I was roaming in the darkness for a long time. It was a void of endless darkness; nothing could be seen, not even my hands. All I could do there was to walk.
Am I dreaming, or am I dead?
A question erupted in my head, a question that became an apple of discord in my monologue.
I tried to remember what I was doing before getting here, but all I can remember is myself sitting beside a lake while talking with someone—more precisely, a girl. But who she was, I think I knew her.
Ahhhh, my weak memory, why do you just make me forget things when I was just thinking about them?
It was no use. The more I tried to remember, the more I just struggled. All I could remember was me sitting beside a lake, dipping my feet in its fresh, calm, and a bit cold water in a green, lush, tall grass plain.
With a sudden thud, voices started to return—the sound of heavy breathing, and someone chanting something.
It wasn't pleasant, nor in any sense. It was echoing and irritating so much that I wanted to either vomit or punch the maker, yet in the void, no one was there except me.
Gradually, the breathing of the person started to calm, and a small aroma of sweat and a girl's perfume could be smelled. It seemed like a flower I didn't know, but I can say without a doubt it was an aroma that made me a bit at ease.
As time passed, the aroma started to become gradual and constant. It carried a scent of crushed rosewater, burnt timber, and at last, body heat. It hit me all at once. It was strange that an aroma had body heat and burnt timber with crushed rosewater, yet from here, except for smelling, I couldn't do anything.
My heart spikes had dissolved and I could feel a small pressing force at my chest. I couldn't tell what was applying it, but usually before relaxing, I used to put that weight in terms of a hard pillow, so due to it, it didn't bother me.
Losing hope from walking, I sat there looking toward the sky and just smelling the aroma and a calm breathing whose source I couldn't see.
Is it strange, I asked myself, yet as if I could answer.
Finally, with a burst of light making my eyes watery and blurry, I could sense I recovered from that void.
I felt a slight wind magic around me. It wasn't lethal nor uneasy, yet it was lifting me—not too much, but like half a finger.
I looked toward my chest. It carried a soft velvet radiance, but more than that, my focus was dragged by the thing pressing my chest—a head. It was of a girl. She seemed to have collapsed above me while doing something which drained her that much. Above me, her hand passed through my chest to the other side while her head lay near the center. On the other side, half her body was on the floor while her head lay above my chest.
Her breathing was calm and deep, her scent carrying the same aroma as I smelled in the void. She was wearing full-sleeved white gloves and a white blouse with a skirt, which seemed like a cosplay of a nurse, yet beneath it, thermal base layers of black color could be seen. It radiated a coffee-brown light, covering her whole body from neck to toe, which her outer clothes couldn't. It was thick enough that it didn't reveal a single hair or inch of skin, yet it molded her frame, which was exposed so perfectly that it acted like a second skin. Although most of it was only seen below the knee, as the upper part was covered by the blouse and skirt, the remaining area made the presence of thermal base layers confirmed.
I licked both my lips to make them wet, and looked toward the door. Slowly, slowly, glowing reminiscences of snow fell upon my skin, making small itches beneath my abdominal parts. Although it urged a small burning feeling, sweat, and an itchy sense, it brought a little bit of ease, with each falling snow-like pore acting like a pain reducer.
What was the moon phase before I fell unconscious? Maybe it was a full moon, or twinkling, I said to myself, looking toward the gate.
We remained in that posture without moving. I didn't move because my muscles felt too heavy to lift, while she didn't move because she was asleep.
It was until a part of my brain fog cleared and I realized I wasn't wearing anything—not even a blanket—other than just undergarments covering below my stomach down to my knees.
My hands reached, ignoring the shaky, heavy movement. It was rather hard, but better than being stripped. I pushed my body until I started to breathe hard and my heart spiked—not to push rocks or do complex magic, but just to get a blanket and move the head of that girl just a bit above so I could cover myself with the blanket.
I got the blanket easily, yet my shaky hands wouldn't let her sleep if I touched her with my hand.
So I pushed all the mana in my body to my hands just to stabilize them and reduce the heaviness of their movement.
And by exhausting myself to the final point, I was able to achieve it, yet multiple small questions were raising inside my head:
Why is a small air bubble around me—not too much, but making a half-finger gap so nothing touches my skin?
Why can I smell scents this clearly?
And why is she so drained?
....
Tip-tap, tap-tip, tip-tap.
A sound of constant small steps could be heard coming toward us.
She lives alone, doesn't she? Who is coming here? My gaze fixed at the door, and slowly, slowly, I started to cast water arrows to kill anyone trying to reach us, thinking we were asleep.