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"Your ankle is injured, I don't think you can walk around without stumbling over." Alhaitham said as he inspected Y/n's ankle. The woman did not respond back but she slightly winced when Alhaitham touched the injured muscle.
The memory of her stabbing the eremite was fresh in her mind. She didn't know what had happened as it was too sudden. In those moments, her instincts grew sharper and she felt the time was slow. Almost as if she was being controlled to protect herself.
Her train of thoughts were interrupted when she overheard Alhaitham telling her something. "It's unusual." He said as he looked at her eyes.
Y/n leaned forward as she responded back, "Everything has been unusual ever since we picked up this mission." She muttered.
Alhaitham only left a low chuckle which left the woman confused as she tilted her head sideways and looked at him.
"What's so funny? You've been chuckling a lot to yourself recently." She questioned the ashen-haired man before her with an eyebrow raise. He surely has changed a lot over the past few weeks.
"I was talking about you being unusual." Alhaitham responded back earning a scoff from Y/n. He looked up at her face right before she was about to answer.
"Quite bold coming from the lonely scribe of the Akademiya who rarely interacts with people and behaves like a machine." She remarked only for Alhaitham to slightly smirk.
He has heard the very same statement at least a million times and he was quite eager to return back to Sumeru City once the mission was over to prove the statement wrong.
Although romance and relationships were highly disregarded by the Akademiya scholars as it can cause a hindrance to work, Alhaitham did not care.
After that evening of confessions, neither Y/n nor he ever brought up such topics of relationships. Now wasn't the time for them to discuss it either so he understood it was best to wait. Wait till they return back safe and sound to Sumeru City.
"Are you zoning out?" He heard a gentle voice from Y/n as his train of thoughts were snapped out. Was I zoning out? He thought to himself before his lips parted to provide an answer. "No.I was calculating how much distance you could walk with these injured ankles."
Alhaitham got up from the ground and stared back at Y/n. "I don't think you'll be able to walk for a few hours."
Y/n's eyes only widened in surprise. "Few hours? we aren't even that far from those ruins! I'm sure I can try walking-" She protested and tried getting up from where she sat.
She managed to take a few steps but the pain was stinging her badly. Before she could take another step, she tripped and fell forward only to be caught by Alhaitham's strong arms.
"I told you so. You're not in a condition to walk, moreover the weather doesn't seem any good either. I suggest we find shelter for the night." Alhaitham suggested as he held her by the arm.
She only left a heavy sigh as she wasn't interested in wasting more time as the two could be attacked by mysterious creatures at any moment. At first this sounded like an oblivious joke but Alhaitham was not lying when he mentioned about his parent's sudden death and their last mission. What troubled her the most was not being able to return back to home safe and sound.
Even if she were to be quite lonely without her mother's presence back home, she knew she had to return back to the city and bring about a change for whatever the Vahumana scholars had been teaching students.
And maybe, she won't be lonely. After all, Alhaitham had confessed his true feelings towards her. Even if the chances of the two working together properly in a relationship was slim, giving him a chance wouldn't hurt.
He wasn't always stoic, he wasn't always arrogant. It was just something people, including Y/n assumed. Perhaps it was the tone of his communication?
Nonetheless, the two of them had one more chance to see if they could rebuild their competitive relationship from the past into something more.
"Y/n." Alhaitham called out to the woman who was thinking about her next course of action. She only turned her head a little and left a little hum in response.
"The more you walk and strain yourself, the worse your injury is likely to get. Which leaves me with one final option. I need your consent."
Y/n's eyes widened when he mentioned the word 'consent'. She stuttered with her words as she attempted to respond back. "C-Consent? F-For what?"
He only looked away and answered bluntly. "I will carry you on my back." he only looked back at her with an expressionless blunt face. No shame was seen on his face whereas Y/n had her eyes widened at the thought of it.
She was able to feel her heartbeats ringing loud in her ears as she visualized the thought of it.
Perhaps, she should have not had such a thought yesterday when she saw him carry Izuru. She looked back at the Scribe, who was expecting an answer eagerly.
She took a nervous gulp before answering him, "I must refuse this idea of yours. You're a feeble scholar, how could I ever give you trouble?!" She lied with a straight face up against him.
He only closed his eyes and responded back as if he was ready to win this conversation, "I'm not that feeble to be incapable of carrying you. In fact, we can find ourselves a shelter before the night falls if you agree or we might as well walk through the forest with you limping and who knows how many dangerous wild animals out there ready to attack."
The woman was now left with only two options in her head. One was to agree with Alhaitham and two was to try using her hydro vision. She glared at the man before her silently.
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"This is so embarrassing." She muttered to herself, loud enough for the scribe who was currently carrying her on his back like a little child.
He only smirked for a second before he responded back. "Not my fault. Your vision is unstable."
"I know!" She firmly responded back.
After an embarrassing hour of walking through the pathway, they managed to find a little shelter underneath a cave minutes before rain poured down. Thunders rumbled and the sky turned grey. Alhaitham was stretching his shoulders and back as he felt stiff. Y/n sat by a corner trying to gather her strength to heal herself but it was futile as she got exhausted too quickly.
Before she could make any progress, she closed her eyes thinking of taking a moment's rest but unexpectedly fell asleep.
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...
Silence and a void of never ending darkness enveloped you. Not a single being was seen around you as you opened your eyes to find yourself in this empty space.
Panic had struck you as you tried walking around, looking for any living being. You could feel your heartbeat in your ears.
"I just...closed my eyes for a moment. How did I get-" you thought to yourself only to be interrupted halfway when you heard a voice of a woman.
You turned around towards the direction of the voice and found a blurry version of yourself as someone else.
"Isn't it cruel, that we must live our lives just for the sake of others?"
"How we act, how we walk, how we behave and even how we talk, it's all for the sake of others.."
"And in the end, it costs the happiness of our lifetime. All this started because of you and I. Isn't it funny how we are able to see the two kingdoms that once belonged to us, burn down to its core right now, all because we refused to obey to what others had to say." She said with a chuckle in the end.
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"I'm tired. I just want to end it all, Hayi."
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"Let's just jump into whatever hell it is, I don't want to continue with this torturous and miserable life."
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"You'll wait for me in the next hell as well, right?"
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END
a/n : a little plot drop, by chapter 29 I think I may drop the entire context of this lol so bear with me for a few more chapters!! Thank you for the 87K Reads! Very close to 100K aaa