Sara and the other spirit folk brought the unconscious Rio and Latifa
back to their village with them. Rio was restrained with a magic artifact and
escorted to the rarely used jail cell in the village town hall, while Sara's
group carried Latifa to a guest room within the same building.
A werefox elder waited for them in the room to receive their report of the
incident. As the representative of their group, Sara explained the
circumstances to the elder first.
"...Hmm. Don't you think you were a little too rough, dear Uzuma?" The
elder looked at Uzuma coldly after hearing the report.
"B-But it was an emergency situation..."
"Well, that may be true... however, this child... I have never seen her
around here before. And I'd definitely remember a child this cute."
"Yes. In regards to that, we discovered supplies in their camp that we
believe to be travel equipment belonging to this girl. It's possible that she
isn't one of the villagers..." Sara clarified from the side with a slightly pale
face.
"Orphia. Alma. Bring the captured boy here immediately." The
expression on the elder's face changed instantly, and she gave her order in a
somewhat cold tone.
Orphia and Alma both stutteringly agreed to the elder and hurried out of
the room.
Latifa opened her eyes soon after.
◇◇◇
Latifa opened her eyes to find herself in an unfamiliar room. She was on
a soft and comfy bed, under a warm and snug blanket. Compared to camping
outside, it was far, far more comfortable and pleasant to sleep on. And yet —
"...Onii-chan?" Latifa murmured, glancing wildly around the room.
Her precious person wasn't here, where he should be. Instead, she was
surrounded by strangers: the silver werewolf Sara, the winged werebeast Uzuma, and the werefox — like Latifa — elder. The three of them sat on
chairs facing each other, conversing with conflicted expressions on their
faces that immediately halted when they noticed that Latifa was awake.
"Hmm, seems like you're awake now. Good morning, brethren of mine.
How do you feel?" The werefox elder smiled, speaking in the language of the
spirit folk. However, Latifa couldn't understand a single word.
"...What are you saying? Onii-chan... Where's Onii-chan?" She tilted her
head and spoke in the common language of the Strahl region. A downcast
look fell over Sara's and the elder's faces.
"Human language. Elder Ursula, this girl really..."
"So it seems. This child isn't from the village," Sara and the elder said to
each other conclusively.
Latifa, on the other hand, couldn't understand what the two were saying,
and warily looked around the room. She twitched her nose, secretly sniffing
out Rio's scent to locate him.
Suddenly, Latifa's nose caught onto his faint scent.
There's no mistaking it. It's Onii-chan — unable to bear it any longer,
Latifa jumped out of the bed and broke into a run.
"Ah, hey! Stop right there!" The sudden turn of events delayed Sara's
reaction, allowing Latifa to give her the slip and dip into the hallway.
"Augendae Corporis!"
After successfully making it to the hallway, she chanted the only magic
spell she could use. Her body instantly became lighter, strength flowing
through her as she ran in the direction of Rio's scent. Sara and Uzuma chased
after her.
"Humm. This seems to be taking a turn for the worse," Ursula muttered
to herself, her expression darkening.
◇◇◇
Several moments earlier, before Latifa opened her eyes...
Rio regained consciousness on a shabby bed in an unfamiliar room. With
a fuzzy head, he wondered where he was; his body felt sluggish, as if he had
caught a cold. In an attempt to assess the situation, he moved to sit up in the
bed, when a sharp pain suddenly stabbed through his stomach area.
Accepting his defeat, he gave up and flopped back down.
He moved his hand to his stomach in order to treat himself with magic, when he realized there were shackles restraining his hands.
These are... Enchanted Sealing Cuffs, huh. They were even careful
enough to bind my neck and feet, too.
Rio ground his teeth. Enchanted Sealing Cuffs were an artifact that could
contain the magic essence of the wearer. Normally, it was enough to attach
just one, but they could be broken depending on the capability of the wearer.
Because of this, high-class sorcerers would be made to wear multiple cuffs.
Even managing my essence is too difficult, much less healing myself.
Damn it...
Rio frowned as he gazed up at the ceiling above him. Dim moonlight and
a cold breeze entered from the iron barred window in the corner of the room.
At some point, they had stripped him of his equipment and clothes; Rio was
only clothed in a thin underlayer. The temperature of the room was less than
ten degrees... He was almost guaranteed to catch a cold like this.
He would have preferred to move around a bit and warm himself as much
as possible, but now wasn't the time for that. Rio endured the stabbing pains
in his stomach and focused on recovering naturally.
Then, a short while later...
The chill against his skin had already passed his limits, making an
unpleasant feeling shoot through him. Eventually, his mind started to nod off
into the darkness. He knew it was bad to sleep, but he couldn't find the
strength to keep his eyes open.
Then, several minutes after Rio completely lost consciousness, he found
himself in a pure white space. He had no idea where he was, nor what was
happening.
"Haruto..." A clear, beautiful voice resounded.
Rio looked around in surprise. Before he realized it, an unknown girl
stood before him.
Her long rose-gold hair fluttered behind her as she stared at Rio's face
with eyes like rubies. There was no emotion in her expression, but her
features were unbelievably refined.
"You're..." Rio murmured.
He felt like he had seen her face somewhere, but would he really forget
the face of someone so overwhelmingly beautiful, a face that emitted such a
divine aura?
"Who are you?"
"Me? Who am I... I wonder." The girl tilted her head to the side.