"Are you a wizard?" Sarah asked, staring with her wide-open eyes at Leon's face. Her eyes glittered as if she was looking at some sort of magical spirit from a fairy tale.
"A powerful man capable of altering the laws of nature with as little as a simple gesture or a word," Leon muttered in response only to then shake his head. "I'm sorry to disappoint, but no such thing exists."
Leon's voice was deprived of even the tiniest bit of hesitation. Yet, the same couldn't be said about the thoughts that then filled his brain.
'Can I really say that?' Leon asked himself, closing his eyes and resting down his hand that attracted Sarah's attention and then her question. 'That was the truth for my original world, but who knows whether it's still the same for this one?'
"Oh..." Sarah moaned in a disappointed voice. She then averted her eyes to the side while her cheeks covered up in a blush. "I see..."
Leon opened up his eyes and glanced at the girl for a moment.
"Why did you ask?" he then asked in a calm, leisurely voice.
"..." the girl opened up her mouth at first, only to end up closing it and lowering her face. She then brought her arms together as if in an attempt to hug herself only for her entire body to shrink in itself.
"It's fine if you don't want to tell me," Leon said, recognizing the hint hidden behind the girl's unspoken actions. "But rather than giving me a silent treatment, I need you to tell me," he then added, pulling his head back to a more comfortable position even if it meant moving his eyes away from the girl. "You don't know the answer. You don't wish to reply. You were obliged not to reveal such information..." Leon then counted random possible reasons for the girl's silence while stretching his hand out and bending one of his fingers for each of the possibilities he mentioned. "If you are not going to answer my question, it's okay. But I need to know why."
Sarah's actions were... weird. At times she would act meek and scared as if she expected every action and word of hers to be just an excuse for Leon to punish her. And yet, even though they didn't interact for long, Leon could sense the livid curiosity brimming in her soul, albeit hidden underneath a thick layer of the aforementioned fear.
"I..." Sarah attempted to speak up. She then gulped down her saliva and took two solid breaths before finally raising her head and looking straight at Leon. "I..." she attempted to speak up again... Only to fail just like before.
The girl then lowered her head and squeezed her eyes shut. She clenched her fists, dug her nails into the skin of her palms, and gritted through her teeth while tightly shutting out the outside world.
"I... I can't say," she then said in a low, muffled voice that was barely even audible. "I wasn't supposed to... But now... I don't know what to do..."
'Hmm?' Leon didn't open his eyes, yet he remained aware of all of those tiny details.
In a world where mana was everywhere, he could perceive things at a much greater rate than he could back in his original world.
'I guess it's just my sixth sense adapting to the reality of this world,' Leon thought, taking a deep breath to stifle up the emotions that welled up in his soul when he recalled the times that made him develop this passive skill of his.
Countless battles. Betrayals so common that Leon lost count of how many of them he had to go through. Supposed allies attempting to backstab him and actual friends suddenly sacrifice themselves for his sake without giving Leon even a shot at saving them.
His sixth sense wasn't born out of a single traumatic experience. It was something he developed by going through hundreds of events, each of which was perfectly capable of breaking an adult's mind.
And now, this extremely precious ability that later on would save him on countless occasions... Right now, it allowed Leon to notice just how anxious and awkward the girl became despite having his eyes closed.
"It's fine," Leon finally replied, cutting the topic with no regret.
"Huh?" Sarah shrugged as if Leon suddenly revealed that he actually swung the other way. "Are... are you really okay with that?" she then asked in a shocked voice.
"I said it already," Leon shrugged his shoulders only to roll a bit on the bed to rest on his side while prompting his head up on his hand. He then opened his eyes, taking a proper look right into Sarah's shocked eyes. "It's fine if you don't want to tell me. I was only curious," he then added, repeating exactly the same thing that he announced before.
Sarah sat down on the floor of the shed with her legs curled to the back. She stared right at Leon's face with her wide-open eyes, seemingly unable to take a single breath.
Sarah's throat then moved when the girl gulped down her saliva. Her chest wiggled up and down as she heaved a deep sigh only to take a long breath.
"And what if I told you..." she opened up her mouth once again. The aura of anxiety all around her only intensified. "What if I told you that I'm of a saint's bloodline?"
The girl's disposition changed. She tensed all over as if realizing that it was now too late to take back her own words. Her face filled with fear, her body started to tremble.
"A saint's bloodline?" Leon repeated after the girl. He then raised his eyebrows only to throw a confused look at the girl. "Are you a fanatical believer of some sort of religion or something?" he then asked, genuinely puzzled by the sudden revelation.
The girl's face tensed up even further... even though her body stopped trembling all at once. Her lips parted open as she stared right at Leon's face with terror mixing with disbelief in her eyes.
"Are you..." she muttered, only to gulp her saliva down. "Are you for real?"
For a moment, the two of them reached a perfect union. A union when one was just as confused as the other.
'Not good,' Leon finally realized just how much he fucked up. 'Judging from her reaction, this title should ring some sort of a massive bell!'
"Why would..." Leon opened up his mouth, eager to break the silence in an attempt to somehow play it cool and calm down the suspicions that were bound to explode in the girl's mind...
Only for the doors to their hut to slam open as a villager in the strength of his years suddenly burst inside.
"Sir! Sir!" the man shouted with agitation written all over his face. "We observed a soldiers' camp right by the nearby hill!"