess carry instead?" Lena says jokingly.
"What abou---" Pator says only to get immediately interrupted
"We don't need it, a human life is way more precious than any loot." Lena says as she starts to move.
"n-no! p-please at least the staff. if nothing else please bring whatever's left of my staff." Pator begs as he reaches his only hand towards it.
"sure." Lena says as she picks it up.
"Can I hold it...?" the boy says weakly.
"No you are already weak enough I will hold it for you."
Lena then starts to walk towards the exit that appeared when the boss was killed.
Once he exploded a huge part one of the walls fell apart that revealed some stairs, which is the only thing Lena could make out of to be an exit.
She keeps moving and then realizes how quite things are.
"Oi kid, you still there?" Lena asks as she keeps moving.
"y-yeah" Pator says weakly.
"Keep talking I don't like it when it's silent." Lena lies.
"haha... you're a pretty bad liar Lena."
"Yeah I'm terrible."
"first you lie about your gender then you lie about our chances and then at the very end you lie about yourself."
"I never lied about our chances we won didn't we!"
"yeah i guess you didn't haha... it must've been me then i was bringing you down wasn't i." pator says weakly.
"What do you mean! If it wasn't for you I would've died without even putting up a fight! You did everything Pator, you are a great magician, you might've not thought much of it, but you fought that thing head on, you even protected me right after your arm was blown off. Once we leave here I'm sure you are gonna do nothing but great things pator."
"yeah... i did do some amazing stuff huh... you know even though i was scared to death fighting that thing. it did feel exciting, it felt exactly like how i dreamt... oh have i told you before lena..."
"told me what?"
"about my dream... or i guess it isn't a dream anymore since i achieved it... well my used to be dream... i always dreamt of being an adventurer, a strong one too... an adventurer so great i would be able to fight alongside my friends to defeat monsters... i guess i didn't notice before but i have achieved this dream quite a while ago huh... at least that means if i die i won't regret anything."
"Stop talking like that pator."
"what do you mean?"
"Stop talking as if you're gonna die, you're gonna make it out of here pator, you're gonna go back home and have a nice dinner with your parents."
"and what if they weren't home?...."
"then with me, both me and you will enjoy a nice dinner, I know this great place that has some of the best food you will ever eat, and if we are lucky a cute little girl will even cook it for us."
"that does sound nice..." pator says with a weak smile.
"oh look at that Lena."
Lena looks around her as she continues limping up the stairs.
A slight opening with a huge chain that is connected to a collar at the end.
"So that is what this was all about." Lena says continuing up the stairs.
"that poor monster... I killed it's pet..."
"Don't go sympathizing with it now it's the reason we are stuck here after all they deserved it."
"did they now... It's probably because im almost dead myself, but I just can't bring myself to hate it Lena... i just can't think of anything that i can hate at this moment. whether it be monsters, people, kent, the pet... all i can do is accept them for what they are..."
"Think whatever you Like as long as that's what you want."
again a moment of silence befalls them.
"Keep talking to me Pator. I told you I hate silence."
Pator opens his eyes and talks.
"oh right haha..."
"Talk about something you like, I'm sure that would help."
"something i like.... oh i know"
"lena what do you know about magic?"pator asks.
"Not as much as you, magician."
"no like what can you do with magic."
"Oh, I can do the usual basic stuff, right! I can also control puppets with magic! I know a lot of cool tricks!" Lena said with a hint of excitment.
"all kids know how to do that silly lena... I wanna talk about what you did at the end there..."
"At the end? Oh you mean that big explosion thing... sure why not, but you will have to discuss it with me pator."
"alright..."
"You know what catalysts are right?"
"ofcourse..."
"Basically rocks that hold large amounts of mana that we then take advantage of to strengthen our spells casts moves whatever you wanna call them, right?"
"yeah..."
"What I did was really simple you see, I simply hijacked someone else's catalyst and turned it into my own and then ordering to explode."
"you make it sound simple... catalysts are made so that only one person can control them at a time, otherwise a catalyst would just be as disadvantageous as it is advantageous, plus forcing your mana into one is impossible that is why my test was about the fireball would hit the catalyst or just disappear."
"Yeah it is more complicated then that you got me... basically by either directly or indirectly touching it I can send in my own mana, but as you said taking control of the actual thing is impossible, so all I did was have my mana surround it, you see that could lead to two things, me taking control for forcing the enemy's presence off of it, or it exploding, But both choices were exactly what I needed here whether it explode or fall under my hand to then explode it was a win win! so what do you think?!" Lena asks the quite pator.
"Kid hey wake up! kid!" lena says as her empty hand shakes Pator.
"oh uh um, yeah, Sorry I slept for a bit." Pator says weakly.
"Come on you just slept barely that long ago you don't need sleep now."
"haha... you're right... I haven't read about anything like what you did with the catalyst... but im guessing you learned it from the same guy as the sword thing right?" Pator says.
"Yeah that's right, From the same guy."
"he sounds like a great magician..."
"He definitely is."
Finally they reach the end of the stairs and find themselves at somewhere a bit noticeable.
It's the room where they fought the bosses pet.
"Look pator we are here! we can leave from here definitely!"
Pator is completely silent.
Lena tries shaking him again but this time it doesn't work.
She quickly turns around and leans him to the back of one of the walls.
His chest is just barely going up and down but he isn't replying at all.
"Oi Pator Oi! Don't sleep now! You won't wake up again pator! Get up!"
finally slightly opening his eyes Pator wakes up.
"emm... good morning mom." the boy says with a smile.
"I'm Lena pator, you will meet your mom soon enough just stay with me."
"huh? oh right this was really happening..." the boy says as he looks at the staff Lena's holding.
"just take that... i'm sure it will be enough..." the boys says.
"Enough? enough what?" Lena asks.
"for my parents... they probably hated me being all selfish forcing my dreams onto them, they were a couple of humble people who lived a normal life without any of the magic adventuring stuff... yet I always dreamt of it... going out there exploring the world... yet look at me, this is where it ends... this is where i di---" Pator stops as tears finally start going down his face.
"T-this is where i die huh... this here... in a cave god knows how deep... " pator says as he almost laughs at himself.
"This is where i die lena, this!" the boy looks at Lena.
"No this isn't" Lena says.
"STOP DENYING IT!" The boy screams only hurting his throat even more.
"stop denying it... this is the end of me, but i don't want it to be! i don't want to die here, I want to live, I want to go places, I want to see places, I want to find a girl, Love her, Live with her, Grow with her, I want everything this world has to offer, yet here my story ends."
"The Lake of wothand..." Lena says quietly.
"w-what?"
"just think about The Lake of wothand I'm sure you won't regret it as much then." Lena said finally giving the boy an authentic smile.
"Y-yeah, that would be a great place to end it." The boy says as he closes his eyes.
Lena stands up with the only thing left on her is the magician's staff.
She turns away and Leaves the now dead corpse behind.
She's barely able to walk herself having one of her legs almost rendered completely useless. Every step she takes only hurts more than the last.
Even though she decided to take a path where no one would follow her she still ended up caring for someone at their end, She still had to go through loss.
It was barely for that long but it still hurt her, Human's are social creatures and she is know exception, that's why even He at some point was only hurt even more.
All she felt as she slowly limped through the dungeon was regret.
What if she had talked to the boy more? what if she had paid more attention to the boy? what if she had not pulled him into his own death? what if they just enjoyed the small blissful area they were given and waited for some non-existent hope, what then? Would it have changed? Would've the emptiness she feels at the moment disappeared.
She couldn't know the answer to any of these questions and Instead just screamed in sorrow.
After a while she finally reaches the promised exit and leaves through it.
A green forest greats her with trees going as far as the eye can see, it hasn't changed one bit.
the sun is up apparently it had went down and risen again while they were in there.
She falls to the ground next to a tree and starts to blink.
"i-i can't go on like this... I have to rest for a bit..." She says falling asleep.
After a while.
Lena slowly Open's her eyes only to find that she is still where she had slept.
She had hoped of a surprise awakening in her room or at least back in the kingdom if not next to someone she can trust, but instead she only wakes up to disappointment. She stands back up feeling a bit better but still really terrible holding only the staff with her.
After quite a while of limping in the darkness she finally reaches the main roadway, she follows the roadway towards the capital only to then have a cart pass her.
There was an old man leading it who immediately stopped to look at the girl.
"Oh dear, what could have happened to such a young lady to end up like this."
Lena turned her barely working head towards the old man and says.
"Trestina... take me to trestina..." and she then falls over.
The old man looks at the girl and decides to help her, He picks her up even though he barely could and puts her on the back of his cart.
A Long time Later.
Lena slowly opens her eyes. The roof is white. She is on some kind of bed and Doesn't remember how she ended up here.
She quickly sits up and looks around her A long room with multiple beds all looking identical, some occupied, but most being empty, she then realizes one of her eye's is covered, her right eye in particular. She looks at both of her hands and notices they are well and perfect as if never hurt, she goes to check on her leg only to make something move on top of it, she looks to her right leg to then see a little girl sleeping with her head on it.
Toto using her arms as a pillow, was sleeping on Lena as she waited for her to recover.
Lena moved her hand and brushed the top of Toto's head as toto got even more comfortable.
She goes back to laying down, and then quickly thinks 'the staff!' she sits back up and looks around to find nothing. She doesn't want to intercept toto's sleeping so instead she decides to calm down and ask if anyone that comes by.
After quite a bit a woman in a white one piece walks in and Lena waves at her, the woman gives a quick dash to where Lena is and starts talking.
"You actually made it miss! congratulations! Almost everyone believed you were a lost cause!"
"The staff, where is the staff?"
"the staff? If you are talking about something you had we had given them all to your acting guardian."
"and who's that?"
"That would be someone named... miss trestina." The woman says as she looks at the paper in her hand.
"T-trestina... can you get her to come?"
"Sorry we don't know where she is right now but We will make sure to inform her of your recovery as soon as possible." The woman says.
"Then what about this little girl, do you know where her family is?"
"No we do not she has actually slipped through the staff and I just knew about her presence, I will get her out of here as soon as possible sorry about any inconvenience." the woman says as she reaches for toto but Lena quickly graps her hand.
"No don't, leave her I want her here."
"As you wish miss now if you will excuse me I will have to call a doctor over to check on you."
"sure." Lena says as the woman returns from where she came.
After a short while a doctor clad in the usual white jacket walks in and heads towards Lena. He asks Lena a couple of questions while running his own tests which he just replies perfect to all of.
He then gets up and says "all right miss, other than your eye you're well and ready to leave as soon as you want."
Lena thanks the doctor who slowly gets up and leaves.
A little while later the same woman walks back in with a tray that has a change of cloth.
"Here this was left for you by your acting guardian."
It was a normal Shirt with long sleeves accompanied with normal pants and normal shoes that none of had any kind of design on, alongside a hair band.
It made Lena give a little smile.
Lena moves Toto's head off her leg and she gets up to change. Lena changes at her spot without hiding much even though there were a bit of other people although they didn't look they cared much. After she had changed she went to wake toto up.
"hey, toto, get up." she said calmly.
Toto slowly opened her eyes, and then lifted her back to straighten her posture.
While rubbing her eyes she asks "what time is it?"
"Oh right I haven't asked about that..." Lena says.
"Huh?" Toto says as she slowly realizes Lena was standing next to her with her bend over to reach toto's eye level with a smile on her face.
"B-B-Berrrrraaaaaaa" she said crying and immediately jumped towards Lena.
"Aren't you excited!" Lena said holding Toto.
"I I thought you wouldn't wake up..." Toto said crying
"Come on now, I would sleep with such a cute little girl next to me!" Lena says.
"B-but you were sleeping for so long-g-g... for a whole week you know!!!" Toto said as she started beating Lena's back while hugging her.
Lena just smiled in silence as she accepted Toto.
"T-They were all using big words... I-i c-couldn't under-understand a-any of it, but they all l-looked sad as they said it, m-mom told me That we should just pray for you at home, but I knew you would get better. I would sneak out everyday so that I would surprise you when you wake up, mom would always come and scold me saying that I'm making unnecessary trouble for the staff, b-but I just didn't want to leave you alone, an-and... and... aaaaaaannnnnnnddddd..." toto said as she cried.
"Hey now calm down I'm all better don't you see." Lena says as she flexes one of her arms.
"Y-yeah..." toto says rubbing the tears away.
"Come now Let's leave to your place okay?" Lena said as she gestured toto to hold hands.
"emm" Toto nodded.
They walked out of the mana-hospital and as soon as they left Lena quickly lifted Toto on put her on her shoulder.
"here why don't I give you ride today on me!" Lena said excited.
Toto laughed happy as she rode on top of Lena.
They reached toto's place where Lena only told toto to go in and that she had business to attend to real quick.
She quickly Walks to the adventurer's guild and pushed the door open.
Inside It was as busy as usual she looked around and saw that the receptionist again was not Trestina, but wasn't why she had came today.
She walked around the Adventurer's guild's tavern Looking for anyone of the 3 people she wanted until she found one. It was Kent, He was sitting one a table with 4 other people Lena didn't know drinking without a care.
Lena in a storm of a rage Runs at him and picks him up with her left hand only to punch him with her right hand.
He is knocked back a couple of steps and turns angered.
"WHO DARED TO DO THIS!" But the moment he notices who it is quickly calms down.
"You made it." He says trying to play it cool as he heads back to his seat.
"What do you mean 'you made it'? No thanks to you bastard. PATOR BELIEVED IN YOU THAT KID REALLY THOUGHT YOU WOULD COME DOWN FOR HIM YET WHERE WERE YOU? NOT JUST YOU BUT ALL 3 OF YOU WHERE DID YOU GO! IF YOU HAD JUST WAITED, if you had just w-waited, m-maybe then the girl c-could've h-h-helped him" Lena said as she slowly starting tearing.
"We thought you guys had to fallen to your death and we moved on that's it." Kent said as he sat back down as if nothing just happened and continued his drink.
People stopped and looked at the two. Lena who was as a child throwing a tantrum and Kent who was cool and collected.
Lena mad at the man Again goes to pick him up but before punching him she notices the look on his face.
"You are acting as if this is the first time someone has died in your pa--- don't tell me, is it actually a first?" Kent said as he slowly started to laugh.
"Hahahahaa! No wonder you're so mad! Girl please, don't think this was my first time too. I've met plenty of people who died, whether it be with me or without I've still experienced it, This is what's wrong with fast progressing adventurer's you quickly make it to the top without even having to go through any of the suffering." Kent says disgusted at Lena.
"Just be happy you made it out of there, we were all sure both of you were dead." Kent said pushing himself away from Lena and taking back his seat.
Everyone slowly started whispering to each other as Lena stood in the middle of it looking like a dumbass.
She then is quickly grabbed by a woman who pulls her outside.
Trestina had taken Lena out of that embarrassing scene and brought her outside.
"why did you do that?!" Trestina asked.
"I-i I don't know..." Lena says.
"*sigh* You die for a die then come back only to sleep for a whole week and once you're awake this is the first thing you do... Sometimes you really are like a child." trestina says.
Lena just looks down as a child getting scolded would.
"Wait here for a bit." trestina says as she walks in to quickly come out holding something.
"Here you probably want this." Trestina says giving Lena what's Left of Pator's staff.
Lena looking at again slightly tears up.
"Oh crying for someone, who are you?" Trestina says teasing Lena.
"just shut up."
"So would you like to talk about what happened in there?" Trestina says sitting to the ground next to Lena.
"What about your work?"
"Ahh don't worry uolya and quoka have got this"
Lena then sits down next to trestina as she tells her what happened.
By the end of it Trestina is just left silent.
"I Killed him trestina... I was the one who forced him into fighting with me, at first I only saw him as a kid I had to make sure to return alive but as he talked on about his life before dying all I could do was pity him, He even saved my life yet all I saw of him was a liability. He didn't deserve that Trestina." Lena vented as her eye got wait, her right eye was covered so tearing up was quite obvious.
"I knew the kid Lena." trestina said as she looked down.
"huh?" Lena turned her head towards her.
"I knew him... as a receptionist in the adventurer's guild it isn't that surprising really, but even then I knew him to an almost personal level, his parents were quite protective always asking me if a quest is right for him as if I was a private Instructor. I would always undersell his value only for him to comeback with even greater results, He was a genius beyond geniuses. His parents were very proud of him you know? That thing there." Trestina says pointing at the catalyst that is on what's left of Pator's staff.
"They used all their savings to buy that for him on his 14th birthday, it was what like 2 months into his adventuring he had already reached gold by then, But you know Before the whole adventuring thing the kid would always just stay at home, He would always just sit in his own room doing nothing but reading book and fantasizing 'I would like to go here, I would like to go there. I would like to this, I would like to that'. It was by a stroke of luck that he found out how good he was in magic, and then a while later he finally got his parents to accept him adventuring and the kid just killed it. It was a dream of his Lena and he died achieving it. Do not feel responsible. You did what anyone would have done, you're not a terrible person. Now If you wanna give them the staff yourself feel free to, but if you're too scared to meet them I would give them it without mentioning your name." Trestina says turning her head to Lena who is hugging her knees.
"N-no I will do it..." Lena says sniffing.
"here wait a second." Trestina says as she walks in to walk out quickly again.
"here this is the location at where they live. Please don't over do it." Trestina says.
Lena gets up and walks to where the location is.
She reaches it after quite the walk around town and knocks.
A middle-aged woman answers the door with a forced smile.
"Yes? How could I help you young lady?"
"C-can I come in for a second?" Lena asks politely while hiding the staff behind her back.
"Oh yeah sure please feel right at home." The polite woman invites Lena in as she moves out of the way.
"T-thanks." Lena says walking in.
The woman is ahead of her and points at a chair Lena could sit on.
Lena sits down making sure the woman wouldn't see the staff.
"Would you like anything to drink?"
"N-nothing thank you, It's just something quick I need to talk about and I will leave."
"Oh dear what could it be I wonder..." the woman says in a worried tone and sits down at one of the chairs opposite to Lena.
"C-can I ask a question first?"
"yeah, of course go on."
"Is your husband here?"
"Yeah right in the room over there."
"Could you invite him to join us? This really needs the both of you."
"S-sure wait a moment." The woman says as she goes to the room next to them and wakes the man to come join them.
After a bit of a struggle the man finally decides to join them.
"So what is it having to wake me up." The man said annoyed.
"It-It's about.... pator" Lena said hesitantly as she turned her head to the side.
Both parents give a look of shock at the sudden mention of their son's name.
"W-whats wrong with pator? has he done something bad? Is that the problem here?" The woman with a painfully obvious act.
"N-no" Lena can't bring herself to say it.
"W-what did my boy do? Did he do anything naughty to you is that it?" The man denies it too.
"N-no." Lena again denies their hopes.
"W-what is it then say it!" The woman says almost screaming at Lena.
Lena silently pulls out the boy's staff and puts it on the table in front of them.
The woman slowly puts her hands forward as she picks it up and brings it to her chest while her face is turned into a waterfall. The husband tries to the calm her down by going in to hug her but only joins her.
The woman wanting to scream at Lena lifts her head only to stop as she see's Lena herself is crying while apologizing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. *sniff sniff* I should've done better but i was a failure I couldn't protect one boy in the end I-I-I I'm so sorry please forgive me, I have taken your precious boy *sniff* a-and I-i I w-w *sniff Will ne-never b-be able to *sniff* fully apologize." Lena says as her hands run over her face trying to rub the tears away.
The woman gives a slight laugh at Lena.
"W-why are you the one crying..." with a warm smile she says which makes Lena only feel even more miserable.
"Just tell me one thing... How was the end of his story." The mother asks.
Lena gets herself together to answer the woman's question.
"He was smiling."