Ais tilted her head slightly. Her voice came out blank, like it always did.
"You... woke up?"
"Just a few hours ago." Bell replied, withdrawing his arm from around her waist and taking a step back to create a sliver of distance between them.
Ais' arms hovered where his shoulders had been for a moment, then dropped to her sides.
Bell turned on his heel, and Ais followed without another word. They walked in a random direction without any destination in mind, shoulder to shoulder.
"I heard from an old man at a hot spring that someone ambushed you near the northern gates? Right before the war?" Bell glanced at her. Ais kept her gaze forward and gave a slight nod.
"Are you alright?" He asked, searching her golden eyes. Ais glanced back at him, holding his gaze.
Instead of replying, she reached for his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.
I guess... it means a yes?
They had barely crossed a street when Bell's gaze landed on a crowd of eager people nearly blocking the next intersection, all surrounding a wooden desk where two people sat.
A banner was mounted on that desk. It read: Three-Legged Race Registration Desk.
Bell froze, his mouth nearly falling open.
Orario had these!?
He looked down at their intertwined hands, then back up at the desk surrounded by a horde of people.
You'll have to do, Ais.
His steps firmed as he pulled Ais along toward that desk. She looked at him and let herself be led, shoulders relaxed.
"Ais... have you ever tried a three-legged race?" He asked on the way, weaving past a pair of people.
"Mn. No." She replied, her fingers tightening around his.
"Me too. Let's try it."
Ais had barely started to nod when Bell came to a sudden, forceful halt, making her bump into his side.
What if these people recognise me?
... Think, Bell. Think. There must be a way around it.
Bell's free hand unconsciously went to his long, white locks—the origin of his dilemma.
"Hm?"
An idea made his eyes light up. Bell didn't wait; he acted on it immediately.
Threads of fire ignited from his scalp, covering his white hair in a thin layer of red flames. This was only possible because his hair was already immune to fire.
Under Ais' bewildered gaze, his hair began to redden from their roots, shifting from luminescent white to blazing red.
Soon, his hair became a curtain of red instead of white, complementing his crimson eyes with a new, masculine charm.
"Ais, let's go now." Bell tugged on her hand. She did not budge. "Huh? Ais?"
He looked back and saw that her gaze remained locked on his face—still blank, yet with an unusual sheen in her eyes.
"Alright, you can admire my new look later. We're running late."
She snapped out of her daze and nodded absentmindedly.
"Mmn."
...
..
.
Outside Orario's eastern city wall.
A track was carved through the forest foliage. It weaved between trees with sudden, obstacle-course turns; craters and traps were even set up along its length to trip inexperienced adventurers.
The starting line was etched into dirt just five steps ahead of where Bell and Ais stood.
Bell's arm was looped over Ais' shoulder, and hers over his. A rough rope bound their adjacent legs together, the knot pressing into both their calves.
To their left was a pair of Pallum brothers, both Level 2. To their immediate right was a pair of elf sisters. Many groups were behind them, too: a human and a dwarf, an Amazon and a beastman.
Bell and Ais were smack dab in the middle of everyone else.
A thin elf stood some distance away from the starting line, a loudspeaker in hand.
"Sword Princess. Everyone else runs five laps. You and your partner run fifty. Wouldn't be fair otherwise."
His words prompted a silent sigh of relief from every other pair.
That elf didn't waste time. He took a deep breath, then—
"Three!"
Ais tensed her legs, weight back, shoulders forward. Bell followed, dropping into a matching stance.
"Two!"
Gold and red eyes met.
"One!"
Bell smiled.
"Go!"
Dust. A thick wall of it—already choking the pairs behind them who hadn't yet taken their first step.
Trees flickered past like someone flipping through a sketchbook: a trunk, a branch, a trunk, a branch. Another breath, and a root flashed underfoot. Both jumped, bound legs rising and falling in a single synchronized footfall—not a beat of difference between them.
A sharp left turn ahead. Bell dropped his arm from her shoulder to her waist and planted his free leg as a pivot. He dragged it through the soil, shifting both his and her center of gravity together.
Ais cooperated seamlessly—any resistance at this speed would've launched them both in opposite directions.
The turn vanished behind them. Their hair flew back, an intersecting line of red and gold left in their wake.
A wire. Thin as a needle, stretched across their path. Nearly invisible at their speed. Before Bell could signal, Ais' arm was already around his waist. She jumped.
Air slammed into them like a wall, making their ribs tremble. Her free hand caught a branch above, swinging them both forward like a pendulum, and then they were falling—
No. Landing. Running. The impact barely registered.
Another turn. A stream curved ahead, its water crawling beside them, calm and steady. But the ground under their bound feet was a blur of brownish-green, each footfall barely lasting long enough to leave a print.
Bell's sole dug down.
Wet soil. No anchor.
His center of gravity slipped—a sudden shift. Ais had given him her entire weight, and he had nothing to push against.
No time to react.
The world spun.
Up and down lost meaning. Left and right became suggestions. Everything lost its boundaries, blurring into speeding lines of blue and green.
Bell tightened his hold around Ais' waist, his free arm desperately clawing to dig into grass below as they rolled down an incline straight toward the stream.
His fingers dug into the soil with each rotation. Once. Twice. Thrice.
Their momentum slowed by the sixth dig, and they finally came to a slow halt.
Both of them lay there for a moment, grass beneath them.
Bell looked up at Ais, her hair tangled, and asked between short breaths, "Why didn't you try to save yourself?"
Ais tilted her head down at him. Her expression didn't change. But her hand had come to rest on her own cheek, right where a golden flake had fallen.
"You saved me before... and now."
"What are you talking about? Saving you before?" Bell asked, his expression clueless.
Ais didn't reply. She simply brought her hand down and started poking his cheek instead.
Poke. Poke.
"Anyway..." Bell caught his breath. "You have to take care of yourself from now on. I can't be there to catch you every time."
She didn't react, as if she hadn't heard him. Bell reached up and gave her forehead a gentle bonk.
"Do you hear me, Ais?"
Ais blinked and then leaned closer, her blank eyes suddenly holding a stubborn, quiet intensity.
"But... you're always there to catch me," She murmured. Her fingers stopped poking his cheek, instead resting softly against it.
"So... I'm safe."
Bell lost his voice. The flames in his hair flickered, control slipping.
A chorus of rapid footsteps resounded from above, a blur of racers dashed past them, kicking up a cloud of dust as they sprinted toward the finish line.
... The rough rope binding their legs together was completely forgotten—and neither of them made any move to untie it.
...
..
.
***
[300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter]
[8 chapters ahead on P@tr3on = [email protected]/Not_Aaryan]
...
[Authors Thoughts]
So... was it too much sugar?
Don't run away yet, more incoming. Hope you all don't get diabetes from it.
Take care everyone! Peace out!
...
Alright, do you guys like this new style of writing with different techniques? Or should I pull back on it?