A Tamia's Tale, first book: Omen of Death

A strange desert stretched as far as the eye could see. Though the sun was high in the sky, the temperature remained surprisingly mild, like a pleasant spring day. The only sound they could hear was the constant stomping of the Tomo-O, a giant lizard whose scales blended seamlessly with the surrounding sand. One of the few creatures in the desert friendly to humans, the Tomo-O was the swiftest mode of transportation available. Kanami and Luka were riding this remarkable beast a few kilometers south of the capital, Eran.

Their destination was the land of Ryuuji, the sole nation occupying the southwestern appendix of the continent, which reminded Luka of Italy. To the northeast lay the empire of Fyr, encompassing the holy land and its capital, Tolemac. Counting Sora, those three countries were the three known human powers in this new world.

Tamia, the continent, was roughly oval in shape with each country occupying a distinct segment. The northwest and southeast corners remained uninhabited by humans.

"As you can see, Sora is surrounded by a ring of desert that stretches to the sea and the northern mountains," Kanami explained to Luka, skillfully reigning the creature.

Luka nodded, his book open with a map of the world inside it. For the first time, he was able to situate himself and his surroundings. His first thought was that the world felt strange.

He didn't voice this to Kanami, of course, but he noticed only two islands on the map with no known countries or landmasses beyond the surrounding sea. The desert of Kaal, as written on it, was peculiar, as it covered a significant portion of the continent from the middle to the southeast, as well as encircling the country of Sora in a near-perfect ring.

As if someone had drawn a circle around it.

“I know, it’s weird isn’t it?” Kanami chuckled, sensing his confusion from behind.

Luka, seated behind her, clung to anything he could to steady himself. Despite this, the creature's smooth, serpentine movements made for a stable ride, unlike a horse's jarring gait.

It had been a while since they left and Kanami was getting a bit bored from the lack of conversation, so she decided to tell a tale.

“A long time ago, I think it was during Luvon’s period…” she began, trailing off in thought. “Anyway, the dragon god Kaal, the dragon of death, was enraged and was surrounding slowly the country of Sora, planning to swallow all of its land with its desert.”

“Wait, dragon gods? What are those?” Luka asked, intrigued.

“Oh, the creators of the world if you prefer,” she explained, leaning back and counting on her fingers. “There are four in total. Veo, the dragon of creation; Eran, just like the city, is the dragon of life; and Kaal is the dragon of death, residing in the desert, hence the name on the map.”

“And what’s the last one? Destruction, I suppose?”

“Yes, but…” she hesitated, looking straight ahead. “This one no one talks about.” She then coughed and continued. “About the desert, Luvon managed to stop Kaal from swallowing completely the country and instead he laid dormant around it for a few hundred years until two years ago.”

“Wait, two years ago? What happened?”

“Sora was cut off from the rest of the world for a long time. Anyone who dared cross the desert died almost immediately, his life snuffed out by Kaal. But two years ago, while defeating the king of mages, a man managed to create a miracle.”

Wrimbo, huh… Why didn’t she say his name?

“By killing the king of mages, Kaal disappeared too. I don’t know why. It just happened, and now, Sora is open to the world again.”

Massaging his temples to try to make sense of what he heard, he sighed. “It makes no sense…”

“I know. It’s a weird story, isn’t it? But that’s what you get for tagging along and not talking.”

Luka snickered. “Says the ‘chatterbox’ herself…”

“But I barely talked…”

He sighed. “That’s called irony… You barely talk yourself.”

Kanami didn’t answer back, instead keeping straight the mount to not lose their path in this desert.

“So, it is safe now? Kaal is just gone and… That’s it?” Luka said, a bit worried.

“Don’t worry, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to come to Sora myself.”

“Oh, that’s right. You’re from Ryuuji yourself.”

That’s right. She is from Ryuuji, Luka thought. He never saw her fight but in Eran, she was feared as the dog of the princess. And the mentor and father of Wrimbo also came from there.

Luka rearranged his thoughts. Ever since he arrived here, a lot of information was pouring from left to right without it making sense sometimes. Taking a feather and some ink, he started writing notes at the end of his book, since most of the spells there were mostly impossible to achieve for him. First, he started with the Sora family. Morgann was the current ruler but her father was sick, this is the reason why they are going to Ryuuji right now. This king had two brothers: Safaran Sora and Marsh Sora, both the younger and older brothers respectively. Coincidentally, he realized that the countries were named after the families ruling them, as in his book it was written near the map that the land of Ryuuji was ruled by the Ryuuji clan, a group of famed warriors across Tamia.

Second, he noted what Darian Galterr, the chief of the Blue Falcons told him. Demons and an Emperor were threatening the country. He had no idea why that was but he assumed that demons were bad in general, though something didn’t feel right.

“Right, that damn succubus…” he grumbled under his breath.

That was the only demon he met so far and his impression was that they were just like humans, or close to it. And now there was another concept thrown around, the dragon gods, and somehow they are real.

“A fourth one, huh…”

He felt uneasy for a second. Four was a known bad number, or an unlucky number since the words ‘four’ and ‘death’ in Japanese and Korean sounded the same. While being here for a while, he had taken note of the architectural elements of the capital as well as the names surrounding him. Everything felt familiar yet detached from his own world’s cultures, except for names like ‘Wrimbo’ and ‘Tama-O’ which seemed like a completely new language.

“Say, Kanami,” Luka raised his head from his book. “Do you eat with chopsticks?”

He knew it sounded weird but he wanted to be sure.

“Not all the time but yes. Why?” Kanami sounded surprised at his sudden question.

“Nothing, thank you.”

Of course, there was nothing he could say so far, but this world had a lot of similarities to his own, from languages to culture and he felt like it had perhaps some signification.

“We will soon arrive at our first stop.”

Kanami pointed ahead. Peeking over her shoulder, Luka saw a city sprawling just beyond the sand hill. The place was full of life. Houses made of adobe bricks—a blend of earth, water, and straw—stood firm and cool, merchants bustled in and out with their caravans, laden with goods and food, and horses trotted through the streets, lifting clouds of sand with each step. Its name: Kaathal, the city of the desert, home of the merchant’s guild and the only place of respite in this desert.

“I will ask for supplies for our travels here. We’ll stay for the day at an inn and continue our journey once the sun sets,” Kanami explained. “I need you to book two rooms there, can you do it?”

She handed over a small bag full of coins to Luka, which he stored inside one of his pockets.

“Sure, I’ll do that.”

After a quick inspection by the guards, distinguishable by their leather armor instead of the heavy plate worn in the capital, Kanami secured the Tomo-O near the entrance of the inn.

“There, stay here and rest, okay Pako?” she said, patting his head reassuringly.

The creature let out a noise of contentment, settling down comfortably by the entrance while occasionally sipping from a nearby water tank.

“I can’t believe his name is Pako…” Luka muttered.

“What? I think that’s cute.”

“That thing is like a Komodo dragon the size of an elephant. I wouldn’t call ‘that’ cute.”

“Wait, you have dragons in your world too?” Kanami’s eyes widened.

“Nah, they’re just lizards. They’re big but not as much as a dragon,” he sighed, patting the beast. “Though I guess Pako here isn’t hostile, isn’t he?”

“Exactly, Pako is my trusted companion who helped me cross the desert the first time. He is a good boy.”

Pako let out another contented sound, his massive tail swishing lazily in the sand. Luka couldn’t help but smile at the sight, feeling like it was a big dog.

“I’m going now, don’t do anything rash,” Kanami waved at Luka and disappeared at an impressive speed, which amazed Luka once more.

Sighing again in utter disbelief, he kept caressing the creature. “I can’t believe I’m sparring with that…”

Chuckling to himself, he headed inside the tavern. It was a structure made of wood, its batwing doors reminiscent of an American saloon, and the sandy street it was located in reminisced Luka of a Western action movie. He pushed the door and entered the quite silent room. Since it was still early in the morning, most of the people here were sleeping and so the bar had just opened. However, a few looking-alike people were gathered here. They were all wearing the same Japanese armor, a Dō-maru look-alike, wrapped around their torso as well as sode shoulder pads, their helmet laying on the tables, and their katana sheathed at their waist. They were mostly occupied with talking and eating their breakfast, which was made of toast and ham, as well as a cup of tea.

They must be from Ryuuji…

While amazed by their style, Luka stayed focused and walked over to the counter, not bringing any attention to him. The barmaid noticed him and approached the counter, swiping some detritus on it.

“Hey there lad, what do you want?” she asked, leaning on the counter.

“Hello, two rooms for the day, please.” Luka pulled some coins out of the purse and laid them on the counter.

The barmaid looked at it and counted the coins. “I’ll need more than that, two rooms is one gold.”

One gold? Is she crazy? At the Blue Falcons, it’s just 2 silvers for one night…

Luka mentally reviewed the currency system. In this world, a hundred bronze coins made up one silver, and a hundred silver equaled one gold. While a single apple or grape might cost just a few bronze, gold was reserved for significant purchases like houses and high-quality weapons. Coins were coming in different values, like bronze coins of a value of five or twenty and silver coins of a value of two or five. Only the gold coins were unique and had no variations whatsoever.

“That’s quite the steal, isn’t it?”

A puff of smoke curled through the air, carrying the rich, fragrant aroma of tobacco. Next to him was an elegant woman, drawing slow, deliberate puffs from a kiseru pipe, its delicate metalwork catching the light. Her long black hat, adorned with intricate silver threads and delicate feathers, partially obscured her face, adding an air of mystery to her charming figure.

Her long black mantle, which flowed like silk, was adorned with a lavish fur trim, emphasizing her wealth. The opulence of her attire was further underscored by her exquisitely crafted heels, their polished finish and subtle embellishments marking her as someone accustomed to the finer things in life.

Everything about her screamed wealth and power, from her poised demeanor and her graceful manners in which she handled her pipe, to her velvet voice tainted by a subtle rasp, her presence alone made Luka flinch.

“Here, take this,” with a single, crisp sound, she opened her wallet and retrieved a gleaming coin from its leather confines. She placed it on the counter with a decisive smack, sliding it towards Luka.

The barmaid, taken aback by the unexpected generosity, seemed ready to protest but held her tongue, eyes wide with surprise.

“Are you sure about this? This is a lot,” Luka replied, afraid to even touch the shiny coin.

The woman exhaled another cloud of aromatic smoke, smiling gently. “of course, dear. It’s on me.”

“T-Thank you.” Luka picked up the coin and handed it over to the barmaid, still feeling somewhat angry at this ripoff. The barmaid accepted the coin with care and handed in exchange a pair of keys.

“That’s the two best rooms in the establishment, you can have them for the day. Just don’t forget to give them back before the sun sets.”

Through gritted teeth, Luka nodded and took the keys before being left alone with the enigmatic woman.

“Thank you again, though I could’ve—”

“Don’t mention it,” she interrupted with a knowing smile. “She’s a tough nut to crack, and since you’re new here, there’s no way she would’ve lowered her price. And sometimes…” The woman’s eyes sparkled with amusement as she took another slow puff from her kiseru pipe. “Sometimes, it’s the strangers we meet who hold the most interesting tales. And I have a feeling you have a lot to say.”

Luka grimaced, her words resonating within him deeply. “I don’t, sorry. I’m your everyday man, as boring as one could be,” he said, fiddling with his keys.

Her smile widened, but her eyes remained inscrutable. “Every man, no matter how humble, has its charms and secrets. And I’ve learned from experience that those that say the least are the most interesting.”

Luka sighed, putting the keys into one of his magical interior pockets. “Well, I’m deeply sorry, but I may not be able to amuse you,” he chuckled darkly, staring at his reflection in the mirror in front of him. “Though I could tell you tales from others that I know.”

She leaned back, exhaling another plume of smoke. “Do go on.”

Luka began to recount myths and legends he had heard, hoping to impress her and repay her kindness in some small way. He spoke of ancient heroes of Greece, weaving stories with a practiced ease. But just as he was getting into the rhythm of his storytelling, she interrupted him.

“You’re a mage, aren’t you dear?”

“Pardon?”

“A mage, a magic user, whatever you want to call it,” she said, adding more tobacco to her pipe. “I can feel your magical energy running through you. You’re an amateur, right?”

“Huh… Yeah?” Luka replied, scratching his cheek.

“Could you show me a spell?”

“I’m not sure it would be that interesting.”

“Perhaps. A newborn baby has probably more magical energy than you. But like they say, it’s not about the size but how we use it,” she chuckled, trying to ease the atmosphere.

Luka breathed deeply and resigned himself. “Fine, the only spell I know is the fire spell.”

“Rudimentary but useful,” she commented.

Trying to gain some focus, Luka deposited his jacket on the chair and started gathering his mana towards the tip of his fingers. Something told him that he needed something to at least be proud of, so he tried to achieve what he had tried yesterday: making his flame as bright as a flash.

What he needed was photons. Fire emits light because the combustion itself excites molecules and emits photons. With the mana being the combustible itself, it was hard for him to adjust its properties to stimulate the combustion process fast enough to produce an intense light.

Unfortunately, once again all he could produce was a tiny flame at the tip of his fingers. “Well that’s underwhelming,” the woman chuckled.

Luka sighed.“Yeah, I just started a few days ago.”

“That explains a lot,” she inhaled some smoke and started making circles with it, manipulating it with ease and finally creating the shape of a tower. “My name is Yelena Vintera, lord of the botanic department of the Tower in Fyr. I specialize in magic concerning the growth of plants and incidentally barriers as a pastime”

“The Tower?” Luka asked, curious.

“You don’t know it?” She chuckled, a bit concerned. “You people of Sora are truly ignorant, are you? Fine. The Tower is the most important place for mages around the world, it is where all knowledge and powerhouses gather. To put it simply, it’s where the best mages in the world are.”

“I didn’t know something like that existed…” he muttered. “The only academy I know of is the one in Eran.”

“Oh, that one?” Yelena scoffed. “I’ve heard the man running it is an amateur at best. There’s nothing worse than initiating people with no talent whatsoever. Non-mages should stay that way and work for us. They’re hopeless at magic anyway.”

Luka frowned, taken aback by her sudden outburst. Despite her dismissive tone, he felt compelled to defend the academy and its leader. “Doesn’t everyone deserve a chance to learn?”

“Learning is one thing,” she said, her tone dismissive. “But true magic requires more than knowledge. It requires innate talent and the discipline to harness it. Mediocrity has no place in this world.”

“You’re saying that even with enough effort you cannot surpass a naturally talented mage?” Luka asked, feeling a pang of defensiveness.

Yelena sighed, as if explaining a simple truth to a child. “Effort alone can only take you so far, dear. Without the spark of true talent, you’ll always hit a ceiling. The Tower seeks out those with that spark and cultivates it. That’s why it stands above all other institutions.”

Luka stood silent as she shifted herself in her seat and exhaled another plume of smoke. In a sense, she was right. He knew that. His mana reserve was so low that he couldn’t hold a candle to any mage in an endurance battle, or any battle at the moment.

“So, you’re saying that I shouldn’t have learned magic. Is that it?”

Yelena chuckled as if she finally got through to him. “Exactly. Boys like you should stick to building things and making food for us mages.”

“Then why pay for my room?” He challenged.

She sighed again, a hint of regret in her eyes. “I hoped that you’d be a surprise, but I was mistaken, apparently. Now, I don’t have all day, so excuse me.”

She snapped her fingers, and the men in armor present in the room all stood up in unison.

“We’re heading out, boys!” Yelena declared, her voice commanding and confident. She glanced at Luka from the side, flashing a wicked smile. “We have demons to kill.”

The armored men nodded, their faces grim but determined as they put their helmets on. Luka watched as they filed out of the tavern, Yelena leading the way with an air of authority. The barmaid, while no one had asked her, spoke up as she cleaned a bowl.

“Those demon hunters sure know how to show off, huh?”

“Hm.” Luka only nodded in response, uninterested in what that scammer had to say.

He pulled out the keys and headed toward his room on the first floor. She didn’t lie about it at least, Luka thought, since the room was fancier than he had expected. The bed looked plump and comfortable, and a fresh stream of water, empowered by a magic stone, flowed into a basin. He drank a good amount of it and then jumped onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. He didn’t have much time to rest when someone knocked at the door.

“It’s me, Kanami. I saw you climb the stairs.”

After giving her the key to her room, he closed the door again and lay on the bed, closing his eyes. Since he had left Sora in a hurry the previous evening, he hadn’t had the chance to sleep much during the night. He decided to sleep off the rest of the morning and skip lunch to rest more in the afternoon. After a good nap, he woke to find that Kanami had prepared the provisions and attached them securely to Pako with ropes around his torso.

They set out once more in the evening. After a few hours, the sun had completely set, and their only source of light was a lantern positioned right on the lizard’s head. The desert was silent, and the heat radiating from the sandy soil had given way to freezing cold air, though it didn’t seem to slow down Pako at all.

“I didn’t ask you before,” Luka said in between yawns, his voice resonating between the dunes. “But why are we moving at night?”

“Because you’re being targeted and so am I. There is a traitor inside the council, remember?”

“And what makes you think moving at night is better then? They could strike anyt—”

An arrow whizzed past Luka’s ear, embedding itself in the sand beside him. His heart raced as he realized how close it had come. Kanami immediately pulled the reins of Pako and unsheathed her dagger, her eyes scanning the darkness for their attacker.

“Get down!” she hissed, pushing Luka off Pako and behind a dune for cover.

Pako hissed in alarm, its head swinging back and forth as it tried to locate the source of the threat. Luka’s breath came in short, panicked bursts as he crouched low, feeling the icy grip of fear tighten around his chest.

“Don’t make any noise,” Kanami whispered.

There was no sound, only the eerie silence of the dunes and the wind brushing against the sand. Trying to calm his breathing, Luka’s heart pumped blood incessantly, making it difficult for him to focus on the eventual footsteps noise. Another arrow whizzed above Pako and landed right next to Luka’s feet, making him jolt back.

“T-This is bad, Kanami!...” he whispered urgently.

She gripped the handle of her dagger firmly, her mind racing. The attackers had good aim and Luka was defenseless. She had to track and eliminate them quickly, or they would be finished. Pako’s scales were tough enough to repel the steel tip of the arrow, but even he could get hurt if the assault continued.

Kanami held herself up, her eyes narrowing as she scanned the darkness beyond the dune. The advantage of height was crucial. She focused, sensing the mana of a stranger behind another dune in front of them. Licking the sweat from her lips, she moved silently, leaving Luka alone behind the cover.

Luka watched her go, a mixture of fear and admiration in his eyes. Kanami was a seasoned warrior, and her confidence was the only thing keeping him from panicking completely. He pressed himself against the dune, trying to make himself as small and invisible as possible.

Unsheathing her dagger, she moved like a predator, her senses finely tuned to the slightest movement. She could feel the presence of one of their attacker, the faint smell of mana betraying his position. Inch by inch, she closed the distance, her dagger poised and ready.

Suddenly, a figure emerged from behind the dune, bow drawn and eyes focused on Luka’s position. Kanami didn’t hesitate and sprang forward, her dagger slicing through the air with deadly precision. With no time to react, the blade found its mark with lethal accuracy, slicing his neck without so much as making a sound.

The assailant crumpled to the ground, his bow slipping from his grasp as he held his hands over his neck, gasping for air. But the brief commotion had alerted his comrades. From every direction, more attackers sprang up, surrounding both Kanami and Luka's positions.

Kanami readied herself, her eyes sharp and focused like an eagle eyeing its prey. She held her dagger in a reversed stance, prepared to block any projectiles that might come her way. One of the men, clad in Dō-maru armor and wielding a katana, charged toward her while two others closed in on Luka’s position.

She had to make a choice.

In a split second, Kanami assessed the situation. She couldn’t leave Luak defenseless. With a swift motion, she launched her dagger at the katana-wielding attacker, the blade embedding itself in his foot. Lightspeed, she dashed forward and revealed a thin blade hidden inside her belt, cutting his throat with a swift motion while retrieving her dagger planted in his foot.

Luka’s heart pounded as he saw the two attackers closing in on him. He pressed himself tighter against the dune, his mind racing as he was trying to find a solution. Just as the attackers were about to reach him, he pulled out his gun from the vest and aimed it at the men. But he realized something.

“W-Wha—”

The gem, the power source of the gun, the eternaüm, was gone. Without it, the gun couldn’t fire. He couldn’t think of the why of the situation that the assassins closed in, readying their blades to strike him down. But Kanami arrived just in time, kicking one of the men’s faces in the chin with a powerful dropkick before spinning back and clashing blades with the other one. The man grunted, putting all of how weight behind his blade but Kanami didn’t flinch. Instead, she dodged swiftly, making her dagger glide along his sword to destabilize him.

Stumbling forward, the man couldn’t even see what happened when Kanami’s second blow struck his eye, piercing his skull in a bloodied mess. The last attacker barely stood up, his eyes widening in shock as he staggered from the sight before him.

Kanami lunged forward one last time and stabbed him in the chest without hesitation, her expression unchanging as she twisted the knife to kill him faster. The man’s breath hitched, and he fell to the ground, lifeless.

Wiping her blade on the fallen attacker’s clothes, her breathing steady. She turned to Luka, her eyes intense but calm.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, a tinge of cold calculation behind her tone, as if she didn’t truly care.

But he didn’t move. One of the men she killed had fallen on him, his blood covering Luka’s face, his eyes widened with shock and his limbs trembling. His breathing stopped, his mind was going numb and an urge to throw up started to swell inside him.

“Luka?” Kanami asked, now grasping the urgency of the situation.

She closed in and shook him gently, trying to get a reaction out of him. “Hey, stay with me. We need to move.”

Luka’s eyes slowly focused on her, the haze of shock beginning to lift. He swallowed hard, the metallic taste of blood on his lips making him gag. Kanami grabbed his shoulders firmly, her gaze piercing into his.

“Breathe, Luka. You’re safe now. Breather.”

He took a shuddering breath, then another, his body gradually responding to her words. The world around him was still spinning, the sheer madness of what he had witnessed making him go crazy.

“I… I…”

“It’s okay, calm down. Everything’s over.”

He nodded slightly, trying to stand on his feet. Kanami helped him, her grip strong and reassuring. “We need to keep moving. There might be more of them.”

With unsteady steps, they mounted Pako again and dashed away from the battleground. The desert air was cold against their faces, and Kanami kept a vigilant watch, her senses on high alert. She didn’t know who these people were, but they were from her country. A foreboding sigh escaped her lips as she swallowed hard, unsure of what would happen next.

After a while, she decided to stop in the middle of a vast flat area where they had enough vision around them to make a campfire. Occasionally, she glanced at Luka to monitor his condition. The fresh air seemed to have made him better, but he was still shaken and hadn’t even wiped the blood off his face.

No words were spoken as she lit up the campfire and set up sleeping bags around it.

“There, we will make a little stop before continuing,” she said, her tone softer than before.

He sat by the fire, the warmth slowly seeping into his bones. She handed him a canteen of water, and he drank greedily, washing the blood from his face and hands. The reality of what had just happened began to sink in, and he felt a deep exhaustion settle over him.

Gazing at the campfire, his eyes lost in the flicking flames, he spoke up. “Hey.”

“Hm?” Kanami who was checking her surroundings turned to Luka, surprised but relieved to hear him talk.

He opened his mouth but no words came out, the taste of blood reappearing inside it. Everything was surreal. When he was kidnapped, he was unconscious and had almost no memory of it. So, until now, he didn’t feel what this world had to offer. He knew it was dangerous, he knew how nauseating it could be, but as he knew, reality is often worse than what he could imagine.

Seeing gore through his phone back in his world was not common, but it could happen. Whether it was through video games or videos on the web, it was not something that a lot of people could avoid. Admittedly, he played a lot of violent games, but he hated violence to its core.

And what happened was proof of it. He had never seen people die in front of his eyes, he had never seen the cold reality of a fight to the death between two people. But above all, he saw his life flash through his eyes.

He pulled out his gun once more and looked at it. Even if the eternaüm was there, would he have still pulled the trigger? The thought of it made him sick. He imagined blood, blood spraying everywhere as the blast that had pierced a tree so easily blew the man away.

Blood. Just like the one he was tasting on his lips.

He couldn’t hold it in anymore. Rushing away from the campfire, he emptied the content of his stomach on the sand.

“Ah… Ah…”

Panting heavily, he swiped his mouth. He felt better, for now.

Kanami watched him, her expression softening. “It’s your first time seeing such violence, isn’t it?”

Luka nodded, still catching his breath. “I thought I was prepared, but… it’s different. No, it’s…”

It’s just experience. Knowing something and experiencing it are two different things.

“It wasn’t easy for me at first,” she said quietly, her gaze distant. “Though I guess I was predisposed to live in that world.”

“I hate it.”

Luka finally caught his breath and lay down on his sleeping bag. His hate for violence was visceral, like a rejection from his very being. But he could admire that she saved him, and for that, he would be eternally grateful.

“Thanks for saving me, Kanami,” he said, slowly breathing.

Kanami’s chest tightened, a gasp escaping her mouth. But she quickly composed herself and nodded. It’s natural, I’m just doing my job.”

Luka nodded, the warmth of the fire and the exhaustion pulling him towards sleep. “I know, but still… thank you.”

It was like a thread pulling him in a dream. Perhaps that succubus had pulled a trick to help him sleep, perhaps it was his dizziness and his exhaustion catching up, but before he knew it, in this cold desert of the dead dragon, Luka fell asleep…

Kanami’s gaze softened as she watched him drift off. “Get some rest. You’ll need strength for what’s ahead.”

A sigh escaped her mouth as her senses were still sharp from keeping watch. She was used to bloodshed ever since that day, but seeing Luka’s reaction reminded her of her distress the first time. This young boy from another world, ignorant of hers, seeing his peaceful sleeping face made her realize how much she appreciated his company.

“But that’s all a lie, isn’t it?” she whispered alone in the cold dead night.

After all, there is no hope for her in Tamia.